It’s already a few weeks into 2012, and looking back at the past year, I’m very thankful for your partnership with Episcopal Relief & Development. Together we’ve been able to accomplish some extraordinary things, working with communities worldwide to create lasting solutions to poverty. I hope that you stay up to date on our news by checking our website, or joining our Facebook page.This year is the last in the current triennium, and one of Episcopal Relief & Development’s major tasks is preparing our next strategic plan, covering 2013 to 2015. As you are friends to this organization, your views and advice are very important to us. I would be grateful if you could take a few minutes to fill out an online survey.
Your feedback will help inform our discussions about new priorities and goals. One part of the plan that’s especially exciting will be ways to celebrate Episcopal Relief & Development’s 75th anniversary in 2015. We welcome your ideas!
Again, I would very much appreciate your time in taking the survey. You can find it by clicking here: www.surveymonkey.com/s/MZ83DTV. The survey will be open through the end of the day on Sunday, February 5.
Thank you for helping us in our work of healing a hurting world.
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Rob Radtke is President of Episcopal Relief & Development.
Unfortunately, reconstruction is moving slowly; many people are still living in tents; and many more remain unemployed. Port-au-Prince is not the same Port-au-Prince that we knew in the past — so many buildings, homes, businesses and jobs have been destroyed. 
Similarly, Mme. Jean Heclaire, formerly a trader and renter in Carrefour, found herself homeless and displaced. With four others, she lived in a tent she erected on family land in her hometown of Trouin, a rural community of Léogâne Commune. Today she, too, is a new homeowner, and also is rebuilding her business as a femme Sara (traditional Haitian rural-urban trader).
Today we commemorate the second anniversary of the earthquake that devastated Haiti and took the lives of more than 300,000. 
“In times like these we all need to keep moving.”
Additionally, the engagement of Haitians and Episcopal parishes in community-led recovery contributes to their psychological well-being as they gain a voice and active role in helping themselves and their communities. Like Mr. Pompee’s, work projects typically facilitate community-wide recovery, resulting in removal of rubble; rehabilitation of markets, clinics and schools; sanitation campaigns; hurricane preparedness and response; road and ditch repair; reforestation; agriculture production; and special assistance for vulnerable residents.
It is true that 2011 was a year of progress and restoration in which many people were able to regain their traditional social and employment activities. Yet, as we approach the second anniversary of the earthquake, many people remain blocked by Haiti’s unresolved land issues and the quake’s lingering economic impact on their lives. 
By the time you read this blog post, Advent will be long gone. All of the waiting and preparation is completed: the gifts wrapped and unwrapped, Christmas pageants rehearsed and performed, candles burned, hymns sung, Christmas Eve service just a wonderful memory. Despite the fact that Advent is supposed to be a time of anticipation, I’m often most grateful just for having gotten through the holidays. For good or for bad, I made it to the finish line (December 25), and can breathe a hearty sigh of relief.
As we celebrate the Feast of the Nativity of our Lord Jesus Christ and the season of Christmas, I am reminded of all the blessings of this life. In particular, those I have connected with over the past year through the work of 
On what I know will seem like a totally unrelated note, my favorite holiday television special is 
Going through old emails allows for some very fascinating discoveries many months later about the things you don’t yet want to delete. Boy, am I glad I saved this one!
Visiting the Church of the Annunciation with my daughter was especially poignant. It was there that the Virgin Mary — at the time, roughly her age now — was visited by the angel Gabriel, who told her she was carrying God’s child and would become the mother of Jesus.
A new joy of mine this fall has been teaching the 
I called Philip and his wife, Judy, this week to thank them for a donation to Episcopal Relief & Development and I asked, “Why now?” Was there anything in particular that had moved them to make a donation at this time? 
Year after year on December 1, 
Advent is a season of expectant waiting and preparation for the celebration of the 
Give thanks in all things….St. Paul exhorts us. "And whatever you do, in work or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus; giving thanks to God the Father through him" (Colossians 3:17). Our actual work – all we do – should become a living embodiment of thankfulness each day, in all times and all ways. 
It’s that time of year. The leaves are turning, there’s a chill in the air and the holidays are rushing toward us. And as I write, we’re over halfway through our 
Maria del Socorro's eyes sparkled with enthusiasm as she told our group about the micro loan she used to buy a pig and several chickens. She raises her stock behind the family's house in the Laurel Galan section of San Francisco Libre. 
The pig is growing fast, gaining weight and becoming more marketable by the month. Soon Maria will sell it, probably for another family's Christmas feast, and she will make a tidy profit. Meanwhile, the chickens produce eggs regularly, giving the family a sustainable source of protein for breakfast.
The women are proud of what they have been able to accomplish, and the loans are paid back on time and in full. CEPAD provides training for the community banking committee, and the program participants, all of whom are women, contribute to the funding.
I remember as a child visiting my aunt's house in Sri Lanka and being intrigued by the wood-burning stove in her kitchen. That intrigue later turned into dismay as I learned of the consequences of cookstove smoke, especially inside dwellings. Exposure to smoke from cooking fires causes nearly two million premature deaths each year, most of them women and young children. It contributes to numerous respiratory illnesses and other health effects, including pneumonia — a preventable disease that kills 1.5 million young children yearly, or one every 20 seconds.
Pasqual and Griselda have a small family farm in the San Juan de los Remates community. Pasqual has become a “master of soil conservation,” according to Jose Duran, CEPAD’s San Juan director. Griselda rakes between the plantings, composting everything. This season, they harvested 1,200 mangoes and 1,400 plantains. The family ate well and also made some extra cash. Their small property is dense with mandarin oranges, coffee beans, cucumbers and fruits. 
Another couple, Carlos and Mercedes, have a seven-year-old and live in the San Juan de los Remates community. They inherited their farm from Carlos’s mother and moved there three years ago. The land was barren, but with support from CEPAD and 
Visiting 
for spreading the grain out to dry in the sun. (And when possible, they add a basketball hoop to the pavement for use in between harvests. I hadn’t realized that basketball was so popular in the Philippines!) Each cooperative sets user fees, hires a caretaker, and manages the maintenance and repair of the storage facilities.
start savings and loan programs. My field visit ended at the most successful of these multipurpose cooperatives (MPCs), which has expanded over seven years with large drying and warehouse facilities, plus wholesale and retail operations.
As I gazed out over the land behind St. Joseph’s Church in Marabulig, 
they grow. But what is so sad is that without storage, they have to sell their palay at a low price, and later end up paying high retail prices to buy milled rice to eat.”
When asked simply, “What are your reactions?” the fifth graders engaged in an hour-long discussion of the commonalities of our garden work here in Knoxville and the efforts in Burundi – clearing previously unused land for cultivation, planting seeds, weeding and harvesting. The kids were aghast (but jealous, I think) that children in Burundi got to work with “real machetes!” and intrigued that people of all ages worked alongside each other in the garden – something, sadly, they may not see here in America.
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