MoringaCommunity Newsletter No. 4 - - - - - - - - - - - - - The self-sustainability or bust issue.

1

If we can raise $68,000, this project is

done and ready to stand on its own as originally intended.

No kidding !

Greetings from Jeffry to all you wonderful friends of Moringa,

Yes, $68K seems like a lot of cash to come up with but look what we’ve done on private and very modest non-government funding in just four short years. We can do this and if you can please just dig a little deeper into your pockets this last year, we won’t hold our hand out to you again. I am genuinely proud to put together this positive close of 2012 Moringa Newsletter regarding

our unique project dedicated to creating an environment of self-reliance in desperately poor villages in Central Region Ghana. Before Moringa Community was built through your generous support and our relentless volunteer unpaid muscle, there was virtually nothing in way of hope for a bright and even minimally secure future for the rural indigenous Ghanaian population we serve. Now we are on the cusp of bringing the people we’ve pledged to help out of the darkness and into the light in

a truly self sustainable, and more importantly, a self reliant way. We have only one last hurdle to jump and this project will stand as a positive model for others to duplicate if they dare. Imagine that,,, a charity with a plan from the outset to actually achieve a tangible and practically sustainable goal. A plan to build it, to complete it, to man it, and even more empowering, to make it stand on its own without the never ending hand held out for “give me more, give me more”. In this regard, Moringa as an NGO, from what I have seen and witnessed, has no equal. In this closing 2012 issue, we highlight the remarkable achievements of 2012. We also layout the exact and final thing that remains to be done that, if successful in raising enough funds to build, our work is done and Moringa will stand fully on its own as originally intended. This final project is the construction of a modest, yet much needed Boys and Girls dormitory to house our students which currently have no place to stay while attending our trade school. This is a basic and practical need that like everything else in this project to date will be done in the most economic and effective way. Through the generosity of Dave Johnson, (see page 7) if we can raise $10,000 between now and December 31, 2012, Dave will match these initial funds with his own personal grant of $10,000. This leaves just $48,000 to bring in which we can muster with your support. Fittingly, Mr. Dave is the man that gave Moringa its initial leg up in acting as fiscal sponsor in the initial first 7 months it took us to secure our Federal 501C3 license. Our early supporters will remember Dave as he cre-

ated and managed PGMC Helping Hands who you made out your early 2009 donation checks to.

2

Greetings from Abu.

Moringa community organization has been the most remarkable NGO in Ghana for the past four years. It’s not just changing peoples’ lives for better, but it has also brought hope and confidence among peoples, and made them realize coming together for common good helps them a lot, and to understand how much they can achieve. Many more lives are changing for better now through Moringa project in Breman Baako and Assin Kurwa and surrounding villages.

Before moringa was establish in Breman Baako, there wasn’t hope for anything. Many where deceived by other organizations and the worst part has some of the poorest farmers who don’t own their farm land. There is no signed agreement to protect them. In Ghana, the village chief has the right in his own way to claim the land he gave them at any point in time to then give it to any of his royal family members. When this happens during the growth stage of the crops, that brings nothing back to the farmer, so it is also not wise to them to farm in a large scale land and later have the land taken away at time of harvest. This is why Moringa has become extraordinary to these peoples in Breman Baako. Because Moringa Community organization has a DEED OF CONVEYANCE on its land at Breman Baako and the land belongs to everyone that has joined Moringa project for their own future and for the betterment of the organization, the people are protected. Thru Moringa Project, I have learned a lot and gained a lot more knowledge and experience, hope and confidence in my life that I can achieve a lot in life to take care of myself and my family. So has everyone that has joined Moringa project. This security for our Moringa member’s own future did not exist before. There are many staff and students at Moringa Community center who now have established better business trade at the Moringa Training center through the training we provide. Sister Kate, for example, is mother of three children. She joined the Moringa Project very early on in 2009. Kate now has a piece of Moringa Land designated to her, growing vegetables for canning. She also canned for her family before dry season. She has also helped plant Moringa plant to sell in the market, which is very well helping her to earn more every month. This as well helps the Moringa project. Naomi, a student at moringa community center, is a young girl of 20 years who came to learn canning. Naomi started at the Moringa Trade School with nothing. She lived with her step mother and blind father spending most of her life time helping her father in the house life. It was very challenging to them even what to eat some time is very difficult, and in Ghana no one wants to stay with step mom. You can’t take the frustrations involved. Moringa gave Naomi all the support she needed. After her canning training, she realized there is hope and she can do more to survive from Moringa Community. She proposed that she needed a support to learn batik and tie & dye making because she already had a few experiences. So we sponsored her to learn more in modern advance batik making. Now Naomi has .

