Page 31 - Presbyterian Connection

Connection
PRESBYTERIAN WORLD SERVICE & DEVELOPMENT
Churches Responding Together
presbyterian.ca
FALL 2024
PRESBYTERIAN
31
By Guy Smagghe, PWS&D Director
It is by working together that we can achieve results beyond our imagination. When it comes to responding to disasters, to tack- ling inequality and poverty, and especially when it comes to ad- dressing the climate crisis, our church’s collaboration with other churches makes a world of differ- ence.
Presbyterian World Service & Development (PWS&D) alliances allow us to both multiply our fi- nancial impact and to broaden our reach in the world significantly.
Canadian Foodgrains Bank
As a member of Canadian Foodgrains Bank, PWS&D can access funding from the Canadi- an government, sometimes with- out having to contribute any of our own funds. Funds are also ac- cessed from a general account at the Foodgrains Bank that matches our contributions. Matching funds allow resources to stretch farther and have greater impact in com- munities.
As such, last year PWS&D contributed $1.3 million from its donations to support projects of a total value of $8.9 million after matching funds and government funds were added.
There are times when PWS&D wants to support a partner with a much larger project budget than what our resources alone would be able to support. In these cas- es, we reach out to other member churches at the Foodgrains Bank
and ask them if they would like to support the partner’s efforts. With their support we can fund a larger project. This type of collaboration allows members the opportunity to respond in countries or places where they might not have direct partners to respond with.
For example, when PWS&D did food assistance projects in Afghanistan last year, we asked other Foodgrains Bank members if they wanted to contribute to the response, enabling them to reach out in an area where they didn’t have their own partner to work with. PWS&D contributed $33,773 of our own funds and received $177,317 from other member churches. Those funds were matched with $844,360 from the Canadian government for a total project budget of $1,055,452.
There are also times when PWS&D is called to respond in a place where we don’t have direct partnerships. We then rely on our ecumenical networks to reach out. (Read more about how we do that in “Strength in Joint Re- sponses” in this issue.) Through the Foodgrains Bank we have supported responses in Syria, Yemen, Sudan, Ethiopia, Somalia, Democratic Republic of Congo and Bangladesh, to name a few. Again, resources are usually matched, increasing the impact of our response.
ACT Alliance
The ACT Alliance is a global faith-based coalition organized in national and regional forums
In Ethiopia, where PWS&D does not have direct partnerships, we are able to respond to urgent food needs through ecu- menical partnerships.
In Pakistan, PWS&D operated a three-year project to provide food and livelihoods support for marginalized communities. The project was solely funded by a Government of Canada grant.
A food security project focusing on Indigenous women in Guatemala is managed by PWS&D’s partner and receives support from other Canadian Foodgrains Bank members.
operating in more than 120 coun- tries. As one of the more than 140 members, we work together on humanitarian aid, gender and climate justice, migration and displacement, and peace and security to support local commu- nities. ACT Alliance has become the largest coalition of Protestant and Orthodox faith-based actors working on humanitarian, devel- opmental and advocacy issues.
In Canada, ACT Alliance mem- bers have formed a Canada Fo- rum made up of ACT members based in Canada, including the Anglicans, Christian Reformed, United Church, PWS&D and the World Association for Christian
Communication. Together, we join our strengths and resources to do advocacy (recently on be- half of Gaza and Cuba) and to support climate initiatives in Af- rica through a locally led Climate Fund, which was established two years ago. This has allowed us to jointly fund climate initiatives in four African countries.
Increasing impact
Finally, there are two other coa- litions requiring mention here: KAIROS Canada and Cooperation Canada. With KAIROS: Canadian Ecumenical Justice Initiatives, we collaborate ecumenically in a Women, Peace and Security initiative that addresses issues of gender-based violence in Co- lombia, Democratic Republic of Congo, Israel/Palestine and South Sudan. We also collaborate on
climate justice work, such as the promotion of the Loss and Damage Fund to assist poorer countries affected by climate dis- asters.
At Cooperation Canada, we connect with the broader interna- tional development community to build our capacity on anti-racism and the prevention of sexual ex- ploitation, abuse and harassment. We also unite our voices to advo- cate for Canada to contribute its fair share as part of the global aid budget.
PWS&D draws much strength from its ecumenical collabora- tions and we know that it is by joining together with others that we can all be stronger. In the face of the world’s challenges, work- ing together helps bring us closer to the just society that Jesus asked us to build.