Cyrus Mafi – Impact A Life

Shauna’s Trip Log – January 4, 2019

Cyrus Mafi — Fri, 04 Jan 2019 18:08:37 +0000

So much has been happening in Sierra Leone, it’s exciting to be here to see what God is doing on the ground. I know sometimes it’s hard to really connect with our mission, before you’ve been here to see it in person, so for that reason, I’m trying my best to post updates and videos of my time here (find updates here: www.instagram.com/impactalifeorg).

In Sierra Leone, transportation can be a bit tricky. My mom asked me what I would do in the event that Roland didn’t show up at the airport to get me, and I thought, well…he’s always there, and if he’s not, he will eventually get there to pick me up… On second thought, I came up with an alternate plan. My plan was this: I would head out from the airport with Cindy and her son Matthew, from the Schools For Salone non-profit and I would stay with them for the night in Freetown. They were on my flights all the way from Seattle, so we buddied up and heading to Freetown with them via water taxi seemed a good plan. So plans in place for the what if’s, what do you know….Roland wasn’t there when I landed! On his way to the airport, the vehicle Roland had hired died along the road (the cars here to SO beat up, it’s amazing many of them work at all). Roland had abandon the car and driver he had hired and found a taxi to get to the airport from there, so he was in fact delayed. Cyrus was on it (we have such an awesome team!), he had been in communication with Roland and I had a text waiting for me when my flight landed. So I said goodbye to Cindy and Matthew, and waited. When Roland arrived, we loaded up my things into the taxi and as we drove away, the driver told Roland the price increased (due to him seeing me and my bright white skin). This is not uncommon here, for prices to be higher for the stand-out white foreigner. So, displeased with the price, Roland instructed the driver to pull over at a gas station so we could find a new driver. We stood around for a while and Roland went out seeking a new car/driver that wouldn’t over-charge us for the ride to Makeni (which is about 3 hours from the airport by car).

We arrived to Makambo Village Resort sometime past midnight. I was ready for bed and I was so pleased that my room was seemingly cleaner and less bug infested than has happened in the past. I slept soundly.

In the morning, Roland arrived at Makambo with a surprise for me – a brand spanking new motorcycle! Okay, so I knew this was happening, I even brought my helmet with me – but I hadn’t yet seen the bike as he was saving the details as a surprise! Like I said, transportation is difficult here if you don’t own your own car, and for smaller trips where it’s just one, two, or three of us traveling here together, having a motorcycle available to use will make things SO much more affordable! The cost of the motorcycle here with licensing and everything was $1600 – which is basically the cost of hiring a car/driver/gas for two trips here. This will greatly reduce our on the ground costs and will also help our local team here as there is always a need for transportation to the village from Makeni (where some of our employees live).

From the hotel, we headed out to Mankneh Village, to take inventory of our Revive Africa Christian School students. Roland had the hard part of this, gathering all of the parents names, dates of birth, and correcting the names of the children we’d previously recorded. I took pictures of each student, and will be updating our website with new pictures of students and adding all of the new students to our list.

For child sponsorship, we do not match donors up with students – rather, we have a general pool of funds needed per student at our school, and so at $30/student, we know how to budget and support our school the best we can. Also, several of our students moved away this past year, so an added benefit to not directly connecting student to donor, we don’t have to deal with the sadness of telling donors that, “Sorry, the sweet child you were sponsoring has moved”. The funds are needed regardless, as all of the children are equally important to us. Also, our donor pool is very very small, so it would be quite sad to connect just a few children with sponsors when they all deserve our love and support. We’ve established this as the most functional way of managing the funds needed to operate the school. Also of note, our entire team in the USA is volunteer based, so anything to help simplify our processes, the better. Our goal is to impact lives in Sierra Leone, not getting too nitty gritty with the details of child sponsorship is a way we can maximize our time and efforts here – and at home. If you would like to donate to our child sponsorship program, thus supporting the school directly, you can do so here: https://impactalife.org/child-sponsorship

Okay, anyway…after we took photos of the children and updated their records (this took several hours), we headed to Mamaso Village – which is a new village we are partnering with. The village is several miles from Mankneh, I should have recorded the mileage, but it was quite far. Mamaso has a female Chief and though she is Muslim, she has allowed ILF to partner with them. The Mission Church, in Renton, is helping to sponsor the building of a church building there, and the people in the village are so excited to soon have a church building to worship in.

