New Gambella Photo Blog
There’s a new photo blog of Gambella, that is maintained by Abdi, one of the GHNI workers in Gambella. He regularly posts new photos from the village. Check it out! http://gambella.ghni.org
Here’s a brief tour of the new wellness center in Gambella. We built the tables, desk, and benches during our trip there this summer.
(Source: youtube.com)
There’s a new photo blog of Gambella, that is maintained by Abdi, one of the GHNI workers in Gambella. He regularly posts new photos from the village. Check it out! http://gambella.ghni.org
Our first afternoon in Gambella. The people of Gambella sang and danced. Mary, Kelsey, and Lydia soaked it all in. We love being there with them, and they love having us there!
The following is a post that I (Matt) wrote for my personal blog, justiceandlife.org. I’m re-posting it here, because it gives an overview of our trip to Gambella last week.
Justice and Life. There’s a reason this blog has that name. My life’s mission, or goal, or purpose, however you prefer to say it, is to lead and challenge others to create a just world, and come fully alive.
I’ve spent this week in Kenya, with a team of volunteers. We’re here to help the poorest of the poor villages. Working through an organization called Global Hope Network International (GHNI), we are working with what we call the Isiolo cluster of villages. Those are four villages near the town of Isiolo. Our beloved village of Gambella is one of those villages, and that is where we’ve spent the most time this week. Gambella is the village that five families (including mine) in Algonquin, Illinois, has partnered with, to come along side them in their journey out of extreme poverty.
This week lands squarely in the sweet spot of my mission, and it has been delightful. Our group has been split across the different villages in our cluster, but our team from Algonquin has been focused primarily on Gambella, working on a few projects that you can read more about at our Algonquin4Gambella blog.
My mission comes from my belief that one person—with very minimal effort—can change the world, and make it a more just place, leaving it better for everyone. But, it doesn’t end there, because in the process of creating a just world, people come fully alive—the people who are doing the “helping”, and those who are being “helped.” It’s the greatest win-win in the history of win-wins!
Read the rest of the post at Matt’s blog, justiceandlife.org…
After four full days of travelling to Isiolo (which is the main town near Gambella), and visiting villages (Gambella, Ola Nagele, and Bulesa Dima), we finally have access to the internet to share an update with you. 
Before we left, we feared that rain would make the roads to some of the villages impassable, but we have not had any such problems. In fact, the area is in the middle of a huge drought, and they are in desperate need of rain. We took a break from our work in Gambella this afternoon, and spent a couple hours visiting the village of Ola Nagele, where some of the women performed their traditional dance for us. Shortly after they started, it began to rain. We could see rain over the mountains off in the distance, but we have seen that several times since we arrived, and no rain has fallen. But today, the rain moved very quickly from the mountains, to our villages; and it rained hard, for about 20 minutes, while the women continued to sing and dance. We got drenched, but we were so happy for them to finally have rain, that we wanted to stay out with them and soak it all in (plus, it’s not a bad thing to get a reputation as the people that brought the rain)! 
We have been working on a few great projects in Gambella, that we’re very excited about! The Wellness Center (which we were previously calling the health clinic) is really gaining traction now. There has been an intern (Priscilla) in the area for the past three months, and she really has a vision for getting this Wellness Center up and running, and for duplicating the way things are getting set up in Gambella, in other villages as well. Due to the contacts she has been able to make locally, she was given some great advice, to ensure that we are not reaching beyond the scope of what we are permitted to do with this building (hence the new name of Wellness Center).
We’ve been working on building tables, benches, and a desk for the Wellness Center, so that it can be completely set up and functional. Priscilla has also initiated the training of four women to be Community Health Workers (CHW), through an officially sanctioned government training program. This is a huge boost for the village.
One of the other construction projects that we have been working on, is building desks and tables for the grade school. Part of our group painted the name of the school in big, bright letters, on the administration building (it’s the first building you see as you head up the road to the school). The principal has a great vision for the school, and it’s nothing short of amazing! We’ll post more about that in the future, but for now I wanted to get you this update, along with a couple photos.
We plan on finishing the benches for the Wellness Center tomorrow, as well as the tables and desks for the school. We will also be bringing 40 more goats to the village tomorrow, to replace the ones that were stolen two years ago.
Thank you for caring about Gambella—we love them dearly!
One and one-half years ago, the village of Gambella was attacked by hundreds of armed bandits. In those attacks, six men lost their lives, and many families were left with nothing but the clothes on their backs. Goats (specifically goat milk) are the primary source of nourishment for the people of Gambella, so having all of their goats stolen was a huge blow.
Many of you have helped us to raise money for a goat loan program to help the people of Gambella get back on their feet. This past summer when I was in Gambella, I was able to purchase four goats to kick-off the goat loan program, but the cost of goats had been prohibitive to us purchasing more.
Today, however, we bought 38 goats, and tomorrow the local GHNI workers will work with the village leaders to determine the best way to distribute these goats. I’m so excited—lives are being changed!
Check out this fantastic video that GHNI did about our neighborhood partnership with Gambella!
It’s so easy to help a village make life-altering improvements! Are you intrigued at all about adopting a village of your own? Take a look at GHNI’s Village Adoption page.
As Habiba says in this video, “the hopeless have gotten hope, the helpless now are feeling they have help, and those who feel they are neglected and not loved by anyone feel they are loved and appreciated.” You can be that hope, help, and love to an entire village! If you’re interested in discussing further with me, shoot me an email at mlossau@gmail.com.
TCD stands for Transformational Community Development. TCD is the model that Global Hope Network International (GHNI) uses to help the poorest villages of the world transform themselves.
The goal is to help poor towns and villages achieve TCD Sustainability-holistic, sustainable transformation-in five critical areas:
Key Transformation Values:
How it works:
Global Hope Network International (GHNI) is a non-profit, private humanitarian aid organization headquartered in Orlando, Florida and Geneva, Switzerland. Through a committed team of both staff and volunteers, Global Hope Network International is dedicated to serving the “hidden and hurting” in more than 38 countries around the world. They focus on the overlooked or hidden persons in war zones, natural disasters and under-developed countries by providing aid and sustainable development through food and water supply, medical care, agriculture, education and micro-enterprise.
Their mission in their own words:
In today’s society, human cruelty is rampant and those without an advocate have little or no means in which to find aid or refuge. Global Hope Network International is committed to bringing help and hope to the hidden and hurting around the world. Our goal is to assist and provide humanitarian aid to the overlooked, discriminated and marginalized men, women and children who might not otherwise see any aid in their unreached region or province.
We also facilitate and encourage people through programs rich in community development, agriculture, education, medical care and micro-enterprise. This allows families and individuals to become strong and independent, moving them away from poverty and despair. This is made possible through local agencies and partnerships in country, which allow us to design specific programs for people groups that are in greatest need.
