Mission Statement
As an instrument of faith, PWRDF connects Anglicans in Canada to communities around the world in dynamic partnerships to advance development, respond to emergencies, assist refugees and act for
positive change.
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- WATCH: World of Gifts offers safe online shopping 24/7
- Christmas Reflection from Will Postma
- 'The happiest day of my life has finally come' - PWRDF in South Sudan
- Toronto churches answer the call of the Diocese of North East Caribbean and Aruba
- Q&A on Rohingya Relief: ‘Nobody comes here for a better life. They have to be desperate’
- Experiencing truth and reconciliation:
a PWRDF Youth Council perspective
Donor Profile
- Moncton parishes join forces
Resources
- Advent 2017
- Voices of Hope: Refuge Egypt
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Last minute gift shopping?
Let World of Gifts be your guide!
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PWRDF’s World of Gifts gift guide is a great way to celebrate Christmas, Easter, birthdays, or just to support the ongoing work of PWRDF, Indigenous Ministries and Global Relations projects around the world! Watch our video at right, and then shop our secure site 24/7. Learn how you too can make a world of difference!
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Christmas Reflection
By Will Postma, Executive Director of PWRDF
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I so look forward to Christmas. Rest. Finishing up a few home projects. Finishing up those half-read books. Attending the service of Nine Lessons and Carols (with fond memories of organizing this while living in Bangladesh many years ago). Watching Charlie Brown and the Grinch with the kids (albeit now both over 20!). Dusting off those family games… Scrabble, Apples to Apples and a card game (7-up) that somehow passed through my family.
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I don’t know anyone else who plays such a game (with Rook cards, building up and down from the 7-card until the first person has gotten rid of her cards). Listening to the Messiah, many times, always amazed how George Frideric Handel composed this inspiring music in just 24 days using words from Scripture to guide him on. And reading and rejoicing in Luke 2:10, never old, always bold, that the coming of Jesus is good news, of great joy, for all people.
Christmas is about joy, about beginnings and newness. Jesus’ birth as told in the beginning of the Gospels of Matthew and Luke – how beautifully they tell the story of a humble birth, the shepherd and the Magi in awe, the songs of Mary and Zechariah, a refugee family fleeing to and seeking safety in Egypt, of prophecy fulfilled.
Coming in the last few days of the last month of the year, Christmas also compels us to look back. In 2017, PWRDF responded to a double-digit number of emergencies -- hurricane after hurricane, drought, conflict, mudslide, flood. There was also a heavy realization that the world, with all of its technological advances, is still seeing so many at risk of falling farther and farther behind. Yet amidst the chaos, babies were being born and people were growing food and feeding their families through our development programs in maternal and newborn child health and food security. Communities from Africa to Northern Ontario are getting improved access to clean water. The work continues.
May this Christmas be a time of wonder and gratitude, of prayer for those who are hurting and vulnerable and for us too, for all that we can offer, inspired by Jesus’ birth and the Gospel message of justice and peace for all. May the Christmas story of joy never cease to amaze, comfort and inspire.
-- Will
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'The happiest day of my life has finally come'
PWRDF leading $375,000 food assistance project in South Sudan
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As winter begins to settle across Canada, hunger persists in South Sudan. PWRDF is leading a food distribution project that aims to feed thousands in a rural county in Eastern Equatoria State, through our equity in Canadian Foodgrains Bank and a 4:1 match from Global Affairs Canada. Read more, including a photo essay 16 Portraits of Hunger.
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Toronto churches answer the call of the Diocese of North East Caribbean and Aruba
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On Saturday, Dec. 2, parishioners of the Diocese of Toronto came together at St. Andrew’s, Scarborough to pray for the people of the Caribbean who have been devastated by recent hurricanes. Read the full story ...
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Q&A with Ken Kim, Canadian Foodgrains Bank board member, on Rohingya relief
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‘Nobody comes here for a better life. They have to be desperate’
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Canadian Foodgrains Bank board chairperson Ken Kim, who is also Director of Disaster Response and Rehabilitation for Foodgrains Bank member World Renew, recently returned from Bangladesh. While there, he visited a Foodgrains Bank project providing emergency food rations to Rohingya refugees in the Kutupalong refugee camp, home to almost 400,000 Rohingya refugees who have fled violence in Myanmar. PWRDF is one of seven Foodgrains Bank members providing funding. Read the entire interview here ...
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WATCH: Images from Rohingya, where PWRDF support is being used.
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Experiencing truth and reconciliation
By Jessica Steele, Chair of PWRDF Youth Council Resources Committee
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The term “Truth and Reconciliation” is thrown around a lot both in the media and in general conversation and I often have to ask myself: What does that term really mean? How to we actively engage through our personal and professional lives in the work of Truth and Reconciliation? Read more...
Valerie Kerr, Archdeacon for truth, reconciliation and Indigenous ministry for the Anglican Diocese of Niagara
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Donor profile
The parishes of St. Philip, Moncton, St. James, Moncton, St. Andrew, Sunny Brae and Hillsborough-Riverside, New Brunswick
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Four New Brunswick parishes are making a world of difference in not just one vulnerable community but TWO! As part of their Christmas Outreach Project, parishioners took on the challenge of raising money for a bore well as described in PWRDF's World of Gifts guide. A bore well supplies clean drinking water to a community and makes a major improvement for the people living there, especially girls and women who spend hours every day fetching water at remote wells.
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A gift of $2,000 is matched 6:1 by Global Affairs Canada, to achieve the total $14,000 required to build the well. By the end of the fundraising drive, the parishes has raised $4,000, enough money to outfit two communities with clean drinking water. This gift will transform the lives of community members in our project areas, as well as those of the parishioners of St. Philip, St. James, St. Andrew and Hillsborough-Riverside. Congratulations on your great work!
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Advent Reflections -- still 9 more days to go!
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This Advent, PWRDF invites you to take a few moments each day to reflect on the season and enter into prayerful consideration of its meaning. These daily reflections connect PWRDF's programs with Advent readings. Download all four weeks of Advent reflections at once, or join the 400+ people who have signed up to receive one each day in your email inbox.
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Rasha is a 27-year-old Sudanese woman who has been living in Cairo for a year. She is pregnant and suffering from anemia. Her aunt told her to visit the health clinic at Refuge Egypt. She came to Egypt with her husband but unfortunately, he abandoned her and now she will be a single mother. At Refuge Egypt she received excellent care. “There is not a place like the place here,” says Rasha. “I can come at any time during work hours and I’m sure I will find help. I cannot get help at any other place.” Since 1987, Refuge Egypt has been operating as a ministry of the Episcopal Diocese of Egypt based in All Saints’ Cathedral. About 250,000 refugees and asylum seekers live in Egypt, arriving from the wartorn and drought plagued places that have dominated our headlines for the past two years. PWRDF has supported Refuge Egypt’s work for more than 20 years as it administers health care, emergency food relief and other social supports. When a family brings their child to the Well Baby and Well Child clinics at Refuge Egypt, they receive a food basket with milk, rice, cooking oil, biscuits, cheese and peanut butter. These food packages draw parents to bring in their children, as well as provide an opportunity for staff to talk about proper nutrition to ensure their child’s growth is not stunted. Good health is key to helping a family resettle or prepare for their next move. Download and share this Voices of Hope bulletin insert with your church.
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