Roland said some things to the community, told them about ILF and talked about respecting women. Since their Chief is a woman, he wanted to stress that men are to respect the women, and to not slap them, and to treat them well – and that ILF cares about how they are treating women. It’s generally a problem here, women not being treated equally or fairly – and from what I’ve heard, there have been struggles in Mamaso in the past – because the chief is female, not everyone has given her the proper respect. This is why Roland gave the speech – respect women, including me, a representative from ILF, and including their very own chief. Everyone cheered at the end and they were very welcoming to me.

Mamaso does not have a schoool, nor do most of the kids there go to school as the closest one is very far away. There is a foot bridge that crosses over a river and connects Mamaso to a village near Mankneh where the children could then walk to Revive. We are encouraging the people of Mamaso to send their children to Mankneh to attend Revive Africa Christian School for the time being, but it is a long walk through the bush and over a river, so not everyone is on board. Their dream is to have a school in the village, but for now, sending their children to Mankneh is the best option.

After visiting Mamaso, we headed into town on a quest to find some vegetables for me to eat… quite a hard task! I did find a canned mixed vegetable option, but that’s about it. Everything we eat here has to be cooked, as the water contains a lot of microbes and things us foreigners are not used to. When we visit, we usually end up bringing a lot of our own snacks to sustain us. For brushing teeth, we used bottled water – sometimes that’s a hard one to remember as habits to turn on the water and rinse the toothbrush are so common.

That’s it for today’s report! Thank you for following along on the journey and we so appreciate your support!

Stay tuned for more updates over the weekend!

-Shauna

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Merry Christmas 2018

Cyrus Mafi — Tue, 25 Dec 2018 22:04:42 +0000

From our heart to yours, we wish to take a moment to thank you all for your support, encouragement, prayers, and most importantly for your generosity in 2018.

Together, in faith, we have made a real difference, reaching the hearts of many.

With your support, we accomplished quite a few things for a remote village in Sierra Leone, including but not limited to:

• Children in Mankneh Village no longer go to bed hungry
• The families in Mankneh have a school and a church to call their own
• Mankneh now has a source of clean water
• We established a community hygiene program with a dedicated nurse on staff who tends to the whole village
• The villagers launched a sustainable farming program that produced over 25,000 pounds of rice in the last harvest (October 2018)
• ILF has sent over 100 men, women, & children to the local hospital to have lifesaving hernia repair surgeries
• And evermore important, we were blessed to witness close to 400 salvations over the past two years.

Thank you for being the true gift of Christmas to us and in this season of hope, may God bring happiness, success and bliss in your life, filling it with abundance of smiles and joyful laughter.

Planting Roots in Sierra Leone

Cyrus Mafi — Thu, 15 Nov 2018 19:38:46 +0000

Our board members are deeply tuned to the belief that we work to empower leaders in their own communities. When we travel to Sierra Leone (SL), we are focused on leadership development with our local team in Mankneh. Our trips consist of visiting the community, observing the programs, identifying challenges, training our leaders, and helping our team there work through issues and make future plans.

There are always issues. That’s quite a bold statement, but the truth of the matter is that when working in a country with such a high rate of poverty, such as Sierra Leone, people want more. We are working with our SL team to help change expectations. Impact a Life Foundation (ILF) is not there to give them things. We are there to help them understand that they matter. That without them putting in the effort, none of this would sustain. Oftentimes, non-governmental organizations (NGO) come and go, wells are installed and forgotten about – which means the wells are not maintained and they break down. What was once considered amazing, life changing work of providing clean water to a community ends up being only a temporary fix. If the communities themselves don’t have the education needed to maintain and sustain the gifts given to them, how will they grow? This is a problem we are trying to address in Sierra Leone. We have to educate. Without a focus on educating a community and empowering people to become leaders, systems break. Motivation is lost. Nothing gets done. In Mankneh, we’ve seen a poor, starving, sick community grow into a more stable, healthy, and plentiful community. We’ve set projects in motion, by way of our leadership there, and now the community is coming together as a think tank and leading new efforts to improve their village. Here’s a recent example of how our efforts are translating on the ground in Sierra Leone through the Sustainable Farming Program. ILF gave rice seeds to families who were willing to participate in our sustainable farming program and we hired a native farmer to train the villagers how to farm effectively. We gave each family a plot of land to farm with an expectation that they would give a percent of their harvest back to our program. They took the seed, and went out and farmed the land. The harvest was plentiful! The rice they provided back to ILF was used to feed the families of our elementary students at Revive Africa Christian School.

