EPISCOPAL RELIEF AND DEVELOPMENT

Program: Alleviate Hunger and Improve the Food Supply

Program Description:

Communities move from hunger to hope with support from Episcopal Relief & Development’s partners who provide tools, seeds and other resources to support family farms; distribute livestock to families to help them work their land and generate other forms of income such as selling milk and cheese; teach farming techniques that increase food production; and promote sustainable agricultural practices.

Program Long-Term Success:

To increase food production in high-nutrient crops; increase knowledge of certain crops’ contribution to nutrition; increase numbers of vulnerable people eating high nutritive crops.

Program Short-Term Success:

Increasing value communities place in their kitchen gardens; increase participation in farmers’ cooperatives and women’s groups receiving nutrition education; higher recognition of agriculture and nutrition as intersecting activities.

Program Success Monitored by:

Qualitative monitoring techniques including focus groups for feedback and community dialogue; quantitative monitoring including participation numbers in workshops, changing knowledge patterns, feedback on use of kitchen gardens and cooking, health indicator monitoring of children.

Program Success Examples:

Roque, a farmer and father of three living in Los Pintos, Nicaragua, is one of the 3.07 million people in 30 countries who are eating more nutritious food, thanks to the work of Episcopal Relief & Development’s partners to alleviate hunger and improve the food supply.  Growing up in rural Nicaragua, Roque learned traditional farming techniques from his parents, but his harvests were meager.  Then Roque heard about a training program run by the Council of Protestant Churches in Nicaragua (CEPAD) that provided him with seeds and tools to help him plant and manage his land while protecting the environment.  Now Roque is a community agriculture promoter, helping others to have the same success.

Program: Promote Health and Fight Disease

Program Description:

Communities raise themselves from sickness to strength with support from Episcopal Relief & Development’s partners who provide immunizations and medicine through local and mobile clinics; offer maternal and child health programs, and care for children orphaned by HIV/AIDS; train health workers to educate their communities about disease prevention, symptoms and treatment; build wells, latrines, water stations and other systems to promote sanitation and prevent water-borne diseases; and equip malaria control agents to educate their communities about preventing the disease, hang mosquito nets in homes and monitor net usage.

Program Long-Term Success:

Reduction in incidence of preventable diseases including malaria, HIV/AIDS, acute respiratory infection and diarrhea; decreasing disease burden on fragile communities; increasing knowledge of causes and preventive measures for common illnesses.

Program Short-Term Success:

Increasing access to clean water and effective sanitation techniques; increasing numbers of people practicing safe hygiene; increasing numbers of people sleeping under insecticide-treated bed nets; changing behaviors of young people when partnering sexually; increasing access of community health workers to essential medicines for treatment; increasing linkages between community health programs and facility-based treatments.

Program Success Monitored by:

Numbers of Community Health Agents and volunteers equipped with essential knowledge in preventing target diseases; number of insecticide-treated bed nets distributed; number of people trained in clean water and sanitation and hygiene practices; number of women and youth participating in all health education activities, including HIV/AIDS-related activities; decline in waste indicators in community water sources.

Program Success Examples:

Veronica was pregnant with twins when she went into premature labor at her home in rural Mtumba, Mozambique.  Fortunately, Veronica is one of over 3.19 million people in 34 countries who received health care and education from community agents trained and equipped by Episcopal Relief & Development’s local partners to promote health and fight disease.  The midwife attending Veronica’s labor was able to save one of her twin preemies, and showed her how to keep the baby warm and feed her expressed breast milk, in order to give her the best chance at survival.  Now Veronica takes Baby Martha for check-ups with the local health volunteer, who sees that she is growing healthy and strong.

Program: Create Economic Opportunities and Strengthen Communities

Program Description:

Communities journey from poverty to prosperity with support from Episcopal Relief & Development’s partners who work with people to develop small businesses in a variety of fields; provide micro-finance opportunities that enable families to generate more income; promote cooperatives to help individuals pool their resources and maximize their purchasing power; assist communities in gaining access to local markets, increasing their ability to sell products for profit; and help farming communities increase their crop yield so the surplus can be sold for income.

Program Long-Term Success:

Increasing income; increasing market access for producers; increasing communities’ capacity to access and leverage local resources; increasing opportunities for women and youth to participate in local economies.

Program Short-Term Success:

Participation in savings and loans groups; increased number of businesses and cooperatives effectively analyzing markets and serving customer needs; increasing innovative solutions to transportation and market access issues; increasing participation of women and youth in literacy and numeracy training; increased participation of women and youth in business activities.

