Global Food Crisis Fund supports projects of Heifer International.

In recognition of the 60th anniversary of Heifer International (HI--formerly Heifer Project International) and the role that the Church of the Brethren played in its formation and continues today, the General Board's Global Food Crisis Fund (GFCF) has allocated $60,000 to HI-supported projects in Armenia, Zimbabwe, and Albania. The grants engage the fund in three new countries, according to GFCF manager Howard Royer, and bring the total of grant monies issued in the first four months of 2004 to a quarter of a million dollars.

In Albania, $30,000 will support a "guns for cows" program providing a pregnant cow for every two or three guns surrendered. The program is a pilot effort begun by the United Nations Disarming Program after 1997, when Albanians took more than 500,000 weapons from military depots during a time of national upheaval.

A grant of $20,000 will help improve nutrition and income of people affected by the AIDS pandemic. HI partners with four community-based groups to distribute heifers, bulls, goats, chickens, and rabbits in a densely populated farming area where the number of AIDS cases is the highest in the nation. The funds also will help provide training in livestock handling, financial management, and child care.

A grant of $10,000 has been approved for the Aigabetz "Sunrise" Project for teenage and adult orphans in Armenia. With a sizeable orphan population that lacks a social net, Armenia is experiencing a rising tide of crime and prostitution among its youth, according to GFCF's grant recommendation. The Aigabetz program aids recipients' constructive release from the trauma of childhood in an orphanage and helps their self-sufficiency by forming extended communes in which residents receive basic resources to enable them to become entrepreneurs. Each teenage orphan or orphan couple is equipped with a small tract of irrigable land, modest living space, livestock, vocational training, and seed money.

The grant for Armenia was approved shortly after the 89th anniversary of the 1915 Armenia genocide on April 18. The first international relief effort by the Church of the Brethren was for Armenia, in 1918-1921 when Brethren contributed about $267,000 according to the "Brethren Encyclopedia." Royer noted that some historians regard the Armenia relief offering as the beginning of Brethren Service.

Source: Newsline 4/30/2004 top