Jun Xu, MD, Chairman of Africa Cries Out, August 5, 2019

In 2013, a group of volunteers—I among them—went to Senegal and Guinea-Bissau in West Africa. We witnessed the dust streets, the faces devoid of expression, the villages devastated by drought, and the patients short of medical care. Since then, the brown land of West Africa has been our spiritual home, and the memories of hungry children surrounding our cars have been branded on our hearts with a burning-hot flame of passion.

After returning to the United States, we immediately applied for the “Africa Cries Out” non-profit 501 (C) 3 organization, and the US government quickly approved it. We are now seven years into this journey. Along the way, Dr. Faye sacrificed his precious life for the leprosy patients in Kedougou. Many of our comrades given their youth to the suffering land, and we are getting old.

Perhaps one day, we will no longer be able to make these trips. But we will never stop. Our children and friends, like they promised, will definitely take up the banner of “Africa Cries Out” and continue to serve the needy in the jungles of West Africa.

Who is behind Africa Cries Out?

Africa Cries Out was born through the Mission Program of the Assembly of God World Vision Ministries (A.G.W.V.) by Mr. Otavio Marques, in conjunction with Dr. Jun Xu and Mr. Nilson Teixeira, to help the people of Senegal and Guinea-Bissau by providing education, access to health care, nutrition and non-profit enterprise.

Dr. Xu (Greenwich, CT, U.S.) is the chairman, Mr. Marques (Brazil) is the board director, and Mr. Teixeira (Port Chester, NY, U.S.) is the treasurer. Mr. Marques went to Guinea-Bissau and Senegal in 1975, where he established many small schools and two hospitals. He was later joined by Mr. Nilson Teixeira in 2002, and by Dr. Jun Xu in 2013. Africa Cries Out has greatly enhanced the charity work in Senegal. We have a strong work team that mainly works in the following aspects:

  1. Fundraising team: We have staff in the United States to help raise funds. None of our staff are paid and we have no administration fee.
  2. Purchasing team: We have a strong purchasing team in China, they provide procurement, transportation, warehousing, packing, customs import and export business, etc., with free services.
  3. African Executive Team: Our team in Senegal, West Africa, is responsible for all the construction and other executive issues. We are very impressed with their strong capability, selfless dedication, and enthusiasm. They are not corrupted, have no complaints.

Africa Cries Out has four major tasks:

1. Education

Mr. Oliver purchased 4 hectares (40,000 square meters) of land 20 years ago, which is located at the Village of Kandan. Route de Mbour. Diass. BP 336 Rufisque. We have built up a technical school there, including the following:

  1. A 10,000 square feet education building with ten classrooms and a huge auditorium.
  2. A 6,000 sq. ft. dormitory that can accommodate about 100 students has been finished, some students have already settled in. All are constructed under American Standard. Our goal is to build a 12,000 square feet dormitory.
  3. We spent $16,000 to hire a company that could dig a well 200 feet down, which will provide enough water for a thousand students.

There is a well-known maxim that goes like this: “Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.” As we built a technical school, we began teaching our students how “to fish”:

  1. Construction Class: While building our technical professional school, we signed a contract with the local construction team so students could participate in its construction. After two years of training, our students gradually learnt the skills including carpentry, electrical, plumbing, etc. Of course, two years is only enough to cover the basics.
  2. Sewing Class: Many women here lack self-esteem. They are cooped at home and their husbands are allowed to marry four wives. Our sewing class has allowed them to now sell clothes, handbags and other products that they made themselves. They make an income to support the family and earned dignity for themselves.
  3. Cooking Class: Along with making metaphorical dough (money), local women are making real dough in our cooking classes. We teach them how to make bread and other Western foods. Local women only know how to barbecue their food and use primitive methods of cooking. They never saw gas stoves before coming to this class. This class has improved their professional skills and their status at home.
  4. Agriculture Class: Building a well allowed us to start planting vegetables and fruits. We have a small garden and hired a few people to tend to it. Africa has plenty of sunshine; we can harvest vegetables every three months. We also are working with Ms. Nicole Dewing, the founder and owner of TAARU ASKAN FARM & TRAINING CENTER, to host a joint agriculture class teaching students agricultural skills. We will provide products and Ms. Dewing will be responsible for underwriting local supermarkets open to foreigners.
    We have high hopes for this venture. There are 7,000 Americans and some more Europeans in the capital city, Dakar, creating a demand for organic American and European vegetables. Up until now, Senegal has not grown such vegetables and can only import them, so we believe our products will be in great demand.
  5. Computer Class: This one has been a big challenge; many students are not fluent in French and do not understand English at all. We have taken steps to facilitate communication between ourselves and the local people. Six years ago, our Brazilian colleagues funded the tuition and living expenses for a local youth, Hidigo, to learn informatics at a Brazilian university. He has now returned to Senegal and has become our computer teacher.
  6. Livestock Class: We have started building a livestock farm, including cattle, sheep and chicken. We brought an egg incubator from China which can hatch 1000 eggs at a time.