About Abu and the Moringa project. By Jeffry & Linda Lohr It is an honor to introduce Abu in this closing of 2012 Newsletter. When we sponsored Abu to come to America in 2008, we were committed and dedicated to helping him start his vision of a trade school in Ghana using the techniques, technology, and tools we taught and shared with him daily. Abu lived in our home from April thru July 2008 during which time he worked with Jeff in the woodworking shop by day and spent nights learning canning with Linda. We fully vested ourselves telling Abu upon his departure home that we were done and now it was his turn to show us what he could do to organize the poorest Ghanaians to help themselves. Our promise to him was that if he could show us real momentum and

tangible achievement in his pursuit of creating his vision after returning home, we would step up to assist him further. Knowing him as we did, we should have realized what we were in for when his parting words to us were “Just you wait”. Now only a little over four short years a multi building school has been built and seven quality training programs with tangible evidence of success has been produced on an enormous amount of Ghanaian sweat equity and only around $200K in total funding. We now proudly introduce Abu who offers his report to our supporters below.

3

2012 Achievement # 1 All of our MCST staff agree that one of the biggest and most worrisome sources of stress for Moringa was greatly relieved by the replacement of our broken down nearly dead 1999 Kia flatbed pickup truck. Thanks to an extremely generous anonymous family dona-

tion of a new 2011 Kia diesel truck with heavy springs and fold down bed walls, the project will have safe and reliable transportation for many years to come. We will be forever grateful for this key and essential resource that will enable the next chapter in the life of Moringa’s sustainability.

Greetings from Abu continued:

her batik shop that Moringa community center build for her to train more students and produce more batik clothing. Naomi now makes good quality batik to sell in the market which earns her enough to take care of herself and support her family plus Moringa benefits from a fair percentage of sale price. Robert Okere is a kente teacher at the Moringa Community Center, a master of his own in kente making and owned his own shop. He decided to leave his shop to help train others on how to make kente and also now producing more kente so we can sell to sustain the community center. I want to tell the Americans that have helped create Moringa Community that it is becoming the most famous new NGO in the Central Region of Ghana. Moringa stands out because it is so different than all those NGOs that don’t do all that much. What people see in Moringa Community School of Trades is real opportunity and real results.

Thank you for help making this possible. God bless USA! Abubakar Abdulai

2012 Achievement # 2 As of 2012 Moringa Community Ghana now holds secure deeds to 17 acres of land !

On January 27, 2012, Chief Ebusuapanyin Ampof Andoh - Royal family head of the neighboring village of Assin Kruwa,

signed the official and formal deed conveying six valuable acres of farmland to Moringa Community. Unknown to most Ameri-cans, the African system of land ownership is essentially a throw back to the medieval European feudal system. In Africa’s tribal system, the Chief, acting on behalf of the Royal family of any village or land area, under African law, owns all the land within the borders of his domain. The Chief decides who is allowed to farm or use any given land area for whatever purposes the peasant tenant farmer or user decides. The Royals collect what is analo-gous to rent from the peasant on the land in a way that is often a moving target subject to the whims of the Royal family. The farmer my grow coco for ex- ample, and at harvest time take five bags of coco to the market. At the market, a representative of the Royal family sits and decides how many of the bags of coco the tenant keeps and how many the Royal family will take in payment for use of the land. This sys-tem provides no security to the peasant farmer as at any time the Royals can take 2, 3, or even 4 bags of the 5 bags if they wish and even worse, at any given time, use of the land can be taken from the tenant farmer to give to another. Thankfully, Chief Ebusuapanyin is a good chief and has agreed to fully convey our land to Moringa legally and completely unencumbered forever. Our deed was formally registered at the land office in Accra and Moringa has legal ownership of this land as well as holds the right to sell or rent the land to another party. In total, Moringa had to pay $4,000 US for this 6 acres of land with a significant portion of this money fairly given to the previous farmers for reimbursement of their lost use of the land. In all, this was a completely proper transaction and fair for all involved and provides Moringa complete security to invest in developing this new farm land for crop production. Moringa Community in Assin Kruwa essentially has it’s own fiefdom now in this village and answers to none other than the laws of the Republic of Ghana and of course, the oversight of the Moringa USA organization.

