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Goal 7: Ensure Environmental Sustainability
Aristides Brito works at the Hacienda Emaus coffee farm (Venezuela)  

God made us stewards of creation.  Clean water, sanitation, and development can work together to save lives and create productive, thriving societies.

The targets of Goal Seven are to cut in half the number of people without safe drinking water, and to reverse environmental damage by practicing sustainable development.

Making It Real
Episcopal Relief and Development is teaching individuals and communities effective methods to protect the environment, so that they can create sustainable futures for both the people and the land. In the rural areas of El Salvador, families have been using wood from mangrove forests to cook food for generations.  Not only do these stoves create hazardous smoke that fills the home, causing respiratory infections and eye problems, but they also consume a tremendous amount of firewood. 

ERD is partnering with the Diocese of El Salvador and the Mangrove Association to build smokeless stoves that use less firewood and are vented to the outside of the home.  This environmentally sound and healthy system protects people and preserves the environment. 
Maria and her family of five live in a small village in El Salvador.  For most of her life, Maria cooked over an open fire under a lean-to roof to keep the fire from going out in the rain.  The cooking area was smoky and dangerous—the children were burned frequently and they continuously breathed in the smoke from the fire.  As a result, they developed chronic upper respiratory and eye infections.  Episcopal Relief and Development worked with our partners, the Diocese of El Salvador and The Mangrove Association, to build smoke-less stoves in Maria’s village.  These cement stoves are located inside the house and vented to the outside.  The stove has been a life-changing gift for Maria’s family.  Her children don’t burn themselves any more, and no one has had an infection since the stove was built.  Thanks to ERD, a simple modification on a stove changed so many lives for the better.

What You Can Do: ACT. 
Small, simple lifestyle changes such as recycling, and reducing your consumption of plastic and paper can make a difference worldwide.  Learn more about how the church is engaged in environmental issues and what you can do.

For Further Consideration

  • Most communities have a local recycling program.  Get your household and your congregation actively involved: How to Start a Recycling Program.

  • The Diocese of Connecticut's Earth Ministry has an online Parish Environmental Audit.  Take the quiz to find out if your church is earth-friendly.

  • Read about Episcopalians and their growing concern about the environment.

Go on to Goal 8  >>

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    How ERD is making a difference...

    Countries
    We lift communities out of poverty around the world in areas such as Latin America, Africa, the Middle East and Asia. We partner with local organizations in the Anglican Communion to ensure vulnerable people have healthy food to eat and get proper health care.

    Domestic
    We provide critical supplies to people through local dioceses after natural and human-made disasters. We partner with the dioceses to get life-saving aid to children and their families and stay with communities after the crisis to provide ongoing support.





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