2. Medical Services

Mr. Otavio Marques started this project. We have built two hospitals, one in the village of KANDAN. Route de Mbour. Diass. BP 336 Rufisque, and the other in Fatiga, a leprosy village in Kedougou, about 700 kilometers away from Dakar.

We opened clinics for internal medicine, pediatrics and simple obstetrics at the base hospital. We hired doctors, nurses and pharmacists for the base hospital, which attends to about 800 patients per week.

We also hired a nurse and a pharmacist for the hospital and dormitory in Fatiga. The nurse attends about 30 patients per day—and in the peak time of rainy season, she attends to 100 patients per day. She has been authorized the right to prescribe medicine by the local government.

Every year, Dr. Xu leads a medical team from the United States to the base hospital and Fatiga and other villages, attending to around 1,200 patients per year.

Africa Cries Out enjoys a strong bond of trust and partnership with Americares (CT) and Direct Relief (CA). We receive about $500,000 worth in free medicine from them every year and in turn, we prescribe the medicine to our patients without charge. We report to our generous donors after each trip to maintain due diligence.

3. Humanitarian Aid

Every year we spend about $20,000 to buy rice, vegetable oil, and other necessities for the poor in the village. We feel like they truly need this kind of immediate from us, and it has spurred us to work even harder so that one day, they will no longer have to rely on our help.

4. Non-Profit Enterprises

The businesses we have established, were created in hopes that local people can take the reins for themselves and can use them to stand on their own feet. The following are ways we are helping the local economy:

  1. All of our classes are practical courses for students, which will be of great benefit for future employment.
  2. A brick machine we provided that has produced over 13,000 bricks. Four local students who were trained to use it have used those skills to find careers.
  3. Senegal experiences frequent power outages. To deal with this, we purchased and installed a generator.
  4. As previously mentioned, we will work with Ms. Nicole Dewing to provide organic vegetables and fruits to foreigners in Senegal. We will expand the agricultural class and promote it to other villages in the future. This model will provide employment for many people and change their lives.
  5. We will also try to build a shopping mall. There are construction sites everywhere in Senegal. If we open a store selling building materials, we will probably make money to support our technical school and hospitals. We will recruit more students and provide more job opportunities. Now the 15,000 square foot site has broken ground.

Some heroes on our team:

  1. Dr. Idrissa Faye: Born to a family of doctors, he returned to Senegal after graduating from a medical school in France. He was known as the “one-dollar doctor” because he only charged $1.50 per visit. For over 20 years, he drove 3,000 kilometers per month to treat patients in many villages, despite having high blood pressure, diabetes, asthma and other diseases himself. His dream was to die not at home, but on the road while seeing his patients. In 2017, as he accompanied Dr. Xu and the medical team to Fatiga, he suffered diabetic ketoacidosis and passed away in a local hospital—thus fulfilling his wish.
  2. Ms. Anna Paula: She came to Senegal from Brazil in 1997. After studying the local language, she went to Fatiga, Kedougou in 2001. She hugged the leprosy patients and brought them power generator, school, electricity etc. She went to the jungle village of Dingding, which had been forgotten by society for many years. She brought a government agent to issue birth certificates, marriage certificates, and ID card. She built a school and a telephone line for the village, and brought them to modern medical care. She also went to the scene to save girls who had undergone female genital mutilation.
  3. Ms. Marina Vilela: She was originally a fashion model and alumni of Parson’s – The New School in Manhattan, New York. She was both beautifully and talented. However, she resolutely abandoned her future and career, and instead went to Mozambique, Africa in 2017 and dedicated her youthful years to the brown land of Africa. Despite the threat of the Taliban’s resurgence in Mozambique, she was determined not to withdraw. However, a recent development of the painful dengue fever forced her to go to Belgium for treatment. Nevertheless, Africa Cries Out proudly supports her mission financially.
  4. Mr. Henrique Adas and Mrs. Rosemeire Adas: Mr. Adas graduated from a nursing school in Brazil while his wife, Rose, graduated as a biology major and worked in the Brazilian Ministry of Agriculture. Both of them went to Guinea-Bissau to open an orphanage and personally took care of more than 130 orphans. Their children grew up and studied together with the orphans. The couples are now working in our base hospital in Senegal without any compensation, and they are relying on the help from their friends. They are giving everything they have to the African people.

My dear friends, the transmission of love from generations to generations for thousands of years has made us live in this world. We enjoyed so much love from our parents and from others. Now is the time for us to help the poor with love. Our lives are short. When we close our eyes and say goodbye to this world, we hope that we can proudly say: I have loved this world, and I have tried my best to help others.

If you are interested in joining our work, please feel free to contact us.

Jun Xu, MD, Chairman of Africa Cries Out
1171 E Putnam Avenue, Riverside, CT 06878, USA
Email: iloverehabmed@hotmail.com
Tel: 203-637-7720 (Office), 917-434-3767 (Cell)

Ms. Ana Palua Oliveira
Village De Kandan, Route De Mbour, BP336 Rufisque, Senegal
Email: senegalana@gmail.com
Tel: 221-77-695-9029 (Cell)

If you would like to donate, you may do so through our website, or by writing a check to Africa Cries Out and mailing it to Dr. Jun Xu at above address. You will receive a tax deductible receipt.