UTO Announces Latest Grants
Episcopal News Service. August 22, 1996 [96-1546O]
(ENS) The United Thank Offering (UTO) committee recently announced that it has awarded a total of $2,704,195.52 in grants for the year 1996. Of 131 grants, 101 were made to 85 dioceses in the Episcopal Church, and the remaining 24 were made to 21 provinces or dioceses in the Anglican Communion. The grants are for a wide variety of purposes, including a religious education syllabus for the entire school system of Papua New Guinea, an increase in housing for single and married students at a theological college in Zaire, and a plan to help Sudanese refugees regain self-sufficiency through a goat restocking plan. Churches in Eastern Oregon, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New York, Northwestern Pennsylvania and Springfield will become accessible to physically handicapped people, as will a health clinic in Idaho. Refugees in Fond du Lac, Guatemala, Western New York and San Diego will benefit from the recent grants. Among the largest grants, $60,000 went to a diocese in Kenya that is building a women's employment and lifeskills training center, and $60,000 was granted to a diocese in Rwanda, to help build a diocesan center in a remote rural area severely affected by the war.