Highlights from the WOC Fall Meeting

Thursday, November 15, A.D. 2007

The Week of Compassion Committee held its annual budget meeting this week at Southport Christian Church, Indianapolis, IN. Major financial actions included the adoption of a 2008 program budget totaling $2,299,000; review and approval of the 2006 audit; authorization of an additional grant from the Compassion Response Fund for a Church World Service emergency food aid appeal for Zimbabwe and three grants to CWS from the Compassion Development Fund for an income-generating project for 1000 impoverished women heads-of-household in Egypt; a winter camp project for displaced Roma and Kosovar children in Serbia; and an initiative to care for those who work with vulnerable children in several Latin America and Caribbean countries. The Committee also received with thanksgiving the third quarter report from the Christian Church Foundation and news that the WOC endowment program has now grown to more than $2,227,000.

Also approved was a new partnership with Disciples Home Missions to launch the Disciples Coffee Project with Equal Exchange, a worker-owned cooperative dedicated to fair trade. The venture will give Disciples congregations the opportunity to enjoy fairly traded coffee, tea and chocolate and learn about food security, sustainable development and free trade at the same time. Proceeds from the initiative will support a Disciples Hunger Relief and Food Security Fund within WOC and DHM, which, in turn, will further support the efforts of small-scale farmers in the developing world. The Project should be ready for launch in early 2008.

Committee members also received updates on Director Johnny Wray’s recent visit to Darfur, Sudan, Associate Director Amy Gopp’s leadership in the October Woman-to-Woman trip to Bosnia and Croatia, the upcoming April '08 WeekEnd of Compassion Event in Nashville, TN, and a first year summary of the Disciples Hurricane Recovery Initiative. The Committee also gave thanks for the service of retiring members Renee Hoke, Kingwood (TX) Christian Church and Ruth Fletcher, Christian Church in Montana and of the 2007 chair, Jimmy Mohler, Community Christian Church, Kansas City, MO. Rebecca Hale, Christian Church in the Northwest and Courtney Richards, Geist Christian Church, Indianapolis, IN, were welcomed as incoming members.

WOC Monitors Quake and Cyclone

As we are sending this update, WOC is monitoring yesterday’s 7.7 magnitude earthquake that killed at least 2 people and left some 15,000 homeless in northern Chile and powerful Cyclone Sidr that is approaching Bangladesh and the Indian states of West Bengal and Orissa with 150 mph winds. Action by Churches Together members in India, Bangladesh and Chile have field staff on alert. Week of Compassion will be responding to any appeals issued for either or both disasters.

La Casita Project Brings Hope in Mexico

Both in the States and around the world, the past few months have seen an ever growing number of disasters: floods in Mexico, fires in California, and now an earthquake in Chile and a cyclone in Bangladesh – to name just a few! Through your generous gifts to the Week of Compassion, Disciples are able to respond and to provide aid through our many church partnerships. There is never enough, of course, to meet the need, but to those who do receive, there is hope!

Much of our giving is in the form of immediate aid - a first response with food, blankets, medicine, etc. WOC also seeks to respond to the long-term emergencies and the systemic causes of poverty, need and oppression. There are homes and communities that for years flood with every rain storm; there are families that have no access to doctors and medical care; there are children who live on one meal of rice and beans a day. For these, and for at least one disaster area located just 2 miles across the border from south Texas, WOC and Southwest Good Samaritan Ministries have begun a new initiative which seeks to provide a more permanent solution: La Casita Project.

‘Small houses’ are being constructed by Disciples volunteer groups, replacing the mud-floor shacks with their plastic bag roofs which exist on the former garbage dumps of Matamoros, Mexico. Already ten such permanent homes have been constructed, providing a safe and dry shelter for more than 50 family members.

The cost of the materials is relatively low (only $3,000.00 per structure). The results are tremendous! And work groups are needed and work trips grants are available from WOC. For more information, please contact SWGSM.

WOC Map/Poster

Click here for the latest additions to the WOC interactive map/poster. For a complimentary copy of the map/poster for your congregation, call the office at 317.713.2442 or send an e-mail to ecleveland@woc.disciples.org.