Anglican Relief and Development Fund Makes Lenten Appeal
The Anglican Relief and Development Fund (ARDF) is asking Anglican Christians in North America to engage in the discipline of giving during the season of Lent.
According to Canon Nancy Norton, ARDF’s executive director, gifts marked “Lenten Appeal” will be used to help fund seven projects that have already received approval from ARDF’s board.
Those projects include work in the Democratic Republic of Congo to repair and expand the Lwanwa Primary school, reaching out to the poor and marginalized in North Bangalore, India, helping pregnant women in Brazil, enabling displaced Kenyans to return home, and rescuing Nepalese sex-trafficking victims. (full descriptions of all of the approved projects are available here.
Past ARDF projects have made significant improvements in the lives of real people. Cheyo Kikwaya, a village elder from Kinugu, in the Tabora region of Tanzania, gave this report. “We have been waiting for the government electricity to be connected on our area for the past 40 years. As a result, our local clinics could not operate effectively; simple tests had to be taken to another far clinic to be done. However, the installation of solar panels at Kinungu and Igurubi clinics has changed all this. More patients are being attended for the first time in many years and we give thanks to the efforts of Anglican Diocese of Tabora in ensuring that this has become a reality. As a community we are all united together, Christian and Muslims for the welfare of our people.”
Churches and individuals can make donations to the Lenten appeal by credit card on http://www.anglicanaid.net. Checks marked “Lenten Appeal” in the memo line and made out to ARDF may be mailed to “Anglican Relief and Development Fund, P.O. Box 3820, Pittsburgh, PA 15230”
Since ARDF began work in 2004, it has delivered more than $3.5 million in funding and touched some 500,000 people around the world. Built on the principle of “partnership, not patronage,” ARDF is directed by an international board of trustees. Trustees are The Most Rev. Dr. Peter J. Akinola (Patron), The Rt. Rev. Robert W. Duncan (President), The Rev. Canon Michael W. Murphy (Chairman), The Most Rev Justice O. Akrofi, The Most Rev Dr. Mouneer Anis, The Most Rev. Dr. John Chew, The Most Rev Dr. Benjamin Nzimbi, and The Most Rev. Gregory James Venables.
Printer ready ARDF Lenten Appeal Cards are available as a pdf file here