John Easter, founder of Know the King

John Easter, 29 from New Hampshire felt there was a real need for Christian clothing that appealed to the younger generation. He used his artwork to create the products for his Christian shirt company called “Know The King.”  John’s vision was for shirts and caps that were cool, appealing to wear and conversation provoking. It was also essential to him that his company be both God centered and built on the foundation of spreading the gospel and making a difference.

Reading the stories on Global Benefit’s website and seeing the pictures of lives changed “hit him in the heart” and moved him to choose to give a portion of the profits from “Know The King” to help raise funds for clean water projects in Africa.  As Easter stated “I want this company to be God’s company and this is where I feel He led me.”

You can check out and purchase the t-shirts and caps at www.knowtheking.com. Global Benefit looks forward to partnering with John and seeing lives changed both through the messages his products convey but also in the impact his company makes while giving back.

Children Drinking from the new Water Well.

Whenever we do a clean water project, sanitation and hygiene training always follows.  Now that there is safe water for their village, they now need to know the other side of cleanliness, which is found in good hygiene.  Everything from knowing how to wash your hands (yes there is a right and wrong way) to knowing how to handle your child’s waste (no diapers here), to brushing your teeth with clean water and protecting your feet from cuts were worms can enter the body.

Road we traveled to do the hygiene taining

Today we went back to the village where a new Water Pump had been installed a few days earlier to do the hygiene training with our partner, Living Water International.  We were picked up by Philip a Rwandan who does all the sanitation and hygiene training  for LWI.  We drove on a nice paved road (roads were not like this 6 years ago when I first started coming to Rwanda)  for about 20 minutes heading out of  Kilgali.  We then turned off the paved road and headed 7 miles up this very rutted red soil road that was shared by cows.  Like most times when you are trying to find your destination in the villages you always have to stop multiple times to ask for directions.  It seems like there are roads and paths that go every which way – this trip was no exception.

We got to our location for our training – it was stunning.  Here on the side of a hill overlooking a valley and under a small grove of trees were 4 chairs and a table with no buildings in sight.  Under the trees were women children and a few men who had seemed to be waiting quite some time for us to arrive.  In Rwanda there is no such thing as arriving on time.  We always joke to clarify – are we speaking African time or American time.  Africans typically will arrive anywhere between 1 to 2 hours later than the agreed upon time.  I’ve found not to fight it but just roll with it.

Which one is not like the other?

There is a custom in the Rwanda where the women tend to sit together and men will sit separately.  Today was no exception, except I broke that custom and sat with the women, I wanted to hold their babies.  It wasn’t until I got up to speak that I realized the separation, and I then remembered this custom, it was too late and I was the odd man out.  Oh well, the people probably just laughed at the ignorant “Mazungu” (this is what they call white people).

Phlip teaching where the children should "relieve themselves"

It was interesting to see the reaction to hygiene training.  Philip was teaching with a three ring binder that contained hand drawn pictures, they were glue to the pictures like we might be glued to the latest 3D film.  They were very attentive to the training and even asked great questions.  Well, they seemed great…I didn’t really know what they were asking,  but it looked like they were engaged and were wanting more information.

At the end of the training I was asked to address the gathering of people to share with them where I came from, talk about my family (they love to hear about your family) and about what motivates me to do what I do as it pertains to Global Benefit.  They were amazed that a white man would come all the way from the USA to be with then and they could not believe a white man would care enough for them to help their village get clean water.  Yes, it makes you feel good, but I could not take the credit for it.  It has been the work of many to raise funds that allow us to do what we do at Global Benefit.  We are just the catalyst to make this happen.

The evening chores include getting water for the family

When we left the training, we stopped back at the new well site to see the activity.  It was about 5:30 pm and we saw that children were coming from all directions and distances with the yellow jugs to get their water.  It looks like this is the nightly routine for these children.  The women will get the water in the morning for their family and for their daily chores, but at night the children after they come home from school, head to the water well to fetch their evening supply of water.   It is so rewarding to see the impact that is being made.  Just days before the community was getting their water from a stream that was dirty and filled with parasites. Now , they are pumping cold, clean water from the ground.

I want to say thank you to all of you who have followed this blog.  Not everyone is aware of  what Global Benefit does or not everyone will be able to experience Rwanda.  My goal was to allow you to experience a bit of what I have experience over the last 13 days.

