Episcopal Press and News
Agricultural and Refugee Programs Among PB Fund Grant Recipients
Episcopal News Service. May 15, 1980 [80182]
New York -- An agricultural development project in the Diocese of Northern Argentina and refugee programs in Zimbabwe and Somalia were among recent recipients of grants from the Episcopal Church's Presiding Bishop's Fund for World Relief. The Fund's 22-member Board of Directors, meeting here May 5-7, also awarded grants to a variety of refugee, development and hunger-fighting programs in locations ranging from New York City's East Harlem to remote areas of the Philippines.
The Diocese of Northern Argentina received a $43,550 grant for its Iniciativa Cristiana community development project in the Argentine Chaco. The program will provide immediate cash-crop income to 40 families in the Pilcomayo River area through the production and sale of cotton. This area of Argentina is particularly isolated and suffers from diminished natural resources and a chronic lack of employment opportunities. Two years of experimentation and crop cultivation have shown that cotton can be a viable cash crop for the indigenous Indians of the area. Most of these families are currently living below subsistence level.
A grant of $10,000 was made to the World Council of Churches' appeal for reconstruction and resettlement of displaced persons in Zimbabwe, in the wake of that nation's decade of civil war.
Somalia received $20,000 to aid refugees from neighboring Ethiopia. An estimated 2.2 million people have fled Ethiopia, and well over one million have moved into Somalia. The Fund's grant is part of a $120 million appeal made by the Somali government through the United Nations High Commission for Refugees.
The Anglican Church of Uganda received a $70,000 grant for the spiritual renewal and moral rehabilitation programs of its Committee on Relief and Reconstruction. The Church of Uganda is spearheading relief and reconstruction efforts for church and nation in the aftermath of Idi Amin's dictatorship. This grant brings the Presiding Bishop's Fund aid to Uganda to a total of $150,000.
The grants to Zimbabwe, Somalia and Uganda represent the first $100,000 received from the Diocese of Southeast Florida as part of their $1 million Venture in Mission pledge for the work of the Fund.
Other grants made by the Board include:
- Diocese of New York -- $5,000 for the East Harlem Interfaith Hunger Project. This ecumenically sponsored program works to reduce malnutrition and hunger in Harlem by upgrading social services, mobilizing local clergy, documenting needy cases, and raising public awareness about the problems in one of the poorest neighborhoods in New York City.
- St. Augustine's Parish, Santa Monica, Calif. -- $6,000 for the parish's Social Outreach Project. The project serves as a catalyst for local church and campus groups concerned about hunger issues and community service. The project hopes to expand its work in the next two years to educate people about Christian responses to hunger and initiate hunger programs in churches and schools.
CODEL (Coordination in Development), a consortium of religious and secular agencies, received two grants for projects in the Philippines:
- Development of Indigenous Tribal/Filipino Alliances -- $5,763 for use over a twoyear period. This program will enable 30 tribes on the island of Mindanao to organize themselves and become active participants in programs geared toward greater economic self-sufficiency. These native tribes are among the poorest inhabitants of the Philippines.
- Integrated Agricultural Development Program for Cultural Minorities -- $5,000, as first-year funding of a three-year grant. This program trains tribal groups in the North to increase rice production, develop small scale multi-crop gardens, and obtain title to land holdings.
- Franciscan Communications Center, Los Angeles -- $5,000 toward the production of a five-part film strip, "The Gift of Land. " This educational series, for use by church and community groups, will focus on the issues of land use, values and lifestyles and will address the problem of global degradation and destruction of land.
APSO, the Appalachian Peoples Service Organization, received four grants for its work in depressed areas of the eastern U. S.:
- Prairie Community Center, Prairie Point, Miss. -- $3,000 for the Center's feeding and crafts program with the Black elderly; youth-cooperative enterprise; and daycare center for working mothers of pre-school children.
- Mountain Management Institute, Larkslane, Ky. -- $7,500 for training residents of central Appalachia in the development of garden co-operatives, credit unions, and general management skills.
- Dickenson County Citizens for Social and Economic Justice, Clintwood, Va. -- $4,000 to support organizational efforts aimed at improving local economy and diet through garden co-ops and marketing; increasing the availability of county school bus service; increasing the use of federal breakfast programs; and improving the quality and availability of the local water supply.
