Episcopal Press and News
Presiding Bishop's Fund Makes Grants of $247,495
Episcopal News Service. December 20, 1979 [79397]
GREENWICH, Conn. -- The board of the Episcopal Church's Presiding Bishop's Fund for World Relief awarded grants totalling nearly a quarter of a million dollars for various development, hunger-fighting and refugee programs, and heard that the Episcopal Church now leads Church World Service denominations in refugee resettlement efforts. Church World Service is the relief arm of the National Council of Churches.
The Board convened here December 9-11, immediately prior to the regular meeting of the Executive Council of the Episcopal Church.
Mrs. Isis Brown, refugee and immigration program officer for the Presiding Bishop's Fund, reported that the Episcopal Church had surpassed its stated goal of resettling 3,000 refugees in 1979 and now ranks first among the member denominations of Church World Service, having handled 20.5 percent of all Church World Service cases this year. Mrs. Brown said that as of December 1 the Episcopal Church, working through the Fund, had sponsored 3,849 refugees from Indochina and other parts of the world. She added that she expects this figure to top 4,000 by December 31.
Mrs. Brown said that in 1980 the Fund will work toward a goal of resettling 5,000 to 6,000 refugees.
The board made two refugee-related grants totalling $33,550. The Diocese of Olympia received $23,550 for its refugee resettlement program. The grant will enable this highly successful program to recruit additional refugee sponsors, encourage those who are already sponsors to resettle additional persons, and provide direct assistance to both refugees and sponsors.
The Diocese of Matabeleland, Rhodesia, was awarded $10,000 for the Food Program for Children at St. Martin's Primary School, Que Que, Rhodesia. Many schools in the area have been shut down because of the recent civil war, and more than 200 children are now crowding into St. Martin's. The food program, funded from the Presiding Bishop's Fund's All Africa Refugee Appeal, will provide hot soup and other foods for the children.
The largest single grant made by the 18-member board was in the amount of $75,000 for the St. John's Opthalmic Hospital in Jerusalem. St. John's is the only hospital in the Jerusalem area which specializes in opthalmic medicine. There is a very high incidence of eye disease in the Middle East, a large percentage of which results from poor hygiene and lack of education about personal cleanliness.
Medical treatment is only a partial solution. The grant to St. John's will be used to train 100 Arabic-speaking nurses as community health care workers who will conduct training programs in outlying villages to attack the disease problem at its source. This grant was disbursed from a special $911,000 gift to the Presiding Bishop's Fund from the Diocese of Rochester.
Other grants were made to:
- Utah: Utahans Against Hunger, Salt Lake City -- $10,000 to combat hunger and malnutrition among poor and elderly Indians through enlistment in Food Stamp programs.
- Ecuador -- $24,533 for expansion of an Indian agricultural project sponsored by International Voluntary Services, Inc., and the Episcopal Church. This program, begun in 1975 with help from the Presiding Bishop's Fund, is aimed at raising living standards among local farmers through improved agricultural techniques. The program also includes a youth apprenticeship project.
- Haiti -- $10,000 for the purchase of nine pregnant Jersey cows and six large donkeys as foundation stock for a pilot farm project. This program, funded through Heifer Project International, will improve economic and nutrition levels among the rural poor through training in livestock breeding and the establishment of a dairy farm.
- New Jersey -- Global Learning Hunger Program, Montclair -- $2,500 to help establish a model hunger-awareness education program working through local churches and schools.
- Diocese of the Northern Philippines -- $30,000 to support the diocese's Integrated Pilot Farm Project, a land development and agricultural demonstration center for tribal settlers. The program, which represents another step toward self-sufficiency for the diocese, focuses on the production of cattle, rice, coffee, coconut and cacao.
- Diocese of the Southern Philippines -- $5,000 for the diocese's Vegetable Garden Project. This training program, which will begin with 40 families, will supplement the area's usual rice and corn production with the planting of different kinds of seeds, the use of fertilizers, and appropriate training.
- Diocese of New Hebrides, Anglican Church of Melanesia -- $12,412 for an agricultural project at St. Patrick's Farm School, New Hebrides. The program works to alleviate rural unemployment and improve agriculture through the expansion of gardens, pasture areas and forestry plots and the increase of cattle herds. The Presiding Bishop's Fund grant will be used to purchase necessary equipment: a water tank, a tractor, a trailer and a cultivator.
- Diocese of Nairobi, Kenya -- $1,000 for a CORAT study of the Maasai Rural Training Center, south of Nairobi. CORAT, the Christian Organizations Research and Advisory Trust of Africa, will evaluate this agriculture and health program.
- Diocese of Lexington, Ky. -- $10,000 to the housing program sponsored by the Knott County Citizens for Social and Equal Opportunity, Hindman, Ky. Since 1978 this program has provided information and assistance in finding adequate housing for lowincome residents of this strip-mining area of the state. The project builds new homes and repairs older dwellings.
- Diocese of Kumasi, Ghana, West Africa -- $17,000 for an 8-speed tractor for use at an agricultural school currently under construction. The tractor will be sent when the school building and dormitory are completed.
- Diocese of Southern Ohio -- $9,500 toward support of the East End Community Learning Center, Cincinnati. There are no junior or senior high schools and few public or commercial services in Cincinnati's depressed East End. This program will strengthen the Center's adult education program and support vocational training classes by training six community residents to act as staff.
- Washington, D.C. -- $7,000 for support of the Infant Nutrition Project, sponsored by the Washington Interfaith Conference Hunger Task Force. For every 100 Washington-born babies who live, 25 babies die before their first birthday. In response to the recognized need for accurate data on infant nutrition and health, the project will gather data on the use of artificial infant formula in local hospitals. This grant was disbursed from the Diocese of Rochester gift.