One group that has been following this blog are some teachers from my children’s school, Gilmanton Elementary.   I wanted to send them a personal thank you, so below is just that.

I mention the coffee fundraiser in the video above and I want to explain this just in case you are wondering what it is all about.   Global Benefit has a fundraising arm for groups and schools.  We use this program not only to help raise funds for clubs and their programs, but we use it to: create fair trade markets, raise awareness to the Global Clean Water Crisis, and to help raise funds to bring more clean water to Africa.  If you are interested in a fundraiser for your school or group you can contact me at mark@globalbenefit.org .

We (the team and I ) will be leaving tomorrow to head back home.  I will heading back to snowy NH, Brett will be going back to Colorado (you can check out Brett’s blog from this trip) and Andre will be heading back to LA.  I want to thank Brett and Andre for doing an amazing job capturing these stories that will be used to educate and engage people in a way that will lead people to action.  At Global Benefit we say YOU+ACTION=CHANGE.  Change does not take place on its own, it is everyone doing a little bit, and collectively we can make this world a little bit better.

This morning we went to the African Bagel Company for what  is called Donut Days.  Every Saturday the African Bagel Company opens up for a few hours to sell donuts and coffee – another novelty in Rwanda.  Most Rwandans don’t like sweets but many Expats who either work as missionaries, or for NGO’s or the UN crave them, so they come in droves to hang out, network and stock of for the weeks supply of Bagels, homemade frozen pizza, salsa, and bagel chips.  It was a lot of fun and I had a chance to meet a lot of great people who have a lot of passion.

Linda with her Photography Students

In the afternoon we went to hang out with Linda who has an organization called Through the Eyes of Hope www.eyesofhopeproject.com .

Linda Smith, who is a photojournalist New York City, first traveled to Rwanda in 2006 where she spent much of her time behind the camera. The Rwandans were captivated by the photographs that Linda took since many of the children and adults she photographed had never seen an image of themselves. Linda recognized the potential that the camera held for the children, by not only providing them with documentation of their lives but also allowing them to experience a sense of joy and fun.

When she returned to the United States, Linda began researching photograph-based projects for children. She wanted to develop an art program for children that utilized photography and had the potential to be successfully conducted in third world countries. As a result of her research and vision, the Through the eyes of Hope Project was born in 2007.The project has two goals-to teach basic photographic principles to extremely disadvantaged children and to educate children who are interested in learning about the children of other cultures.

In January 2007, Linda ran a pilot project in Rwanda with eleven orphaned children from the Kagugu School, who had lost their parents in the1994 genocide and AIDS. The workshops proved to be very successful and had a great impact on the eleven children. At the Kagugu School, teacher Prossy Yohana has continued the photography program to extend the benefits to the many other deserving children. Many of the photography students at the Kagugu School have been earning extra money for their school fees by photographing weddings and taking passport shots.

One of the Photography students shows a women a photo that she just took

The Kids assignment for today, after looking at samples of famous portraits, was to go throughout the community finding people to take their portrait. I went out on assignment with two 18 year old boys; we had a lot of fun laughing and talking about American movies.  One of them wants to be a comedian like Mr. Bean and the other one want to be a researcher – they truly believe they can be anything they set their mind to.    Once all the kids returned back to the class with their photos, the children all reviewed eachother’s photos and had to vote on who had the best work.  Of course they all voted for themselves – but it was great to see the excitement and hear the hope and promise in these kids voices.  Rwanda definitely in an emerging country and it has great promise; I can see it in this next generation of children.

Robin Smyth at the women's Co-op called the African Bagle Company

Rich and Robin Smith are missionaries to Rwanda and have been living here for 5 years; this is the couple we are staying with while in Rwanda.   I know them because they attended our church in Pembroke, NH before they came to Africa.  They have 4 kids and sold everything they had and moved from Pittsfield to Rwanda in 2005.   Rich has a chicken feed business that employs street boys and Robin runs a Women’s Co-op that helps teach women basic life skills while she instructs them to make bagels and doughnuts, she calls it the African Bagel Company.  Today we took the tour of the facility and spent time with Robin getting to know what she is doing and the impact she is making.  We thought while we were in town in would be great to film the work they are doing in Rwanda.

