PWRDF news

Hats off and many thanks to Don and Mary Raddon from the diocese's Green Group for their fundraising efforts for the PWRDF "A Light For Every Birth" solar suitcase program in Mozambique. Don and Mary have set up shop outside of their home in Odessa with a table of wonderful vegetable plants, perennials and annuals. If you are still looking for Beef Steak, Roma or Cherry tomatoes, eggplant, red and purple seed potatoes, sweet bell pepper, green and purple basil, sorrel, cilantro or chives for the garden you might still be in luck. They have begonia, nonstop and fibrous, verbena, euphorbia, bacopa, dusty miller, and petunias for planters. For your flower beds they have, zinnia, marigolds, phlox, alyssum, and Rose Mallow. There is also an assortment of perennials, hosts, day-lilies, Solomon's seal, callas and cannas etc.  This is week number two for their sale and so far they have raised over $700 - just incredible! For more information please email Don and Mary at mraddon@hotmail.com.

As we continue to raise awareness on the solar suitcase project, your support and any sharing that you can do by word of mouth or by sharing PWRDF posts would be very much appreciated. I have been to Mozambique and have witnessed the heart wrenching poverty there. I recall a woman that I met in a rural area, who emerged from her mud hut with no shoes and three small children fondly tugging at her legs and long skirt. I had nothing left to give her but the flip flops I was wearing for her feet, that had clearly rarely ever seen any footwear. I looked into her eyes, and she into mine, I knew in not too long I would be far away from that place, and she would continue thus. Woman to woman, it was a moment that I won't ever forget. She was so grateful. In the years that followed, I thought of her and her children many times. I imagined her children likely being born in the mud hut with no attendants, no care, and quite likely no light. The solar suitcase project will save lives. We know that when mothers in developing countries die in childbirth, the families' health and well-being suffers dramatically. Women are often the breadwinners, they are often the only ones who are foraging and preparing food, and they are too frequently the only ones who are looking after the children. The benefits of the solar suitcases are felt exponentially.  

We are continuing the work on the Diocese of Ontario Cookbook, so keep sending in those recipes!!  I can see from what has come in so far that I am not the only one who loves to cook! It has been fascinating to see the culinary delights that are being created in Anglican kitchens across the diocese - I think you will be impressed. In an ideal world, I would like to end up with 250-500 recipes.  'It will take a village!'

If you have other examples of fundraising that you are doing for PWRDF, please let me know so that we can make sure that we share these wonderful and inspiring stories.