I'm Jim Rennie, CEO of
Child Impact International.
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And I've now been in
this role for over 12 years.
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And this is a very exciting day
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for both me and Child Impact,
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because we're
expanding into a new continent
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in the country of Zambia.
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And we're just so
excited about this,
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because we've
always had a demand
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from donors for Africa.
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And it's just so exciting
to be able to expand our work,
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to have a new
partner Riverside Farms,
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and to be able to really
serve the needy in that area.
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Child Impact International
is an organization giving hope.
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Previously called Asian Aid,
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Child Impact
International is an organization
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fostering
permanent positive change
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in the lives of
disadvantaged children
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and their communities.
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Child Impact is
committed to making a difference
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in the lives of children
and those who are in need,
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serving communities in India,
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Nepal, Bangladesh,
Sri Lanka, Myanmar,
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and will soon
expand to other countries.
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For the last 50 years,
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Child Impact has invested
in the futures of people,
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and their investment
has proven infinite returns,
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driven by the dedication
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to helping those
who have the least.
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Child Impact is an organization
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focused on the
welfare of children,
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implementing
diverse development projects
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and sponsoring
thousands of children.
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Their outreach spans
from child rescue operations
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to providing an education
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for orphans, deaf,
and the blind children
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giving them a
sense of place, a home.
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But above all, Child Impact
is an organization giving hope,
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giving hope to children,
giving hope to communities,
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giving hope to the
ones who need it the most.
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This is Hope in Motion.
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Riverside Farms
give us good management,
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they operate a good school,
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so that we can be
confident that our sponsorship
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on the ground is very effective.
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When I went to ASI,
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I used to go by
this Asian Aid booth.
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And I said,
"Wouldn't that be something
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if this could come to Africa?"
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It was just, and I
just would dream about it.
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And then last year, I stopped by
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and I talked to Jim Rennie,
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and he says, "You know,
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we're thinking of
moving into Africa."
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And, you know, of course,
it got me a little excited,
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but I thought
Africa, Africa is huge.
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And so last spring
when I heard that Jim Rennie
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with Child Impact was
coming not only to Africa,
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not only to Zambia,
but to Riverside Farms,
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I was so excited.
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And so he came over and
it just went from there.
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When I visited Riverside Farms,
I was really taken by the need.
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I mean, we operate
in six other countries
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and I've seen a lot of need.
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But here I saw families
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that were really,
really struggling.
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I was actually very touched
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by the commitment of the parents
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who are fighting a
drought, a real drought.
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And so not only did they
have a need for their children
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to go to school
for an education,
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they actually have a
need for their children
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to have a meal every day.
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And so I know that
in the Zambian school,
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the kids that are going
there are of very genuine need.
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A very few inches of
rain in the last two years,
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so they already had a drought
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and then we had almost a
complete drought this year.
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I'd say,
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20 years we haven't
seen a drought this bad.
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I mean, people are rather
straight up starving to death.
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And so when kids come to school,
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one of the things
that farm has done
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is provided each
of them with bananas,
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because we grow bananas.
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But that's not a complete meal.
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And they need one because
they're not getting much.
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And so being able to be
involved with Child Impact,
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or some of the
hungry money project
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that got involved,
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they're gonna be able
to get a full, full meal,
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one meal when they're there.
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And that's an impact
that we couldn't do otherwise.
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It just is going
to allow the school
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to have better books,
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them to have a
uniform, these kids,
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a lot more coming in
rags, I mean, straight up.
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And so that's
something for them.
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You know, they come to
school, they're all in uniform.
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They're all equal
in the ability to learn
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and have God impact
their life that way.
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The thing that impresses
me with these children though,
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from a very young age
they have to haul water.
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They have to carry firewood.
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Watch the goats and
the cows, herd them.
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And they have to
do these home chores
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from when they're
just young children.
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There's not one
family that was sponsoring
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that has running water or
electricity in their home.
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It's very important for us
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to find a partner on the ground
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that supports our mission.
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And so they need to be a strong
Adventist mission partner.
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And Riverside's the ideal
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because not only do
they have strong management,
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they operate a well run school.
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And then in turn, their job
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is that they're
serving the community.
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And so Riverside for us
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is a very unique
partner in that they ensure
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that the schools
will run but then in turn,
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we're helping
them with their mission
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in the local community.
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Well, I feel it's
our responsibility
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to help the areas near you.
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As Christians,
we need to look out
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for the widows, the orphans,
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the people
within our vicinities.
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And I feel a
real burden for that.
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And so the thing is,
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once you start
helping them with this school,
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it's going to open
up a huge opportunity
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for many more ways to help them,
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like you're going to
find out that they need food.
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They need many
things in their homes
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that we're going to,
it's going to come to us,
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and we're gonna have
to be ready for this.
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And so it's just like
a little opening wedge,
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and maybe that'll
give us an opportunity
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to share Jesus with them.
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I feel like these children,
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it's like a brand
plucked out of the fire.
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There was this
one boy growing up,
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his mother died.