- Buchanan County Citizens for Social and Economic Justice, Whitewood, Va. -- $4,000 for support of community gardening cooperative and food storage program.
- Province IX of the Episcopal Church (Central America) -- $12,100 to support the engineering ministry of Connie Fisher. Mr. Fisher, working through the provincial Social Betterment Committee, evaluates, designs and supervises building projects throughout the Province. He is currently at work on the 50-unit Santana Housing Project in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. The Fund's grant is for six months, and will be renewed for the final half of 1980 pending a regular review.
- World Hunger Education Service, Washington, D.C. -- $8,000 to support research, production, and ecumenical use of Hunger Notes in 1981. Hunger Notes is a monthly ecumenical publication which deals with the underlying issues and causes of hunger and poverty in various parts of the world.
- Diocese of Olympia -- $7,200 for diocesan refugee resettlement and parish sponsorship program, finding new homes for Indochinese refugees.
- Diocese of Maryland -- $20,000 to support the establishment of a diocesan resettlement office for Indochinese refugees. The new office will work closely with the neighboring dioceses of Washington (D.C.) and Easton (Md.) in handling cases and recruiting parish sponsors. The Washington-Maryland area has a large population of new refugee arrivals.
- St. Nicholas Church. Los Angeles -- $5,000 to support the parish's English Second Language Mobile Classroom, providing language skills training to Indochinese refugees and Korean immigrants.
- World Mission Scholarship Office, Episcopal Church Center -- $50,000 in scholarship support for refugees who have been resettled in the United States. At least half of this amount will be used specifically for vocational and technical education and for re-training courses for skilled refugees (such as doctors or electricians) who must be certified before they can accept employment in this country. Scholarship grants will be administered through the Office of World Mission in Church and Society at the Episcopal Church Center in New York.
- Diocese of Southeast Florida -- $5,000 to Holy Cross Parish, Miami, to provide temporary housing for Haitian refugees; and $12,140 to the Christian Community Service Agency for resettlement and sponsorship recruitment for Haitian refugees.
- Diocese of Louisiana -- $40,000 to support a refugee center in New Orleans which will provide direct aid and resettlement services for refugees from Cuba, El Salvador and Nicaragua.
In other actions, the Board:
- Heard a report from the Rev. Samir J. Habiby, director of the Presiding Bishop's Fund, on the Cambodia relief appeal. Father Habiby reported that as of March 31 Episcopalians had contributed $930,867 to the Fund to combat starvation and disease in Cambodia, and that as of April 30 $916,500 of this amount had been disbursed to the various ecumenical and secular relief agencies through which the Episcopal Church and other denominations are working.
- Ratified the one-year appointment of Mr. and Mrs. John C. Goodbody as network officer and associate network officer for the Presiding Bishop's Fund, effective June 1. The Goodbodys will develop the Fund's network of diocesan representatives and will produce special materials for network training and leadership use. Mr. Goodbody will retire June 1 as Executive for Communication at the Episcopal Church Center. Mrs. Goodbody, Coordinator for program and administration of the Westchester Mental Health Association, will also retire at that time. They will operate the network office from their new home in South Carolina.
- Heard a report from Marion E. Morey, assistant director of the Fund, comparing first-quarter giving to the Fund in 1979 and 1980. Miss Morey noted that increased giving to the general work of the Fund, coupled with response to special appeals such as Cambodia, had resulted in a $626,788 increase in contributions during the first three months of this year -- a jump of 167 percent over the same period in 1979.
- Welcomed Lloyd I. Jones to the Fund's staff as refugee sponsorship development resettlement officer. Mr. Jones was previously a personnel officer at the Episcopal Church Center.
- Heard a report from Mrs. Marnie Dawson, assistant director for migration affairs, on the Fund-sponsored flights of Cuban refugees from Havana to the U.S. Mrs. Dawson said that as of May 5 a total of 689 Cubans had been flown to Miami on specially chartered planes sponsored by the Presiding Bishop's Fund.
- Supported the use of special Presidential authority to admit and grant refugee status to Haitians. Presiding Bishop John M. Allin and Bishop Calvin O. Schofield of Southeast Florida had previously sent telegrams to the White House urging President Carter to use such authority.
