August 2019

Follow up and thank you to all who reached out to me to comment, to share, to donate, or just express friendship and thank you notes, calls, and emails.

I first organized the GoFundMe site in January 2019 and was already deep into planning the trip. Recently I was honored with the announcement that PPAI would be recognizing me for the 2019 Humanitarian Award.

Below is the last post from the GoFundMe site with the rest of the updates and story clipped from the GoFundMe site.

I am honored and touched that many of you have reached out to me from the announcement from PPAI this week

Thank you so much for contributing, caring, and reading this story. As my years accumulate, I feel a growing sense that life must be “more than just commerce”. We must do anything to make the human condition just a little better. To sew hope and compassion in small ways, all the time, everywhere to everyone. If we each find a cause that resonates with us and stirs our hearts to act, then the world and our legacy will be richer from the experience. Thank you very much – zikomo kwambiri

July 2019

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My friends and travel partners have just returned from our time in Malawi. Thank you to my talented and caring friend and filmmaker, Michael who is working late into the night creating the larger film. Michael was able to capture this moment when we were alone in a schoolroom and he asked me why do I come to Malawi. I tried my best to explain.

At 65, I was unclear if this would be my last Malawi trip, I tell you now, it will not. Planning has begun for 2021. Zikomo kwambiri

https://vimeo.com/332794660   Why do I go to Malawi

January 2019

I hope you can join me in reading about this mission to the Chilanga Scholl for the Blind and Nkhoma Mission Hospital, in Malawi Africa.

I have worked in the border slums of Mexico no on 10 trips, number 11 coming up at Easter. It was on these trips that I got the bug to go to Africa where Piedmont Community Church has adopted a sister church, Kafita CCOP in Lilongwe, Malawi. Malawi is a landlocked country in sub-equatorial Africa. One of poorest nations on earth a per person GDP of less than $1000.

I am sharing with you an “investment” opportunity. The entire trip including our camera and sound guy is covered 100% out of our funds. Further, each of us has a target of taking some

$10,000 over to donate. Each of us has our priorities but for me, it is the Albinos and blind orphans at Chilanga and Nkhoma Mission Hospital that are most urgent although I say they are all urgent.

At the blind school and orphanage, I have already arranged for as many donations of new clothes, hats, lip balms, and soccer balls as I can carry.  It is now cash that I need.  With that cash, I can buy an institutional-size sunscreen from the hospital resources and donate it to the Albinos who suffer badly from the sun. I can buy rice and beans when all they usually get is cornmeal. On our 2016 trip, we took 8 bags of rice of beans on arrival at the school and there was a palpable low rumble of surprise and elation from the seated children who rarely get these grains as they are too expensive.  We bought more!!!

50Kg bag of maize grain $10 50KG bag rice $19

50KG bag beans $19

50Kg beans can offer $30

Your funds will go 100% directly to the causes: The Chilanga School for the blind

Nkhoma Mission Hospital Kafita Church Feeding Program

Chiombomwala Home for Widows and Orphans

Calvary Church Mpoenela feeding program for widows and orphans.

When we donate the cash, we do so in a very public matter where it is all counted and shown in the open to be sure everyone is aware of it.  Not a perfect system but you have to be there and experience this to understand.

I can get far more food for my kids if I take the risk. converting American cash into local currency means I feed more families.

Return on Investment

“Give me a pint and I’ll save a life,” the doctor stated.

This is no slogan. Martha Sommers, the only doctor for 1,000 square kilometers in Northern Malawi is looking right at me. Nearly twenty-five percent of the nation is infected with HIV; they have a desperate need for clean blood.

“I’m under no illusion that I will change the direction of these kids’ lives, but this day, today, they can have a great day.”

Being born an albino child in sub-equatorial Africa means a horrendous alienation. “If you are albino you have 100% chance of severe vision impairment, to a greater or lesser degree you are blind or legally blind. Even if you are not physically orphaned, you are figuratively orphaned: expelled from your village because your own people are afraid of you. The blood of an albino is said to have special powers. You are shunned by your village and often hunted, and your body parts are sold on the black market to be made into potions.

Maize is everyday fare for this school of orphans, but rice and beans are cause for vocal exuberance. A small wave of sounds and reverberate among the children. Four Hundred kilos will get the them through the win ter. The bags of beans and rice are a special treat.

When you start feeling sorry for yourself that you don’t have a Net Jets card or your yacht isn’t

big enough, think about being an orphan in the one of the poorest countries in the world, where the blaze of the sub-equatorial sun will consume you and every noise in the night shudders a fear that someone is hunting you with a machete to take a limb and sell it on the black market. Think of the deep emotional scars you carry simply because of how you were born. Add to all of this, the rawness of real hunger against the ever-present risk of contracting a deadly disease, the plight and poverty exceeds our comprehension. And still they sing and laugh and play, I need some of this this running in my veins and in my heart.

Giving may often feel like a one-way street, as if the only one who benefits is the receiver. But the people who are changed are the givers. “It is changing me. This isn’t a simple matter of being grateful for all we have considering the poverty that they possess; this is quid pro quo: we give from our wealth of materials; they give from their generosity of spirit. Those of us on this trip return with only the clothes on our backs, we leave everything: luggage, shaving kits, extra clothes, every cent. Even though we return with nothing, we somehow return richer. I can’t explain it, but it’s the greatest return on investment I’ve ever experienced in 40 years of doing business.

Again, note this is entirely self-funded, any donations from this GoFundMe go 100% to food and medical for the schools, hospital and feeding stations.

Here is a second stop on our Africa Mission Trip this summer: I wanted to share. I am carving out some funds to help this amazing hospital. I show a picture of myself 5 or 6 years ago when we visited. Our group bought mops and buckets and helped swab some of the broken concrete floors, doing what we could with what we had to try and make things a little better. Not a job I want to do for long, but it helps me get into the mind set of how lucky I am and puts me in touch with serving others.

Roderick Brown·2 mo

The bags are getting packed. I had 30 soccer balls and decided I need more so bought another dozen on Amazon! Got 100 pairs of sunglasses for the kids donated. The Albinos have no pigmentation and the sun hurts their eyes. All of them have significant visual impairment as a result of the affliction. Bought a dozen dress shirts for the pastors and teachers on the ground there and will leave the rest of clothes behind but I am just a tad bit more well fed than my friends in Malawi, but they will still put it to good use.

Ever since my first trip I desperately wanted to capture the sounds and the images of these so challenged and beautiful children, this year I am able to take my super talented and faithful friend Michael Barbara with me. Michael is so gracious to go along and take to heart the story and music we want to capture. Here is the equipment he has assembled and fine-tuned to make this project possible. Thank you, my brother. If you are reading this, please SHARE this effort with your network. Money yes that would be great but just sharing the story helps to fight the prejudice and open our hearts.

Taking a break from building a chicken coop at another orphanage in Lesotho. This little one

could see but could not walk or speak, but she sure could smile and warm your heart. Please

join in with modest donation. $20 dollars buys a 50 kg bag of corn maize, enough to feed some 35 children for a week.

Roderick Brown·6 mo

Braille paper is heavy, and I cannot take very much with me, but one ream at least is something and it makes a statement as a gift to the children. It is not an item is easily sourced locally. When they struggle to buy food, it is not easy to buy paper. So at least I show up with one ream.