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Previous Special Projects

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2022 SPECIAL OUTREACH PROJECT
Good used vehicle for friends theological college (FTC)

FTC is seeking a good used, rugged 4 X4 to replace its current vehicle.

FTC is seeking a good used, rugged 4 X4 to replace its current vehicle. There is a need for one that has ca-pacity for dual use for FTC:

• transport students as they go out to preach and work in villages

• Haul food, supplies , equipment and other resources

The total cost of the need-ed vehicle will be $45,000- $49,000. WYM Board on Christian Outreach has committed to raise $15,000 of this cost.

Please write your checks to WYM Benevolence Fund, write “2022 Special Project” in the memo line, and mail to Western Yearly Meeting, P.O. Box 70, Plainfield, IN 46168

Special Project for 2021

GLOBAL COMMUNITY TECHNOLOGY

More than ever before, FUM and our partners are employing computer, educational, and conferencing technologies to connect Friends and serve our communities and the world.

The 2021 WYM SPECIAL OUTREACH PROJECT will expand the bandwidth and upgrade the technology at several key ministry sites.

Belize Friends Ministries/School — Belize Friends School is complying with the government’s strict educational regulations and stay-at-home orders. Using Google Classroom, our teacher’s lesson plans and student communication is now online.

Additionally, Nikki Holland and the office administration are working directly with the FUM’s Finance office in Richmond through our cloud-based accounting system. These demands are taxing on our older computer systems. The 2021 WYM SPECIAL OUTREACH PROJECT will fund 4 computers for Belize Friends Ministries.

Friends Theological College — Responding to rising COVID numbers, the government required mandatory closure of all educational institutions in Kenya. Responding to the crisis, Robert Wafula the school administrators formed a partnership with St. Paul’s University to train our teachers in distance learning programs. With the generous sup-port of our donors, we subscribed to MoodleCloud, an online learning platform, and the FTC E-Learning Program was launched. The program is growing as more students invest in technology and join classes. Robert Wafula notes that the school’s accrediting agency, Association

for Christian Theological Education in Africa (ACTEA) looks at the FTC’s e-learning program as a model for other African institutions. To continue growing the e-learning and residentials programs, FTC needs to upgrade faculty and computer lab computers, and replace an old copy machine. The laptops are over 15 years old. The 2021 WYM SPECIAL OUTREACH PROJECT will fund 10 laptop computers, 2 desktop computers, and 1 copy machine for Friends Theological college.

African Ministries Office — The office in Kisumu, Kenya serves as the hub of all FUM’s activities and ministries in Africa. From the office, we oversee and offer support for our ministry partners, including Samburu Friends Mission, Turkana Friends Mission, Friends Church Peace Teams, Lugulu Hospital, Lindi Friends School, and others. Additionally we work to connect and coordinate FUM’s member Yearly Meeting activities , mediate conflicts, provide leadership training, and host in-person and online meetings. Increasingly African Friends are collabo-rating with Friends in North America and other places. Because of the increasing demands, FUM needs to expand the bandwidth in the office and purchase a new computer system to facilitate video conferencing and to be used by our Communications Officer. The 2021 WYM SPECIAL OUTREACH PROJECT will fund 1 new computer and install Fiber Internet services in the Kisumu office.

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2020 Special Outreach Project
Belize Friends School

The 2020 Special Project sought to raise $15,000 to underwrite the regular expenses of the Belize Friends School.  Through the generosity of Western Yearly Meeting Friends a total of $20,103.36 raised.  

About three decades ago, Ms. Sadie Vernon felt called to help the youngsters who had dropped out of school and were on the street find a productive way to spend their time. She was advised to go to Jamaica and get acquainted with the work of Quakers in education there.

Sadie then came to Indiana to study at Earlham School of Religion. Her gifts of ministry were recorded by our own Yearly Meeting. She is pictured here in the very early stages of establishing the school which still exists for the purpose of giving a second chance at educating those youngsters who have not passed their 8th grade exam which they must do to be admitted into high school.

Friends United Meeting appointed a Discernment Team to assist Dale Graves, who served as interim director in 2016, in assessing whether FUM should continue to manage the school, abandon the ministry or expand the ministry. When the recommendation was approved to expand the ministry to include community involvement, adult education and begin a church, a new location was needed. Dale was then asked to find a new facility and then renovate it as needed.

The renovation of what was a sales room and warehouse for truck parts was completed in the spring of 2018 and named The Belize Friends Center. The school is now one component of the Center. It has a separate budget from which comes operating costs including teacher salaries. The school is subsidized by the government, therefore teaches government curriculum with the addition of daily Bible instruction and weekly worship time.

The lower level of the front building is the Dale Graves Hall. The upper level is a four-bedroom, three-bathroom residence. The school is in the back building on the lower two floors. The third floor houses Oscar Mmbali’s apartment and some dormitory space for visitors. A cell phone tower on the roof brings in revenue for the school.

When the school was located on Allenby Street and the students played soccer in the street, sometimes the ball landed in the yard of Mr. Frank Tench. So, for many years as he watched the students and staff come and go each day, he got acquainted with them. Because he showed so much interest in the school, he was invited to be on the School Board. When he retired from his job as the local TV weatherman whose lab and studio are at the Belize City airport, he became an

instructor for the adult education program. Mr. Tench is pictured here giving instructions on one of the weather instruments. He is now the principal of the school.

