News Briefs
Back to Weekly News Briefs...April 8, 2010
- CLWR sets new course to support alternative trade
- Commodities shipment on its way to Nicaragua
- Update on LWF activity in Haiti
CLWR sets new course to support alternative trade
Canadian Lutheran World Relief (CLWR) is setting a new course for alternative trade programming that will replace the current Four Corners operation. The new direction will see CLWR enter into an alliance with Ten Thousand Villages. This will be the vehicle through which CLWR supporters can continue to support alternatively traded products.
Four Corners was launched in 2005 with a mandate to support artisan communities in the developing world by marketing alternatively traded handcrafts to the Lutheran constituency in Canada within a financially viable framework. While sales of Four Corners product have grown, financial viability has been impossible. Excluding overhead support, a significant annual subsidy has been required in each year of operation to offset losses, and financial projections foresee no significant change in this trend.
At its March 2010 meeting, the CLWR Board of Directors endorsed a recommendation to close the Four Corners program. This was deemed necessary to protect the viability of core programming such as community development, emergency and disaster relief, refugee resettlement and commodities.
CLWR will continue to promote alternative trade to its constituency by encouraging support for Ten Thousand Villages. This organization assists many of the same artisans that were supported by Four Corners. Ten Thousand Villages operates retail outlets in seven provinces and an online store. A link to the Ten Thousand Villages online store will be available at the CLWR website www.clwr.org.
The Four Corners retail outlet will close on April 15, 2010, and a number of strategies are being considered to sell off the existing inventory. Online sales are eliminated effective immediately.
Canadian Lutheran World Relief Executive Director, Robert Granke acknowledged the considerable effort many people have made to support Four Corners, including: volunteers and regional representatives; Evangelical Lutheran Women and Lutheran Women’s Missionary League–Canada; congregations of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada and Lutheran Church–Canada and the customers, stakeholders and friends of Four Corners. To each he expressed the gratitude of the Board and staff.
Commodities shipment on its way to Nicaragua
A forty-foot shipping container packed with bales of quilts, We Care kits, and a wide variety of medical and hygiene goods is now en route from the Canadian Lutheran World Relief (CLWR) warehouse in Winnipeg to Chinandega, Nicaragua. The shipment will be received and distributed by Iglesia Luterana Sínodo de Nicaragua (ILSN), a partner church of Lutheran Church–Canada.
The container was loaded on March 26th by staff of the Donated Commodities program with the able assistance of several local volunteers. Together, they moved 27,500 pounds in the span of about six hours.
Included in the shipment were 3,386 quilts and blankets, 1,084 baby bundles, 5,830 We Care kits and 1,350 toys. Also sent were many useful pieces of medical and dental equipment, including hospital beds, x-ray machines, wheelchairs, bandages, pneumonia vests, and a dentist’s chair provided by our partners at International H.O.P.E. Canada.
For more information about how you can get involved in preparing We Care kits and quilts, please visit http://www.clwr.org/How-You-Can-Help/.
Update on LWF activity in Haiti
The latest situation report on Haiti released by the ACT Alliance highlights some of the work being carried out by the Lutheran World Federation (LWF) in communities within and around Port-au-Prince.
In Darbonne, seven tents have been erected to serve as temporary schools for 1,500 children. The tents have been furnished with items recovered from the ruins. The schools were scheduled to open on April 5. Water and sanitation structures are being installed. Six more tents have been distributed and the ground is being prepared for installation in Léogâne. These are the first educational tents to be installed in the commune of Léogâne.
In the Nerette and Ste. Therese settlements in Port Au Prince, “Cash for Work” activities have commenced. In addition, school kits and materials, including hardboard, chalk paper and pencils for psychosocial activities with the children, are being provided and tents are being erected to provide transitional housing for 67 families.
In the coming week, the LWF hopes to begin distribution of 11,700 family kits to the communities of Port au Prince, Léogâne, Grand Goave and Petit Goave. Family kits include a mattress, blankets, mosquito nets and rice.
To date, the CLWR Appeal for Haiti has received over $1.1 million. About $370,000 of the contributions to the CLWR Appeal for Haiti are being used to support the relief efforts being carried out by the LWF. The balance is being held in reserve to support longer term recovery programming which will most likely involve the construction of permanent housing.
