Heart racing inside my chest, pumping so hard it should hurt - I am
anxious but focused as the adrenaline pulsates through me. As I take
one of my national exams, I feel as though I’m on the soccer field
trying to score a goal. Since I left school last year I am now making
up for lost time, and these tests are important.

I grew up in a farmers’ family, growing crops and raising cattle for
food, we sell whatever is left over. “What is the point of school?” I
still wonder, neither of my parents can read much, but farmers don’t
need book learning. Uninterested and not understanding the point, I
left school last year, and thought I would never look back. Then not
too long ago, I heard a soccer team had been started at my old school,
and only enrolled students could play. Itching my head with my finger,
I erase a wrong answer and quietly laugh to myself, “If it weren’t
for that soccer team, I wouldn’t be taking this test.”

This is the true story of Ramathani, 19 years old, and recently back in
school with plans to graduate. Before the sports program and soccer
team came to his school, going back and graduating was the furthest
thing from his mind. He had been a regular truant before dropping
out of school and saw no point of going to school.

Although he had been bright and scored well on exams, according
to him, “nothing in school really interested me” Now that he
is back in school and doing sports, he consistently scores within
the top 5 - 10 students in his class. When asked what the sports
program has done for him he says, “the sports program is the
reason I stay, if that were gone, I would not be here.”
Thanks to ADRA’s work in the Hanang primary schools, students
are coming back and performing bettr in class than before. The
head of one primary school expressed that before ADRA’s work,
10% of the students were truants, neither going to school nor
working at home during the day. Now, with ADRA’s sports and
health program providing with health education, marathons, netball,
soccer and volley ball competitions, truancy has decreased
from 10% to 4%.

Furthermore students who are in school perform better on all exams.
When the head of one primary school responded to how
sports is is important he said “sports is important to everyone’s
health , but for students its more important because it helps them
perform better in school which will help them perform better in
life.” Additional benefits of ADRA’s sports and health program
are increased self esteem and lower sexual activity among the
students.

Befrore ADRA began its work in Hanang, a shocking 93% of
out- of -school youth had had an average of 11 sexual partners
each. An even more disturbing 61% of primary school youth
( ages 7 - 12) had had sexual relations with different partners.
These upsetting numbers reflect the values and self - esteem the
children used to have, but now with ADRA’s sports and health
program in primary schools, things have changed. They prepare
for track races, soccer games, or their next big test, feeling no
longer doomed to hanging out by the road and looking for the
next sexual playmate.

ADRA Tanzania’s Hanang Health Project has been a six year
effort to help the most impoverished of the district’s approximately
205,000 members. This project, with the help of the local
government, was implemented by ADRA and funded by the Danish
Agency for International Development of DANIDA. Adra
works in over 125 countries and in Tanzania alone has served
more than 700,000 adults.

By Max Church, Country Director

ADRA Sierra Leone is partnering locally with
the Maragiri Women’s Cooperative Society; an organization
of farmers determined to ensure food security
in Lungi and beyond. These farmers have registered
and are involved in farming and non farming
activities such as vegetable farming, salt production,
fishing, bread baking and gara tie and dye. The goal
of this project is to help improve food security for
2,500 farmers in Lungi communities. The objectives
include:
· Strengthening the Maragiri Women Cooperative
through provision of tools, materials
and machinery for the general use of small
scale farmers and non farmers associations by
2010
· Increasing quality and productivity of farm
yield and non farming livelihood skills by
training 180 small scale farmers and non
farmers in improved methods of vegetable
gardening, bread making, salt processing,
Gara tie dying and shrimp fishing by
2010
· Increasing literacy levels of members of
small scale farmersJ associations for better
public entrepreneurial relationships and marketing
skills by 2010
· Committee members of farmersJ associations
have knowledge and skills in monitoring,
documentation and reporting promoted
by 2010 with increased literacy levels for better
decision making and leadership skills
The new project has provided 29 wheelbarrows, 1
powertiller, 300 watering cans, 150 shovels, 60 headpans,
sets of protective gear, and insecticide sprayers.
The easy access to tools, and increase in the number
of tools based on the recovery system will improve
the yield for farmers and increase their household income,
enabling them to better support their children
in school, especiall girls.

ADRA Sierra Leone Staff
Mr. Philip Conteh (ADRA Sierra Leone Health Projects
Officer) emphasised that the project will increase
the number of meals for each family per day.
“Some families, of upto 30 members, can only
afford one meal per day as revealed duirng our
baseline survey.” He said, ADRA will offer training to the farmers to sustain
and improve their cultivation skills and methods,
especially in pest control to maximize their
harvest. The ADRA Country Director, Mrs. Beryl
Nyamwange, during the launching ceremony
urged farmers and non farmers to cast a vision of
their future produce and activities as a means to
improve present impact; to have confidence in
their abilities to do their work very well not only
in Lungi but in the whole of Sierra Leone; to be
committed to achieve their results; to always
communicate among themselves and with the
ADRA Project Field Officer and to ensure continuity
of project activities by paying their dues to
the Maragiri Women’s Cooperative so that more
tools can be bought for more farmers. “We trust
that more girls will be enrolled in school as a result
of the increased income in the households,”
Beryl added.

ADRA has been active in Sierra Leone for
over 20 years, focusing on relief work during the
war, and development work in health care, education,
agriculture, food security, water and sanitation,
resource management, infrastructure construction,
and HIV and AIDS.

