The Global Food Crisis Fund (GFCF), a fund of the Church of the Brethren that fights hunger by promoting sustainable development, has announced several recent grants. The four grants total $26,500. For more about the work of the fund see http://www.brethren.org/gfcf/.
In Honduras, $15,000 is supporting a new hunger program in cooperation with Proyecto Alden Global (PAG). This grant will support the micro-financing of impoverished Lenca families for the purchase and the raising of small livestock. A portion of the grant, $2,500, is a gift designated for PAG from the home district (Western Pennsylvania) of Chet Thomas, director of PAG. This is the district’s second gift of that amount; the first was remitted earlier this year. To complete the GFCF’s commitment to PAG, an additional grant of $12,500 will be proposed either late this year or early in 2012, as funds permit.
In Niger, an allocation of $5,000 has gone to to Water for Life. This is the third GFCF grant issued to Water for Life. The first for $10,000 was issued in 2010. A second $10,000 grant was issued early in 2011. This partial third grant is being accelerated to enable response to urgent needs. Funds are being used to dig community wells, plant trees, and diversify garden produce in villages across northeastern Niger.
A grant of $4,000 has been given to Care for Creation Kenya (CCK). A previous grant of $4,000 in 2010 helped to establish an agricultural demonstration farm, expand an indigenous tree nursery, and conduct training events. Funds from this grant will support training for low-income farmers in agriculture and forestry. One key group of 40 farmers from the Ndeiya and Mai Mahai community in the Rift Valley will engage in continuing in-depth training.
In Rwanda, $2,500 is supporting a project promoting self-sustainability through agriculture among the Pygmie population. Funds from the grant will be used to cover cost of potato and maize seed, hand tools, sprayers and chemicals, and rental of land.