Worker at African Bagle Company

Robin is taking vulnerable women who have been either living on the streets or in vulnerable situation and is teaching them job skills and pays them a fair wage to work in the Co-op.  Robin then takes it a step further and teach these women about finances, hygiene, math, managing their home, HIV prevention, and practical values based on Biblical principles.   This type of program is where I am seeing success in bringing people out of poverty in a sustainable way.  It’s more about empowerment and teaching skills then it is about just giving a hand out.

Women in a coverted garage making donuts at the African Bagel Co-op

The more I in Africa the more I realize that poor countries do not need our charity as much as they need opportunity.  I once heard an African man speak at a conference and his title for his talk was “Africa needs Trade not Aid.   There are some things that the poor cannot do for themselves, like bring clean water to their community, but in every step of the way, we need to include the community in the process as much as possible so they can take ownership and feel a sense of pride as they invest in their own future.

Don Warren, ND during his video shoot in Kigali, Rwanda

The weather has been strange today, hot and sunny and then cool and rainy.  February tends to be the hottest month in Rwanda, but I was told this year has been very different – we can thank Global Warming for that.

Our activities today included capturing Don Warren, ND (My Dad )  on video to tell his story as it relates to the selenium HIV/AIDS trial, a lunch meeting, and getting the Selenium bottles from the warehouse to Kibugabuga Hospital.

I think you might be interested in knowing a bit about Selenium.  Selenium is a trace mineral that is needed in our bodies to keep our immune system healthy.  A Medical Geologist found that the countries that had the highest levels of HIV/AIDS were countries that had the lowest levels of selenium in soils.  Selenium, when in the soil is absorbed by plants.   As people consume food grown in these soils, they receive the needed trace mineral in their diet.  However, if Selenium is lacking in the soils, like in Sub-Saharan Africa, people will be deficient of this needed mineral in their bodies, thereby weakening the immune system.

The Selenium Supplementation Clinical Trial is a double blind controlled study that will determine if this hypothesis (the relationship between Selenium and HIV/AIDS) has merit.  HIV/AIDS, if you don’t know, is a virus that can be transmitted from person to person that attacks the immune system.  The reason HIV (Human Immunodeficiency Virus) is so devastating is because it not only attacks the immune system, but the virus continues to multiply.  A person can live a relatively normal life with HIV if they have a strong immune system, but when the immunity of a person is weakened a person with HIV will move to what is called AIDS  (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome).

People do not die from HIV but they will die of many diseases that attack the body when the immune system is depleted (AIDS), and their body is attacked with opportunistic infections that they can no longer fight.

Anyway, back to the Selenium Supplementation Trial.   The clinical trial requires participants (300 total participants form 3 HIV/AIDS clinics in Kigali) who are HIV positive to start a regiment of selenium supplementation. Some will take Selenium and some will take a placebo and no one except that manufacturer knows who is getting what. This is what makes it a double blind study.  Over the course of two years the clinics will conduct interviews and receive data that will include blood tests (CD4 count, viral load), quality of life, and general health.  (I know you wonder about the ethics of this and to put your mind at ease this study has passed through the review boards of The Canadian College of Naturopathic Medicine, Wilford Laurie University and the Rwandan Ethics Review Committee.)  Also, at the end of the study, each of the participants will be given Selenium for one year and no participant will go untreated when their CD4 count falls to a dangerous level.  Just in case you were wondering?

Ok, so now I am talking a bit more technical, (don’t let me fool you that I am this smart, I have had to learn this stuff) so let me describe the CD4 count.  Your immune system contains different types of cells that help protect the body from infection. One of these types of specialized cells are called the CD4 or T-cells. HIV attacks these types of cells and uses them to make more copies of HIV. And in doing so, HIV weakens the immune system, making it unable to protect the body from illness and infection.

Early in the course of the disease, the body can make more CD4 cells to replace the ones that have been destroyed by HIV. Eventually, the body can’t keep up and the number of functioning T-cells decreases. As more and more CD4 cells are destroyed, the immune system becomes more and more weakened. Eventually, the weakened immune system leaves the body at risk for infections.  By measuring the CD4 count we can see if Selenium is helping protect the T-cells and therefore protecting the body from getting infections.

