Celebrate International Women’s Day by attending Elevate Her: Empower, Inspire, Achieve with the International Rescue Committee and Operation Smile on March 7!
Across the globe, families and communities are doing the hard work of holding on to their traditions while forging ahead toward better futures. Whether they’re nurturing crops in Tanzania, starting over in Arizona, raising children in refugee camps, or transforming classrooms in India, they are proving that progress doesn’t have to come at the expense of culture. These four stories from our nonprofit partners show how, with the right support, people can both preserve what makes them who they are — and thrive. Episcopal Relief & Development: Growing Resilience Through Farming and FaithIn Lamaiti, Tanzania, Lukasi wanted more for his...
“When I was a little girl, my father taught me to respect our ancestors,” Cristiane Flores, a young Gavião woman shared. Cristiane grew up in an Indigenous forest village near the banks of the Rio Negro, but she relocated several years ago to the metropolitan city of Manaus. “He also taught me to honor and see God in nature—in the trees, in water.” In Brazil, Episcopal Relief & Development partners with the Episcopal Diocese of the Amazon to deliver the Amazônia Resilience Initiative, a program serving marginalized, often remote communities in the states of Pará and Amazonas. Many of those served by the initiative are among Brazil’s 1.7 million Indigenous people. Cristiane and other participants receive monthly food debit cards or baskets containing rice, beans, cassava flour and other staples. Program teams also facilitate savings and loan groups that include financial literacy training. Members like Cristiane contribute monthly to a...