wfn.org | FEATURE: Looking Back at 30 Years of Life-Changing Experience

["Frank Imhoff" <Frank.Imhoff@elca.org>]

FEATURE: Looking Back at 30 Years of Life-Changing Experience
LWF Honors Mauritanian Amadou N'Diaye, Praising all DWS Field Staff

GENEVA, 20 October 2005 (LWI) - He remembers the first assignment with his
new employer in 1974 - transporting materials for the planting of trees to
prevent the desert advancing toward Mauritania's capital Nouakchott. Aged
25 years, with a young family, he had joined a newly established Christian
organization in the Islamic Republic of Mauritania.

He was more familiar with the work of the Mauritania Red Crescent Society,
which he later learned, worked closely with the Lutheran World Federation
(LWF) to set up irrigation systems, distribute seedlings, and provide
health services outside Nouakchott. The northwest African country is
predominantly desert, and soil erosion aggravated by drought further
contributes to desertification.

Today, Mr Amadou N'Diaye, 56, looks back at more than 30 years of service
with the LWF Department for World Service (DWS) with "a great sense of job
satisfaction and respect for an organization that not only changed his own
life but that of thousands of community members throughout Mauritania."
His tasks have changed though, from truck driver ferrying products to
field outposts to chauffeuring the DWS program director and country
representative. N'Diaye shared his experiences in an interview for
Lutheran World Information (LWI) during a recent visit to the LWF Geneva
secretariat.

Inter-Religious Understanding and Practice

N'Diaye says he feels privileged to have met people from all over the
world, mostly visitors to DWS Mauritania projects, and he cites an
experience repeated with his different "bosses," all of whom have been
non-Muslim. Whenever on duty travel, he could stop the car at the roadside
and say his prayers at 2:30 p.m., 5 p.m., or 7 p.m. "without ever worrying
that the boss was looking at his/her watch." Less concerned with the
theological terminology describing such action, he treasures it as "a
living expression of inter-religious understanding and practice."

LWF work in Mauritania focuses on the cross-cutting issues of HIV/AIDS,
gender equality, and promotion of human rights. Projects on poverty
reduction, social development, environmental protection and afforestation
include a perspective on these key issues.

The father of five children aged between 12 and 24, N'Diaye had never
imagined visiting the LWF Geneva secretariat, which has been his first
trip to Europe. But, he says, over the years he has gained much more, "I
have experience and knowledge that will benefit future generations."

A Community School, Clinic and Well

For the past 13 years, N'Diaye has been chairperson of the Dioudé Djeri
community, some 400 kilometers south of Nouakchott. Under his leadership
in the early 1990s, community members pooled resources for the construction of much-needed additional classrooms in the village. More recently, they
have built a small clinic and water reservoir.

N'Diaye was invited to Geneva by LWF General Secretary, Rev. Dr Ishmael
Noko, who had visited Mauritania several times before and more recently
for the DWS field program's 30th anniversary celebrations in February
2005. During the annual LWF Week of Meetings for Geneva secretariat staff
and DWS program directors, October 10-13, Noko publicly acknowledged
N'Diaye's dedicated service and that of the nearly 6,000 other staff in
the field "who donate their expertise and time." In turn, Mr Robert
Granke, DWS director, expressed his personal and the department's trust in
N'Diaye, and in all the other dedicated field staff worldwide.

DWS is the LWF's internationally recognized humanitarian and development
agency, working with marginalized and disadvantaged communities. Through
field operations in 37 countries in Africa, Asia, Europe, South and
Central America, DWS reaches out to people in need, irrespective of
ethnicity, gender, religion, nationality or political conviction. (603
words)

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(The LWF is a global communion of Christian churches in the Lutheran
tradition. Founded in 1947 in Lund, Sweden, the LWF currently has 140
member churches in 78 countries all over the world, with a total membership of nearly 66 million. The LWF acts on behalf of its member churches in
areas of common interest such as ecumenical and inter-faith relations,
theology, humanitarian assistance, human rights, communication, and the
various aspects of mission and development work. Its secretariat is
located in Geneva, Switzerland.)

[Lutheran World Information (LWI) is the LWF's information service. Unless
specifically noted, material presented does not represent positions or
opinions of the LWF or of its various units. Where the dateline of an
article contains the notation (LWI), the material may be freely reproduced
with acknowledgment.]

*	*	*

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