CMDi friends and partners PEN Trust (see our links page for contacts) announce that for the month of September 2009, wikiHow will sponsor a book for a child in Africa every time a registered user writes a new article. WikiHow is a site where you can write how-to articles on just about anything. Here's your chance to tell others about your superfast way to restore a tractor magneto or process cabbage, and have a book go to Tanzania. PEN Trust's work in this area boosts literacy in a poor part of the country. Link: 

http://www.wikihow.com/wikiHow:Books-For-Africa

Bishop Peter Mwamasika of the Dodoma Diocese once told a church group that "pencils are good as gold." Children, especially in the rural areas, do not have access to school supplies, and so Christian Mission for Dodoma is collecting school supplies such as pencils, crayons and erasers from churches and individuals in Northwestern Ohio.

Recently, the members of St. Paul's Lutheran Church in Prospect, Ohio held a drive for collecting school supplies for the children in Dodoma.  Over 500 pencils were collected along with erasers, pencil sharpeners and crayons.  We thank the members for their generous response to the needs of the children.

Pastor Bliss, Stu Smith and many others from Northwest Ohio churches will be travelling this October to distribute these supplies. 

CMDI's Stuart Smith has been working with a group at Holy Spirit Parish, Uniontown, Ohio (Youngstown Diocese), who have been led to assist financially with improvement of water supplies in the Diocese of Moshi (Roman Catholic), in the Kilimanjaro Region of Tanzania. He visited two locations in August 2008, assessed the situation, and located and obtained quotes from a qualified well contractor in the region for two projects.  One well cleaning project at Uchira (east of Moshi) was successfully completed in early 2009. This well is now back in service supplying water to several hundred primary school children, a dispensary-clinic, parish, convent, and as a supplementary supply for the village, which is majority-Muslim. Work was completed under budget. The Water Committee of Holy Spirit has now collected and the Youngstown Diocese has transmitted funds for a new well at St James Seminary, a secondary school northeast of Moshi. Stuart will continue as their technical advisor.

We consider this project to be a model of what CMDI can do. We are not locked in by church politics, we can help in whatever capacity we can. We prefer to work ecumenically with partners such as the Moshi Diocese who see their mission as helping all the people (as Christ did) regardless of religion.