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self development of people
Wesley Woo spent years on the staff of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) During this time, he developed a keen interest in the work of the Presbyterian Committee on the Self-Development of People (SDOP), but because he was on staff, he could not serve on the committee.
While sorting through the papers of her late cousin Matilda Cartledge, Rebecca McClure found a couple of sentences in her relative’s handwriting that she says reflect Cartledge’s values.
An international task force from the Presbyterian Committee on the Self-Development of People (SDOP) recently returned from a visit to Belize, where it met with groups that have received funding to become more self-sustaining. SDOP selected Belize as a focus country in 2010 because of its continued struggle with extreme poverty.
An international task force from the Presbyterian Committee on the Self-Development of People (SDOP) recently returned from a visit to Belize, where it met with a number of groups that have received funding to become more self-sustaining.
The air is thick and humid on a typical day in Freetown, Sierra Leone. Driving along the streets of this seaside community, you’ll mostly find young people peddling their wares to the motorists as the temperatures hover in the mid-90s. They’re selling everything from fruit drinks and bananas to bicycle tires and shoes. Women balance trays of neatly stacked fruits, nuts and eggs as they make their way along the sidewalks dotted with small businesses. Everyone is seeking to make a living, side-by-side every day.
Baltimore based United Workers Association (UWA) is a human rights organization led by low-wage workers fighting to secure human rights for all—including freedom from poverty. Baltimore’s Inner Harbor has an area of great economic wealth and prosperity due to tourism, but it is surrounded by severe poverty throughout the inner city. The businesses in and around the Harbor employ workers whose wages have been systematically kept low and their working conditions, poor.
For two weeks, a delegation from the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) visited 10 villages in the countries of Sierra Leone and Liberia. The villages are participants in the West Africa Initiative (WAI), a partnership of Presbyterian Disaster Assistance, Presbyterian Hunger Program and Self-Development of People.
For three days, a Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) delegation made its way across remote sections of Sierra Leone, visiting five villages that are involved with the West Africa Initiative (WAI).
Between Freetown and Kenema, Sierra Leone, there is an old dirt road off the main highway that winds its way further and further into the wilderness. Sometimes the holes in the road are half as big as the cars that drive around them. At the end of the 20-minute ride is the village of Makai Sanka, one of the groups in the so-called central cluster of the West Africa Initiative (WAI).
Three ministries with Compassion, Peace and Justice are in Sierra Leone this week to see first hand how work is progressing for the West Africa Initiative, a collaboration of Presbyterian Hunger Program (PHP), Self-Development of People (SDOP) and Presbyterian Disaster Assistance (PDA).
