messenger 3

Dear partners,

Greetings from The City of Hope. We are moving along and have had a tremendous month. So much has been accomplished in these few past weeks. We have made a lot of good progress in areas such as electrical, plumbing, and finishing work. The Lord is truly blessing the work. We can't thank you enough for all your prayers and support.

The Issue of Chronic Poverty

“The problem in Africa isn’t a lack of will. It isn’t a lack of desire to live. It’s the poverty trap. What is needed, is nothing less than an agricultural, health and technological revolution in Africa. The gap between being in extreme poverty and an economic boom is a very small gap.” -Jeffery Sachs

Those of you who have been in the heart of Africa will agree with me that one very noticeable thing almost everywhere you go is the devastation of poverty. I am African; born in one of the most beautiful parts of Africa. For many years, I took short term missionaries to Africa, wanting them to see and enjoy the beauty of our continent. However, I was always sensitive when they started to notice the bad roads, dirty streets, smell of poverty, and all that goes along with it. I wanted them just to see the beauty of our land, but like any true African, I was sensitive to how Africa was portrayed to the west.

The other day I was reminded of an Ethiopian proverb that says, “He who conceals his disease cannot expect to be cured.” By Western standards, Africa seems to be hundreds of years behind in technology, education and infrastructure, and it seems slow to change. I believe if we are going to make a difference and help to bring transformation, we need to face some of these issues squarely without being ashamed of them.

Jesus says, "The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He has anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives. . .." Luke 4:18 NKJV

Jesus indicated that one of His missions was to bring the Good News to the poor. I believe that if we are truly going to be effective in the African field, we need to address the issue of poverty, not just spiritual poverty but also physical poverty. We need to make the gospel, the good news, more relevant. We must follow the example of Christ who cared about the poor. We cannot make a great spiritual impact in Africa unless we address the issue of poverty in a specific manner. The church needs to stop spiritualizing those issues that can best be met by practical solutions.

After colonialism, many African nations hoped for greater economic freedom but, for most of them, they are worse off than before and their hopes have never been realized. True freedom has never come. Many families are dying of starvation; there is high unemployment and unstable governments.

With all its resources, Africa has remained the poorest continent. For many Africans, their problems can be attributed to bad leadership. The continent is a graveyard littered with a multitude of failed projects that were never thought through or had corrupted leadership.

The many people whom we are trying to help in rural areas are people who have remained poor all of their lives. They are chronically poor, and to them, poverty is not simply about having low income; it is about multiple deprivations - hunger, malnutrition, dirty drinking water, lack of education, having no access to health services, social isolation and exploitation. This deprivation is often passed on to their children and some of them die from easily preventable deaths.

I believe that opportunity alone is not enough for chronically poor people to escape poverty. They need targeted support, assistance, social empowerment, and political action. They need an infrastructure that provides culturally relevant solutions and puts people in a position to seize opportunities and take obligations seriously. Chronic poverty cannot be seriously reduced without a real transfer of resources and sustainable economic systems. Those in extreme poverty often come to rely on welfare meant only to temporarily alleviate crisis. These short-term solutions rarely lead to long-term growth and may, in fact, be poverty traps unless followed with long-term plans for ecomoic growth.

Long-term solutions we will implement at The City of Hope that will have address issues of chronic poverty:

Career training, agricultural development, and micro-financing for small businesses.
Providing access to clean water and sanitation.
Building educational facilities; training, equipping and mobilizing students to be the leaders of the future.
Community based health care, reducing infant and maternal death, treating preventable diseases and education in the areas of hygiene and personal health care.
Providing housing and a nurturing environment for orphaned children, along with education and life-skills training.

I believe that change can come through the principles of Christianity demonstrated through the revolutionary concept of The City of Hope. Despite its poverty, Africa has enormous resources at its disposal to build a better future. Africans have an amazing spirit of survival. Given the right tools and provided with hope, the people of Tanzania can break the cycle of poverty that has kept them in bondage to old mindsets, disease, and lack of education.

God Bless you,

Dr. John N. Chacha

Please help to keep moving forward in fulfilling this vision.

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