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RSSLenten Support Critical to Reaching MDG Inspiration Fund Goal
February 24, 2009
Episcopal Relief & Development’s Millennium Development Goals Inspiration Fund is close to meeting its target of raising $3 million for global health programs by the end of 2009.
In late 2006, Episcopal Relief & Development, Jubilee Ministries and the Executive Council of the Episcopal Church joined together to establish the MDG Inspiration Fund with the aim of fighting preventable diseases. Episcopal Relief & Development launched the Fund with the support of a generous grant comprising 0.7% of the Episcopal Church’s budget over three years.
Since then, the MDG Inspiration Fund has stimulated tremendous support from individuals and churches across the country. This Fund and other resources have enabled Episcopal Relief & Development to implement programs that reduce child mortality, improve maternal health and combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and water-born illnesses in Africa, Asia and Latin America.
In Latin America Episcopal Relief & Development is engaging Jubilee Ministries in development work. For example, Episcopal Relief & Development partners with Siempre Unidos, a Jubilee Center in Honduras. This organization provides flexible employment opportunities that enable people living with HIV/AIDS to provide for themselves and their families. In the Dominican Republic, Jubilee partner Clinica Esperanza y Caridad (the Clinic of Hope and Charity) brings health services to the poor in the San Pedro de Macoris area. This year, Episcopal Relief & Development is establishing an integrated and diverse program in Colombia partly with Mision Cristo Rey, a Jubilee Center, to provide training for at-risk youth in an Afro-Colombian community.
Last year, the MDG Inspiration Fund supported programs that trained roughly 45,000 people about HIV prevention and provided medical support to more than 15,000 people affected by the virus. Money from the Fund also was used to build wells, latrines and water stations that protected thousands of people from water-born illnesses in 2008.
The Fund has assigned $2 million of the total $3 million to support NetsforLife®, a partnership for malaria prevention in sub-Saharan Africa. So far, NetsforLife® has distributed more than one million long-lasting insecticide-treated nets, primarily to children and pregnant women living in remote villages. Third party evaluators estimate that between 2006 and 2008 the lives of approximately 12,000 children under five were saved as a result of NetsforLife®. The program has already protected more than 11 million people from malaria.
“The generosity and compassion of countless Episcopalians has made the MDG Inspiration Fund a remarkable success,” said Rob Radtke, President of Episcopal Relief & Development. “We are now within $250,000 of our goal and hope to achieve it by General Convention,” said Radtke.
On March 1st, Episcopal Relief & Development Sunday, congregations are encouraged to have a special offering to benefit Episcopal Relief & Development’s MDG Inspiration Fund. Click here for a bulletin insert. Episcopal Relief & Development also offers a Lenten Devotional, Peace & Compassion: To Heal a Hurting World, which features daily meditations adapted from the Rev. Barbara C. Crafton’s Almost-Daily Emos and stories about the beneficiaries of the MDG Inspiration Fund. To order copies of the devotional or sign up for daily email Lenten meditations visit www.er-d.org/Lentenresources. More information about how to celebrate Episcopal Relief & Development Sunday is available at www.er-d.org/ERDSunday_CT.
To help Episcopal Relief & Development fight disease through the MDG Inspiration Fund, please visit www.er-d.org or call 1-800-334-7626, ext. 5129. Gifts can be mailed to: Episcopal Relief & Development, “MDG Inspiration Fund” PO Box 7058, Merrifield, VA 22116-7058.
Episcopal Relief & Development is the international relief and development agency of the Episcopal Church of the United States. As an independent 501(c) (3) organization, Episcopal Relief & Development takes its mandate from Jesus’ words found in Matthew 25. All programs work towards achieving the Millennium Development Goals. Together with the worldwide Church and ecumenical partners, Episcopal Relief & Development strengthens communities today to meet tomorrow’s challenges. We rebuild after disasters and empower people by offering lasting solutions that fight poverty, hunger and disease, including HIV/AIDS and malaria.