Don Warren and Heather Fay at Camerwa picking of Selenium for Kinyinya Health Centre

Seroyal, who manufactured these supplements, donated the Selenium for this Trial.  To bring the Selenium into the country it had to be received and stored by a Rwandan Government Agency called CAMERWA that oversees all drugs and supplements that enter into the country.  Jean Claude is a pharmacist and one of the co-investigators of the Rwandan Selenium Supplementation Trial (RSST), and is the commercial director of CAMERWA.

Heather Fay, MHS and Dr. Don Warren, ND working with Doctors at Kibagabaga Hospital

The Selenium will be stored at CAMERWA and will be distributed to the hospital and clinics from there.

Someone that you have not been introduced to as of yet is Heather Fay.  Heather is a New Hampshire native, and is working with the RSST team in Rwanda as the Clinical Study Manager.  She attended Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, MD and received her Masters of Health Science in Epidemiology.  She has experience living in Africa and experience with international public health.   She is a great asset to the team.

Next week we will be doing some more “The Story of Water” work.  We will be going to a sanitation and hygiene training at one of the new water pump sites.  Clean water is only half of the issue of water born disease, proper hygiene and sanitation is the other side of this and it will be important to tell this part of the story.

Andre Martinez, Director of Photography from ABC Show the Bachelor gains an audience.

Today was an amazing day.  We met with Living Water International who is Global Benefit’s on the ground partner who executes our clean water and sanitation training projects.  We arranged ahead of time to find a community that did not have clean water so we could capture their story.  We wanted to tell the story of a family who is  currently living with unsafe water, then when clean water arrives with a drilled well, we will return to tell the story of how their life has changed.

We went to the community of  Kira which was about 30 minutes outside of Kigali and were able to see the water hole where people retrieved their water for their families.  When we first got to the water hole I notice it was brown and that cows has been their and they had left their “piles” right near the water.

Mark Warren with Jackiline and her four children at her home.

It was important for us to find a family in this community that we could interview to see what life is like today as it relates to water.  To find this family we had to drive 2 Km up a steep hill to the home of a woman and 4 children whose story we are going to tell.  The woman’s name is Jackiline Namahirwe and her children are 12, 7, 5 and 3 in age.  Her husband “ran off” and now she runs her home and family by herself.  She is a sweet woman, but I can’t believe the workload she has.  She wakes up at 6am to fetch water, where she will walk 2 km down a very steep hill and then once she gets her water she will walk back another 2 Km up the hill to her home.  She says the whole process takes her 2 hours and she will do this 2 or 3 times a day.  Jackiline says she uses the water for washing clothes, watering a cow that she keeps and uses the water for drinking and cooking.  She knows the water in not clean so she will boil the water for drinking.

The interesting thing that she told me, when I was speaking to her through and translator (she speaks Kinrwanda), is the amount of wood that it takes just to boil the water.  She said  with fresh water she would save a lot of money by not having to buy as much wood for boiling the water.  This was a component of clean water that I had not thought of before.

Jackiline from Kira Villiage where she gets her water

We followed Jackiline down to the water hole where she filled up her jerry can.  Interesting, while she was filling her container someone was washing clothes in the same hole and them a bit later I saw a man relieving himself 5 feet from the water source.  Needless to say this water is nasty.  Just when I thought I had seen it all – a  boy on a bicycle who was carrying a heavy load of flower of beans,  stopped at the water hole and  asked a little boy to give him some water and sure enough he guzzled it down.   I can just imaging how many parasites are in this water that are now swimming in the belly of the boy.

When Jackiline was done filling her jerry can, which I believe holds up to 5 gallons of water, she took her scarf that had been around her neck and wrapped it into a circle.  She then lifted the jerry can on her head to carry it back home – I don’t think I could walk 100 yards with this on my head let alone walk 2 km.  We were so thankful for her cooperation and  gave her a ride in our trucks back to her home so she would not have to climb the steep hills carrying water on her head.

At the watering hole I had some fun with a teenage boy who gave me a ride on his bike.  I rode on the back carrying rack of the bike with my legs spread eagle, the boy peddled me down the dirt road – it was a lot of fun.

This well is only 5 minutes old - the well head and pump were just installed.

