Relief Grants Approved by Presiding Bishop's Fund Board
Diocesan Press Service. October 6, 1975 [75342]
NEW YORK, N.Y. -- The board of the Presiding Bishop's Fund for World Relief of the Episcopal Church has announced the funding of three projects from the Diocese of Rochester bequest which was received by the board last spring.
Delegates to the annual convention of the Episcopal Diocese of Rochester (N. Y.) voted in November, 1974, to turn over the residual bequest of some $950,000 from the Margaret Woodbury Strong Fund to the national church "for relief of the disaster stricken of the world, through the Presiding Bishop's Fund for World Relief and by such other means as are deemed appropriate to that end. "
Projects aided from the Rochester fund are in Costa Rica, Ghana, and Kenya. The Costa Rica project approved for funding is the San Carlos Farming Project, a five- year program, in the amount of $42,300. The Dioceses of Rochester and Costa Rica have a Companion Relationship, and Bishop Robert R. Spears of Rochester and Bishop J. Antonio Ramos of Costa Rica are consultants to the board on the use of the money.
The Ghana project funded from the Rochester gift was for agricultural extension work, in the amount of $12,000. The Maasai Rural Training Center in Kenya was given $15,000 from the gift fund.
The board also approved additional support for the Executive Council's Hunger Task Force, to December 31, in the amount of $13,600, with another $10,000 available for the Task Force if needed.
The board awarded grants to three projects in Latin America: $14,000 for the drought relief work of Robert Ayers & Brothers, in Honduras, subject to Church World Service (CWS) approval; $5,000 for an emergency grant for drought relief in Nicaragua through CWS; and $64,700 for the funding of a Ponce, Puerto Rico agricultural project.
A grant of $18,000 was approved for an additional shipment of wheat to India, through CWS.
A grant of $20,000 was made by the board to the Philippine Episcopal Church/ Philippine Independent Church rehabilitation and development program.
The board approved two grants in the Sudan: $46, 000 for rehabilitation and development, and $54,000 for church reconstruction. A grant of $3,000 was made for orphan relief made necessary by internal strife in Lebanon.
A grant of $4,000 was approved for the Vietnamese American Association in Seattle, Wash., for its refugee resettlement and community development programs. The board approved the appointment of an ad hoc committee of two board members and two additional persons to study the funding request from the Commission for the Church's Participation in Development, with a report to be made to the board's executive committee.
As of August 31, receipts for the Presiding Bishop's Fund for World Relief amounted to $2,410,348.33, more than double the amount of all of 1974.