The CDC (Center for Disease Control) lists outbreaks of a variety of diseases.  During 2011 in the United States, there were outbreaks of Salmonella and E. coli outbreaks related to food production.  There were eleven outbreaks of Salmonella and four of E. coli alone.

In 2011, Listeria monocytogenes was found to infect cantaloupes and caused the deaths of 16 people.  The bacteria were not found inside the fruit, but on the surface.  The soil where the cantaloupes were grown contained the Listeria bacteria.  It remained on the outside until the consumer cut into the cantaloupe.

The 2010 Salmonella outbreak is another example of diseases that are problems in our food supply.  The Salmonella was found in eggs from several Iowa farms.  Thousands of people were affected but, fortunately, no one died.  Over a half billion eggs were recalled and destroyed.

We know that SAFI is effective in killing Cholera and E. coli for drinking water.  The question now is will it work when applied by food producers during the growing season or before it reaches our grocery shelves?

It is believed that using SAFI in water sprayed on fruit, animal manure, or even in the drinking water of farm animals may aid in the prevention of diseases like these.  The planned research will test how effective SAFI is against these common diseases when used by producers of our food.  One way that may be effective is washing produce in a solution of water and SAFI before it reaches your store or can be used at home on produce you’ve grown yourself.  Using SAFI wouldn’t leave an unpleasant taste or smell like you get when using a bleach solution at home.

We’ve also heard something interesting from our partners in Haiti.  In our work fighting Cholera with schools in Haiti, some school employees have noticed that flies do not stay very long on surfaces that have been cleaned with a solution of SAFI.  It’s been suggested that because flies have taste sensors in their feet, SAFI treated tables somehow repel them.

It will be gratifying if SAFI can do much more than just provide safe drinking water.  We will keep you posted on our testing.

The purpose of the Beacon Program is to teach women the basics of entrepreneurship.  The idea was hatched in 2007 in response to the obvious impact of the large number of women, especially single mothers, who were unemployed and impoverished.

In an attempt to make this a cooperative effort, the Foundation approached a number of local NGOs, such as widows’ groups and others, who were assisting all women.  Our idea was met with initial enthusiasm.  But as planning continued, we kept running into opposition to our rule:  ”women must manage their own finances.”

The mostly male managers of the non-profit organizations thought that they should be the ones to handle the money for the women.  Our experience in running a business in Africa has shown that women were more likely than men to use money for their family’s needs, such as food, clothing, and school tuition.  As a result of this impasse, all cooperative efforts to work with local groups failed.

In 2009, we hired our own employee, a woman.  Béata Musabyimana was given the task of setting up our pilot project of ten women.  These ten women were enrolled in our first business training class.

Once the business training was completed, each woman was given six K-lights (solar lanterns) to sell for start up capital, the group was registered as an independent cooperative, elected officers including an audit committee, opened a bank account, and rented a small store front.  They began selling other items besides the lights, such as clothing and food.  A coffee shop was equipped and a tailoring shop was started.  There are now about 100 graduates of the Beacon Program.

In 2010, an intern from the University of Michigan MBA program, Dale Jackson, designed a better way of training the women.  He gave lectures to a new group of twenty women.  Then he broke them into groups of five and, despite everyone telling him the ladies were mostly illiterate, told them to go off and come up with a business plan.  Then he would chose the group with the best idea.

It worked!  Each group came back with ideas of how to start a business.  The group that won was going to to buy chicks and raise money from eggs and meat.

Church teams up with Koinonia Foundation to send sanitizer to Haiti

By Zane McMillin | The Grand Rapids Press

GRAND RAPIDS — Science can combat disease in a variety of ways, but for a school in the Haitian mountains suffering from a cholera outbreak, relief comes in liquid form.

A Grand Rapids foundation has teamed up with the city’s First United Methodist Church to fund the production and distribution of a copper-based solution that can be used as a surface and water sanitizer.

After a trip in June to the Moliere region of Haiti to instruct locals on using what is called SAFI, Koinonia Foundation founder Dale Williams said the growing number of cholera cases there all but stopped.

“Once they did that, no more cases. Boom, just like that,” said Williams, a doctor with West Michigan roots. “We are eager now to start doing it some more.”

Cholera is an often-fatal bacterial disease that can be contracted from contaminated water supplies. Poor sanitation practices and lack of action by the Haitian government have compounded the country’s cholera emergency following the devastating 2010 earthquake, Williams said.

He and a colleague delivered SAFI in one-ounce bottles. One drop, Williams said, is enough to eradicate harmful pathogens in a gallon of water.

Before SAFI, chlorine had been the chemical of choice to disinfect surfaces and waters. Unlike chlorine, though, SAFI is tasteless, odorless and nontoxic, Williams said.

SAFI has not been subjected to testing for certification by the United States government. And, because it is relatively new, the solution’s full potential is unknown, Williams said.

