wfn.org | ABCUSA: WORLD RELIEF FUNDING

[RICH.SCHRAMM@ecunet.org]

AMERICAN BAPTIST NEWS SERVICE 
Office of Communication  
American Baptist Churches USA 
P.O. Box 851, Valley Forge, PA 19482-0851 
Phone: (610)768-2077 / Fax: (610)768-2320 
Web: www.abc-usa.org
Richard W. Schramm, Director 
 E-mail: richard.schramm@abc-usa.org

WORLD RELIEF COMMITTEE APPROVES FUNDS 
FOR PROGRAMS AND PROJECTS
 CHERRY HILL, N.J.--In semiannual meetings here Nov. 16 
the American Baptist Churches' World Relief Committee voted 
to fund dozens of programs and projects within the U.S. and 
overseas. 
 The committee establishes policy for distribution of 
funds from the One Great Hour of Sharing Offering.  In what 
World Relief Officer Charles Sydnor called "an historic 
meeting," the World Relief Committee spent part of its time 
in a joint planning session with the American Baptist 
Committee on Christian Unity considering ecumenical 
opportunities for relief and development work.  The 
Committee on Christian Unity is considering proposing that 
the World Relief Committee fund the National Association of 
Evangelical's World Relief, committed to "alleviating human 
suffering worldwide in the name of Christ."  American 
Baptist Churches USA is an official NAE observer. 
 Among numerous overseas endeavors funded by the 
committee were: a wide-ranging development project helping 
the nomadic Bede people of Bangladesh ($15,000); economic 
development by Chilean Baptists in Chile's Mapuche region 
($15,000); medical assistance to Baptists in eastern Cuba 
($25,000); health ministries support in the Dominican 
Republic ($18,000) and in Haiti ($16,000); numerous health, 
agricultural and social program ministries in India, 
including technical and vocational training in Balasore 
($15,000) and a fishery project in Arunachal ($13,000); a 
Christian education project/economic development in Poland 
($23,000); economic empowerment/development at the Thusong 
Training Center in South Africa ($40,000); a ministry for 
street children in Estonia ($18,887); rehabilitation work in 
Mozambique $20,000); flood relief ministries in North Korea 
($20,000); agricultural cooperatives benefitting widows and 
orphans in Rwanda ($22,966); a vocational training center in 
Tanzania ($20,847); an AIDS education project in Uganda 
($44,438); and a Christian home for orphans in the Ukraine 
($31,108).
 Within the U.S. a number of projects and programs were 
funded, including: the Disaster News Network Website 
($10,000); a cooperative community center ministry involving 
the Edna Martin Christian Center in Indianapolis ($20,000); 
the LeRoy, N.Y., Christian Community Project After School 
Program ($10,000); and the Nueva Esperanza Center for Higher 
Education in Philadelphia ($90,000 over three years).

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