With nearly 2.2 billion people comprising the Global Church, there are more followers of Jesus in the world today than at any point in history. And yet, 21,000 children die silently every day from preventable and treatable diseases. Across the world, 1.4 billion people live on less than $1.50 daily. More than 260 million Africans cannot read or write. And, perhaps most troubling of all, the vulnerable and marginalized have no voice and no ability to respond to the systems and power structures that keep these realities exactly the way they are.
It is time to wake the giant. It is time for the local Church and her 2.2 billion members to break out of her walls and intentionally push against the tide of disease, famine, illiteracy, extreme poverty and injustice. Across the world and in our own backyards, the local Church is perfectly positioned to bring about lasting change in its local community.
But, community betterment activities can only be transformational when they are rooted in the Mission of Jesus. Lasting change must be gospel-centered and focused on the integrated nature of spiritual, social and material realities. Life in its fullness is rooted in Christ, pursuing His Kingdom on earth as it is in heaven.
Transformational development must come from the ground up, with an integrated approach that cultivates local leadership and requires the participation and ownership from the community itself. It means walking with the community, and not doing for them what they can do for themselves once equipped.
We must employ multi-faceted solutions that address the specific root causes of poverty within each community. Our solutions should aim to:
Promote Health and Prevent Disease
Educate the Marginalized
Empower The Poor with Economic Opportunities
Equip The Vulnerable to Break the Cycle
Only then, will transformational development take place, and we will begin to see the Kingdom on earth, as God intended.
The model for empowering national believers through training in dental extractions.
The method for teaching dental skills.
The mission of taking God's glory to the ends of the earth.
A panel of US-based academic physicians discuss how they have cooperated with international institutions as well as on-the-field missionaries for quality research projects. They will also discuss ideas and opportunities for how they see research and projects developing in the future.
Overview of their projects will be given, but much time will be devoted to answering questions from the audience.
While Communicable Diseases have traditionally been responsible for the majority of morbidity and mortality in low and middle income countries (LMIC), a rapid shift from rural, agrarian to urban, sedentary lifestyles has resulted in a dramatic rise in the burden of Non-Communicable Disease in these countries. Hence, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, cancer and other non-communicable diseases are rapidly reaching epidemic proportions. This poses considerable burdens on the already limited health care resources. Not only are health care professionals in short supply, but their training in the complex management of non-communicable diseases is seriously lacking. Furthermore, certain non-communicable diseases present differently in LMIC countries, including ‘malnutrition diabetes’, a poorly understood entity that probably affects millions of people globally. This highlights the need for new and innovative approaches to treat non-communicable diseases, as well as an understanding of traditional lifestyles and cultures. The ideal approach to prevention of non-communicable diseases in various traditional settings would be to develop cultural sensitivity and understanding, to encourage people to maintain some aspects of their more active ancestral lifestyles and avoid the diseases of modernization.
This session will review the many causes of cognitive impairment and provide detailed information about several of these causes, including early malnutrition, iron deficiency, diarrheal diseases, and prenatal alcohol exposure. The session will discuss the demographics of cognitive impairment and the negative effects on individuals, families, communities, economics and governments. The session will provide a proposal for establishing "Cognitive Watches" in countries to identify most common causes of cognitive impairment and to prevent these causes.
