Archbishop's web site Denver Catholic Register Parishes Catholic Pastoral Center
January 9, 2002
Local couple's project takes hope to Africa
Lalmba, `world's smallest relief agency,' in 38th year
By Alwen Bledsoe
During the famine that struck Ethiopia in 1984 and 1985, Marty and Deacon Hugh Downey saw starvation shrivel children into walking sticks, nothing more than skin and bones. Many died within an hour of reaching refugee camps, remembered Marty. Others made it to evening or perhaps to the next morning. But Lalmba means place of hope, and the Downeys have spent their lives making sure hope pierces even these - the darkest moments in Africa.
For 38 years the couple has operated Lalmba, "the world's smallest relief agency." Though its mission has changed as Africa's needs evolve, its most meaningful job remains the same.
"I think probably the most important thing we bring is hope," said Hugh. "In the areas that we work in there's not much to be hopeful about."
Lalmba is located in Eritrea, Kenya, Ethiopia and formerly in Sudan. AIDS and wars have long devastated Africa. According to Catholic Relief Services, Sub-Saharan Africa, with only 10 percent of the world's population, is home to 70 percent of the world's HIV-positive cases and 95 percent of its AIDS orphans. Through the Downeys and their volunteer staff, some of the most affected areas have received, among other things, medicine, education and children's homes.
According to Hugh, "Africa is the best and the worst of everything you could imagine."
The couple loves to wake up in their tukal, or grass hut, where the birds' songs waft through the thin walls. They rave about the kindness of the African people. Then there's the perfect, always sunny, climate. But in their first year in Africa, the couple also lost their first child and buried friends killed in a civil war.
"Africa presented us with every good thing and every difficult thing at the same time," Hugh said.
Among the best of the "good things" is "having fun with the kids we raise and then meeting them years later when they're in their 30s and 40s," Marty added.
Now Lalmba considers these children its hope as well as the hope of Africa. Lalmba's medical clinics have tried to combat the scourge of AIDS in Africa for 15 years "with not even a modest amount of success," Hugh explained.
"Now we're putting a lot more of our efforts into the children of Africa," he added, referring to their program RCAR, Reaching Children at Risk.
"We've decided that's the best way to deal with the issue: raise children, educate children and let them change society."
On their most recent trip back to Africa, the Downeys authorized Lalmba's children's homes to take in 500 more AIDS orphans. When they return in February they hope to take in another 500.
It is difficult to estimate the number of children Lalmba currently cares for as new children arrive daily, Hugh explained. But it's certainly not the first time the couple has focused their efforts on the orphaned children of Africa.
In 1962, even before the official genesis of Lalmba, Hugh spent his spare time building schools and wells in Ethiopia where he was working in intelligence for the U.S. Army. Soon he began to care for the homeless boys who roamed the streets begging for food, water and money.
"Marty and I really believe that God puts opportunities into our lives, and it's how you respond to those opportunities that make you what you are," Hugh said. "So we choose to stop and pick people up along the road, so to speak."
Marty's desire to work in Africa began in fourth grade when a religious sister captured her imagination with her passionate geography lessons.
"I had never realized that there were people different than I was," she reminisced.
It was then that she decided to become a Catholic nun and work in Africa.
"I wasn't in favor of that part of the program," Hugh said of Marty's aspirations to the religious life. "I won," he added with a laugh.
In 1965 the high school sweethearts married, and Marty still found her way to Africa. The two honeymooned and made their home in Keren, Eritrea. And marriage certainly didn't slow their work in Africa. "When we got married we had 13 children," remembered Marty with a laugh. They also had two of their own: Keren, who is named after the town where she and her brother were born and raised, and Mikael. Apparently their upbringing rubbed off on them. Keren now works with abused children as a social worker in Adams County, and Mikael is stationed at Fort Carson in Colorado Springs as a medical staff sergeant in the medical corps. Hugh and Marty currently spend a total of about six months in Africa. The other six months they spend at their home in Arvada where Hugh serves as a deacon at nearby Spirit of Christ. But even their time here is devoted to Lalmba. "We operate the whole operation from our international headquarters," said Marty, pointing to their living room and an adjoining study laden with decorations from Africa. Much of their time is spent recruiting volunteers, and currently they're looking for a doctor to go to Ethiopia next year. Volunteers typically make a two-year commitment and receive round trip airfare, room and board, and life and health insurance, Marty said. Like the rest of the staff, Hugh and Marty volunteer their time. "Even though we've been doing it 38 years, we haven't been paid yet," Marty said. "We'll get paid some day," Hugh added, pointing heavenward and laughing. "Big time pay, you know? We're holding out for the big one." Already, though, they're reaping the rewards. "Marty and I are very blessed with being able to do this, to touch the lives of people," Hugh said. "Very, very few people have the opportunities we have, and so we just consider this a huge blessing." Marty and Hugh Downey can be reached at 303-420-1810, at Lalmba@aol.com, or at 7685 Quartz St., Arvada, CO 80007. Their website is www.lalmba.org.
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