After two seasons of harvesting rice, the community came together and decided that they would plant an orchard consisting of the following:

Cashews
Avocado
Mangoes
Pawpaw
Pineapples
Cassava
Sweet Potatoes
Pears

The community members went around and collected seeds and starts, planted them, and even built a fence around the plant nursery which they set up right by the water well so they could keep the seeds and plants watered and nurture their growth. When the plants are big enough, they will transfer them to land they have set aside for their orchard. This project was completely the idea of the community members, and they implemented the whole thing. Not once did they come to us asking for money to build a fence, or money to buy some seeds or other supplies. They experienced the benefit of their work through the rice harvest, and they took it upon themselves to expand their work.

In a culture where foreigners and NGO’s are looked at as an easy source of money, we’re working to break barriers and change the expectations of the people. We wholeheartedly believe that this mode of operation, empowering the people, is the way to promote change and help communities rise out of poverty.

Our beloved friends in Sierra Leone are growing, they are taking control of their future, to be the change they want to see. They are so proud of their work. And we are SO proud of them. What a testimony to all God is doing through this ministry!

Hygiene Training in Sierra Leone

Cyrus Mafi — Thu, 02 Aug 2018 19:46:01 +0000

It’s important to understand the audience when bringing training into a remote village in Sierra Leone. My insecurities surrounding the fact that I’m 1) not a nurse and 2) don’t have the ‘proper’ education to teach others about hygiene were quickly squashed as soon as I visited the village and realized just how basic the training would need to be.

In the village, simple things, like hand washing, are not such simple concepts.

Germs are an unknown. Often times witchcraft and curses are blamed for illness. Once an illness sets in, often the witch doctor gets paid a visit where he hands out charms to worship, pray to, and ask for healing from. The work we do is both to educate the community about the very basics of hygiene, but also we have to work to break down the belief that illness and death come from someone casting a spell.

Before a trip to Sierra Leone, I work to develop a curriculum, something to cover 2-3 days of training in the village. The training is both for the children, and for the adults. The training is simple, and important. On our last trip to Mankneh we brought glitter and showed everyone how quickly ‘germs’ (the glitter) spread from person to person. This visual was both fun, and impactful. We also taught the community a hand washing song and had several people try to wash off their glitter in a bucket of water…where they could see that not all the ‘germs’ left their hands. They saw that after a dip in the bucket the germs were then floating on top of the water, easily attaching to the next person to stick their hands in the water. The next part of this demonstration was to have them use soap and rinse under the flowing water at the well. Everyone was amazed at how quickly they were able to remove the glitter from their hands when they used soap and running water. The concept of germs and the importance of hand washing was a big theme for the week.

A big fear about coming into a village, teaching them new concepts, and then flying home, is the fear that they will not retain what we’ve taught and that they will soon go about their day the same way they always have…forgetting about germs, forgetting about the importance of drinking clean water, and staying in the patterns they’ve lived in for generations. Change is so hard.

A benefit of how Impact A Life works overseas, is that we empower the local leaders and we trust them to lead their communities. Their job is to promote the curriculum we’ve brought and to set an example of good hygiene for others to follow.

Through the years that Impact A Life has worked in Sierra Leone, we’ve seen the number of illnesses decrease in the village. We’ve seen healthier men, women, and children. We’ve witnessed the community members taking action, making changes, and bettering their community together.

Our work is certainly not done, but with your help, we are making a huge IMPACT in Africa! Please keep the people in Mankneh Village in your prayers!

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If you’d like to support Impact A Life financially, we would be so blessed.

Humble Beginnings in Sierra Leone (written by: Cyrus Mafi)

Cyrus Mafi — Fri, 09 Feb 2018 18:46:22 +0000

It was January 2016. I was preparing for my trip to Sierra Leone West Africa. I had already played out in mind what my experience should look like… Two weeks later, after I returned home to Seattle reflecting on the past few days, I had to throw away all my expectations, presumptions and views as an outsider. I had to start from scratch and let my soul paint a true picture…

My missionary friends and I were set to visit a much talked about West Africa (more accurately Sierra Leone). A dream come true on my bucket list and a privilege. I expected it would be different than India, Pakistan, Nepal, Thailand, or Mexico. The face of poverty is never the same. Although the needs may be common, the cultural history and spiritual aspects dominating personal aspirations will always paint a different picture unique to the region. Africa was no exception.