Working

within a

feudalistic

system of

ownership.

Our most note worthy 2012 Moringa Project Achievements

4

2012 Achievement # 3 Canning Program Expands Many have understandably questioned why it has taken so long to truly get the Moringa canning program to produce significant income for MCST. All must understand that as in America, Ghana also has strict laws to insure healthy and safety in food products sold in the market place. In 2012, Moringa has finally paid all the fees, passed with flying colors all our random and unannounced facility and product inspections including having our canned goods tested for any potential problematic pathogens by biological dept. at the University of Cape Coast. Moringa is now free to start commercial sale of our goods.

2012 Achievement # 4 FOX Internet network established ! All involved with Moringa know that in every chapter of our project’s life there has been some story. In 2011, David Carter from the UK attended Jeff’s woodworking school in PA and learned that there are virtually no public libraries in the region we serve in Ghana. With no books available, David felt Internet access was key to the success of the Moringa School so he set about doing the research to find a way to get Internet to an area that doesn’t even have reliable cell phone access. This was not an easy task but an even harder part was finding funding. Enter Frank Fox. Frank was the best friend of Jeff’s older brother Bert who died an early unexpected death years ago. Frank, knowing how much Bert Lohr would have loved the Moringa project, decided to step forward to fully fund the pur-chase of the equipment needed to connect MCST to the outside world. This was a huge boost for MCST and Frank donated the funds in memory of his good friend and Jeff’s brother, Bert, who had he lived to see the Moringa project would have no doubt played a key roll in getting the Moringa School of Trades estab-lished. We like our tongue-in-cheek labeling of Moringa’s Internet acquisition as our FOX NETWORK.

2012 Achievement # 5 MCST adds Batik to Fabric Arts Dept.

If you’ve read Abu’s Report to America on pages 3 you will have read about Naomi. This young woman had just turned 18 while a student at Moringa Com-munity School of Trades when I, Jeff Lohr, visited the project for the first time in early 2010. I am thrilled that she is not only still there but has become one of our teachers.

Batik is an ancient form of wax resist fabric art particularly of importance to African culture and fashion. It is difficult and time consuming to produce but the results are stunning and valued the world over.

The Batik program had languished on my 2011 Newsletter Wish list un-funded until thankfully Tom Wagaman, one of my USA woodworking students and his wife Diane, stepped up to fund the construction of our Batik Pavilion plus cost of laying in start up suppliees. This program has begun to pay big divi-dends to Moringa as not only are we able to sell the work produced in teaching our students the art of the Batik process but Naomi uses the process to create our recognized Moringa student uniforms. Note the girl in our reference to Achievement # 6 Moringa Community adds tailoring program that is sporting one of Naomi’s attractive MCST school uniforms.

5

2012 Achievement # 6 MCST - Fabric Arts Dept. adds Tailoring and Dressmaking Program

Thanks to Gail Gosser Smith and other sup-porters, we were able to create a value added tailoring department that is the latest addition to our trade school programs. This enabled us to increase our income capability by allowing us to make finished goods for sale in the market place from the fabric we create. A win-win all the way around. There are two key things that we are particu-larly grateful to Gail for: First, she not only researched in advance which model Singer is the best workhorse but also which is least likely to break down and the easiest to get parts for. Second, and very big second to Jeffry, Gail carefully rebuilt this Singer 88 to mint working condition, and the key we are most grateful for, she actually paid the full shipping fee along with her donation. Tools are very welcome donations to Moringa but shipping for us is an enormous burden to Jeff who is always left trying to pay for it plus do the leg work to ship. Thanks to Gail for going the full distance to see this donation thru to the end.

Incredible business opportunity for USA entrepreneurs Start your own import business or add product lines to existing store fronts,

Internet based retailing, or even just buy our Moringa Made Moringa Made Moringa Made Moringa Made Moringa Made Moringa Made Moringa Made Moringa Made high quality goods for

yourself and gifts for friends. Such gifts touch people in a far more personal way than anything you will ever buy in a department store.

Moringa Product #1 - Moringa Oleifera is currently taking the American health food and dietary supplement market by storm. Don’t take our word for it, do your own search about Moringa Oleifera and judge for yourself. Our Moringa Oleifera for export is 100% pure, fresh, and carries USDA compliant Pytosanitary Testing Certification.

