wfn.org | SDOP Committee Funds 15 Projects Totaling $611,392

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28-January-1998 
98025 
 
    Self-Development of People Committee 
    Funds 15 Projects Totaling $611,392 
 
    by Julian Shipp 
 
BIRMINGHAM, Ala.-Meeting here Jan.16-17, the National Presbyterian 
Committee on the Self-Development of People (SDOP) approved funding for 15 
projects totaling $611,392. 
 
    The projects, which are funded by the One Great Hour of Sharing 
Offering, are 
 
    Keystone-Monon/Fall Creek Civic League Neighborhood, Indianapolis, 
Ind.-$30,000 for the acquisition of a community organizer to recruit 
members and committee leaders, establish a community building committee, 
conduct housing surveys and connect residents with resources. 
 
    Sunflower Community Action, Inc., Wichita, Kan.-$50,000 over three 
years to enable low-income, predominantly African-American tenants and 
homeowners to rid their communities of  run-down properties. 
 
    Aniishinabe Center, Detroit Lakes, Minn.-$45,000 ($7,500 quarterly over 
18 months) to draw on the talents of Native American artists of the White 
Earth Reservation. The project will support the design, production and 
marketing of authentic Native American art for a large tourist industry 
through a storefront concept. 
 
    The Friends of Rosedale Block Cluster for the Development of the 
Mini-Gymnasium, Pittsburgh, Pa.-$52,500 over two years for renovating an 
old warehouse, converting it to a recreation center and meeting place for 
young families in a drug-infested, violent section of the city, and 
equipping and staffing it. 
 
    Mississippi Injured Workers Education Fund, Jackson, Miss.-$45,000 to 
strengthen and enlarge an existing support network of injured workers in 
the state of Mississippi by educating them on workplace safety standards 
and compensation rights for injured laborers. The training will be done 
through conferences and seminars. 
 
    Save Our Cumberland Mountains, Lake City, Tenn.-$30,000 to help 
community residents who are threatened by strip-mining operations that 
conduct blasting and timbering within a few hundred feet of homes, creating 
dangerous living conditions and polluting wells and springs that residents 
rely on for their only water source. 
 
    Farmworkers Housing Development Corporation, Woodburn, Ore.-$31,789 to 
help Hispanic farmworkers who live in an affordable housing community. The 
project is to reach the immigrant farmworker residents in Spanish with the 
help a staff person to be hired from within. 
 
    Second Chance Tattoo Removal Program, Tucson, Ariz.-$30,000 to provide 
youths 22 years of age and under with the opportunity to have gang-related 
and other undesirable tattoos removed, giving them a better opportunity to 
become productive, self-supporting citizens in the community. 
 
    Centro de los Ninos, Canjilon, N.M.-$50,000 to help purchase a facility 
on a two-acre tract adjacent to an elementary school for a day-care center. 
 
    Aveme Beme Co-operative Inland Fishing and Fishmongers, Aveme Bene, 
Volta Region, Ghana-$12,600 for fish production, processing and 
preservation on a larger scale to combat the lean season. 
 
    Katwech Women Group, Rangwe, Kenya-$4,260 to increase food production 
for their own consumption and to sell the excess crops through their 
cooperative. 
 
    Stone-Crushing Plant, Jepara, Indonesia-$8,703 for a stone-crushing 
plant to be built by the 32 resident families of Donorojo. Twenty-one 
residents will be employed by the plant, all who happen to be people who 
formerly suffered from leprosy. 
 
    Gbi-Kpeme Co-operative Food and Processing Project, Hohoe, 
Ghana-$14,100 for a group of farmers who have organized to increase 
production of rice, maize, cassava and yams, and cassava processing. The 
money will be used to build a storage house and irrigation system. 
 
    Pot Molding Self-Help Group, Kisii, Kenya-$7,440 to make and sell water 
pots and grow vegetables both as food and cash crops. 
 
    Coordenadoria Ecumenica de Servico (CESE), Salvador-Bahia, 
Brazil-$200,000 over three years to renew an intermediary partnership to 
fund small group projects in Brazil that meet the SDOP criteria. 
 
    "1997 was an excellent year for the staff, which processed more than 
300 proposals, both foreign and domestic," said the Rev. Fredric T. Walls, 
SDOP director. "SDOP handled numerous workshops and conducted more than a 
dozen, participated in more than 100 SDOP-related and other meetings, 
traveled more than 200,000 miles on behalf of the program, and probably 
logged more than 500 hours on the telephone on behalf of our program." 
 
    Walls said that one of the most significant events that took place for 
him since the committee's meeting last September was the Follow-up 
Self-Development Staff Retreat, held last December in Louisville, which was 
designed to reflect, discuss and evaluate the staff's place and 
relationships within the SDOP ministry. 
 
    Walls said that although he was unable to attend the initial retreat, 
the "follow-up" event was valuable since he was able to witness his staff's 
"authentic passion, commitment and understood place in the Self-Development 
of People ministry." 
 
    During the meeting, the committee also elected its officers, who will 
serve a one-year term.  Ruth O. Warren of  Los Angeles, Calif., was elected 
chair. Mark H. Wall of Spartanburg, S.C., was elected vice chair. The terms 
of Cynthia Joe of San Francisco, Calif., the present committee chair, and 
Oscar Heyward of Howard Beach, N.Y., the present vice chair, end in May. 
 
    The committee also approved $35,000 for the production of an SDOP 
promotional video and welcomed its newest member, Steven Flythe of Monmouth 
Junction, N.J. 

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