Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, June 29, 1994 TAG: 9406290117
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By MELISSA CURTIS STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
But a church in Roanoke is doing what it can to help. It's sending seven healthy bodies across the ocean to join in the villagers' struggle to save their lives.
``It's a harsh and brutal existence right now,'' said the Rev. Thomas O'Dell, rector of St. John's Episcopal Church in Roanoke. ``It's a terrible reality.''
O'Dell and six other men and women from St. John's began their journey to Africa on Tuesday after a morning service was held to say goodbye to the group, who will be living and working alongside the villagers of Binaba until July 26.
Binaba, an isolated village in the African bush, is suffering from the ``Sahel effect'' - the encroachment of the Sahara desert at a rate of five miles a year. Reforestation is crucial if villagers are to ward off desert conditions, preserve topsoil and produce food to feed their families.
The members of St. John's will be helping the Binaban people in a project to plant 14 species of trees and to build an electric fence to protect the young trees from hungry animals.
``The people have lost the ability to raise enough food to sustain themselves,'' said Jeanie Darby, one of four women making the trip. Darby said the trees will act as a barrier against the desert, as well as provide shade, fruit, nuts and firewood.
The 3-year-old program was developed and is run by the Rev. Joseph Anyindana and his parish of St. James in Binaba, not by St. John's in Roanoke.
``It won't be seven white Americans telling [Anyindana] how to run his life,'' Darby said. ``It will be seven people saying, `Let us help you.'''
Anyindana, affectionately known as ``Father Joe,'' met O'Dell six years ago while O'Dell was on another mission in Ghana. O'Dell said he was struck by the energy, effectiveness and creativity of the congregation of St. James, which he said has programs that are ``helping the people help themselves.''
Anyindana traveled from Africa to Roanoke in February for two months. The Roanoke congregation fell in love with him and wanted to help Binaba by joining the villagers in their life-and-death struggle against the encroaching desert.
``Father Joe is an incredible man. He is small, but so strong, considering the hardships he's had to endure,'' said Bill Dandridge, a 24-year-old church member on the Ghana trip. ``Meeting him was inspirational; he gave me more of an incentive'' to go.
The Roanoke missionaries, who range in age from 16 to 60, also will be bringing supplies for the people of Binaba, including medicine, books, batteries, glasses and scissors.
``I walked around my house trying to decide which things have really made a difference in my life,'' Darby said. ``And a good pair of scissors is one of them.''
But the Roanoke group won't be doing all the giving. O'Dell calls the program a ``partnership.''
``It will be a mutual sharing of gifts ... They have a great deal to teach us,'' he said.
The group members, who paid their own travel expenses, have been preparing for the trip for months by researching the area, cooking meals similar to those they will be eating in Ghana and becoming fully aware of the difficulties and dangers they face.
O'Dell said it is very difficult to prepare a group for the hardships they will see in Binaba. He said before his first trip to Ghana, he thought he was ready.
``I thought I was prepared to see what I was going to see, but it was on an intellectual level, not an emotional one,'' O'Dell said. ``I've held dying babies in my arms in the last stages of starvation. There is no way to be ready.''
by CNB