THE 2019 WYM SPECIAL PROJECT:
GIRLS’ EDUCATION (EDUCATION FOR ESTHER)

 WYM FRIENDS RAISED OVER $18,000 FOR THIS PROJECT IN 2019.

In Turkana and Samburu, girls leave school and get married at puberty.  These girls face devastating poverty and lifelong health consequences.  They are five times more likely to die in childbirth than women in their twenties, and their children are 60% more likely to die than those born to mother’s over 18.  Educated mothers are more likely to ensure their babies are vaccinated and receive proper nutri0on and they tend to have smaller, healthier and better educated families. In addition, a 63-country study found that expanded female education resulted in better farming practices, which contributed to about 40% of the decline in malnutrition from 1970 to 1995.  Crop yields in Kenya could rise, up to 22%, if women farmers had the same education and inputs (such as fertilizer, credit, and investment) as men farmers.  And finally, educated women are more likely to resist abuses such as domestic violence, traditions like female genital cutting, and discrimination at home, in society or the workplace.

Western Yearly Meeting’s goal is to raise $15,000 by the end of the year to support this special project.  Would you and your Meeting support this worthwhile cause?  Please make your checks to:  WYM Benevolence, note 2019 WYM Special Project in the memo line and mail it to WYM, PO Box 70, Plainfield IN.  Thank you for your prayerful consideration.

Raising $15,000 will provide for a year’s education for 30 girls.

2018 WYM Outreach Special Project

Tanzania Yearly Meeting
Goal: $14,000

Tanzania Yearly Meeting was established in 1952 by missionaries from Kaimosi. The mission started at Kisangula in Serenge, Mara Region of Tanzania. In 2009 the yearly meeting had only seven Quaker churches in Tanzania, all of them in the Mara region (along the Kenyan Border).Today, Tanzania Yearly Meeting covers 8 regions and includes 26 meetings. And Quakers in Tanzania are still growing, particularly in the south in regions of Singida, Tabora, and Shinyanga.

It is a serious problem for the Tanzania Yearly Meeting to have the capacity to reach and manage all these churches. They are spread far and wide. There is a great opportunity for Tanzanian and Kenyan leaders and ministers to train and unify the churches, to encourage church growth and leadership development, and to strengthen the vitality of the mee ngs.

The 2018 Special Project of the WYM Board on Christian Outreach seeks to address these needs.

Core Program—$5,000

Funding for John Muhanji & colleagues to travel in Tanzania, for the purpose of training Kenyans interested in mission work in Tanzania, administer the pairing of Kenyan and Tanzanian churches.

FTC Scholarships for Tanzanian students—$5,000

Fund two students each from Mwanza and Mbeya regions to come to FTC for one year certificate in pastoral ministry program. They would first need to spend 6 months in intensive language study which would come from other funding.

Matching funds for Kenya mission outreach in Tanzania—$2,000

One of the main emphases of this special focus on Tanzania is to help Kenyan Friends see themselves as a missions-sending church. The FUM Africa Ministries Office will pair up Kenyan churches that are interested with new Tanzanian church-plants that would benefit from the support.

Regional workshops in Tanzania in discipleship and Quakerism— $2,000

There is a need for large groups of people who are new to Quakerism to be taught the fundamentals of Christian Quaker faith and practice. These workshops would take place regionally around the country.

Make checks payable to:
WYM Benevolence Treasurer
PO Box 70, Plainfield, IN 46168

And make a notation that it is for the 2018 Special Project: Tanzania.

2017 WYM Outreach Special Project

~ Belize ~

The purpose of this fundraising goal is two-fold:

(1) Support Oscar Siema Mmbali, recently appointed pastoral minister to Belize. Oscar, a Kenyan, is to plant a church in the Southside neighborhood and serve as a chaplain in the Friends School
(2) Assist with the purchase and renovation of the new Belize City Friends Center.

The Belize Friends School gives young people in Belize a second chance to succeed at entering High school or Trade school and to be successful in life! 

2016 WYM Outreach Special Project

The municipal power grid in Kenya is notoriously unreliable. Power outages can last anywhere from 30 minutes to eight hours and occur almost daily. For the most part, a traditional lifestyle doesn't rely heavily on electricity, and people are quite flexible in response to the inconveniences of outages. But a modern institute of theological education, engaged in dialog with centers of learning and practice around the world, can't as easily or cheerfully weather the constant unreliability of the power. Friends Theological College is situated in an ideal location for solar power, as it is at a high elevation just 10km from the equator. It has long been a dream at FTC to be able to electrify the entire academic campus using photovoltaic technology, but the dream has felt out of reach. Until now. FUM has begun a campaign to fund the installation of Solar Panels at FTC, and the WYM Outreach Board has decided to take part in supporting this project. The 2016 Special Project goal is to raise $12,000 for the Solar Project at Friends Theological College in Kenya. The money raised will be used to pay for solar panels and their installment.

All photography provided by WYM and its affiliates.