We also gave a truck ride to Jackiline’s children who where now heading to school.  From what I understand, to make room for all the children to go to school  they split the classes into morning classes and afternoon classes.  Jackiline’s children were going to the afternoon classes.  We drove them 5 km to school.  Imagine having to walk 10 km each day to go to school and these are small children 6, 7, and 8 year old walking this distance.  What would our children say if they had to walk this distance to school?  I know it is all the Africans know, but it amazed me.

Children with their water jugs stopping for a photo.

We then drove another 15 minutes down the road to another community where our partner was setting the pump for a well. It was interesting to see them assemble the casing and pumping system and  to be at the well when some of the first water was being pumped out.  Very Cool.

We got a lot of great footage and were able to do some interviews to talk about Global Benefit’s Walk4Water events and to share how each person can make an impact and change someone’s life by helping bring clean water to Africa.   We also took some video on site to share about a new initiative we will be releasing this year called My Water Project.

Andre filming Dr. Julius who is doing the training at Kinyinya clinic

Finally we felt like we had a very productive day.  Yesterday we felt a bit discouraged on our scout because we didn’t find sites that would be great for shooting.  At the end of the day yesterday we were informed that our Rwandan HIV/AIDS research team was to do a training at one of the clinics who will be participating in the trial.

Filming at Kinyinya Clinic

When we arrived in the morning to this clinic, to our delight, it offered all our backdrops necessary for the interviews today.  Not only were we able to shoot the training, but also we had full access to the clinic for shooting.  The director of the clinic attended the training and was very helpful and accommodating.  The only thing that went wrong was our “stage hand” who was the data manager at the clinic, who was fascinated with what we were doing, plugged the camera lights directly into a 220 circuit and blew the bulb.  We probably will not be able to find a replacement for this kind of specialty bulb.  Here in Rwanda they run everything on 220 amps and we need to run everything through a stabilized that converts the amps from 220 to 110 amps to run our computers etc.

Tomorrow we start working on the Water Story.  We will be meeting Global Benefit’s on the ground partner in Rwanda, Living Water International, in the morning and go out and find a village who does not have clean water to capture their story on video.

I will fill you on the rest of the story tomorrow.

Dad finally gets his visa and enters Rwanda today.

The day started by trying to get my Dad into the country.  He was stuck in Kenya without a visa  so we had to go to the  Rwanda Immigration to drop off paperwork to expedite the process.  Two hours later – between immigration and waiting for someone to come back to move their car because it was blocking us in, we were finally back on our way again.  Thankfully the visa application was approved a couple hours later and tonight we picked up my Dad, the last member of the HIV/AIDS Selenium Trial.  Don (my Dad) is spearheading the Clinical Trial is the Co-Principle Investigator to the study along with a Rwandan Doctor.  We picked him up tonight from the airport – it was great to see him and I know the rest of the team will be happy as well.

If you have known Global Benefit as a Clean Water and Child Sponsorship Organization you might be wondering why I am talking about a HIV/AIDS clinical Trial.    Global Benefit USA, which was founded in 2000, exists to help overcome extreme poverty and and our focus is on providing clean water as a means to accomplish this.  In 2009 we formed a corporation in Canada called GB Canada Inc. (Global Benefit Canada) and received our Charitable status the same year.  Global Benefit Canada is the organization that is funding the HIV/AIDS Clinical Trial what is named “Rwanda Selenium Supplementation Trial”.

HIV/AIDS Trial Sign on our office in Kigali

I serve both organizations, so this trip to Rwanda has a dual purpose to tell both stories of the HIV/AIDS Clinical Trial and “The Story of Water”

The rest of the day we visited the HIV/AIDS Trail sites to scout out shooting locations – interestingly Rwandans do not like their picture to be taken.  They actually get quite agitated when you take it especially if you don’t ask.  I have asked why they don’t like it and from what I hear, they feel you are taking something from them.  I guess they actually have a point, but I guess I have never looked at it this way before.

Other good news is Brett and Andre’s bags came in tonight.  Hard to believe – we thought we would never see the day.