By Beryl Aseno, Country Director

ADRA Tanzania in Arusha hosted the Andrews University
‘International Development Program’ or “IDP” on its spacious
campus from August 3 – 22.

A total of 75 students, attended development courses to work
towards their Masters of Science in Administration degrees.
They came from many countries, for example; Madagascar,
Mali, Australia, Kenya, Afghanistan and the United States.
Professors stayed in the ADRA cottages on the ADRA campus
while students were housed at the Makumira University about
1 kilometer away.

This was a new and exciting adventure and challenge for
ADRA Tanzania. It stretched the skills of the staff to try to
keep such a large number of people satisfied, and that is rarely
fully achievable when it comes to food! Every day the students
had their meals on the campus, and on special occasions the
vegetarian diet was interrupted to provide fish or beef, which
was well appreciated by many.

Separate classes were held in English and in French, with about
20 students choosing the later.
Some special occasions highlighted the time, such as a trip to
Kilimanjaro, trips to Arusha town, a graduation ceremony at
the Mt. Meru Game Lodge, and a fun evening of laughter and
games. Otherwise it was just serious studying.

By Max Church, Country Director

The much anticipated ADRA Country Office
Licensing process began in Africa with a
stimulating 5 day workshop on the campus of
the East-Central Africa division. Country
directors from the 12 ADRA offices of the
ECD came for two initial days of training
with ADRA International and the Africa Regional
Office and were then joined by the
three executive officers of their respective
church unions for the final two days
of training.

The main presenters were three of ADRA International’s
officers (President Charles
Sandefur, Executive Vice-President Mario
Ochoa and Vice President for Finance Gideon
Mutero) and ADRA International’s person in
charge of Licensing and Governance, Heidi
Straw. “ADRA’s emphasis on the importance
of local governance is unique in the development
world,” said President Charles
Sandefur and “we are pleased to introduce
these Licensing and Governance workshops to
provide additional support our local ADRA
and church partners.”
The ADRA Country Office licensing system is
the result of decisions made by the church
at Annual Council and the ADRA International
Board to take more responsibility
for how the name ADRA is used and to clarify
and formalize the relationships between
all of the various worldwide ADRA offices.
A country office license will be a legal
agreement between ADRA and the church Union
that will give that union the right to use
the name ADRA to operate a country office
and will set some of the standards and
guidelines for its governance and operation.
It is a model that seeks to empower local
ownership and involvement and this
workshop was part of ADRA International’s
commitment to help strengthen
local governance and management in order
to meet this level of responsibility.
It is ADRA International’s hope to do
similar workshops for ADRA divisions
around the world. Initial discussions
are already being held towards the
scheduling of similar workshops for the
WAD and SID in Africa.
Workshop topics included not only
detailed training about the contents of
a country office license and the steps
needed to obtain it, but also presentations
and discussions about the new
ADRA network strategic plan, financial
management and board governance. “It
was great to see a lot of the things we
have discussed at ALC (ADRA Leadership
Council) and in other places getting
implemented and included” said Max
Church, ADRA Tanzania country director.
Church leaders also expressed that they
felt much more equipped to know how to
be involved on their local ADRA country
boards and what to expect from their
offices.
Look for more information soon on the
scheduling of similar workshops for
other Divisions and updates about licensing.
The AFRO office is collecting
the presentations made at this workshop
and will make them available to all offices.

By Heidi Straw, ADRA International

In an accord signed between ADRA-STP and representatives
of the national government of São
Tomé e Príncipe on December 5, 2008, ADRA
will provide training in general accounting and the
use of QuickBooks accounting software to the
Centro Nacional de Endemias (CNE). This center,
under the Ministry of Health, is the Sao tomean
counterpart to the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention (CDC) in the United States. In addition
to accounting and software training, ADRA will
assist CNE in setting up an accounting system to
international standards in preparation for CNE to
take over management of the Global Fund to Fight
AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria from the local
United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)
office.
ADRA-STP was approached about this opportunity
after a delegation of UNDP representatives
visited the offices of several NGO’s in the country
to assess the quality of their accounting systems
and experience with accounting software. The
transparency, rigor, and high standards of ADRASTP’s
Finance Department impressed the delegation,
and they were also attracted by the quality of
the QuickBooks program.
“The capacities of our monitoring and evaluation
department, our program planning department, and
other departments are strong,” says Dr. Herodes
Sousa Pontes do Sacramento Rompão, Director of
CNE. “But our financial system needs significant
strengthening. This training provided by ADRA is a
very important part of our preparation to manage the
Global Fund.”
The training and accounting system setup will begin
in December 2008 with duration of two months.
ADRA-STP’s Finance Director, Mr. Ugochukwu A.
Nwachukwu, will conduct the training based upon
his accounting degree from the University of Port
Harcourt (Nigeria), his experience as an international
businessman, and his work with ADRA-STP.
“We are very pleased to be afforded this opportunity,”
says Dr. Adam D. Kiš, Country Director for
ADRA-STP. “Most of our work takes place at the
community level, but working at the national level is
also a form of development which can ultimately
improve the lives of all.” ADRA has been present in
São Tomé e Príncipe since 1992 and in 1998 ADRA
became officially registered in the country. In the
last 5 years, ADRA-STP has managed more than
$1,500,000 in assistance to promote development
and alleviate poverty, impacting more than 30,000
lives.

By Adam Kis, Country Director