wfn.org | SDOP Visits Participating Projects in Charleston, S.C.

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9-June-1997 
97226 
 
                   Self-Development of People  
         Visits Participating Projects in Charleston, S.C. 
 
                         by Julian Shipp 
 
CHARLESTON, S.C.--During its May 16-17 meeting here, the national 
Presbyterian Committee on the Self-Development of People (SDOP) visited the 
participating projects of South Carolina Sea Island Small Farmers 
Cooperative and Wadmalaw Island. The committee also visited inner-city 
Charleston and Rural Mission, Inc.-- two  projects that could receive 
funding from SDOP in the future. 
 
     Divided into three groups, the visits were made in accordance with 
SDOP's requirements for service, which demand considerable time and energy 
from its 31 committee members. Annually, there is a minimum of six SDOP 
national committee and task force meetings, as well as subcommittee 
meetings and site visits to communities from which proposals for funding 
come. 
 
     The South Task Force of the Self-Development of People held a workshop 
May 15 to provide information about SDOP's ministry. The workshop was held 
at Second Presbyterian Church in Charleston, S.C. More than 50 people 
attended the meeting in order to learn more about SDOP and see whether 
their community organizations might qualify for SDOP funding.  
 
     "The workshop allowed for a lot of interaction as participants learned 
about SDOP's criteria for funding," said Paul Whong of Baltimore, SDOP 
South Task Force chair. "The participants included community groups from 
the Sea Islands south of Charleston, rural groups, and urban projects from 
Charleston." 
 
     Organized by the 182nd General Assembly (1970) of the former United 
Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A., SDOP is a ministry that works to empower 
poor, oppressed and disadvantaged people who are seeking to change the 
structures that perpetuate poverty, oppression and injustice. 
 
       South Carolina Sea Island Small Farmers Cooperative 
 
     The rural areas south and west of Charleston have traditionally been 
farmed by people of African descent who have worked the land since before 
the Civil War. Poverty abounds. However, like much of the South Carolina 
coast, the area is now being developed for vacations and tourism. 
 
     The families who own small farms in these areas are being pressed to 
sell their land for development and move elsewhere. In addition, the area 
was directly in the path of Hurricane Hugo when it came ashore in September 
1989. Two buildings of the South Carolina Sea Island Small Farmers 
Cooperative, composed of roughly 75 farmers and their families, were 
completely destroyed. Moreover, the cooperative's packing and grading shed 
was severely damaged.  
 
     Some aid has come from state and federal agencies, but the co-op needs 
an additional $15,000 to fund repairs to its remaining buildings. But the 
cooperative has also requested $50,000 from SDOP for a revolving or "buy 
fund," which will allow the members to be able to be paid for their produce 
in the same manner as commercial vegetable sheds, which buy at a much lower 
price than the grocery chains in urban areas. 
 
     If approved for funding by SDOP, evaluation of the project will be 
made by the co-op board, consulting with state and private agencies with 
experience in farming cooperatives. 
                                  
                       Rural Mission, Inc. 
 
     Rural Mission, Inc., is an ecumenical nonprofit organization providing 
human services to low-income Sea Island families and migrant farmworker 
families. 
 
     Rural Mission was founded in 1969 to foster, promote and minister to 
the spiritual, economic, social, education, medical, and housing needs of 
five Charleston County islands: Johns, James, Wadmalaw, Yonges and Edisto. 
Today, Rural Mission serves all but James Island. 
 
     Since its inception, Rural Mission has fostered many programs and 
services that have improved the quality of life for Sea Island residents. 
These include the Sea Island Comprehensive Health Care Corporation, Johns 
Island Rural Housing Project, the Remedial Reading Program and the Sea 
Island Quilting Project. 
 
     This year, Rural Mission received $200,000 from the Presbyterian 
Women's Birthday Offering.  The Birthday Offering receives proposals from 
all over the country and Rural Mission was one of three agencies selected 
as recipients of the fund. 
 
     Dorothy Loyer, an SDOP Committee member from Eckert, Colo., said her 
group also visited Wadmalaw Island, a community once used as a haven for 
runaway slaves, 15 miles west of Charleston and surrounded by Edisto, Johns 
and Yonges Islands.  
 
      Loyer said the only industry on the island is a variety of truck 
farming and the shrimp boat business. She said about 46 percent of this 
rural community is impoverished and largely out of touch with the 
developments and amenities of adjacent areas. 
 
     "We visited the Wadmalaw Group Community Center," Loyer said. "This 
was an SDOP project funded in 1978 and was a very successful one developing 
from a trailer into a large cinder-block building which serves the whole 
island as a meeting place for seniors to youth of all ages." 
 
     Following the site visits, SDOP Committee members gathered at Rural 
Mission, Inc., for a seafood dinner prepared by the mission staff and 
volunteers. 
 
        Charleston Area Community Development Corporation 
 
      SDOP Committee members also visited the Charleston Area Community 
Development Corporation, Inc. (CDC), a resident-controlled economic 
development organization chartered since 1994 to support low- to 
moderate-income neighborhoods. 
 
     In 1995, the CDC, in partnership with eight neighborhood 
organizations, prepared a strategic plan outlining the types of programs 
and projects the CDC would implement over a five-year period to support 
economic development in the neighborhoods. 
 
     One of the five recommended programs in the strategic plan was a 
home-repair subcontractor enterprise designed to rehabilitate houses and 
revitalize neighborhoods. 
 
     "Members and staff of Self-Development of People visited several of 
the 10 homes in inner-city Charleston which the group has rehabilitated," 
said Cynthia E. White, SDOP associate for program development of 
Louisville, Ky. 
 
     In addition to rehabilitating the houses, White said, the CDC has 
trained 19 community residents in home repair. 

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