A number of grants have been announced by the Church of the Brethren’s Global Food Initiative (GFI). Recently, allocations have been made in support of an agricultural initiative of L’Eglise des Freres d’Haiti (the Church of the Brethren in Haiti), a pig project of Eglise des Freres au Congo (the Church of the Brethren in the Democratic Republic of Congo or DRC), an urban poultry and vegetable garden project in Honduras, and a goat herd at Capstone 118 in New Orleans.
Haiti
An allocation of $15,000 will help L’Eglise des Freres d’Haiti (the Church of the Brethren in Haiti) establish an agriculture supply store. Church leaders are seeking to build on past agricultural work, shifting to an agribusiness model as part of a longterm goal of greater financial self-sufficiency. An agriculture supply store will be established in St. Raphael in the Central Plateau region, where there already are two existing components: a tree nursery and a fishpond. Both were developed as part of a three-year soil conservation and animal production project in partnership with Growing Hope Globally. The tree nursery currently has both fruit and lumber seedlings including coffee, citrus, avocado, coconut, and moringa tree. Sales will not be limited to the immediate community but will be available to Haitian Brethren farmers and their neighbors across the country. Grant funds will be used to construct a small store and to purchase agricultural supplies such as seeds, chemical and natural fertilizers, veterinary medicines, and tools, with a portion of the budget covering transportation and administrative start-up costs.
Honduras
An allocation of $11,000 goes to an urban poultry and vegetable garden project in the community of Flor del Campo in the capital city Tegucigalpa. The Viviendo en Amor y Fe (VAF) church is located in the capital and has experience working with neighbors in the area. Participants will be required to donate labor and some material costs for the construction of chicken coops. Eight families will be selected for year 1. Year 2 will be a “passing the gift” year, with eight new families receiving chickens. VAF will be provided technical support by agronomists from Proyecto Aldea Global (PAG, Project Global Village). The GFI has worked closely with PAG on poultry projects with a similar model in other parts of Honduras. Grant funds will cover costs of materials, poultry feeders and waterers, laying hens and one rooster per family, medicines, transportation, technical assistance, vegetable seeds, training workshops, and construction of used-tire gardens.
Democratic Republic of Congo
A grant of $6,262 supports a pig project of Eglise des Freres au Congo. Flooding in May 2020 caused loss of materials, property, and human lives, accentuating the poverty in the territory of Fizi, in particular. Eglise des Freres au Congo plans a pig breeding project at the Lusenda congregation in Fizi. Offspring from the pigs would be provided to families in need, focusing on widows, orphans, people with disabilities, and the elderly. The goal over several years is to reach 150 households, totaling 1,200 people. Grant funds will cover the purchase of 12 pigs, pig feed, materials to build a piggery, stipend for a caretaker, and fees for a veterinarian to make regular visits.
New Orleans
A grant of $1,000 helps the goat enterprise of Capstone 118 in New Orleans’ Lower 9th Ward, following damage caused by Hurricane Ida. This one-time emergency grant will be used to purchase movable fencing panels allowing Capstone’s goats to be transferred to vacant lots in the neighborhood. Presently it is difficult to purchase hay for the goats and there is abundant grass available; portable fencing is the limiting factor. Capstone 118 is a regular GFI partner, dating back to 2014, and an outreach ministry of the Church of the Brethren’s Southern Plains District.
Contribute financially to these GFI grants by giving online at https://churchofthebrethren.givingfuel.com/gfi.
‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑
Find more Church of the Brethren news: