RICE Humanitarian
Relief Projects
Thailand Orphanage and Medical Clinic
Project
RICE is undertaking to plant orphanages and health centers along
with community infrastructure to revitalize Thailand refugee communities.
History
Children caught in a conflict going back 50 years, displaced
by war, orphaned by brutality and aids, forced into labor or military
service, weary of landmines, struggle to find their place. Complex
long term problems what should we do?
Download Refugee Map - PDF file
Photos courtesy of KHRG researcher First we must respond, we must then work together in teams to
fight these complex problems. We must protect the children and
women. We must care for them and then build a foundation of hope
for future leaders to live, thrive, be educated, and develop the
world they want to live in.
RICE is breaking down barriers and building cross-denominational
teams. With partners like First Presbyterian and Calvary Chapel,
and leveraging corporate and Government resources, combined with
a collaboration of doctors from Hawaii and California, we can
respond to these needs of children and women by building a medical
clinic to provide care, critical medicines, and vaccinations.
The facility will also be a staging area and center point of resource
(food, agricultural supplies, and training) to those in these
refugee camps and nearby villages. Help them rebuild their lives.
A 33 year old Karen woman whose husband died because he could
not get medicine and fled the war sits with her baby in a refugee
camp in Thailand.
Sierra Leone Project
RICE is evaluating the planting of Coffee Farms with community
infrastructure to hep stabilize African communities.
History
From “West Africa on the Edge”, Reuters Top ten Emergencies
Mar 05 Liberia, Ivory Coast and Sierra Leone struggling for peace
after years of brutal conflict.
- Communities traumatized after wars that displaced hundreds
of thousands, forced child soldiers to commit atrocities and
destabilized entire region.
- Almost 400,000 Liberian refugees still to return home
two years after the war, according to U.N. refugee body
- Ivory Coast threatening to implode as pro-government
forces break 2003 ceasefire with rebels.
- Half of Sierra Leone's population of 5 million displaced
and 20,000 killed by war that ended in 2002.
"West Africa needs a long-term effort, both locally and
from the international community, if we are not to see a return
to the carnage of the years before."
Maria Immonen, advocacy and communication, Lutheran World Federation
Partnership
With our partners in Sierra Leone (NGO-Foundation for Integrated
Development FID/SL) and ARK Ministries of California, RICE is
working to promote long term stabilization through community development,
specifically agriculture. In the last two years since the Peace
FID/SL has developed a model which utilizes local tribes and demonstration
farms to build and train local farming groups. This process is
then replicated out to new tribes. The effort has grown to 25
farming co-ops and over 800 farmers. The products are principally
rice, seed, palm oil, and pigs. RICE is undertaking to add business
enterprise to the process with Coffee. The product will be grown
and marketed to generate funds for reinvestment into the needs
of the community (water wells, purification, farming equipment
and fertilizers). As these farming coops and their communities
grow, RICE will undertake to provide long term solutions with
additional infrastructure and support including orphanages, basic
healthcare, and jobs training.
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