Millennium Development Goals

St. Paul's most recent outreach efforts are through the Episcopal Millennium Development Goals to which St. Paul's is devoting 0.7% of its annual budget. St. Paul's focus is on the Carpenter Kids Program in Tanzania, and its own on-site recycling program.

The Millennium Development Goals, endorsed by the Episcopal Church are eight interrelated targets for the eradication of global poverty:

• Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger
• Achieve universal primary education
• Promote gender equality and empower women
• Reduce child mortality
• Improve maternal health
• Combat HIV/AIDS malaria and other diseases
• Ensure environmental sustainability
• Develop a global partnership for development

Carpenter's Kids

To build inter-parish and cross cultural relationships, St. Paul's has committed to sponsor 136 children in one village (Mwitikira) in the Diocese of Central Tanzania. We provide $3,000 a year for five years beginning October 2007. The funds provide school uniforms, shoes and basic school materials, as well as breakfast on school days. In 2008, St. Paul's also provided socks, sweaters, bookbags, soap, moisturizer, and, most importantly, mattresses and two large mosquito nets.

After a recent investigative trip to the village by two St. Paul's members, Suzanne Johnson and Roger Whitfield, the Millennium Development Goals committee plans to sponsor work missions to help the villagers in construction, health or educational projects.

Contact: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address), 804-377-9738

St. Paul's Green Team

Help further St. Paul's efforts to be good stewards of God's creation here at home and abroad. With this ministry team in its early stages, you have an opportunity to work with our Rector, Outreach Ministry Board, and Millennium Development Goals Committee to shape the future of our energy and resource conservation activities, including an Earth Day Service Project on Sunday, April 19.

Contact our Rector, Betsy Carr (outreach), or Suzanne Johnson (MDG Committee) for more information.

Water Project in Mwitikira

NEW: Report on Improvements to the Water System in Mwitikira (posted Feb. 2010)

Imagine St. Paul’s filled to the rafters and then multiply by 7; that is how many people (6000) there are in Mwitikira, the village in Tanzania where we help send AIDS orphans to school through the Carpenter’s Kids program.  As do we all, they need water to live.  Unfortunately, they do not have the James River flowing through the middle of town. They have to rely on wells from which clean water can be pumped.

The pump is powered by a 15 horsepower diesel engine – no electricity in this village.  It runs 8 hours per day and in that time, draws 32,000 gallons from the ground.  This may sound like a lot, but represents just over 5 gallons per person per day, or just over 3 flushes of our US toilets.  At the wellhead the water is piped to a reservoir and is then distributed by gravity to 4 distribution points (faucets!) in the village.  The villagers fill containers and take them to their homes.  They pay for the water and the revenue covers the cost of diesel fuel and equipment maintenance.

To ensure the pump continues to work properly -- the motor currently breaks down frequently -- St. Paul's is working with the village water committee, the district water engineer and a non-governmental organization (WaterAid) who are on the ground. We are supporting the installation of a new pump and motor, as well as work to increase the number of distribution points for clean water from 4 to 10, the latter because of village expansion since the original pipelines were laid.

The needs are important because when the pump or motor fails, the villagers are forced to use water from unsanitary surface wells, risking their health.