The foundation also must work with nongovernment organizations, including United Methodist Committee on Relief, because they are stepping in where Haiti’s leaders have not, he said.

“The potential’s there,” Williams said. “We’re just feeling our way with how to progress.”

Email the author of this story: localnews@grpress.com

We started out helping to build schools in Rwanda, and over the years have found ourselves dealing with solar power, business education, cooperatives, and books. Looking forward, I believe we will continue as we have and break into new areas of helping others. We always find a way to make any worthwhile project work with our mission.

I was quite happy to see the foundation team has had this same philosophy of forward momentum. I returned to the U.S. to find a revamped website. It is easier to maneuver, has more information, and takes us into the next phase for the Koinonia Foundation…safe drinking water.

Take a look at the new site and you will see some interesting and disturbing facts about what most people in this world have to deal with just to get a basic commodity like safe, clean drinking water.

This may seem a bit of a stretch for our Foundation, as we have never worked in this field, but as I stated earlier, we must look toward the future. I have found that the future for water in the world looks bleak and we must rally together to deal with this situation. This is not just an issue for those in the developing world. There they deal with it in the present, but if we continue on the same path, these problems will come right home to us.

Here is the good part; it is not that difficult of a task. For those of you who remember the days before mass recycling, the prospect of such a monumental change in the way the world dealt with garbage seemed unreachable. It wasn’t. In fact, the majority of us embraced this new process and were able to make it a fact of life. Imagine not recycling.

Clean, safe water for everyone, and the ability to protect this resource for the future, is the same. It may seem daunting now, but as we make the effort to change it will become easier and easier. We will change the world.

Koinonia Foundation has changed. Updated website, new projects and new thinking keeps us moving forward. Take a look at what we are up to now and I hope you can join us.

We had our intern, Nicole Joyce, giving some pretty intense business skills training to these Beacon ladies. However, there is always time to take a short break. Here’s what the women treated us to during one of these breaks:

One of the causes of poverty in Rwanda is the 1994 genocide of Tutsi. Beacon women find that will never happen again. They are committed to work and raise their socio-economic status, to rebuild themselves and their country. Working in co-operative helps them not only to join their efforts in business but also to remain in a solid unit.

Most of the members of Ingenzi za Rwezamenyo Co-operative are survivors of the 1994 genocide. Some are widowers, others are single mothers or live separately from their husbands and raise their children alone.

The 25th of April (mourning month in Rwanda); Ingenzi za Rwezamenyo Cooperative organized a march to Gisozi Memorial Center in memory of their family members and other Rwandese killed during the 1994 genocide.

You’ll find that in the pictures below, many of the women are wearing white and red, and also offer white and red flowers. Beata explains what those colors signify.

Regarding the meaning of colors:
-Red: blood of Rwandese killed in the 1994 genocide
-White: overcome the misery and preserving our dignity.

April 16th
6:30 – 10:00 pm
Borgman Ford Mazda
3150 28th St. SW
Grandville, MI 49418

Admission is Free!
Proceeds from the sale of K-Lights, food and beverages will be donated.

Be one of the first to test drive the all new 2012 Ford Focus!  6:30 – 8:00 PM
$25 (suggested donation)

Music by:  Dutch Henry

April 8th
6:30 – 10:00 pm
Briarwood Ford
7070 Michigan Ave.
Saline, MI 48176

Admission is Free!
Proceeds from the sale of K-Lights, food and beverages will be donated.

Be one of the first to test drive the all new 2012 Ford Focus!  6:30 – 8:00 PM
$25 (suggested donation)

Music by:  Dutch Henry

On the solar power project front, we’re working with 2 non-profit organizations to consult on installs for schools in Africa. One school, in Sierra Leone, is in the building stage, and will soon (hopefully) be able to give us information on all their power needs. Then we can go to work on designing their system. The other school, in Malawi, is in the fundraising stage, and we’re currently working with them to get their power requirements so that we can design their system.

For the Beacon Program, we’re proud to say that we’ve added an additional 34 members to the program! We expanded the Nyarugenge branch (in Kigali, the capital city) and provided the new members with business training in Dec. 2010. These women join an additional 20 women currently in the Nyragunge Branch, and the 20 women in the Ngoma Branch (in the east of Rwanda).

That’s 74 women spreading a source of clean, bright light (a product developed in Michigan!) to their communities and supporting their families with their profits.

15 members have also used their profits to collaborate and start their own business.

On the fundraising front, remember that Ford Focus Global Drive competition that an enthusiastic fan entered us in? It looks like we’re moving along in the process. The top 40 videos (as judged by fans and Ford) win $10,000 for the charity of their choice, so keep your fingers crossed and thanks to everyone who voted (we came in 28th!).

Finally, we’ve got an interesting new project coming up that furthers our mission to “create strong communities that promote a safe and healthy standard of living.” More info on that coming soon!

Happy New Year!