Silly Poor Gospel will be hitting the road on December 27, 2006

Peggy Senger Parsons will be posting both this blog and her

UPI Column So There I WAS from Bujumbura. Burundi.

I will be there until the end of February.

I will be working for Quaker Peacemaker David Niyonzima and his organizationTrauma Healing and Reconciliation Services of Burundi . I will be be training field level traumatologists (trauma healers). I will also be training his top level staff in relsiliency and compassion fatigue. The last time I was there in 2003 I trained 43 traumatologists - David turned those 43 into 800. Very few of those 800 work for THARS but they have been trained and released into their churches, clinics, schools and communities.

If all goes well I will also be traveling to Kigali, Rwanda and Goma in the DRC. I hope to see my previous students Augustin Habimana and his Quaker orphans. I also hope to see my student Benjamin Kasao who is doing trauma healing in Goma.

I will be bringing new material for psychological healing for rape survivors - a literal plague in Central Africa at the moment.

My Expenses for this trip are completely taken care of.

But I am going to be carrying a compassion fund to make a difference.

One of the fabulous things about sending money over there is how much it does, compared to here, $5 feeds an orphan for a month $30 pays a trauma healing for a month $100 funds an entire listening center for a month. A few Thousand dollars puts up a building.

Every dollar I take will be administered by David and his organization - they have a track record of rigorous, ethical accounting, a thing hard to come by in Africa. There will be no transit or overhead costs on this budget. 100% will go to the intended project.

Because I will be there in person, I will be able to assess the needs and will designate the funds for the most pressing concerns. I will be there long enough to see results and report.

If you are a US citizen you may have your tax deduction for this.

Freedom Friends Church has set up a fund for my travels.

Send contributions to

Freedom Friends Church

2425 13th Street SE, Salem Oregon 97302

Clearly designate the check as

Peggy's Africa compassion fund.

Unfortunately we cannot accept funds in any other currency than USdollars. (If one of my foreign readers would like to make a significant contribution in another currency please e-mail me directly and I will discuss with David how to channel those funds)

Let us See if the Quaker Blogosphere has any financial muscle, shall we?

Send a check and then Link to this post - together we have Thousands of hits a day!

You are so going to enjoy my Africa blogs if you know that you are part of it.

(the photos on this post were borrowed from the BBC - I will take and post my own i a few weeks)

// posted by Peggy Senger Morrison @ Monday, November 20, 2006