A resource-rich continent, plagued with poverty, illiteracy, and epidemic disease… all which was true, but what was humbling to witness was their pride, generosity, contentment, and above all a thirst for spiritual quench. The clouds above our heads, the farms plowed along the less traveled roads, and a land so endowed with natural minerals; Africa is unique. It is happy and hospitable, blessed with a diverse culture. From their reserves of diamonds, platinum and gold to coal and crude oil, they have the means to rise from the ashes of the phoenix. But corruption, greed and lawlessness has robbed this rich land from its resources. However difficult or sad it may seem, Africa shamelessly bears one another’s cross. (And at times the rest of the world). Africa’s painful past and rich history has taught them that the scorching sun only tans and beautifies their black skin. The backs of their forefathers’ didn’t suffer from the whiplash of slavery for nothing. What you see is a love that conquers the hatred, famine, genocide, and diseases.Africa’s dream is contained, they want to feed, clothe, and brighten the future of the younger generation. Don’t we all? Muslims and Christians worship God under the same roof and in hard to reach villages donate land to build churches. Their worship and intimate relationship with God is genuinely pure, naked and bold, all at the same time. When they pray, they pray their hearts out and when they surrender, they are bravely all in. I was privileged to participate in a baptism Ceremony of 17 Muslims in a river near Makeni in Sierra Leone. I get goosebumps as I write about it.5 months later in July 2016, Revive Africa Christian schools took shape In Mankneh Sierra Leone.

It was an unusually warm June afternoon in Seattle. I met with my dear friend and spiritual mentor Pastor Dan over coffee. He had shared with me the lifelong and passionate dream of starting a free Christian school for the less privileged. My goal, however more global, was a bit simpler and more contained. Building a small mud/thatch home for village families, maybe provide them with drinking water, food and hygiene capabilities as we go along. A similar philosophy to Impact a Life projects in India and Nepal.

But God had his own plan. He always does… Starting a Christian school for up to 100 students! A school that could also work as a medical clinic, community center and a church all at the same time.

It is one thing to give-in the Lord’s will, but how could only two guys (with limited financial resources) conduct a project of this magnitude from thousands mile away? Well, let me introduce Dr. Roland Turay (read Dr. Turay’s biography here).

Pastor Dan and I met Dr. Turay during our visit in Sierra Leone back in January. A visionary man who had a heartbeat for his countrymen. We met during one of my Sunrise Photography journeys in SL (see the Souls… Lost and Found) at his community retreat “Roland’s beach”. Only after one meeting, we were convinced that Roland would be the perfect boot on the ground to spearhead the Revive Africa project.

Only a few months later, not only Pastor Dan, Dr. Turay and yours truly, but also many others (some doubtful of the success of this project) are amazed at how God has brought so many resources together to bless the children of heaven in one village (Mankneh, Sierra Leone, West Africa).

Something is telling me that this is just the beginning!

Help us provide 100 hernia surgeries on this #GivingTuesday

Cyrus Mafi — Tue, 28 Nov 2017 16:00:42 +0000

Please consider making a donation to Impact-A-Life…

The Village Chief

Cyrus Mafi — Fri, 22 Sep 2017 16:00:39 +0000

Impact A Life: Sierra Leone, Africa – The Village Chief
Written by: Dan Edmondson – Director of Ministry for ILF

“This guy is a Muslim Chief but he is warm towards Jesus; in fact he has allowed ILF/REVIVE to establish a Christian school in his village. “His people” are coming to Jesus like crazy and he is ok with that. On our last trip he told us that the God we serve is a God of action! Pray for the Chief to be blessed and please pray that we can come up with the $700 needed to buy uniforms for all the children of REVIVE Christian School!”

On October 19th a team of volunteers will be heading back to Sierra Leone, Africa. Leading up to the trip, our volunteers will be guest posting here each day.

We can truly use any help, small or big as Impact A Life Foundation volunteers pay for their own trip expenses. If you would like to donate towards the ILF projects in Africa, know that 100% of your funds will be used solely for the project, and your every dollar helps to change lives.

Contribute to the project here: https://www.aplos.com/aws/give/ImpactALifeFoundation/general

Hernia Epidemic in Sierra Leone

Cyrus Mafi — Thu, 21 Sep 2017 16:00:33 +0000

Impact A Life: Sierra Leone, Africa – Hernia Epidemic
Written by: Cyrus Mafi

Sierra Leone does not have serious Ebola cases anymore. But another disease that seemingly has impacted more communities “Hernia”. I could not believe it myself when Roland shared with me last year that Hernia kills people more than any other sickness in Sierra Leone today. The reason many people are affected by this disease, and in some cases killed by it, is mainly the lack of mechanical transportation. Almost everything carried by the local villagers, is on their head, back, shoulders, etc. They must walk miles to carry items to or from the village. When someone collapses of Hernia the person is either taken by a motor bike or carried in a hammock to the main road. Only to wait several days (due to subpar road conditions) for an ambulance to transport them to the nearest center. “In the process, some patients cannot survive the pain and subsequently die.” Absence of drinking water, malnutrition, and harsh working conditions in African heat is another contributor to Hernia.

