Presiding Bishop's Fund Awards $445,924 in Grants
Episcopal News Service. February 22, 1979 [79047]
Greenwich, Conn. -- A nutrition program in Honduras, an on-the-job training program in the Solomon Islands, and a vegetable farming project in rural Kentucky were among projects receiving grants from the Presiding Bishop's Fund for World Relief at the Fund's Board of Directors' meeting, held here Feb. 12-13. The Board met immediately prior to the regular quarterly meeting of the Executive Council of the Episcopal Church.
The Meals for Million Foundation received a $20,000 grant for its applied nutrition program in Olancho, Honduras. Poor health and nutrition -- especially among the young -- are major problems in this remote farming region. The Meals for Millions program is working to improve conditions through nutrition education and the development of high protein food products which local residents can produce themselves.
A grant of $29,356 was given to the Foundation for Peoples of the South Pacific for the Kamaosi On-the-Job Training Project in the Solomon Islands. This program is developing local industry through the establishment of a sawmill in which 20 students per year will receive training in lumbering and construction.
The Barwick Community Garden Project at Altro, Ky., provides low-income families with seeds and materials to grow and preserve vegetables and to construct and operate community greenhouses. This program, sponsored by the Appalachian Peoples Service Organization (APSO), received a grant of $6,300 from the Presiding Bishop's Fund.
Other grants made by the 18-member board included:
Church of the Province of Kenya -- $66,500 to provide pastoral are for refugees who have fled to Kenya from several neighboring countries. This grant represents second-year funding and is part of the Presiding Bishop's Fund's All Africa Refugee Appeal.
Church of South India -- $20,000 to establish a rural technology center at Madras. The center will identify and field test appropriate agricultural techniques and train local residents in their use. This project is co-sponsored by the Diocese of the Rio Grande, Madras' American companion diocese.
Diocese of Los Angeles -- $10,000 in staff support for the Los Ninos Hunger Project. This program, sponsored by St. Luke's Church, Long Beach, feeds hungry children across the border in Tijuana, Mexico. Los Ninos fed more than 80,000 children in 1978 and plans to expand its ministry through work with parishes in other border communities.
Appalachian Peoples Service Organization -- $10,000 to assist the Ohio Youth Emergency Relief Network, training young people to operate communication and pastoral-counseling programs for victims of natural disasters. The Kentucky and Ohio Valleys are prone to repeated heavy rainfall and flooding.
Christian Community Services -- $3,500 for the San Luis Valley (Colo.) Food Resources Project, to provide food supplies and consumer education for the poor.
Agricultural Missions, Inc. -- $17,500 for the Agricultural Training Program for Farmer-Leaders, Quito, Ecuador. The project will improve technology for small producers, increase production, and enhance nutrition.
Community Care, Inc., Columbia, S.C. -- $12,210 for the Care Givers Development Project, a pilot program aimed at establishing a national network of family support systems to improve care for the disabled elderly.
Diocese of New York -- $6,000 for the Relief Center at St. Anne's Church, South Bronx, to provide emergency relief to families and individuals left homeless as a result of fires and severe winter conditions.
Project Return, Pasadena Calif. -- $25,000 in scholarship aid for Ugandan Anglican refugee students enrolled in universities and colleges in the Kansas area.
Agricultural Teams, Inc. -- $80,058 for scientific farming projects to produce high-protein food in Jamaica and Antigua, in cooperation with the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture in Nigeria. This grant was made from a special $911,000 gift from the Diocese of Rochester and will be disbursed over a three-year period.
Tri-State Media Ministry of New York, New Jersey and Connecticut -- $19,000 to assist in the production of six half-hour television programs on hunger-related problems in urban America.
Oxfam-- $52,000, payable over two years, for a radio extension education project in Cochabamba, Bolivia, to help local farmers improve marketing conditions for their produce.
South Africa Council of Churches -- $10,000 to the Asingeni Relief Fund and $10,000 to the Dependents' Conference Fund. Both programs provide legal assistance for political detainees. These grants were channeled through Church World Service.
A special appropriation of $75,000 was made from the Rochester Gift for the production of a film about the work and ministry of the Presiding Bishop's Fund. The film, the first in many years about the Fund, will be premiered at the Episcopal Church's General Convention in Denver, Colo., in September. It will then be available as an educational and promotional tool for use in parishes and dioceses.
In addition to production ideas for the film, the Board discussed plans for a special Convention concert by folk singer John Denver. The concert will be sponsored by the Episcopal Church's National Hunger Committee, and proceeds will go to the Presiding Bishop's Fund.
In other business, the Rev. Samir J. Habiby, Executive Director of the Fund, reported that the second phase of the Episcopal Church's Consultation on Immigration and Refugee Concerns will be held in Dallas in early June. The consultations are planned and sponsored by a special Ad Hoc Committee convened in response to a resolution passed by the Executive Council in 1978. The Rev. Canon Oliver B. Garver, Jr., Diocese of Los Angeles, has served as convener for the consultations.
Mrs. Isis Brown, Refugee and Immigration Program Officer for the Fund, reported that the Episcopal Church assisted in the resettlement of 811 refugees in 1978, including persons from Indochina, Rumania, Armenia, Yugoslavia, Iraq and Ethiopia. Mrs. Brown noted that since its inception in 1949, the Fund's refugee resettlement program has found new homes in the U.S. for more than 43,000 refugees.