This article will appear in the November issue of Anglican Life
By Mona Edwards, PWRDF Representative,
Diocese of Western Newfoundland
As I write this, my friends and I are “recuperating” from our climb up Gros Morne Mountain, which we did as a team for the annual Ride for Refuge. A milestone birthday for my friend and myself, and accompanied by her sister, we decided to climb the mountain to raise funds for a very worthwhile project. As the expression goes: no pain, no gain, and in this case the pain was more than worth the gain of using this trek to raise funds for St. Jude’s Project in Africa. Unfortunately, due to a slight injury, I only made it about halfway up, but my teammates trudged on, and on, and on, until 15 hours and 16 kms later they arrived back safely, thanks to Parks Canada rescuers and our awesome God.
Since PWRDF began participating in this annual event six years ago, many supporters have walked or cycled to raise more than $130,000 for PWRDF, and in these unprecedented times, even mountain climbing goes.
St. Jude’s promotes sustainable agriculture training with a focus on women, children and youth. People come from Africa and other parts of the world to learn about organic farming, food security, income generation, environmental management, tree planting, water harvesting and soil fertilization.
The founder of the organization, Josephine Kizza Aliddeki, believes in a holistic approach and teaches that all living things are connected and need to be preserved. Since 1997, St. Jude Family Projects has trained, closely monitored and transformed more than 186,000 farmers.
PWRDF supports St. Jude’s and the community by improving food security, increasing income through farm entrepreneurship and teaching agricultural conservation techniques to cope with climate change.
In order to continue to support this incredible work, PWRDF has made St. Jude Family Projects in Uganda the beneficiary for the 2020 Ride for Refuge. The national goal was set at $25,000, and as of September 30th (this column’s submission deadline), we’ve exceeded it with our team, mountaintop@65, contributing over $2800. Thanks to generous donors like yourselves.
If you would like to learn more about St. Jude’s projects and many other projects of which PWRDF is a part, please visit PWRDF.org or contact me at monacedwards@hotmail.com or on Facebook.
Isaiah 52:7:
How lovely on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news, who announce peace and bring good news of happiness, who announce salvation, and say to Zion, “Your God reigns!”
