About That Grant ...
In keeping with the promise to devote resources to the Millennium Development Goals, not just in word but deed, the Diocesan ECW has made its first MDG grant. In the first quarter of 2007, $600 was sent to a non-governmental organization in the Kilimanjaro region of Tanzania known by its acronym, Kiwakkuki. In the Kiswahili dialect, this stands for "Women Against AIDS in Kilimanjaro."
At its planning retreat in February, the Diocesan ECW Executive Board agreed that whatever we do on behalf of the MDGs as an organized ministry, our foundation will be MDG #3: Promoting gender equality and empowering women. This goal will always guide our thoughts as we, who have so much as part of a developed and rich nation, do our part to seek and serve all God's children, especially those in poor and underdeveloped countries.
Given those things, Kiwakkuki was a good first step as its work directly addresses four of the eight goals - 3, 4, 5 and 6 (see the list of goals.) Begun in 1990 by women as a response to the pandemic's affect on women in the region, Kiwakkuki educates and advocates for the prevention of AIDS, offers material and emotional support for those affected by HIV/AIDS, and cares for thousands of children in the area orphaned as a result of AIDS.
Upon receiving the grant, Dafrosa Itemba, Kiwakkuki's Executive Coordinator, wrote to the ECW of North Carolina. She said, "... Your letter was read yesterday morning at prayer time. We were indeed thrilled to hear the content and we thought we were greatly privileged to be given the honor."
Kiwakkuki is working to develop its own website. Meanwhile, you can learn more about the work and the people of this organization, which has a working relationship with Duke University and Duke University School of Medicine, by clicking on each of the photos of Mount Kilimanjaro below:
