AUTHOR: Nancy TITLE: Ken Goyer's Aid Africa Project DATE: 3/19/2009 07:26:00 AM ----- BODY:
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Ken Goyer is one of the designers of what is known as the "rocket elbow stove" and collaborated in the design of the Ecocina we use in Central America.

I took a seven hour, dusty bus ride to Northern Uganda to visit his project in Gulu and just returned to Kampala today.

If you're like me, you probably knew that there was a disturbance in Africa a few years ago from the Lord's Resistance Army. Some of you may have followed the news more carefully than I, but I'm assuming many of you did not.

The LRA came into Northern Uganda in the area near Gulu and started shooting, murdering, terrorizing, raping and burning the homes of the local Achole people. These are the folks who live in the cute round rondevals with thatched roofs. They were subsistance farmers who lived on very fertile land and always had provided well for themselves and their families.

When the LRA started terrorizing the local people, the government of Uganda moved the people into large protected camps known as Internally Displaced Person camps. The largest of these held 57,000 people! There was no government help building homes, but the area was protected. It was dangerous to go out and make bricks and gather grass, but homes were built, roofs were constructed, and many died from ambushes.

During this time the UN Food Aid program brought beans to keep the people from starving, but there was no area for cultivation, and by cramming people together there was an increase in T.B., malaria, and HIV/AIDS. There were also problems controlling the children. Many children of seven years of age were conscripted into the LRA and were told that to become "men" they needed to kill another human, hack him to bits, and drink his blood.

Two years ago the government pushed the LRA out of Northern Uganda but it is still operating in Eastern Congo.

At the present time the Ugandan government is in the process of doing away with the IDP camps and moving people back to their own land.

Five years ago, when the camps were the most densely populated, Ken Goyer went to Gulu and started working. On his own, and without much financial support, he started a project to save people's money by providing a fuel-efficient stove to each member of FIVE IDP camps. He bought a truck and a van to take sick and starving children to the hospital where he paid for medical care until they were ready to return to their families.

Remember, these children could have been supported by their families before the LRA arrived, but without the ability to farm, there was no food. Ken saved the lives of over 1,000 Achole children!

Now that the camps are being taken down (they're about half empty at the present time), Ken has started a tree nursery to give each family either an orange, mango, avocado or eucalyptus tree as they return to their homes. The Aid Africa nursery is managed by a shy young woman who has learned how to graft and bud trees and prepare the seedlings to be given away.

There is no government or U.N. support for these families and no food aid. They feel it is best to let them return to their own property and start farming again. Ken and his project, Aid Africa, continue to help provide insulated bricks for fuel-efficient stoves so people can build them in their new homes, and Aid Africa staff continues to provide trees and health care.

Although fuel saving stoves may not seem like a benefit to you, the cost of charcoal and firewood is high in Uganda. Charcoal is sold by the large handful.

Whatever you, personally, can do to help Ken and Aid Africa with their work would be appreciated by thousands in Northern Uganda.

Nancy

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