The Crosby Family

2011 has been an excellent year for our family and we have learned a tremendous amount from countless friends and colleagues across the African continent and domestically in the US as well. Though I had hoped to be writing from the DRC this month, political instability and some election related violence led to postponing my travels. After a good deal of consultation with our Congolese partners we determined the political climate this month would not be conducive of accomplishing a great deal of work, so we are targeting the next possible window for me to join them in person. Once together we intend to discuss at great length strengthening our partnerships toward the implementation of a public health initiative which will hopefully bring excellent care to regions that otherwise have limited or no health services, as well as build capacity within a nation starved for more trained health care professionals.

There have been countless partners and organizations we have learned a great deal from in 2011, so for those interested I will include some links to organizations which we owe a great deal of gratitude to either directly or indirectly this year:

Partners In Health

http://www.pih.org/pages/who-we-are/

PIH has continued to make much of their message and material available to the general public and continues to inspire our work in the lakes region of Africa, as we strive toward very similar goals.

Afara Global

http://afaraglobal.co/

The co-founders of Afara have become dear friends and committed coworkers, always challenging us to better practices on the continent.

Giant Global

http://www.giantglobal.org/

We are quickly becoming part of the Giant family, which is always growing, and Dr. Oladele and others have provided immense support, guidance, and leadership as we step into the realm of public health in Africa. As the partnership continues to develop we are excited to see how Giant can have a deeper reach into the lakes region in Africa.

Jake Lyell

http://jakelyell.com/

Jake is an old friend from Virginia who continues to inspire us with his brilliant images captured in many of the same places we work. We look forward to collaborating with Jake in the future, but in the meantime felt that his work captures the brilliance of the continent in ways that no words can.

Congo Siasa

http://congosiasa.blogspot.com/

Jason Stearns’ blog, and his book on the conflict in the lakes region of Africa has continued to provide insight into the complex history of the many people groups in the region. We are impressed with his research, and have learned a great deal from his work. For those interested in our developing public health work in the lakes region, Jason’s book is a highly recommended read to understand the incredible complexities of the region.

The faith family in ATL
To the many local friends who continue to meet with us weekly to pray and live the teaching of Christ, you continually challenge and support our work, and you know who you are…thank you!

Most importantly, it has been our African brothers and sisters both on in the continent and those of the diaspora to whom we feel most indebted. After our initial five years of working on the continent we realized it will be Africans who truly shape the promising future of their nations, and we simply feel honored to be a part of the process. We hope to continue to play the role of servants in the grand scheme of things on the continent, working with existing and future partnerships in which indigenous leadership will be the hallmark of true development on the continent.

A special thanks to all who have continued to partner with us to live meaningful lives.As we look toward 2012 Claud continues to prepare for medical school and Mary continues to develop her artistic endeavors, all the while continually pushing for farther reaching health care in the lakes region of Africa, looking to Christ as the source of all that we do and the compassionate motivation which compels us.

Much love,
Claud

On public health…
Since first setting foot on the African continent in 2001 I have continually been overwhelmed by the health needs in every community I have served. As U.S. senators and congressmen haggle over the fine print of our health care system and how it is rolled out here, dear friends friends in Africa continue to lose their friends and family members to preventable diseases on a daily basis, and it again reiterates that the gap between our opportunities here in the western world and our brothers and sisters in Africa is still so vast. This gap has led me to want to take advantage of the training and skills which are here at my fingertips, and exploit them to the fullest so that I might share those skills in countless villages and communities we have served over the years. I know without a doubt that there are so many men and women in Africa who might never have the chance for formal public health or medical training, but who have the capabilities to positively impact the health of their communities on a drastic level. So it is to that end that we are laboring.

The tipping point…
Maybe it was on this last trip to eastern Uganda in May, when our dear friend had to bury a ten year old boy in his village who succumbed to treatable meningitis. Or maybe it was the deplorable conditions in the government hospital in which I found my two daughters in Swaziland. Or maybe it was my best friend’s father dying of tuberculosis after a misdiagnosis. Or maybe it was sitting with the health minister from the Democratic Republic of Congo a few months ago as he shared that his nation loses 360,000 children a year under five years old to preventable diseases. Or maybe it was any one of the countless other tragedies I have experienced personally over the last six years of work in Africa, I am not sure. At any rate, I have resolved that partnering with local people to improve the overall health in each community will forever be intertwined with our work from this point forward. In fact in many ways this is what has motivated our return to the United States, in order to pursue training in public health and medicine, in order to return to Africa more equipped to tackle some of these challenges hand in hand with the local people.

My beliefs are continually being shaped, but from the day I set foot in Africa until now I have increasingly believed that the African community has the capacity to tackle all of the challenges of the continent, and that the glories of the African community are seldom being employed when a solution to any one particular challenge is attempted. So it is in true partnership that the solutions to drastic health disparities will be encountered. It will be when true partnerships are forged instead of the all too common paternalistic, top down relationships that answers will reach the far corners of the continent, and it is to that end I hope to work. So we are in the early stages of exploring these concepts with our friends in a number of African communities, curious if a network of community health care workers could bring great positive shifts in various communities’ overall health. As the “brain drain” continues in which most well trained health care workers flee the continent in search of better salaries, it might very well be the villagers themselves who improve the lives of their communities and nations. Similarly to God’s use of the rural farmers in China to spread the gospel across the vast nation, it would not surprise me if God uses the villagers or common men and women, to bring a real health revolution to the continent. So it is those fabulous community members, the brilliantly talented and selfless men and women already serving their villages, that I am in search of so that we might learn together how to improve the lives of our communities.

I am sure I will continue to share about these endeavors as they unfold, but in the interim pray with me for the great continent of Africa.

It is shameful to think I have gone this long without writing, but I tend to prefer to reserve my entries for times when I have something significant to share.

So today I write asking for your prayers as my father in law, a coworker from church, and I take a journey to East Africa this coming May. There is much to be done while we are there, but of the utmost importance is revisiting four key partners who are living the gospel in their own nations better than we ever could. We will be searching for solutions as to how we can better partner to facilitate the creation of profit generating projects with these men to sustain their families and ministries.

Sustainability is at the core of our intentions, as these men are laboring day in and day out for the gospel, but may or may not have a regular dependable income to feed and provide for their families. Dependency on western donors seems to be a very short sighted and temporary solution, with no lasting effect. So we are in search of better long term solutions, and over the next few weeks prior to our trip I will be sharing different related topics to pray with us about regarding the trip.

So, if you are interested in being involved in this project whether through prayer, or otherwise please get in touch with me, as this will be a very collaborative effort. I am looking to involve a number of business men we know who want to be involved in Africa, as this will be a unique opportunity for them to use their gifts to serve to continent.

Keep our journey and our African partners in prayer,
Themba (Claud)