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And his father was a drunkard
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and his older
brothers all drank.
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And he came to me one day
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and asked if he
could go to school.
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And I, you know, I wasn't sure
if I could take another one.
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But I took him and I put him
all the way through grade 12.
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He didn't have any
discipline in his life.
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He didn't know
about responsibility,
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but he learned those things.
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And then my
husband put him to work
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and working on
the one day church.
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And then after that,
we were able to get funds
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and we put him in college.
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And now he's just
completing his teaching.
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And he's going to be a teacher.
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And he's, and not only that,
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I gave him Bible
studies while he was in school,
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and he was baptized.
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And so I'm just so excited.
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I feel like what
would become of him
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if we hadn't reached out to him?
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And not far from us is
a big hydroelectric dam,
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and pulled up
there looking for someone
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who had a meeting with
the government official,
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and the guy pulls over says,
"Hey, where's the bananas?"
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And we're known for bananas
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'cause in here
everybody likes nice bananas.
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And I said, "Well, we don't
have any here with us today."
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And he goes, you know.
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And then he went on to
tell us that Al and Pauline,
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the ones who helped
with the school project
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had put him in school,
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he'd gone through the
school, and he was now working
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for the power company
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generating the power
for the whole country.
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So it was cool to see
that full circle there.
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I just see so
many positive effects
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of when these kids go to school.
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So I'm so excited
that we're going to be able
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to even double in one time
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through Child Impact
the amount of children
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that we're going
to put in school.
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It was because they could
see the educational impact
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on the community
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because the
parents will come to work.
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And those kids go to school,
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and then the people
who can't get an education
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because they can't,
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obviously we
can't employ everyone.
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If they're going
to school as well,
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more kids are getting impacted
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and they're going
to secondary school,
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many of them are
going to college.
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And they're becoming
part of the community.
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Now, one of the big doctors
in town went to Loma Linda,
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we put him all the way through,
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came back and now he
runs the Adventist clinic,
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have a big part of running
Adventist clinic in town.
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And yeah, my kids,
that's where we take them,
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you know, if we
have a major problem
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or if I had got
sick, going to someone
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who went to the
school right there.
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So it's cool to see that.
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That impact and
that's from someone who,
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you know,
education changed your life.
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Children grow up in the
village with nothing to do.
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And so their
peer start drinking,
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they start drinking,
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and they just live
this useless, listless life,
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and the women will
not desert their children,
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and they will do
whatever they can
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to provide for them.
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And so you can see
how education is going
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to make a big difference,
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because they'll
have a purpose now.
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They won't be just
hanging out and doing nothing
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and getting involved in drinking
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and whatever other vices around.
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The education, I
mean, when you have people
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who are
completely without education,
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what hope do they have?
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I mean, they have
no hope outside of,
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you know,
either become criminals
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or try to survive on a smaller
and smaller share of maize
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that only grows,
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you know, three out of
five years successfully
00:10:00.76\00:10:03.23
at any level, and
even that successes,
00:10:03.26\00:10:05.63
they don't know
much about farming,
00:10:05.67\00:10:07.00
they're good farmers
00:10:07.04\00:10:08.37
and it's not
that they work hard,
00:10:08.40\00:10:09.74
but, you know, growing corn
00:10:09.77\00:10:11.94
or the maize
that they use there,
00:10:11.97\00:10:13.38
I mean, you know,
you have the ability
00:10:13.41\00:10:15.64
to get 12 tons a hectare,
00:10:15.68\00:10:17.01
maybe 13 tons a
hectare, maybe even more.
00:10:17.05\00:10:20.05
And they get on average,
you know, two tons of hectare.
00:10:20.08\00:10:25.49
So you have all this potential,
00:10:25.52\00:10:27.12
but it's not
happening, some practices.
00:10:27.16\00:10:30.36
So, without that,
you look at that and say,
00:10:30.39\00:10:32.59
"Oh, you know,
00:10:32.63\00:10:34.30
they're not gonna
make it without education."
00:10:34.33\00:10:36.26
We're going to work
with Child Impact to see
00:10:36.30\00:10:38.90
if we can extend our
school up to grade 12.
00:10:38.93\00:10:42.30
And that would be a
dream come true for me.
00:10:42.34\00:10:45.41
There's not very many
Adventist schools in Zambia
00:10:45.44\00:10:48.41
with Christian education,
00:10:48.44\00:10:49.81
and all the secondary
schools are boarding schools.
00:10:49.84\00:10:53.11
And so the price
goes significantly up
00:10:53.15\00:10:55.55
for these
children and their parents.
00:10:55.58\00:10:58.45
They can't afford to send them.
00:10:58.49\00:11:00.39
So in the previous
school we had about 70 kids
00:11:00.42\00:11:03.63
that were packed in.
00:11:03.66\00:11:06.63
And so, now we'll be able to
go up to about 120 this year,
00:11:06.66\00:11:11.97
and then we'll
add on and we'll go,
00:11:12.00\00:11:13.34
I think we'll end
up being about 200 kids
00:11:13.37\00:11:15.37
that will be in the school.
