Focus Topic

Madison Cares & Habitat for Humanity Announce Madison Cares--Build III: 

"Madison Cares, established in 2003, is dedicated to the elimination of poverty housing through community participation that includes financial support, volunteer labor and leadership for local, national and global Habitat For Humanity International builds. It is composed of civic organizations, faith communities, businesses and citizens of Madison and surrounding communities who are committed to reaching out and supporting our neighbors.  We believe that the mobilization of the entire town of Madison will serve to increase awareness of needs outside our immediate community and bring our townspeople closer together.  To that extent, we have teamed with Habitat for Humanity of Greater New Haven to renovate/build homes for qualified candidates who deserve a much needed hand.

"Having completed our first two homes, Madison Cares has committed to sponsor a third home at 110 Rosette Drive, in New Haven, CT.  We are excited to be able to continue our support of Madison Cares in its worthwhile endeavors with both financial and volunteer support. This energetic organization now has an Executive Committee and Board of Directors in place and has been moving full steam ahead beginning Build III, two months ago. The current project is a brand new 4 bedroom home on Rosette St. in New Haven which upon completion will be owned by Walter and Frankie Bryant. The Bryants have 6 children ranging in age from 4 to 19 years old.  Their home is part of a block-long renovation where 5 new Habitat homes are being built simultaneously.  Madison Cares hopes to have the home complete by the Spring of 2007."

First Congregational Church members once again are actively involved in this initiative.  Sue Wenderoth serves as our liaison to Madison Cares and organizes our work crews.  Please see Sue if you are interested in getting involved. No construction skills are necessary, just a desire to help. We supply work crews every 5 to 6 weeks, typically on a Saturday. Work begins at 9:00 AM and continues till 3:00 PM or so. Some groups pack a lunch and some enjoy a slice of famous New Haven pizza while in the Elm City. Volunteers must be 16 years old to work on site. Dick Johansen is the Madison Cares Build III coordinator – he can be reached by email at rjarm@snet.net and welcomes your inquiries.

Please watch our weekly announcements for our scheduled work days and consider joining us. This is a very rewarding activity with an opportunity to work side by side with fellow members of the congregation as well as the Bryant family. More information about Madison Cares can be found on their website at http://www.madisoncares.org/. Driving directions to the site are also posted here.

WHAT YOU CAN DO:  Join us at our next scheduled build date:  Saturday, January 6, 2007 at 110 Rosette Drive.
 

Previous Focus Issues

Mount Selinda

Mount Selinda is a name we hear each Sunday – do you ever wonder why?

FCC’s Outreach Commission – the name of the recent combination of two church committees – Church & Society and Benevolences & Mission – wants to share with you where the church funds donated by you, and allocated to the Commission, go.   

FCC made a  connection to Mount Selinda Hospital through members Allan and Marion Koerner when they moved to Madison in 1980 and told of their year in Zimbabwe.  They had learned of the Hospital’s need for a general manager through their church in Rochester, and off they went, thirty-six years ago! 

Mount Selinda Hospital has been receiving funds from FCC since 1980, and we helped to build a pediatric clinic in the early 1980s.  Our 2006 allocation included $2000 to purchase necessary drugs for the Hospital. 

The following excerpt is from “The Zimbabwe Diary at Mount Selinda  August 1970 – July 1971” kept by Allan Koerner:   

August 10, 1970  … We circulated around looking at the lovely flowers – poinsettias, bougainvillea, passion flower – some of the trees now have big crimson blossoms.  A hornbill lighted in the yard.  There were some tiny birds with red breasts and iridescent blue heads. … We walked leisurely to the hospital for a tour and suddenly we were in another world.  In certain parts of the hospital grounds relatives of the sick were encamped.  Primitive.  Babies on backs or being nursed, silver rings stacked on the ankles or ring upon ring on the arms.  A group of women carrying gravel for an area being prepared for a concrete walkway – carrying it in rubbish can covers on their heads, again, some with babies on their backs.  Old men just lying on the ground.  Some, pathetically, walking with canes.  Kirk talking to all of them in Chindau, and they so appreciative in their replies and soft clapping of their hands together and bowing.  Almost always a great smile.  Inside, mothers and newborn babies in one ward – a preemie in a basket with a blanket thrown over the top – no incubators here.  A couple of old men near death – one of dysentery and another with a broken back. And the pathetic postmaster, paralyzed from the waist down – running his job from his bed in the hospital.  The bright and cheery new pediatric ward.  And then we sat through a class Kirk conducted for his nurses – one hour on coma producing diseases.  I partly listened and partly looked out the window at the strange, utterly primitive, pathetic picture outside. 

Kirk gave me the motor from the skin graft machine to look at.  It doesn’t work.  I took it apart and at first thought I could fix it, but soon found it to be more serious, a worn gear and something else that keeps the motor from running.  Marion went back to the house and I worked and suddenly it was dark.  I gathered the motor together and a projector that also need repairing and started for home, but suddenly realized I didn’t know where home was so had to ask directions.  By the time I arrived I was panting from the load I was carrying. 

What a dramatic experience they had!  You can find Allan Koerner’s diary in the FCC library – it is full of observations of a very different world!

