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PRHeSS ARTICLES

FWA's Overseas Ministry Strives

The First Wesley Academy United Methodist Church sponsored overseas ministry, the Pan-African Rural Health & Social Services (PRHeSS) continues to change lives in South Suburban Chicagoland and in rural Sierra Leone, West Africa.

For three years this young ministry is committed to improving lives in every way possible. In 2010, the winter coat drive was implemented which yielded 10 boxed of winter coats and sweaters that were donated to the South Suburban Family Shelter in Homewood, Illinois. This ministry also conducts a free health fair during the summer in South Suburban Harvey, Illinois. During the health fair, blood pressure, diabetes and cholesterol levels are screened. We also conduct HIV testing and may do school physicals this year.

On the African front, residents of Fallay Wujah section of Rural Sierra Leone are going through life-changing experiences following the devastating effects of 11 years of civil war that led to shared hopelessness sweeping across the entire nation. This community is now gaining stability and reclaiming its dignity.

Hope for a better future is on the rise as PRHeSS/Operation Hope, relentlessly work to provide clean drinking water, school and medical supplies, decent toilet facilities and clothe the naked.

Our agricultural sector is feeding the hungry with well over 450 acres of cassava this year. Thanks to God for our farm tractor, we were able to cultivate 100 acres of rice in 2010. When we are blessed with another tractor we will feed well beyond the residents of this community.

We have expanded our effort to include poultry and vegetable farming project in our program so that we can provide balanced diet for residents.

In order to open employment opportunities for residents, the Johnnie Scott Career Academy admitted its first set of carpentry and masonry students as PRHeSS tailors education to the needs of the community. It is my prayer that young women will have the opportunity to learn dress making and designing in 2012 when we are blessed with sewing machines.

Starting from March of 2011, PRHeSS/Operation Hope will have a physician visit the community once every month and attend to the medical needs of the community as we prepare to construct the Hope Community Clinic in 2012.

Finally and the most exciting part of it all is that PRHeSS is no longer just feeding flesh and bones, but souls with the word of God. FWA UMC now has an international baby called Hope United Methodist Church. This young congregation also has a pre-school, Hope UMC School. The church and school need all the help that they can get as the Lord sees fit.

Thanks to a very effective board of directors, and the executives of PRHeSS. Special thanks to Rev. Dr. Darius Thomas, Rev. Penny Thomas, chair and secretary of the board respectively for their devotion to the cause. Special thanks to Sister Alyce White, secretary general, for her effective leadership role in the ministry. Thanks to Sister Lucille Kimbrough our P.R. Officer and thanks to the entire membership for a job well done.

A special thank you to Rev. Charles A. Woolery, Sr. Pastor FWA, ministerial board and the entire FWA congregation/family for their unending support. Mrs. Vickey Harmon, PRHeSS technical support and administrative assistant FWA a million thanks for your invaluable assistance.

Grace & Blessings

Sam C. Kormoi, M.D. (Founder)

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After years of prayers for hope, strength and direction to help the ailing world, an overseas aid ministry was birthed out of the First Wesley Academy United Methodist Church in Harvey, IL.

The founder, Samuel C. Kormoi, M.D., and his wife and co-founder, Mary Kormoi, B.A., R.N., of Homewood, IL, are devout Christians and members of First Wesley Academy UMC for the past 17 years.

While seeking answers and solutions to the problems of his civil-war ravaged homeland of Sierra Leone through altar prayers and supplications, Dr. Kormoi was inspired to found the Pan-African Rural Health and Social Services, commonly known as PRHeSS.  The organization was founded in July of 2007, and went into operation in March of 2008.

PRHeSS is a charitable, not for profit, 5o1(c)(3) organization whose members are blessed with a healthy sharing spirit.  They are thankful for God’s blessings and are ready to share the same with the “least of these.”

For the past two years PRHeSS has organized free health fairs for the local Harvey community.  The 2009 fair was upgraded to render more services with the help of their new partner, the Christian Community Health Center.  PRHeSS is a service organization whose members are able and willing to serve the general public and local organizations in whatever capacity they may request.

On the African front, PRHeSS is currently supporting a community farming project involving 10 villages in the Fallay Wujah section of Jong Chifdom, in the Bonthe District of Sierra Leone.  This effort is geared towards reducing hunger and promoting economic development in these communities.  This effort also aims at equal employment opportunities for both men and women that will surely diminish domestic violence and child abuse in most quarters.

PRHeSS provides school supplies for all boys and girls in these communities, thereby empowering the men and women of tomorrow through education.

PRHeSS is promoting good health in these communities by drilling water wells to supply clean drinking water, and constructing decent public toilets for the proper disposal of raw sewage.  By so doing, PRHeSS eliminates the common sources of preventable infectious disease processes.

PRHeSS supplies these communities with used and new clothes donated by members and supporters here in the United States shipped to Africa to clothe the naked. 

PRHeSS supports widows and orphanages.  It also provides short term vocational career training programs for youth to acquire needed skills in a growing local economy.

PRHeSS’s primary support comes from the congregation of First Wesley Academy UMC. and the young, energetic, and dynamic pastor, Rev, Charles A. Woolery, SR., who is a member of the board of directors of PRHeSS.  Many thanks to the pastor and laity of FWA UMC, as well as to retired UMC pastors Darius and Penny Thomas, chairman and secretary of the board of directors respectively.

Please remember to visit our web site at www.africanhopeanddignity.org to see how much blessing PRHeSS has been to both the American and African communities.  Through your generous tax deductible donations we can expand our positive influence and be a blessing to many more.  Donations can now be accepted at the web site.  Share your blessing today with those less fortunate than you. 

Sam C. Kormoi, M.D.
(founder, PRHeSS)

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