Impact A Life Foundation is among the few organizations in Sierra Leone that has recognized this problem and through the Revive Africa Christian projects, is identifying the affected individuals (currently in Mankneh village near Makeni) and providing the medical attention needed to combat this curable but unspoken epidemic. Though we are not rich with big donors, we do what we can to make a difference in God’s kingdom by serving the less privileged.

On October 19th a team of volunteers will be heading back to Sierra Leone, Africa. Leading up to the trip, our volunteers will be guest posting here each day.

Contribute to the project here: www.impactalife.org/donate

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Stay tuned, more to come – tomorrow!
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Transportation in Sierra Leone

Cyrus Mafi — Wed, 20 Sep 2017 20:22:37 +0000

On October 19th a team of volunteers will be heading back to Sierra Leone, Africa. Leading up to the trip, our volunteers will be guest posting here each day.

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Impact A Life: Sierra Leone, Africa – Transportation
Written by: Shauna Myron
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The way of transportation in Sierra Leone is impressive, scary, and jaw dropping. On the highway, it’s not unusual to see huge loads strapped on cars and vans. Often, there are people hanging off the vehicle, or sitting on top of a huge load on top of the vehicle.

In town, the main mode of transportation is by motorcycle. If you need to get from point A to point B, all you need to do is stand on the roadside and holler out, “bike bike!” Motorcycle taxis will come to your rescue!

The main highway into town is paved, but the surrounding roads are not. The roads are rough, and not something I would ever consider riding a normal motorcycle on (Dirtbike? Yes. Streetbike? NO!). When I get on the back of a bike, I feel like I’m handing my life over to that driver, and I thank God that the drivers are familiar with the road conditions and experienced with their unique traffic. I choose not to watch the roadbecause it’s crazy, and I’m at the mercy of my driver, so I try to enjoy the scenery while en route. There’s a lot of honking as they go – they zig and zag and honk and honk…

Our team is very fortunate to have Roland Turay driving us around in a 4×4 when we are visiting, so we don’t typically need to hitch rides on bikes. Roland is a very cautious driver, and we are so thankful for his many talents (which reach far beyond driving skills)!

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Stay tuned, more to come – tomorrow!
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** Impact A Life Foundation volunteers pay for their own trip expenses. If you would like to donate towards the ILF project in Africa, know that 100% of your funds will be used solely for the project, and your every dollar helps to change lives. To donate, go here:www.impactalife.org/donate **

Helping bear the cross of others

Cyrus Mafi — Wed, 05 Jul 2017 15:42:36 +0000

As long as most of us can remember, the Christian concept of bearing our personal loads and sufferings—“carrying the cross”—has been endemic in our way of thinking and in how we conduct our lives, weaving its own tapestry of Christ-like attitude and example to help us shoulder the burdens of everyday life. The phrase issues a challenge to personally soldier on in a quiet but strong belief that produces its own method of resolve and self-accountability, not only as a result of our own actions but also in finding acceptance for the inexplicable things that happen to all of us that we can’t control.

But while enduring personal trials is indeed a daunting and formidable task for all, today bearing one’s own cross is simply not enough. Starvation and political upheaval are uprooting hundreds of thousands of sufferers around the globe. In addition, resource-rich countries that lack the means to help themselves, like so many in Africa, are plagued with poverty, illiteracy, and epidemic diseases. Their plight summons people of faith everywhere with unprecedented urgency to push beyond the struggles of their own personal lives and extend a helping hand to those in need, just as Simon of Cyrene was compelled to do in aiding Christ to shoulder the Cross on the way to the Mount of Calvary.

That’s why the Impact a Life Foundation was created: To help bear the cross of others. Our holistic approach attends to both the humanitarian as well as spiritual needs of less privileged communities. Currently, we have focused our efforts on three specific geographic areas of dire need: Sierra Leone (West Africa), Basouli (India), and Katmandu (Nepal). We believe that the hand of God touches those in need through the hands of others more fortunate. That’s you and me. And together we can make an impact. Did you know that a modest $50 donation can provide a year’s worth of books and school supplies for a child?

ABC World News Tonight with David Muir, recently reporting on the famine devastation in four African nations, said that aids working there called it “the greatest humanitarian crisis since World War II.” That is a staggering assessment. One that can only change with a change of heart—by others, like ourselves.

Join us in helping to ease the weighty cross that these afflicted people carry on weary shoulders. Visit our website at impactalife.org to see how you can make an impact. Show your heart! Let God’s work shine through you.