Program Success Monitored by:

Numbers of loans; numbers of clients participating in lending programs (women/youth); increasing consumer activities for households; community feedback and focus groups related to cooperative activities; change in income for households.

Program Success Examples:

For the past 20 years, Mr. and Mrs. Nagenthiri have lived in a camp for Sri Lankan refugees in Tamil Nadu, southern India.  Their son grew up in the camp, but few opportunities were open to him there, and he decided he wanted to go to college.  His parents did not have the money for tuition, but with a micro-finance loan from Episcopal Relief & Development’s local partner, they started a successful bicycle repair business.  The Nagenthiris are two of the 2.82 million people in 31 countries who have overcome disadvantage by participating in programs that create economic opportunities and strengthen communities.  Now the Nagenthiris have been able to send their son to college, and they feel more secure about the future.

Program: Respond to Disasters and Rebuild Communities

Program Description:

Communities transition from adversity to advantage with support from Episcopal Relief & Development’s partners who work with local churches and ecumenical partners to provide life-saving assistance such as food, water, shelter and medicine; support social and economic rehabilitation through small business development and income-generating opportunities; assist impacted communities in conducting needs assessments and creating long-term recovery plans; remain with communities and support the reconstruction of homes, schools, clinics and other civic structures; offer trauma counseling and psychosocial services for survivors; and assist Episcopal dioceses in the United States as they develop disaster preparedness plans.

Program Long-Term Success:

Reduce loss of life and property when impacted by disasters; increase communities’ resiliency in the face of disasters; increase communities’ capacity to access a variety of resources in response to disaster; reduction of civil unrest.

Program Short-Term Success:

Training community disaster responders in all global partnerships; equipping churches with continuity of business plans; equipping community leaders with knowledge of incident command protocols during disaster response and their roles; integrating disaster risk mitigation in programs focused on agriculture, health and income generation; building communities where housing and infrastructure materials are more resilient than that which was lost.

Program Success Monitored by:

Exercise disaster plans through emergency testing system; review disaster responses against previous disaster responses in the same area; test knowledge change in disaster responders; review capacity of communities to bounce back when faced with climate cycles.

Program Success Examples:

Nadine and her seven children live in Darbonne, west of Port-au-Prince, in Haiti.  She lost both her husband and her produce stand in the earthquake on January 12, 2010, and was not sure how she would provide for her family.  Then the Episcopal Diocese of Haiti started a Cash-for-Work (CFW) program in her area, and Nadine was chosen by her local organizing committee to participate in a rubble removal project.  The wages she earned helped her to buy bananas, sweet potatoes and corn to restart her business, and also allowed her to pay her children’s school fees.  Nadine is one of the 1.34 million people in 14 countries who participated in local initiatives to respond to disasters and rebuild communities.

Program: NetsforLife® Program Partnership

Program Description:

The NetsforLife^® program partnership uses an integrated community development model for malaria prevention that includes net distribution, education, training and monitoring and evaluation.  Its goal is to distribute 7 million nets by 2013.

Program Long-Term Success:

Reduction in incidence of malaria; decreasing disease burden on fragile communities; increasing knowledge of causes and preventive measures for malaria.

Program Short-Term Success:

Increasing numbers of people sleeping under insecticide-treated bed nets; increasing access of community health workers to rural villages for education and implementation of health interventions (i.e., installation of bed nets); increasing access of community health workers to essential medicines for treatment; increasing linkages between community health programs and facility-based treatments.

Program Success Monitored by:

Numbers of Malaria Control Agents and volunteers equipped with essential knowledge in preventing malaria; number of insecticide-treated bed nets distributed; number of women and youth participating in all health education activities.

Program Success Examples:

Elize and her family live in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where malaria is the number one killer of children.  For years, Elize felt like she lived at the mercy of the mosquitoes that bit her and her eight children, making them gravely ill.  Then Elize received a mosquito net, along with training in its usage and maintenance, from Episcopal Relief & Development’s NetsforLife^® program partnership.  She also learned how to identify malaria symptoms, so she can help her children and her neighbors get immediate care if they are bitten by an infected mosquito.  Now Elize is one of over 7.36 million people* in 17 countries who have been empowered through NetsforLife^® to keep their families and communities safe from malaria.  (*7.36 million people were directly involved in NetsforLife^® activities, including the distribution of nets, the training of community health agents and the provision of community-based health care.)