ANN Bulletin
Adventist News Network
Seventh-day Adventist Church World Headquarters
November 20, 2007
In This Issue:
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* Zimbabwe: Adventist university's food supplies dwindling
* Adventist students average higher than national norms academically,
study says
* ADRA to observe World AIDS Day December 1
* Adventists around the world
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Zimbabwe: Adventist university's food supplies dwindling
Silver Spring, Maryland, United States .... [Elizabeth Lechleitner/ANN]
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Students at Seventh-day Adventist colleges and universities in North
America are raising funds to provide immediate assistance to a fellow
university in Zimbabwe that church leaders say is running out of food.
Adventist-owned Solusi University near Bulawayo, in the Southern part
of Zimbabwe, is on the verge of sending students home due to the
country's food crisis. Solusi's estimated 3,200 students, faculty and
staff -- along with much of the country -- have faced dwindling food
supplies since February 2007, when hyperinflation and widespread
droughts cleared the country's shelves and fields of food.
At a November 9 worship service, students, faculty and staff at
Adventist-owned Andrews University started a fund for Solusi. The
Berrien Springs, Michigan-based university has since matched the amount
collected, and "ripple effect" collections on campus have added to the
tally, organizers there say. The fundraising is expected to continue
into the November 16 to 19 weekend.
Other Adventist universities in North America -- including Union
College in Lincoln, Nebraska, and Loma Linda University in Loma Linda,
California -- are expected to join the effort, organized by leadership
in the church's North American region. In a separate effort, La Sierra
University Church also collected funds for Solusi.
"This has to be an ongoing effort," says Larry Blackmer, vice president
for Education for the church in North America. "Otherwise, Solusi will
get a bunch of food in one load and none afterward." Blackmer
anticipates the project will continue for six months to a year.
The first collection of funds, Blackmer says, has already been sent to
the church's regional headquarters in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe, where the
money will be used to purchase food in Botswana, Mozambique or South
Africa and trucked across the border into Zimbabwe. University
officials estimate US $120,000 would buy enough food in Zimbabwe's
neighboring countries to sustain Solusi for a year.
Church leaders resorted to a similar solution in September, when the
organizers of an Adventist youth training conference brought food in
from Botswana to feed the 350 delegates gathered in Zimbabwe for nearly
a week.
Food supplies for Solusi have "been scarce for quite some time,"
according to the church in Zimbabwe. Reports from the university
indicate that food, where available, is prohibitively expensive for
those on Solusi salaries.
Fifty percent price cuts ordered by the Zimbabwean government in June
to fight inflation have only accelerated the country's food crisis.
Reports indicate the abrupt cuts spurred panic buying that drained
already limited supplies.
"Food is a short-term solution, but it is really the only way to help
the students at Solusi right now," says Andre Brink, director of
Communication for the Adventist Church's Southern Africa-Indian Ocean
region. "Even their agricultural fields in the south of the country are
all dried up. They are not able to plant because of the drought. People
in that region are really starving."
Brink, who visited Zimbabwe in February, says that sending money or
food to the country is a challenge. Published reports indicate most
non-governmental agencies refuse to work in Zimbabwe because aid is
often seized and redistributed to government-approved recipients.
Limits on food purchased in neighboring countries and brought back to
Zimbabwe have also been imposed. Compact, highly nutritious packets of
food are the best way to get food to Solusi, Brink says.
University officials say they plan to obtain an irrigation system and
farming equipment in an effort to achieve food self-sufficiency within
six months.
Solusi University, established in 1894, is Zimbabwe's largest private
university. The campus also includes an elementary school and a high
school.
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Adventist students average higher than national norms academically,
study says
Silver Spring, Maryland, United States .... [Ansel Oliver/ANN]
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Academic achievement levels for students in Seventh-day Adventist
schools in North America are above national norms, according to data
from the first year of a three-year study.
Preliminary results from the study say Adventist elementary and high
school students rank in the 60th to 65th percentile, and that the
ranking is similar despite factors including location, school size or
grade range in class.
The study, CognitiveGenesis, is funded by private donations and seeks
to answer two questions: What is the achievement level in Adventist
schools compared to national norms? And what student, parent, teacher
or school factors are associated with achievement?
"This is the most important academic survey ever undertaken in the
Adventist Church," said Larry Blackmer, vice president for education
for the church's North American region, which includes the United
States, Canada and Bermuda.
"Any time you look at a system with 30,000 students that perform above
the national norm, even after accounting for ability, you know
something is happening that is important and worth studying further,"
Blackmer said.
Preliminary results of the study were presented on November 1 to church
leaders in an annual business meeting at the church's North American
region headquarters in Silver Spring, Maryland, United States.
