ÿþ<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"> <html lang="en"> <head> <!--Serif PagePlus 9 HTML Export--> <!--Supports HTML 4.0--> <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1"> <title>Outreach House Witherslack - ReachOut2Congo</title> <style type="text/css"> <!-- body,td,th { font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size : 10px; color : #000000; } img { position:relative; left:12px; top:0px; } --> </style> <script type="text/javascript"> function goSetHealAfricaHeight() { if (parent == window) return; else parent.setHealAfricaIframeHeight('healafricaframe'); } </script> </head> <body onload="goSetHealAfricaHeight()" style="height:100%; background-color:#d1d7cd;" link="#0000ff" vlink="#800080" text="#000000"> <div style="height:866px;"> <table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="font-size:14pt; width: 100%; height: 100%; background-color:#d1d7cd;"> <tr> <td style="padding: 10px 10px 10px 10px; width:100%; vertical-align: top; height: 100%;"> <p style="font-weight:bold; font-family: Felix Titling; font-size: 9pt;" align="center">ReachOut2Congo</p> <p>In March - April 2010 we are privileged to be going to Eastern D.R Congo to help an organisation called HEAL Africa who are based in a town on the Congo-Rwanda boarder.</p> <p>The International Rescue Committee has described D.R. Congo as:  The worst humanitarian disaster since World War II . The region is characterised by extreme violence, mass population displacement, the collapse of public health services and rape is a weapon of terror. HEAL Africa are doing an incredible job healing those who have suffered so much in conflicts and natural disasters.</p> <p>HEAL Africa is distinctive from many other charities: it's a small, grass-roots organisation that has low administrative overheads because it is led by locally-based programme directors. Congolese staff focus on treating people holistically by training and equipping new leaders for the long-term, rather than just solving short-term needs.</p> <p>Lives which are broken are, quite literally, put back together again: physically, emotionally and spiritually. The local community is involved in helping itself: a vital step towards building communities without violence.</p> <p><b>We re going to offer any help we can.</b></p> <p>The Congolese team will find ways to use our different skills to encourage and support their staff so that the work we do has ongoing value rather than just a  one-off event. <a href="http://www.worldshare.org.uk" target="_blank" id="a3">Worldshare</a> are a British charity with great integrity who have been supporting HEAL Africa for many years. We re thrilled to be working in conjunction with them.</p> <p>Some of what we do will be with adults, some with children. It may mean many things:<br> Caring for, training & encouraging staff who pour out so much for others.<br> Teaching English, doing creative arts, helping with food and hygiene initiatives in the refugee camp so that people can go back to their own village communities.<br> Coming alongside displaced children and helping them learn how to play & really  be the children they are.<br> Doing football training with a whole range of children from those in the refugee camp to abandoned children to those in the hospital long-term. </p> <p><i>"HEAL Africa are truly amazing. Nothing we can say can be big enough. Just look at their website."<br><br> <a href="http://www.healafrica.org" target="_blank" id="a3"><img border="0" src="healafrica_logo.jpg"></img></a></i></p> <img class="team" title="The Team going to Goma" src="gomateam.jpg" alt="gomateam.jpg" align="left" style="width:264px; height:145px;"> </td> </tr> <tr><td style="height: 100%;">&nbsp;</td></tr> </table> </div> </body> </html>