Hello All,
I am getting ready to hit the road for the first time in 2025. I will be heading to Nepal in March and then Burundi in April. You will receive emails from me while I am in the field, but I wanted to send out an update now so that you would know what to be thinking and praying about while I’m away.
Before I get to the projects themselves, let me just say a word of thanks to each and every one of you who donated to, prayed for, went on a trip with, or spread the word about GCA in 2024. We had a banner year. This came as a total surprise to me as I had been told by numerous fundraising professionals that between the chaos and uncertainty of the election and the sputtering economy, giving to nonprofits would be down in 2024, and down substantially. Not only did this prediction turn out not to be true for GCA, but we were up roughly 25% from our next highest grossing year since our inception in 2017. Thank you for making this possible and thank you on behalf of all the people we help.
With much love and appreciation for all you do.
Niles Sharif, President
🇲🇽 MEXICO
Our community center was closed by the Mexican government at the inception of Covid. For four years, we loaned our facility to Eternal Anchor, a school for children with special needs. They moved out last summer and after doing some surveying in the community, we decided to convert the community center to a wellness center to help serve people with chronic illnesses that can be effectively treated (in many cases) without medication. These are conditions such as diabetes, hypertension, obesity, and certain mental health conditions as well. We are in the process of modifying the building to the new use and hope to open the Wellness Center this spring or summer.
Our clinic is going gangbusters. Last year we treated over 13,000 patients. Most of our patients come in because of colds and flu, hypertension, diabetes, high cholesterol, industrial injuries, accidental poisonings, and problems related to nutritional deficiencies. We are very excited that many of our patients will now be able to continue their treatment at the Wellness Center reducing their dependence on medications.
Frances Kitchen, the project that started it all, is now in its 25th year of operation, the 18th since we constructed the “new” kitchen for Frances Sifuentes in Colonet. Although Frances has been retired for some years now, the kitchen has never stopped operating and is now under the leadership of Frances’ daughter and Frances’ helpers.
🇧🇮 BURUNDI
I have a special place in my heart for Burundi. It is both the easiest place I work and the hardest. It is the easiest because of the fabulous partners I have there, but it is the hardest because it is a troubled place filled with sadness and terrible living conditions for the Burundian people. Civil war is always simmering and famine is always around the corner.
Our main project in Burundi is working with our adopted villages of Gahararo and Ruganirwa. (In my mind, they are really one village, so when I refer to Gahararo, I’m referring to both. They are adjacent and share territory and resources, such as our water project.) Our porridge, school uniforms and supplies, housing, water, and solar lighting projects are very successful.
As most of you know, we had high hopes for several development projects in Gahararo in 2025, but all those had to be temporarily scrapped in favor of food relief for the 127 families in the villages. We made the shift in September when my partners and I realized that famine had struck the villages and that outright starvation was mere months away if we did not take immediate action. We decided we would need to satisfy the total food requirement of every person in Gahararo (approximately 850 people) for a 3-month period in order to stave off starvation before reassessing. We just completed our third monthly food distribution and are in the process of reassessing whether we can go back to our previously planned development projects, or whether we need to continue supplying food and keep the development projects temporarily in abeyance.
I am heading to Burundi in April and will be participating in the assessment. Of course, I will report to you from the field, but I fear the worst. Inflation in Burundi is out of control and the fuel shortage remains unimaginable. (Think gas lines that are 2–3 WEEKS long!). Plus, there is an exploding proxy war in neighboring Congo pitting Congo against Congolese rebels funded by Rwanda and intermixed with Rwandan troops disguised as Congolese rebels.
(As an aside, know that Rwanda has a hold on Central Africa. Everyone knows this except the western powers who need the rare earth minerals that come mainly from Congo as controlled by Rwanda. By many estimates, more than 15,000,000 have died in Congo since 2000 as a result of Rwanda’s domination of the mineral trade in Congo. Few know this except the courageous journalists who have risked their lives to research and document the atrocities Rwanda has committed in the region.)
Anyway, the war exploding in Congo in real time threatens to spill over into Burundi, complicating the hunger and security situations substantially.
Still, GCA is not going to abandon our friends and loved ones in Burundi even if things get darker there. At this point, I still plan on going in April.
The brightest spots in our work in Burundi right now are our projects in the slums of Bujumbura, Burundi’s largest city, and in the southern city of Mutambara.
In the slum of Musama, we have a community center that serves approximately 300 vulnerable children who live in unimaginable poverty and hopelessness. We call our center the “Renewal Center.” (Pictured above.) Renewal is a place where the children can come to study, socialize, eat if they’re hungry, play sports, and learn about Jesus. When the children are at Renewal, they are not begging, they are not being forced into prostitution, they are not being abused at home, and they have smiles on their faces. In short, they are happy and productive.
In March, we will open a second Renewal Center in a slum called Busoro. As I write, our partner, Victor Kwizera, is putting the finishing touches on the Renewal Center in Busoro. Praise God!
Our newest project in Burundi is in the southern city of Mutambara. There we are working with women empowerment groups on a rabbit project which we started in June of last year with 45 rabbits. The project got off to a slow start, but I am pleased to report that it is now in full swing. We now have 90 rabbits and most of the females are expecting babies. With the help of professionals, the women are now cultivating the rabbit’s droppings and urine and selling them to help sustain the project. Again, I will give you reports from the field when I am in Mutambara in April.
🇳🇵 NEPAL
I am heading to Nepal on March 4. Nepal is another success story, although the going has been tougher there due to cultural barriers. The goat project in Kaule is finally on track to see substantial success in 2025 and we will be starting a smaller goat project in March. Again, expect reports from the field.
I will also be meeting with the ladies from the Indian Village in Kathmandu. These are the “untouchable” Indian refugees I had the God-encounter with last year and was able to help them with some relief supplies. I have been communicating with them and trying to help them understand the difference between charity projects and development, explaining that GCA prefers to do development projects where possible. It has been hard to have them obtain that understanding, primarily because as untouchables, they have spent their entire lives begging and depending on charity.
I will be spending time with them, working with them face-to-face trying to get them on board with the distinction. If I can, I believe they will be strong partners in development. If I can’t, we may have to move along without advancing a partnership. We will see what God has in mind.
🇱🇧 LEBANON
Many of you know that for several years we worked with Syrian refugees in Lebanon under the guidance of Pastor Mohammed Yamout in Tyre, the birthplace of Hezbollah. He visited us here in La Mesa and I visited him in Tyre several times. He was a fearless warrior against Hezbollah and died in 2022 under suspicious circumstances. My last trip to Lebanon was in 2021, a few weeks after the massive blast at the Port of Beirut that leveled large swaths of the city.
Even though Pastor Yamout is gone, and even though there is turmoil in Lebanon right now, I am considering a trip there later in the spring to check on some of the missionaries who worked under Yamout and some of the Syrian refugees that we helped on the several trips I made there between 2017 and 2021. Nothing formal is planned, but I feel God calling GCA to help the internally displaced people who are without help, without hope, and without God’s love. Stay tuned for more updates.
Stay Connected
• Website
Global Care Alliance
3755 Avocado Blvd
No 439, La Mesa, CA 91941
Comments are closed