Current Projects
Servant Forge identifies projects that can contribute to individual and community transformation and promote the health and safety of a community's citizens. These projects focus on developing leaders that will embrace service as a lifestyle and utilize service principles to build capacity in organizations responding to poverty, disease, violence and substance abuse.
Below are examples of projects that Servant Forge Fellows provide facilitation, training, policy analysis and consultation and that reflect the service oriented model being developed by Servant Forge.
Partnering to Restore Hope in the Horn of Africa
Victims of rape and widows arrive at a camp destitute, but now with some hope for survival.
The drought in the Horn of Africa – the worse in 60 years – has had devastating consequences. It has undermined agriculture, causing famine, impacting 12 million people. The political chaos in the country of Somalia has complicated global action to respond to the famine and provide desperately needed humanitarian relief. Refugees pouring into Kenya and Ethiopia from Somalia have complicated an already severe health and safety crisis in those two host countries. The City of Dadaab, Kenya originally established to handle 90,000 refugees from Somalia is now about 400,000 people with new camps emerging each week. Right now Dadaab is the fourth largest city in Kenya.
Servant's Forge's partner, Nazarene Compassionate Ministries, INC is identifying ways to respond to this current crisis. Cosmos Mutowa, Regional Coordinator for Nazarene Compassionate Ministries in Africa has challenged the denomination to raise $500,000 to initiate and be part of a global effort to respond to this crisis by providing water, sanitation, food, shelter, and services to protect women and children.
Servant Forge Fellow, Cassandra Bixler, surveying the refugee camp in Dadaab, Kenya with UNICEF
Because of Servant Forge's current work in Kenya with the Kenya Youth Employment and Empowerment Initiative, we began looking at Kenya resources and opportunities for collaboration in response to the famine. We conducted a site visit to Garissa and then to Dadaab on August 4-6, 2011. During these visits, Servant Forge met with Kenya Red Cross, Food for the Hungry, UNICEF, UNHCR, Samaritan's Purse, CARE International, and OXFAM to assess what current efforts are focusing on, where the greatest need is, and what contribution our team could make to be most affective. Base on these meetings, Servant Forge is currently working with NCMI to finalize an action plan. Part of this plan will include addressing both the current needs caused by the crisis as well as long-term capacity building to increase longer-term resilience among vulnerable populations.
Clean Water Project
Clean water is life giving and life saving, especially for the vulnerable in rural Swaziland. Servant Forge Fellows are working in Swaziland in tandem with the Swaziland HIV/AIDS Faith-Based Initiative and several other partners to provide clean water for health clinics and communities.
Although the wells and pipes provide clean water, this water often ends up in dirty or contaminated containers to be transported from the water source to the homestead, and thus the benefits of clean, bacteria-free water are lost.
With a simple intervention, Servant Forge can ensure that the user's water remains clean and safe for drinking and use. A simple chlorine dispenser setup at the water source can be used to provide single doses of chlorine into each user's water container, ensuring that the container, and the water, are disinfected for up to 24 hours. This simple technology has been proven to work where communities have been trained to use them and understand their importance, with positive health outcomes for the children and families using the water.
A chlorine dispenser can be built and installed for $100. One chlorine dispenser contains 1,000 doses of chlorine and provides for 20,000 liters of clean water. Your $100 donation towards the installation of one of these dispensers at a water site in Swaziland will help to ensure that generations of Swazis have access to clean and health life-giving water.
Provide Clean Water to a Community for Swaziland for $100 >>
Swaziland HIV/AIDS Faith-Based Initiative
Servant Forge Fellows are currently working with the Ministry of Health in Swaziland, Nazarene Compassionate Ministries, Inc., Swaziland Nazarene Health Institutions and Raleigh Fitkin Memorial Hospital in Swaziland to develop a coordinated and decentralized health care delivery system that will increase HIV/AIDS testing and provide treatment and counseling in rural areas of the country. Funding is being provided by the Church of the Nazarene and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention of PEPFAR.
Swaziland has the highest HIV/AIDS prevalence rates in the world and a population that has decreased from 1.3 million to 935,000 with 125,000 AIDS orphans. Our mission in Swaziland is to help save a generation.
Kenya Youth Development Initiative
Working with the business community and African Nazarene University in Nairobi, Kenya, Servant Forge Fellows are doing data analysis about the spike in the youth population and its impact on youth employment and political unrest. Servant Forge Fellows will be facilitating a Youth Employment Summit in 2009 in Nairobi and on the campus of African Nazarene University to mobilize business, civil society and the faith community to provide interventions and to develop nationwide strategies for engaging youth in volunteerism and in task shifting from volunteerism to employment.
Methamphetamine Prevention and Treatment
Servant Forge Fellows have facilitated over 22 Governor's Summits on Methamphetamine prevention and treatment. With funding from the Office of Community Oriented Policing (COPs) at the US Department of Justice and the Substance Abuse Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) at the US Department of Health and Human Services, Servant Forge Fellows facilitated a national summit on methamphetamine that focused on providing services to incarcerated populations, those involve in the Lesbian, Gay, Bi-sexual and Transgender (LGBT) community and women. Removing barriers to service and treatment and creating prevention opportunities was the focus of the initiative.
City of Alexandria, Virginia Gang Task Force
Servant Forge Fellow and Strategic Applications International Principal James E. Copple has been appointed by the Mayor to the City of Alexandria Gang Task Force and chairs the sub-committee on drop out prevention. This sub-committee is developing recommendations on transforming the way schools respond to potential drop outs and engaging innovative and creative solutions that will keep young people in school and away from gangs and gang violence.
Underage Drinking
Servant Forge Fellows James Copple, Colleen Copple and Beth Mattfeld are working on projects to train state and community leaders on prevention, enforcement and treatment strategies that respond to binge drinking and risky behavior. They are currently involved in projects at the University of Louisville, Bloomsburg State University and working with state leaders in Arizona, Indiana and Alaska.