Africa.
The land where our blood began!
Africa is the second largest continent in the world with a total area of around 11.73 million square miles (30.37 million square kilometers) that account for 5.7% of the earth’s surface as well as 20% of the total surface of land on our planet.
There are at least 3,000 distinct ethnic groups in Africa and around 2,000 different languages are spoken and each of them has different dialects. While Arabic is the language that is most widely spoken in the African continent, followed by English and Swahili, French respectively.
The Nile River is the longest river in the world, is approximately 4,258 miles (6,853 kilometers) long and passes Flowing northward through through 11 countries: Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kenya, Ethiopia, Eritrea, South Sudan, Sudan and Egypt
It’s a country filled with natural heritage sites and man-made sites. The most famous is obviously the Great Pyramid of Giza, which is the only remaining monument from the old seven wonders of the world.
But, Africa has plenty of interesting historical sites such as the cradle of humankind or one of the 200+ pyramids in Sudan, or the Rock church pictured below in Ethiopia.
Africa has 54 countries fully recognized by the United Nations, two independent states with limited or no recognition (Western Sahara and Somaliland), and several territories (mostly islands) controlled by non-African countries.
The Equator goes around 2,500 miles from the west to the east of the African continent thus dividing this continent into two separate halves – north and south. It passes through many of the African nations such as Congo, Somalia, Uganda as well as Kenya.
Africa also boasts of having the longest river in the world which is the Nile that runs for around 4,150 miles before it meets the ocean. It flows through several African countries such as Ethiopia, Sudan, Uganda as well as Egypt thus making the land extremely fertile.
// Our Presence in Africa
400 Year Celebration, Inc. is actively involved in two great initiatives to assist the African community.
100 YEAR AFRICA PROJECT
According to the World Health Organization, each year in Africa, approximately 1 million babies are stillborn of whom at least 300,000 die during labor. Inasmuch, another 1.6 million babies will die in their first 28 days of life of whom 800,000 will die in their first day.
A neonate baby is under 28 days old. This is the riskiest time of life for a newborn and thus require extreme, gentle and compassionate care. During these 28 days of life, in high risk areas where neonatal deaths occur, specialized medical care needs to be administered to these high risk babies. Sub-Saharan Africa accounts up to an alarming 41% of the total burden of neonatal deaths worldwide. However, two-thirds of neonatal deaths that occur in the first week of life can be prevented if mothers and newborns had access to cost-effective interventions during pregnancy and childbirth.
Upon analyzing the issues of concern, The 400 Year Celebration in collaboration with their international partners have created “The 100 Year Africa Project” as our program of operation to combat and create an effective solution to the issue of neonatal deaths in Africa. We understand the complexity of the issue and that it cannot be properly dealt with in one lifetime, but will require the support and participation of consecutive generations to fully alleviate/eradicate this issue from the continent of Africa.
Giving hope to lives is our focus, aim, desire and passion. And it is through this passion we purposely position our directives to contribute to eradication of neonatal deaths. Therefore, our program cannot be completed in five years or twenty years. However, when we position ourselves to build a long invested movement that can fight this problem, we will see better results and the decrease of neonatal deaths across the African continent.
THE TRANS-ATLANTIC PEOPLES PROGRAM
Most major denominations in America and other parts of the world have evangelistic mission work on the continent of Africa. Some of these endeavors date as far back as 1737, with George Schmidt in South Africa. He was the founder of the first Protestant Mission call the Moravian Brethren.
On the other hand in this age, there are some five million Africans just in America. Approximately two million were born in America while the other ( three million) are legal immigrants, who have taken up residents in America. The sad story however of it all is there is very little large scale intentionality to connect with people from Africa by the church in America. Other nationalities that come to this country (America) have a structured and well organized systematic structured home away from home that facilitates the assimilation into the culture much easier. For persons coming from Africa, it is a very difficult and a different story.
The tested proposed solution
The TransAtlantic People Program is a program/ministry designed to connect people from Africa with established congregations in America and around the world. Congregations in America can provide the following:
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Plan welcome events for persons coming from Africa into their community.
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Establish community centers where education and orientation into this America culture and a place of mutual fellowship can occur.
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The church can provide a space for worship, bible studies and significant events such as weddings, baptisms, funerals for Africans living in the community.