Moringa Product #2 - Traditional Kente – Many associated with this project have purchased Kente scarves that always receive the highest compliments from others when worn. Moringa Ghana offers the most beautiful handmade Kente at bulk bargain prices. Excellent for personal use and gifts.

Moringa Product #3 - African Batik - Our Batik department makes stunning

handmade batik fabric that can be used in an unlimited number of ways for fashion and craft. Very popular among quilt makers, our Batik department will fill your orders in a timely way and ship by International Parcel Post.

Moringa Product #3 Moringa Wood Products - Shipping of furniture would be prohibitively expensive, but our MCST woodshop can make parcel post shippable size goods to your specifications. Products include carvings, games, fit-

MCST has already shipped Internationally so you can order with confidence.

Plus, we are already confident you know the Moringa Ghana Organization will

always do it’s utmost to meet your needs in an honest and forthright way.

Contact Abu for product and purchase information by emailing him at: sadick1777@yahoo.com

Phone - from USA - 011-233-244-724-194 6

We are all well aware of how many great chari-ties there are. Very seldom does a day go by that I do not receive request for both time and financial resources from truly great organizations. At some point we all have to take a moment and reflect on what we want to do with our resources. I met Jeff and Linda through a woodworking course in 2007. At that time Jeff and Linda had no idea of the dramatic change they were about to

make in the lives of so many. But once Abu arrived I watched Jeff and Linda pour an amazing amount of time and their own personal resources, in a project for people they had never meet, and knew little about. Abu was the cata-lyst that started this, his passion to improve the village and surrounding area in Ghana, drew Jeff and Linda into an extraordinary adventure. It is truly rare when you can actually see the direct impact that your financial donations are making on the lives of others. I found Moringa especially appealing because it was located in an area of the world that many write off as a lost cause. The hurdles too high; corrupt government, apathy, lack of infrastructure, and so on. Moringa not only took on each challenge but in every single case was able to overcome the issues and move the project forward, and with only Abu and his staff. We all now have the opportunity to help Jeff, Linda and Abu reach a huge milestone in the Moringa mission. If we can raise the necessary funds for dormitories, then the Moringa Community School of Trades will be in a posi-tion to help kids from all over Ghana for years to come. It is my honor to match the first $10,000 dollars of donations, so I encourage you to consider a generous contri-bution. Consider what just one nice meal cost or the cost of cable television for a month. Heck one little wood-working tool cost 100 bucks. As Jeff would say, “save your money and build it”. I am asking you to spend your money so we can build a school, and change the lives of many. Dave Johnson.

“There is no exercise better for the heart than reaching down and lifting people up.” ― John Holmes

As the volunteer bookkeeper for the 501(c)(3) it gives me great pride to

inform our supporters that 96.3% of expenditures in 2011 went directly to the program expenses for Moringa Community in Ghana. Administration expenses were just 2.5% and fundraising expenses were 1.2%. This claim is not just us randomly announcing it. This announcement is backed up by MoringaCommunity.Org’s engagement of a fully independent audit &

review licensed certified public accountant to conduct a formal review of Moringa’s 2011 financial statement per the requirement of the Pennsylvania State Bureau of Charitable Organizations for which Moringa has filed with the Commonwealth of PA in our 2011 return. We are proceeding similarly in 2012. To date for 2012, 92.5% of expenditures have gone directly to the Ghana program expenses. This is a bit lower because of the $1,575 paid for the 2011 financial review. However, we expect this program percentage to increase as we support the student housing project, while incurring few additional administration costs. Jeff has done a great job of limiting the fundraising expenses (pizza, beer and soda – nothing exotic!). The administration expenses include Pennsylvania State Department filing fees, telephone calls to Ghana, office supplies, insurance, PayPal fees, and the accountant’s fees for the review. All work is by volunteers and there are no salaries paid. The American NGO pays no rents. This is a bare bones project that gets it done! The entire volunteer team appreciates your financial support. Let’s make one last push and help the people in our Ghanaian Moringa Community in Bremen Baako build the student housing! This will make all the difference.

MoringaCommunity.Org is proud of its remarkable

96.3% programs to cost ratio

Please - please - donate today and help us reach our goal of full self sustainability.

For donation options, see: ”Support Us” at www.MoringaCommunity.Org 7