00:11:15.40\00:11:16.77
Yeah, now, with
the buildings we have,
00:11:16.81\00:11:18.14
we will have to
add a couple buildings.
00:11:18.17\00:11:19.51
One of the buildings
we'd like to build eventually,
00:11:19.54\00:11:21.18
once we get sponsorship for it
00:11:21.21\00:11:22.54
will be a library
and a science lab.
00:11:22.58\00:11:26.31
Every child belongs to God.
00:11:26.35\00:11:29.28
And they should
have this opportunity.
00:11:29.32\00:11:31.69
And if we're able to give them
an opportunity to go to school
00:11:31.72\00:11:35.29
and to have the
basic things in life,
00:11:35.32\00:11:38.06
we should do this.
00:11:38.09\00:11:39.43
And when you're in Africa,
there's plenty of opportunity
00:11:39.46\00:11:43.77
to be a blessing
to somebody else,
00:11:43.80\00:11:45.57
you can always do something.
00:11:45.60\00:11:48.24
You know, when someone
gives to sponsor a child,
00:11:48.27\00:11:52.04
that child gets an opportunity,
and we always talk about,
00:11:52.07\00:11:55.08
well, you know, your
kids, hey, your kids can,
00:11:55.11\00:11:57.08
anything they can
dream of they can be,
00:11:57.11\00:11:58.51
and we'll use
these kind of things.
00:11:58.55\00:12:01.12
It's a lie in Africa.
00:12:01.15\00:12:02.48
You know, often
times kids have no chance
00:12:02.52\00:12:04.32
and their future
looks very monochromatic.
00:12:04.35\00:12:08.22
You know, it's one, one
thing they're going to do,
00:12:08.26\00:12:09.89
they're going to
be a sheep herder.
00:12:09.92\00:12:11.26
They're going to
be a goat herder.
00:12:11.29\00:12:12.63
They're going to
be a cattle herder.
00:12:12.66\00:12:14.00
Or they're going
to burn charcoal,
00:12:14.03\00:12:15.36
or they're going to die.
00:12:15.40\00:12:16.73
And when you give
kids an education,
00:12:16.77\00:12:18.73
you've changed her life,
00:12:18.77\00:12:20.10
everything becomes possible,
00:12:20.14\00:12:21.47
they actually
have that opportunity
00:12:21.50\00:12:23.41
to change the world.
00:12:23.44\00:12:24.77
And you see some of them doing
00:12:24.81\00:12:26.14
and it's really cool.
00:12:26.17\00:12:27.51
So that's really what happens
00:12:27.54\00:12:29.38
when you sponsor a
child is they have a chance
00:12:29.41\00:12:32.55
when they would
otherwise had none.
00:12:32.58\00:12:33.92
We really appreciate
that Craig and Pauline
00:12:37.45\00:12:40.29
made themselves
available for our TV program.
00:12:40.32\00:12:44.23
You can see the
confidence they have,
00:12:44.26\00:12:47.83
you can see the
passion that they have.
00:12:47.86\00:12:50.43
And for us to have
them on the ground,
00:12:50.47\00:12:52.93
involved in our program
is very, very important.
00:12:52.97\00:12:57.87
And I just want to thank
Riverside Farms management.
00:12:57.91\00:13:02.24
I want to thank Craig,
00:13:02.28\00:13:03.61
I want to thank
Pauline and Alan,
00:13:03.65\00:13:05.85
for what they've done
in getting us established
00:13:05.88\00:13:09.22
on the ground in Zambia,
00:13:09.25\00:13:11.19
and our partnership
with Riverside Farms.
00:13:11.22\00:13:14.62
So there's a number of ways
that you can help us in Zambia.
00:13:14.66\00:13:18.69
First of all, obviously,
you can sponsor a child.
00:13:18.73\00:13:21.76
And for just $25 a month
00:13:21.80\00:13:24.23
you'll be
sponsoring a day student.
00:13:24.27\00:13:26.63
They come from a nearby village,
00:13:26.67\00:13:29.00
and we give them a
lunch every day, a uniform,
00:13:29.04\00:13:33.78
we supply shoes, and
they get a total education.
00:13:33.81\00:13:38.35
So for just $25 a
month, you can sponsor a child.
00:13:38.38\00:13:43.18
You may just want to
sponsor a child for a year.
00:13:43.22\00:13:46.05
And so you may want to send us
12 months sponsorship at once,
00:13:46.09\00:13:50.66
and we're very,
very happy with that.
00:13:50.69\00:13:53.09
But if you don't
want to sponsor a child,
00:13:53.13\00:13:55.36
we understand that
00:13:55.40\00:13:56.87
and so you could send a donation
00:13:56.90\00:13:59.40
to our unsponsored child fund
00:13:59.43\00:14:02.34
because we always have
children that are unsponsored,
00:14:02.37\00:14:06.27
or simply give us your prayers,
00:14:06.31\00:14:08.48
so that we can move
forward and make a difference.
00:14:08.51\00:14:11.51