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Canadian Lutheran World Relief (CLWR) is setting a new course for alternative trade programming that will replace the current Four Corners operation. The new direction will see CLWR enter into an alliance with Ten Thousand Villages. This will be the vehicle through which CLWR supporters can continue to support alternatively traded products.
Four Corners was launched in 2005 with a mandate to support artisan communities in the developing world by marketing alternatively traded handcrafts to the Lutheran constituency in Canada within a financially viable framework. While sales of Four Corners product have grown, financial viability has been impossible. Excluding overhead support, a significant annual subsidy has been required in each year of operation to offset losses, and financial projections foresee no significant change in this trend.
At its March 2010 meeting, the CLWR Board of Directors endorsed a recommendation to close the Four Corners program. This was deemed necessary to protect the viability of core programming such as community development, emergency and disaster relief, refugee resettlement and commodities.
CLWR will continue to promote alternative trade to its constituency by encouraging support for Ten Thousand Villages. This organization assists many of the same artisans that were supported by Four Corners. Ten Thousand Villages operates retail outlets in seven provinces and an online store. A link to the Ten Thousand Villages online store will be available at the CLWR website www.clwr.org.
The Four Corners retail outlet will close on April 15, 2010, and a number of strategies are being considered to sell off the existing inventory. Online sales are eliminated effective immediately.
Canadian Lutheran World Relief Executive Director, Robert Granke acknowledged the considerable effort many people have made to support Four Corners, including: volunteers and regional representatives; Evangelical Lutheran Women and Lutheran Women’s Missionary League–Canada; congregations of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada and Lutheran Church–Canada and the customers, stakeholders and friends of Four Corners. To each he expressed the gratitude of the Board and staff.
Commodities shipment on its way to Nicaragua
A forty-foot shipping container packed with bales of quilts, We Care kits, and a wide variety of medical and hygiene goods is now en route from the Canadian Lutheran World Relief (CLWR) warehouse in Winnipeg to Chinandega, Nicaragua. The shipment will be received and distributed by Iglesia Luterana Sínodo de Nicaragua (ILSN), a partner church of Lutheran Church–Canada.
The container was loaded on March 26th by staff of the Donated Commodities program with the able assistance of several local volunteers. Together, they moved 27,500 pounds in the span of about six hours.
Included in the shipment were 3,386 quilts and blankets, 1,084 baby bundles, 5,830 We Care kits and 1,350 toys. Also sent were many useful pieces of medical and dental equipment, including hospital beds, x-ray machines, wheelchairs, bandages, pneumonia vests, and a dentist’s chair provided by our partners at International H.O.P.E. Canada.
For more information about how you can get involved in preparing We Care kits and quilts, please visit http://www.clwr.org/How-You-Can-Help/.
Update on LWF activity in Haiti
The latest situation report on Haiti released by the ACT Alliance highlights some of the work being carried out by the Lutheran World Federation (LWF) in communities within and around Port-au-Prince.
In Darbonne, seven tents have been erected to serve as temporary schools for 1,500 children. The tents have been furnished with items recovered from the ruins. The schools were scheduled to open on April 5. Water and sanitation structures are being installed. Six more tents have been distributed and the ground is being prepared for installation in Léogâne. These are the first educational tents to be installed in the commune of Léogâne.
In the Nerette and Ste. Therese settlements in Port Au Prince, “Cash for Work” activities have commenced. In addition, school kits and materials, including hardboard, chalk paper and pencils for psychosocial activities with the children, are being provided and tents are being erected to provide transitional housing for 67 families.
In the coming week, the LWF hopes to begin distribution of 11,700 family kits to the communities of Port au Prince, Léogâne, Grand Goave and Petit Goave. Family kits include a mattress, blankets, mosquito nets and rice.
To date, the CLWR Appeal for Haiti has received over $1.1 million. About $370,000 of the contributions to the CLWR Appeal for Haiti are being used to support the relief efforts being carried out by the LWF. The balance is being held in reserve to support longer term recovery programming which will most likely involve the construction of permanent housing.
