Welcome Dayo Obaweya of CHE

First Congregational Church of Ramona invites you to join us for an evening presentation from our guest speaker, Dayo Obaweya.

Coming to Ramona from West Africa, Dayo will share with the community of Ramona the exciting ministry of Community Health Evangelism and the ways that God is working in the lives of the people of West Africa.

Join us! All are welcome!

On October 1st, 2023 at 6:00pm in the Sanctuary of First Congregational Church of Ramona (404 8th Street).

Dayo Obaweya has been a pioneer and catalyst for integral mission in West Africa for over 20 years. With a keen interest in entrepreneurship and sustainable development, Dayo learned about community health evangelism (CHE) in 1998 and developed a passion for the church to make holistic disciples and to live out the gospel in word and deed. Serving as West Africa Regional Coordinator for Medical Ambassadors International, Dayo has helped to catalyze the growth of multiple country networks in West Africa and the development of CHE master trainers and local ministries in 17 countries.

In addition to his role with Medical Ambassadors, Dayo serves as a leader in the Nigerian Anglican Church, the coordinator of an annual training internship in Ghana, and the chairperson of the Global CHE Network, a network of 900 organizations in 130 countries.

Community Health Evangelism (CHE, pronounced chay) is a multifaceted approach to Christian ministry that addresses the needs of the whole person—physical, spiritual, emotional, and social. It is not a funding strategy, but rather a training strategy, development not relief. CHE equips communities to identify issues and mobilize existing resources within their community to achieve positive, sustainable change. Lives and communities are transformed as people come to Christ and work together to address local needs.

CHE seamlessly integrates evangelism and discipleship with community health and development. Through CHE ministries, individuals become followers of Jesus and communities are lifted out of cycles of poverty and disease.

The strategy includes church planting, disease prevention, and poverty alleviation, but the purpose is much deeper. The purpose is a transformation in lives and communities that is as deep as the human heart, and as broad as the whole range of the human experience in the world God made. Through this work, Jesus is recognized as Lord over all creation, and the development activities bring glory to God by reflecting the depth and breadth of His Kingdom plan.

CHE equips individuals to be independent workers and evangelists in their communities. CHE’s training strategies that create this dynamic include:

·         Empowering people to do things for themselves. This liberates locals from the bondage of the welfare mentality.

·         Reaching the whole person. Some mission programs deal solely with the spiritual dimensions and ignore physical needs; others address only the physical. CHE addresses both.

·         Equipping leaders with skills to see their own community’s assets and to address multiple needs instead of compartmentalizing personnel (e.g., pastors ministering to the spiritual needs, doctors treating medical concerns, etc.).

·         Developing community ownership. CHE teaches people how to identify their own problems and find a way to solve them, using locally available resources.

·         Preventive vs. Curative.  CHE is designed to prevent diseases for individuals, families, and communities. By providing participants with knowledge concerning basic health principles and practices, it can promote optimal health within communities.

The implementation of CHE is performed by local individuals through training, use of their knowledge of the region, community research and the building of a trusting relationship with village leaders using a program outline that includes:

·         Identification of a cluster village, or a village that is surrounded by other villages.

·         Visitation of multiple villages to identify those that are most susceptible.

·         Perform an initial health assessment of the children within the village to baseline the health of the village.

·         Identify the “Man of Peace”, a man with a heart who wants change, who is friendly and communicable that can spread information to all villagers. This individual does not necessarily have to be a church leader.

·         Identification of a local champion to implement change and set up committees to research 5 community needs: water, health, food education, and micro business. There should be 3 – 5 people per committee and an individual cannot be on more than 2 committees. The goal is to engage as many of the individual within the community as possible.

·         Interviewing of families to assess the 5 community needs.

·         Initiation of a seed project to get the attention of the community and build trust.

·         Address community needs, based on assessment and prioritization, using local resources and provide any specialized training that may be necessary

EXAMPLES OF CHE PROGRAMS INCLUDE:

·         Setting up a local health center to address the needs of the village, and surrounding villages, through a holistic approach that includes treatment, education and prevention of basic medical and dental needs.

·         Creation of a village-based school system that integrates standard education practices with spiritual development.

·         Addressing water and sanitation needs through well drilling, ventilated and composting latrines, water purification, and education on preventative health.

·         Increasing agricultural yields through Foundation for Farming (FFF) that use a spiritual approach that include love of the land, simple tools and methods, and composting and mulching.

·         Micro Enterprise Development (MED) to teach them to manage money and resources by using existing skills and resources to address unmet needs of local and surrounding villages through research, planning, value add, mapping, public relations, and service to others.

 Million Village Challenge (MVC)

 The Million Village Challenge is a global partnership initiative to end poverty worldwide and take the good news of the Gospel to unengaged villages inside the 10/40 window, which is the area between 10 and 40 degrees north of the equator. This area is purported to have the highest level of socioeconomic challenges and the least access to the Christian message.

 Using the proven strategies of Community Health Evangelism (CHE), partners who accept the challenge come alongside villagers living in extreme poverty, empowering them to find solutions to six key areas contributing to cyclical poverty – water, food, education, income, wellness, and worldview.

 ·         22% of the world population makes less than $1.25 per day

·         1.54 billion people living in extreme poverty

·         Average village has 1,500 people

·         1 million villages exist in 70+ countries

CHE is not just a methodology - it’s a movement that spreads from village to village. The approach is not to do projects, but to create a movement that spreads from village to village. One model village impacts a cluster of 10 villages. Each of those villages impacts a cluster of 10 more villages and so on...The focus is identify model villages that consist of 10 villages per cluster, with this approach 100,000 model villages are needed to get to a million. The Tipping Point - When 10% of a population is strongly advocating for a cause a Tipping Point is reached.

The goal by 2020 is for national ministries in 70 different 10/40 Window countries to adopt 10,000 clusters and initiate work in 10,000 model villages.

There are two main components to the growth strategy: (1) Multiplication of existing models, and (2) Mobilization conferences.

Multiplication of existing models: Villages neighboring existing models approach and ask trainers to duplicate what is happening in the model village in their own villages. Each of the new villages become models multiplying their impact in villages around them.

MVC mobilization Conferences: Mobilization conferences bring together national ministries in a country or region for three days. The first day ministry leaders are envisioned for village ministry in their country. On the second day they are taken to visit a model village and interview the villagers. On the third day they gather in small groups around maps and identify and adopt model villages. MVC committees are formed to follow up and provide training for national ministries. We hope to have mobilization conferences in 70 countries by the end of 2018.The vision is wholistic community-based movements of transformation instead of top down costly and wasteful donor driven programs. Progress will be measured in six key areas: Food security, water, health and sanitation, income generation, education, and Christian discipleship.

Transformational movements can only be achieved by nationals. Model clusters will be adopted by nationals, often volunteers, and sustained largely by local resources. Global partners will contribute by building capacity through training and seeding.

Nationals will be recruited to serve in villages by national leaders who participate in an MVC mobilization conference. These nationals are trained as “trainers” and mentored by experienced people from the Global CHE Network working in the region.

National trainers being mentored by experienced people from the Global CHE Network spend two days per week in a village, mobilizing and equipping the community to work together using local resources to create sustainable solutions to the problems they face.

Global partners provide resources for national workers and build capacity for the villages they serve.  For workers they provide training and tools such as the Jesus Film, and audio Bibles.  For village communities, they provide training in water, microenterprise development, education, agriculture, sanitation and health. They may also provide support for village workers or seed projects in a community.