Christian Community Action

EARTH DAY, CONTINUED...Outreach Commission reminds us that we take care of the earth 365 days a year:  remember the eco-friendly three "R's":  Reduce, Reuse, Recycle.  We can always reduce our use of natural resources, such as water.  The latest tip for reusing and recycling: children's toys, which are usually outgrown while still in good shape.  Act II Thrift Shop in Madison, Boston Post & Garnett Park Roads, for example, will accept your donations of used toys, and they have a great selection of toys for little ones and VCR tapes and DVD's at excellent savings over area stores. Plus, proceeds go to benefit A Better Chance educational program for economically disadvantaged youth.  For more information, call 203-245-2815.
 

HUNGER Awareness: Hunger is a universal problem – it affects Americans and other countries’ citizens alike, it affects the young and the old, and it undermines progress in education, economic development and health status.

Background:  Hunger doesn’t take a vacation, as seen in the recently released Hunger Study – 2006 (America’s Second Harvest – The Nation’s Food Bank Network), where emergency food providers report many more children served in the summer, when government school breakfast and lunch programs are not in session.  This study reveals that more than 38 million Americans are hungry or at risk of hunger, unsure how they will pay for their next meal. Thirty-six percent of the client households served by the America’s Second Harvest Network include at least one employed adult. 

What FCC is doing about hunger: Our congregation is specifically supporting hunger relief in our community in many ways, including donation of canned goods to Christian Community Action www.ccahelping.org,  Fair Haven Parents’ Ministry and the Shoreline Soup Kitchen www.shorelinesoupkitchens.org,  donation of funds to these agencies and to Madison Community Services, and preparation and serving of meals at the Shoreline Soup Kitchen.  Our support for programs like Heifer International also addresses hunger.

What you can do about hunger: The preparation and sharing of food is a very clear demonstration of love in action – think of a mother nursing her child, a Thanksgiving dinner, Communion.  Meeting another’s basic need for food is a vital activity. 

• Learn more about hunger on Tuesday, June 6, 2006 – National Hunger Awareness Day on www.secondharvest.org or  www.hungerday.org
• Voice your support for combating hunger in America to your elected officials, who look to you for guidance on what is important to your community.  Learn how at www.hungeractioncenter.org
• Continue to bring in canned goods and make donations to special collections!

Genocide in Darfur: “The 20^th century is haunted by the ghosts of the millions of innocent victims of genocide the world failed to protect.  From the Holocaust to Rwanda, the question of “How could this be allowed to happen?” continues to hang in the air. Nearly three years into the crisis, the western Sudanese region of Darfur is acknowledged to be a humanitarian, and human rights tragedy of the first order.  The humanitarian, security and political situation continue to deteriorate: atrocities continue, people are still dying in large numbers of malnutrition and disease, and a new famine is feared.  According to reports by the World Food Program and the United Nations, 3.5 million people are now hungry, 2.5 million have been displaced due to violence, and 400,000 people have died in Darfur thus far.  The international community is failing to protect civilians or to influence the Sudanese government to do so.  Not since the Rwanda genocide of 1994 has the world seen such a calculated campaign of slaughter, rape, starvation and displacement.  The Sudanese government continues to flout international law with impunity.”  (Save Darfur website) What you can do:  Organizations who are rallying for political response to the Darfur crisis have very informative websites. Become informed by reading material on www.MillionVoicesforDarfur.org and www.SaveDarfur.org. Send e-postcards to the White House found on-line. Make a donation. Outreach has purchased a DVD on Darfur and will schedule a showing soon.  A Save Darfur rally is scheduled for April 30^th in Washington, D.C.

AIDS epidemic in Botswana: The HIV/AIDS epidemic is scourging Botswana, where approximately 37 % of young adults are HIV positive.  Young adults are the hardest hit by the epidemic and are dying in appalling numbers. In villages throughout Botswana, funerals are an every-weekend event. Young mothers and fathers leave behind their children who must now be cared for by aging grandparents.  Life expectancy has dropped from a high of 61 years in 1987 to just 31 years in 2000; Infant mortality has risen sharply and some 70% of pediatric deaths are attributable to AIDS; An estimated 69,000 AIDS orphans rely on increasingly strained family networks and it is estimated that by 2010, 1 in 5 children in Botswana will be orphans.
In recent years there has been some cause for hope, in large part due to the extensive network of Non-Governmental Organizations (NGO's) working tirelessly to extend services to those hardest to reach. Recent statistics provide some evidence of a stabilization of new HIV infections. Additionally, the introduction of free ARV therapy has meant healthier and longer lives for many people living with AIDS. Yet despite the progress Botswana has made against HIV/AIDS, the country still carries an enormous burden of caring for the infected, raising those orphaned, and educating those not yet infected on how to stay healthy.
*Statistics from UNAIDS, Report of the Global AIDS Epidemic, 2004 and UNAIDS Epidemic Update 2005
What you can do: Make a donation to one of these worthy NGO's.  You can find some by connecting to the web site http://www.setsoproject.org/ created by Becca Lowry, FCC member Betty Lowry's granddaughter.  Becca is on the ground in Botswana, having left her job at Princeton University to volunteer for a year helping these organizations.  Setso Project has been created to channel donations and supplies directly to the people in need.  Or send in your donation to the church, marked to go toward aid in Botswana.