December 14, 2007

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. – Walk humbly, put yourself in the background and have faith in others if you want to work successfully with needy persons, Benedict and Kathleen Schwartz told a group of supporters at the Christian Reformed Church offices in Grand Rapids.

The husband-wife team, featured in the Nov. 10 issue of World Magazine as business people with a clear sense of Christian purpose, lives and works at the 230-acre Village of Hope outside of Lusaka, Zambia.

They founded the village about a year ago and have seen it grow into a thriving enterprise that employs and trains more than 50 local people as well as providing care for 40 AIDS orphans. On tap within the next year or so is construction of an elementary school on the site.

The couple was in Grand Rapids to meet with Partners Worldwide, a ministry affiliated with the CRC that engages business people in projects that provide economic growth and community transformation. Partners is one of several organizations that have helped their ministry in Zambia become what World Magazine calls an example of how to do mission work in Africa.

"We have been very aware that we don't know the best way to do the work on the ground there in Africa," says Benedict Schwartz, owner of a successful Maryland software company. He and his wife, a teacher, felt called several years ago to use their business and educational skills to help address illness and poverty in Africa.

They began by helping to set up an HIV/AIDS orphanage on 17 acres of land in Namibia in 2000. From there, they purchased the land in Zambia to launch the Village of Hope.

"We are the source of funding and teach management, planning and administrative approaches, but the people in Africa run the village," Benedict Schwartz said. "We have an all-African senior staff."

The farm produces maize, soybeans, sunflowers, cassava, peanuts, potatoes, oranges and tomatoes. In addition, workers have built a block-making plant that supplies construction material for buildings on the farm as well as for sale. The village recently opened a produce market that last month brought in nearly $5,000 in revenue.

In 2004, the Schwartzes organized All Kids Can Learn International, Inc. (AKCLI), to spread the vision that churches and businesses can sponsor children's villages, and collectively can rescue millions of orphans around the world.

At the Village of Hope, orphans are given plots of land, formed into commercial cooperatives, and taught the entrepreneurial skills needed to earn a living through farming. Without real work and actual income, training is fruitless in an economy with 80 percent unemployment, says Benedict Schwartz.

Among the messages that the couple brought to Michigan was to challenge baby boomers such as themselves – successful, retirement age business people – to consider becoming part of a ministry in which they can use their skills to help others.

"We have a whole generation of people who have a great deal of experience that can be used if done in the right way," says Benedict Schwartz. "The key is walk humbly and to do what you do with love in whatever culture God sends you."

For more information on Village of Hope, e-mail: info@partnersworldwide.org or visit the Web site: http://www.partnersworldwide.org/.

Christian Reformed Church