Robert Cruise, the study's research director and a former professor of
statistics and research at several Adventist universities, said the
goal is to include every student in grades 3 to 9 and 11.
"Even after controlling for ability level, after one year of data,
those students are doing well," Cruise said.
Church education officials are anticipating results of the study along
with other denominational leaders and the U.S. Department of Education,
Blackmer said.
Doug Walker, Education director for the church in the Southwestern
region of the United States, says he plans to promote the results of
the study while encouraging continuing participation.
"We get questions every once in a while about the quality of academic
education in our schools. I think this study is going to provide some
positive answers that we can back up with hard data," Walker said.
While student responses are nearly 100 percent, parent survey responses
are lower, Walker said. "Maybe there's a fear amongst some people of
others finding out about their business, but I think we've been able to
show that we can guarantee anonymity," he said.
The study is measuring academic achievement using the Iowa Tests of
Basic Skills (ITBS) and the Iowa Test of Educational Development (ITED)
and the Cognitive Abilities Test (CogAT).
Results will be used to study how student, parent, teacher and school
factors are related to achievement. The second year of research has
been collected, but researchers said final analyses will be held until
data for all three years has been collected, Cruise said.
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ADRA to observe World AIDS Day December 1
Silver Spring, Maryland, United States .... [ANN Staff]
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Some 800 young people in the West African country of Mali are learning
basic anatomy and health principles along with teamwork and leadership
skills through a project that uses sports to fight the spread of
HIV/AIDS.
Organized by the Adventist Development and Relief Agency in Mali, "Play
Safe, Live Safe" is one of hundreds of projects run by the
international, non-governmental organization headquartered near
Washington, D.C.
To observe World AIDS Day, December 1, ADRA is offering World AIDS Day
kits, which include a poster, World AIDS Day ribbons, sermon and
presentation ideas, age-appropriate student resources and AIDS facts
and stories from AIDS victims around the world.
To order a kit, or for more information on observing World AIDS Day,
visit
http://www.adra.org. Nearly 33 million people, half of whom are women, live with HIV/AIDS
worldwide, according to an annual United Nations AIDS study released
November 20.
Since 1985, ADRA has worked to raise awareness about HIV/AIDS and
encourage people to get involved in the global effort to stop AIDS.
ADRA runs shelters, skills-training centers, provides for AIDS orphans
and offers preventative education at its regional offices around the
world. Johannesburg, South Africa-based AIDS International Ministry has
also worked to combat the spread of AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa, where
AIDS is the leading cause of death.
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Adventists around the world
Silver Spring, Maryland, United States .... [ANN Staff]
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ADRA update: Responding to Bangladesh cyclone, Chile earthquake ... The
Adventist Development and Relief Agency is responding to the needs of
survivors of a cyclone that hit Bangladesh November 15 killing at least
3,100 people, officials said. From its office in Dhaka, ADRA is
providing food and basic supplies for 5,000 people in the Barguna
region, including the villages of Chorpara and Sadagorpara where 36
people were killed and all houses were destroyed. ADRA is also
responding to needs of survivors of a magnitude 7.7 earthquake that hit
the Atacama Desert region in northern Chile November 14. The initial
response will provide tents, mattresses, and blankets for 70 families.
ADRA is also distributing food and clothing for 2,500 survivors in and
around the town of Tocopilla, located 21 miles from the epicenter.
Local officials report that at least 1,200 homes in the town have been
flattened, and more than 4,000 are currently homeless. The earthquake,
the largest in Chile since 2004, killed at least two people, injured
more than 250 and left an estimated 16,000 homeless. For updates, see
http://www.adra.orgFirst Nepalese ordained Adventist minister dies ... The first Nepalese
ordained Seventh-day Adventist minister, Deep Bahadur Thapa, 66, died
September 24. Thapa graduated from Spicer Memorial College in India in
1970 and began working for the church in Nepal at Scheer Memorial
Hospital in Banepa. Because Nepal's constitution did not allow
evangelism, Thapa's official title was "health educator." He earned a
master's in health science from Philippine Union College in 1978 and
was ordained an Adventist minister in 1980. After retiring, Thapa
served as a coordinator for the ministry to Bhutan. He is survived by
his wife, Miron, four children and three grandchildren. There are now
some 5,000 Adventists in Nepal.
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ANN Staff: Ray Dabrowski, director; Ansel Oliver, assistant director;
Taashi Rowe, editorial coordinator; Elizabeth Lechleitner, editorial
assistant.
Portuguese translation by Azenilto Brito, Spanish translation by Marcos
Paseggi, Italian translation by Vincenzo Annunziata and Lina Ferrara
and French translations by Stephanie Elofer.
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