Click here to multiply your gift to transform the lives of the poor around the world.

Thank you for your generous support of The Sharing Way. Because of you, we have fed the hungry, helped families increase their income through small business loans, taught women how to read, given orphans the opportunity to be educated and trained subsistence farmers in ways to increase their production.

Our annual matching grant opportunity through Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) has consistently allowed The Sharing Way to start each new year with a dependable source of funding for crucial development programs. However, I need to inform you of some changes to this year’s matching grant appeal.

Due to the generous support we have received in past years, funding is already in place for our CIDA-approved projects for 2011. However, we must urgently deal with the reality that we have other crucial projects that desperately require  funding – projects that are not eligible for CIDA funding.

Our greatest needs in The Sharing Way for the next several years include funding to:

• Assist vulnerable children
• Support people widowed or orphaned by HIV & AIDS
• Help hungry and malnourished families increase their food supply

The good news is that we have been given an incredible opportunity to receive matching funds to help support these programs.

Recently, a few generous donors of The Sharing Way personally committed to matching all the funding we receive through this appeal, until April 30, 2011. They have pledged to match every dollar we receive, so that your gift will continue to multiply in impact!

Please consider generously supporting The Sharing Way through this appeal and taking advantage of this wonderful matching grant opportunity. Your gift will help transform the lives of countless men, women and children in need around the world.
 

Let me share three snapshots about how your generosity helps give hope to the poor.

Helping vulnerable children

Nearly half of the children of the world live in poverty. They are often excluded from access to essentials like water, healthcare, education and protection. These children are the victims of the inequalities of the world, the injustices of their countries and difficult family circumstances.

In the most extreme cases their childhoods are stolen from them and they are forced to struggle for mere survival each day.

The Sharing Way’s Children of Hope program works in Bolivia, Rwanda and India to give vulnerable children hope for a better future.

Rachel is one of the Children of Hope. Since her parents died, she has been responsible for her four younger siblings. Survival has been a struggle. Their poverty led to abuse by neighbours and they all had to drop out of school because they could not afford to pay for uniforms and supplies.

After getting involved with Children of Hope through their local church, Rachel received training in sewing and sewing machine repair. She is now a tailor and is able to provide for her whole family. Her siblings are all in school again. Due to their increased income, she has also been able to stop neighbours from taking
advantage of their situation.

Rachel now says, “We have hope. Please tell our friends in Canada that we are grateful for what they do for us. Children of Hope recently had three days of prayer in August in which we prayed for the people who support us.”

Rachel has now become a mentor for the Children of Hope program and helps three households with 16 children. Your gift to support Children of Hope programs will continue to multiply in impact.

Caring for those impacted by HIV & AIDS

Though it has lacked media focus in recent years, the devastating impact of HIV & AIDS continues to affect millions around the world. The numbers of those left orphaned or widowed by the disease continues to grow each day.

The Sharing Way’s Guardians of Hope program in Kenya, Rwanda and India supports those most impacted by providing essentials like food, clothing and care.Guardians of Hope groups also work to help improve farming methods, water supply and farming practices in the local community through income-generating activities and training.

Guardians groups help AIDS-orphaned children stay in school and protect them from exploitation and abuse. They also provide much-needed spiritual and emotional counsel to those coping with grief from the loss of family. Often elderly widows or widowers are left to raise their grandchildren after their children die from AIDS. Guardians of Hope supports these courageous men and women who worry about who will care for their grandchildren when they die.

Guardians of Hope supports AIDS orphans, like Richard from Kangari, Kenya, who was born HIV positive. Richard lost both his mother and father to AIDS by age six. Now nine years old, he is cared for by his grandmother. He takes antiretroviral medications each day. With the help of the Guardians of Hope group, Richard travels to the district hospital to receive his medication and regular check-ups. The local Guardians provide him with food and ensure he receives three meals a day.

Richard has completed the third grade and as he works hard in school, he dreams of one day becoming a pilot.

“I want to move through the clouds!” he shared with us.

Richard struggles with his health, but with a good diet and medication he can live a full and long life. He asks us to pray for him, his grandmother and his older brother. Through God’s grace and your generous support of programs like Guardians of Hope, Richard and others like him will be able to live out their dreams.

Securing food for hungry families

Images of hunger have deep pathos. Hunger is children crying at night because they have gone to bed with empty stomachs for another night. It is a farmer looking at his crops withering because of the lack of water. It’s a mother crying out to God for her children who are dying from malnutrition because she is unable to buy food.

One in every seven people in the world is undernourished and hungry. The vast majority live in developing countries. The number one priority of The Sharing Way is to help families obtain food security so they may live in dignity, as God intends. Food security exists when families have access to sufficient nutritious food that allows them to maintain healthy and active lives. Currently, The Sharing Way has food security projects in Rwanda, Congo, Kenya, India, Bolivia and El Salvador.

Sadly, for many poor subsistence farmers, being able to provide a healthy, nutritious diet and education for their families can seem like an impossible dream. Arturo Zapata Elne is a small farmer from Mercedes Umaña in El Salvador. He and his family struggled just to survive on what little he was able to produce. There was no money left for other necessities such as healthcare and education costs.

Through the support of The Sharing Way’s food security program, Arturo and his community received assistance to increase their production levels. As a group, they worked together in cultivating corn, beans and sorghum. He was also given a microcredit loan of $165 to buy a cow, which supplies milk for his family. His income also improved when the cow produced a calf.

With the increase in his family income, he was able to send his children to school. One of his sons is now studying in university, a dream Arturo once thought could never happen. “That makes me feel happy because he will have a better life than mine,” he says.

Arturo is now the president of the community group and says, “…we see the future with more hope.”

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Please click here and join The Sharing Way today in supporting people who are struggling with hunger, health and basic survival. People like Rachel, Richard and Arturo. Let them know there are people who are willing to offer a hand-up.

Please partner with us as we work to transform the lives of families and communities. Witness how your gift will bring hope and new life to those who need it most.

Take this incredible opportunity to multiply the impact of your gift to The Sharing Way. Every dollar we receive before April 30, 2011 will be doubled to help more people in need.

Join us as we work with vulnerable people around the world to realize their dreams. Dreams of food security, health, access to school and safety. Dreams of a better future.

Blessings,

Gord King

Director, The Sharing Way