wfn.org | Americans, West Africans Join Feet In New York City Crop Walk

["Church World Service News" <nccc_usa@ncccusa.org>]

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

AMERICANS, WEST AFRICANS JOIN FEET IN NEW YORK CITY CROPWALK

March 9, 2003, NEW YORK CITY - Eight church leaders from West Africa and
some 200 New Yorkers joined feet in the third annual Manhattan CROP WALK
fund raiser today to help the global humanitarian agency Church World
Service fight hunger in the United States and around the world.

For the New Yorkers, the West Africans helped put a human face on hunger
as they talked about the poverty and conflict that trouble their region and
their continent.  The West Africans, for their part, expressed appreciation
for these Americans commitment to help people in need.

The Manhattan event is one of 2,500 CROP WALKS organized every year by local
communities across the United States, which together raise between $16
million and $23 million.  One-fourth of funds benefit local hunger-fighting
projects; the rest is used to meet needs in the more than 80 countries in
which Church World Service works.

CWS works in partnership with churches, councils of churches and other
organizations to use the resources where they are most needed.	Thats what
I really appreciate about the CROP WALK, said Ena Malone, a walker from
Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church.  We send the money to local partners who
know best how to address the particular problems where they live.

The nine-member West Africa delegation (including one member who will arrive
mid-week) is in the United States March 6-20 by invitation of Church World
Service for an intensive schedule of consultations with the United Nations,
U.S. government and U.S. church leaders.  Their schedule also includes many
encounters with local church people; most spoke at local church services and
forums this morning.

These ecumenical leaders from the Mano River Union countries of Liberia,
Guinea, Sierra Leone along with delegates from The Gambia and Ghana are
seeking to mobilize support for a resolution of civil conflict and poverty
in their region.

I have been told about the CROP WALKS, said Mr. Baffour Amoa, of Ghana, on
Sunday.  I am walking on behalf of all the people who have benefited over
the years, in gratitude to the people of America for giving their time and
energy to the less fortunate.  I am here to give a face to the millions who
benefit from CROP WALK.

Addressing Manhattan CROP WALKERS at the post-walk celebration, he said, I
have learned something.  I had no idea of the effort others put in the sake
of those who are deprived in our part of the world.  This is a time of
thanksgiving for us.  Thank you for your sacrifice.  So many lives get
touched and saved because you walk.

Mr. Amoa is Secretary General of the Fellowship of Churches and Councils in
West Africa, a regional body comprising seven national Christian councils
and five other churches.  The other West African delegation of three women
and six men represent national ecumenical bodies.

We are especially humbled to have two Anglican bishops with us, from
Guinea and The Gambia, said walker Kendall Haynes, a Master of Divinity
student at General (Episcopal) Theological Seminary in New York City.

Mr. Haynes raised $1,164 from fellow students by making pledge cards, going
table to table in the seminary refectory and just stating an expectation.
If future priests cant provide a model of stewardship, were a sinking
ship, he said.

The root of war, Mr. Haynes said, is who has power over the resources.
Whoever is for peace is for elimination of world hunger.  God isnt an idea.
Support isnt an idea.	Our support is tangible.  Thats what I appreciate
about CWS CROP WALK.

The 200 walkers from at least 20 churches and two schools started at the
Church of the Heavenly Rest (Episcopal) and walked south down Fifth Avenue
along Riverside Park two miles to Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church.  The
weather cooperated by reaching 51 degrees under a bright sun, with
temperatures that started to drop only after the walk had ended.

Many teens participated.  Shivonne Beverley-Burgess, 12, was walking in her
second CROP WALK.  Im totally into church, said Ms. Beverley-Burgess, a
member of the Church of the Heavenly Rest.  This churchs purpose is to
help other people.  The kids sing at nursing homes and feed the homeless.  I
am walking because I want to stop hunger.

Sarah and Ned Gannon with their three-month-old son, Eliot (the walks
youngest CROP rider), said six members of their small-group Bible study at
Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church walked in todays CROP WALK.  Said Sara,
We have a Christian responsibility to help people who have less than we
 do.  Said Ned, Its such an easy thing to do for such a good cause.

Park Avenue Christian Church, a Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)
congregation, participated in the Manhattan CROP WALK for the first time
this year.  Member Alice Crider said,. Im walking because I believe in
helping however you can.  This is one way of doing it.	I certainly dont
believe in war.  Echoed Chris Crowe, also from Park Avenue Christian
Church, We have so much and so many people have so little.  Its the right
thing to do to be supportive of it.

The Rev. Carol Fryer from St. Peters Lutheran Church, Chairperson of the
Manhattan CROP WALK, said her first CROP WALK was in the mid-1980s in rural
Pennsylvania.  It was a 10-mile walk and she was seven months pregnant.  It
was a memorable experience, she said.	She has been involved with the
Manhattan CROP WALK since it started.

Among local beneficiaries of CROP WALK funds is St. Peters breakfast
program, which feeds 100 to 200 homeless people every Tuesday.	I believe
in Church World Service, the Rev. Fryer said.	They do great work.  The
staff are wonderful, and I trust them, that they care about people all over
the world and do the best they can to help people in desperate situations.

The Rev. John L. McCullough, Church World Service Executive Director,
participated in todays CROP WALK.  At the closing celebration, he
emphasized the importance of the walkers contribution.

How many of you in this room has two dollars? he asked those assembled.
All hands shot up.  How many have been able to do everything you needed to
do today on less than two dollars?  No one raised a hand.

2.8 billion people in the world live on less than $2 a day, the Rev.
McCullough reminded his audience.  He continued, speaking of the 113 million
primary school-aged children who cant go to school, one billion people who
lack access to clean drinking water, two billion without adequate sanitation
out of the worlds four billion population.

These are some of the reasons we walk, he said.  You are walking in
solidarity with billions around the world who should have opportunity to
enjoy life in the same kinds of ways as we do.

Along the course of the two-mile CROP WALK, passers-by expressed curiosity,
asking, Are you protesting something?  Walkers responded by stopping to
talk and offering flyers explaining the CROP WALK.  Commented Ena Malone
from Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church, The CROP WALK offers the perfect
combination, raising both money and awareness.

-end-

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