Thanks for your interest in GlobalFingerprints and its work in the Congo and now India.  We thought we'd share a snapshot of some of the challenges of the GlobalFingerprint project but also how your sponsorship is ministering to children in the Congo.

The pictures and story below show how difficult it is to travel in Congo. Difficulty in traveling throughout Congo is one of the realities of ministry that makes communication between sponsors and children especially difficult. 

Treacherous Travels with Mandaba

Goal of Trip: travel 124 miles to 3 regions, visit orphans, take pictures, collect child messages to sponsors and deliver translated messages from sponsors to the kids, and encourage village supervisors. 

His job is not as easy as it sounds.

Program Facts:

25: regions GlobalFingerprints operates in northwest Congo (an area the size of Indiana)

831: villages in the 25 regions

27: trained caseworkers / supervisors     

20-70: number of orphans per caseworker

1251: children currently sponsored

1: Number of GlobalFingerprints communications
coordinators

1: GlobalFingerprints internet connection in Congo
 
Traveling 124 miles (200km) is a 2 ½ hour highway drive for you and I, takes Mandaba a week or more on motorcycle, with some interesting adventures along the way.  Heavy rains, roads covered with water; with the best roads being muddy. Traveling continues at night when the weather allows. A common encounter is a dilapidated bridge across a waterway. 

Along the way, the sound of a motorbike draws out local villagers who help carry it across deep holes and missing roads covered with water. 

This is the life of the GlobalFingerprints communications coordinator in Congo. We are committed to annual communications between each child and their sponsor.  We thank you for your patience as we work to coordinate these messages.

Thank you for supporting the daily journey of your GlobalFingerprints child and the on the ground workers in a world very different from yours.

If you'd like to receive regular updates of the GlobalFingerprints newsletter, sign up here.

You can make a difference

The emerging generation is the largest generation in history. Much of this generation lives in some of the poorest places in the world. It is amidst this reality that motivated ReachStudents to develop a long-term partnership partner with GlobalFingerprints, the child sponsorship program of the EFCA, in order to mobilize American teenagers to DO SOMETHING.

We are calling this generation to band together on behalf of their under-resourced peers around the world to reflect the extravagant and sacrificial love of God by giving and sponsoring

Sponsor

Special projects are only a temporary help. These children need ongoing support. GlobalFingerprints currently has 400 orphans in the Congo that have not yet been sponsored to receive food, education and needed medical aide. Once we complete the commitment in Congo, efforts will be moved to open a new site in India. Do Something! Sponsor Now!