{"id":25009,"date":"2025-03-25T18:44:55","date_gmt":"2025-03-25T18:44:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/?p=25009"},"modified":"2025-03-26T16:21:48","modified_gmt":"2025-03-26T16:21:48","slug":"latest-round-of-gfi-grants","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/2025\/latest-round-of-gfi-grants\/","title":{"rendered":"Latest round of GFI grants support agricultural training and farming in Africa, clean water in Haiti"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-8f761849 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:33.33%\">\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Global Food Initiative (GFI) has given its latest round of grants to support well drilling by the Haiti Medical Project, an agricultural training component for students at the Great Lakes Bible School in Rwanda, and \u201cFarming God&#8217;s Way\u201d in the Church of the Brethren in Burundi.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Find out more about this ministry at <a href=\"http:\/\/www.brethren.org\/gfi\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"www.brethren.org\/gfi\">www.brethren.org\/gfi<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Support these grants with your financial donations at <a href=\"https:\/\/churchofthebrethren.givingfuel.com\/gfi\">https:\/\/churchofthebrethren.givingfuel.com\/gfi<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Haiti: <\/strong>$5,000 supports Haiti Medical Project\u2019s work to drill a well in an underserved community among congregations of l&#8217;\u00c9glise des Fr\u00e8res d&#8217;Ha\u00efti (the Church of the Brethren in Haiti). Presently there are six potential communities that have limited access to pure water and the staff of Haiti Medical Project will determine the exact community based on security issues in Haiti at the time of drilling. The use of the well and water will be by the entire congregation and community. More than half of all Haitians do not have direct access to clean drinking water.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:66.66%\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed aligncenter is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"CoB Venezuela - GABE REPORT MARCH 2025\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/YV1xkPgVLNs?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><em><strong>A video report from ASIGLEH (the Church of the Brethren in Venezuela) <\/strong>shares gratitude for a Global Food Initiative (GFI) grant received last year, and reports on how the funds have supported different kinds of work on the church\u2019s farm over the first six months. The video and report are provided by Roger M. Padilla of the church leadership. He wrote, \u201cDears brother and sisters, we are grateful for your generous support for the Venezuelan mission. God bless you more!!\u201d The video also can be found at <a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/YV1xkPgVLNs\">https:\/\/youtu.be\/YV1xkPgVLNs<\/a><\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Rwanda:<\/strong> $4,999.50 supports development of an agricultural training component for students at the Great Lakes Bible School, a Church of the Brethren school in Rwanda. The goal is for students\u2019 theological and biblical education to be combined with practical knowledge in sustainable and low-resource farming practices that promote soil conservation and natural amendments. Students will raise sheep and grow tree tomatoes (tamarillos) on rented land. As students graduate, they will be gifted a sheep, and the school will assist in setting up home gardens. Harvest sales and seed saving will sustain the farming project.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Burundi:<\/strong> $4,906 supports Farming God&#8217;s Way in the Church of the Brethren in Burundi, where there are needs for improved food security, nutrition awareness, education about conservation agricultural practices, farming tools, seeds, and inputs. This grant will support training for farmers in Farming God&#8217;s Way, a holistic model of farming that combines faith and creation care with regenerative agricultural practices. Small-scale farmers will learn techniques that use fewer scarce resources, conserve water, and protect and improve soils without costly chemical inputs. Farming God&#8217;s Way practices include a no-plow technique, cover crops for soil protection, biodiverse crop selection, and soil amendments through compost and animal manure. Funds from this grant will provide two community trainings for a total of 80 people, in two communities that have Church of the Brethren congregations that have not previously received any training.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">#MissionAndMinistryBoard #StrategicPlan #RacialJustice #LoveOurNeighbors #Discipleship #NewTestamentGiving<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;-<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Find more Church of the Brethren news:<\/p>\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-latest-posts__list wp-block-latest-posts\"><li><a class=\"wp-block-latest-posts__post-title\" href=\"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/2026\/young-adult-conference-2026\/\">Young Adult Conference 2026: Identity in community<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a class=\"wp-block-latest-posts__post-title\" href=\"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/2026\/cmmb-joins-brethren-service-center\/\">CMMB joins Brethren Service Center as new partner renting warehouse space<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a class=\"wp-block-latest-posts__post-title\" href=\"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/2026\/annual-conference-worship-livestreamed\/\">Annual Conference worship services will be livestreamed<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a class=\"wp-block-latest-posts__post-title\" href=\"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/2026\/committee-to-ask-questions-of-delegates\/\">Review and Evaluation Committee to ask questions of delegates<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a class=\"wp-block-latest-posts__post-title\" href=\"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/2026\/shine-everywhere-reaches-midpoint\/\">Shine Everywhere reaches midpoint, strengthening faith formation at home and church\u202f<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Global Food Initiative (GFI) has given its latest round of grants to support well drilling by the Haiti Medical Project, an agricultural training component for students at the Great Lakes Bible School in Rwanda, and \u201cFarming God&#8217;s Way\u201d in the Church of the Brethren in Burundi.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":20208,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":[],"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1703],"tags":[1933,508,2161,3243,1507,1260,1468,12,1331,3244,208,1515,2195,3242],"wf_post_folders":[],"class_list":["post-25009","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-church-of-the-brethren-newsline","tag-agriculture","tag-burundi","tag-farming","tag-farming-in-gods-way","tag-gfi","tag-global-food-initiative","tag-global-mission","tag-haiti","tag-haiti-medical-project","tag-regenerative-farming","tag-rwanda","tag-water","tag-service","tag-wells"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25009","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25009"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25009\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25020,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25009\/revisions\/25020"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20208"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25009"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25009"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25009"},{"taxonomy":"wf_post_folders","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/wf_post_folders?post=25009"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}