From left ot right: Robin Smyth, Adrian, Theo, Brett and Andre

Today is Sunday and we went to an English speaking church called African New Life Church that was 20 minutes away from where we are staying.  I was told it was a church built with the help of a large church in the US.  It had a similar feel to a contemporary church that you would see in the States: a full worship band, songs projected on the wall through a projector, Apple Computers and a Camera that taped the service.  It was a good service, but it made me think why Africa feels the need to replicate what we do in the States.  After attending many traditional African services over the years this almost seemed out of place and it actually made me a bit sad.   I like our US and Canadian culture – but I don’t necessarily believe it should be for everyone – one of the reasons I love Africa is because of it’s bright colors and unique culture.  I hope this does not change.

After church we went to change my Dad’s ticket to come in a day later from Kenya– he feels he will have his visa straightened by Monday and he will be able to get into the country – I can only hope and pray.

One of the funniest things that took place today was that Brett and Andre determined that they could not wear their same clothes for one more day (it has already been 3 days of the same pants and shirt- read other blog posts to get the bask story on this).  So we decided to go the Market to find some clothes.  What so funny was to watch Brett agonize over just the idea of this.  He hates clothes shopping and the thought of going into a crowded market where you can’t try on clothes then try to barter with people who don’t speak English on top of it all, seemed to not be a very exciting idea.  Thankfully Theo a Rwandan young man came with us to help us find what we were looking for while helping us negotiate the best price – got to love the locals.

Andre checks out a second hand "Concord" soccer shirt.

If you ever wondered where your clothes end up when you send them to Goodwill, Salvation Army or Planet Aid – think no further.  I saw every pair of jeans and shirts you have ever donated right here in Rwanda.    I’ve seen in times before where these clothes come in by trucks packaged in a 3’ x 4’ bails that come from the States.  The bails are ripped open and  the merchants buy from these large piles of clothes. The merchants then take them to their stall in the market and sell them to the general population.

I laughed so hard when Andre was looked for a “new” pair of underwear and the women vendors where trying to sell him the “speedo” type – very comical.

We also spent our day with a little 8 or 9 year old boy (no one knows for sure his age) named Adrian, a street boy that was near death 2 years ago.  He was rescued and is now sponsored by a woman from the US who pays for his schooling, food and a safe home for him.  Its great to see how well he is doing.

Tonight we hang out and get ready for our scouting day on Monday and shoot the b roll.

Brett Seymour and Andre Martinez Arrive in Kigali

Today in Rwanda was a mandatory community service day from 7:00am to noon, apparently this happens on the last Saturday of each month.  The day is called Umuganda, meaning “contribution”.  The start of this practice predates colonial times and is still practiced today.  All able bodied persons over the age of 18 are expected to participate in volunteer community work.  Participation in Umuganda is usually supervised by a manager, or Umudugudu, who oversees a group of households (usually between 50 and 150).  Not participating in Umuganda without authorization can lead to a fine or arrest.

So today, business activity halts, no public transportation operates, and people are seen everywhere working.  Most commonly people participate by cleaning streets, cutting grass and trimming bushes along roads, or repairing public buildings.  People with skills may offer their services for free on this day.

On a side note, Brett and Andre finally arrived last night – they arrived  fine but unfortunately their check through luggage did not arrive with then.  They were told it should arrive tonight (it is now 10 pm and we just checked for bags – only received one of the 4 missing, I guess we are going clothes shopping tomorrow)   Thankfully they carried all their camera gear on the plane.

It is great to have Brett and Andre working on this project with us.  Brett Seymour who is a documentary Producer and Director, has contributed to shows that have been seen on the Discovery Channel, National Geographic and Nova and Andre Martinez is a director of Photography for Television shows such as the Bachelor, Bachelorette.

This afternoon the rains came and cooled us down, I guess they hadn’t seen rain for a few days so it was welcomed.

We had a great meeting with the Rwanda Selenium Supplementation Trial Team tonight. One of the agenda items for the meeting was to meet with Brett and Andre to go over what footage and content was going to be needed for the  documentary we left feeling like we have a plan.  But this is Africa so we should expect the plans to change.

We just got word that my Dad (Don Warren) who is one of the Primary Investigators for the RSST had not received his visa yet to enter into Rwanda.  He is in Kenya and will go the Rwandan High Commission on Monday to try to expedite it.  He was scheduled to arrive on Sunday.

Life is never dull when you are in a developing country.   Just think…all of this and journey has just begun.