small Catamaran for Sudan

Hi,
The area we work is on the very NW corner of Bahr al-Ghazal. This area is just south of Darfur. Our ministry has been working there since 1996, and I've been over about 10 times.

During famines and epidemics, our ministry has worked in areas neglected or too small to be considered by the UN, and we've flown in thousands of tons of food, compared to the UN's many hundreds of thousands. Distribution is key. Often the UN food rots, or is turned into alcohol in stills, or is sold by rich tribal leaders back to suppliers, entering the cycle again. The UN system is rife with corruption, though often well-meaning. Sometimes the food is exploited by the northern Sudanese government, for political of religious purposes. We distribute all our food and meds directly to the people.

The work is arduous and dangerous, less so now during the intermittant peace.

The clinic we support is small, but important to the community. About 2-3 children are brought in daily right now (a lull), most with meningitis, and complications from malaria, or tetanus. Often the patients have delayed coming in to the free clinic for weeks, first placing their trust in local witch-doctors. Babies are brought in near-death. While there last week, 4 babies were brought in, one died while being worked on intensively for 2 hours. There are two american ladies who run the camp, making what we would consider huge sacrifices to help the people. They live in tukals like the local people, in a separate compound for medical workers. Parents with sick babies live in their compound while their babies are tended to.

There are no bicycles. The villages we serve have no western-style buildings, roads, etc, except for one temporary tin-building that we put up a year ago, until we are able to build a permanent clinic, which we plan to start in April or May of this year.

There are a few large trees - the local church meets under one of them. There is no building rock - the river rock is crumbly, unsuitable for anything but gravel. We will fly in stone, cement, and rebar. We will train men to dress the stone. We have trained about a dozen men in basic medical skills, including flying them to Uganda for competant training. We pay the workers time to attend free classes, where they learn their written language, and study the Bible.

Weathly NGOs are a big problem in South Sudan. Juba is currently the 3rd most expensive city in the world. The nearest wealthy NGO is about a 2 day walk from our compound - near enough to complicate our ability to find workers who have previously learned English, and to create wildly variant expectations for salaries, etc. The locals assume that anyone with a light skin is wealthy, with unlimited resources. So, for low-budget operations like ours, patience and prayer are key.

None of our funds come from taxpayers. It is funded by local Christian churches, and private individuals like myself. We never pay bribes. As long as we come in with our materials to Kenya, in transit, we do not pay any Kenyan duty, or any other kind of duty or tax.

Hope this helps clarify some of Alan's comments.

Frank

 

I too lived and worked in Africa (although mainly Kenya and Malawi) for many years and agree with many of the observations in earlier posts. I've also lived in other emerging and challenging environments and the same considerations apply in most.

As a low cost options how about using a couple of 2-man rotomoulded kayaks rigged together with bamboo (or simillar) poles and wet ratan (bamboo strips or rope that shrink to tighten as they dry)? This is technology most villiages have the skills to support and can fix with little or no cost.

If that works a more hi-tech solution would be to supply a couple of aluminium beams. I recently bought a low cost kayak for my kids (paid about NZ$400) that has drain tubes moulded through the hull that the beams could be made to locate through.

I reckon the whole craft could be put together for under US$1k, it would be ALMOST indestructable and could either be powered with a small [say] 2hp outboard (Honda air-cooled?) or be mandraulic (paddled). It can even still be used as a pair of kayaks if needs be.

 

Charlie, I lived in Central Asia for 3 years and met the most questionably qualified 'experts' imaginable. One asked tovisit me and simply said 'I have to write a report, I have no idea how it works over here, can you tell em how you operate?'. In other words condense 10 years experience into an hour meeting after which he would submit a 'qualified report'. Not bad considering the 250 quid a day he was on. However I dont think this is the forum to discuss the merits of NGO and aid agencies.

 

Costco sells rotomolded kyaks for around $250 USD. Seyvor inflatables run as low as $50.