Inter-America: ADRA donor forum to promote greater networking among local country offices
ADRA and church leaders from pose for a group photo during Inter-America’s ADRA Donor Forum meetings held earlier this year at the Inter-American Division Headquarters office in Miami, Florida. Images by Libna Stevens.
March 8, 2013 – Miami, Florida, United States…Libna Stevens/IAD
Leaders of the Adventist Development and Relief Agency (ADRA) and its country office directors throughout the Inter-American Division (IAD) met with several ADRA donor offices during a recent ADRA Donor Forum held in Miami, Florida.
The forum brought ADRA donor offices from around the world, Seventh-day Adventist Church board members and local ADRA offices to better unify efforts to impact the communities where ADRA serves. The forum also fostered dialogue and closer networking opportunities in an effort to facilitate the coordination in the disaster-prone IAD territory.
Wally Amundson ADRA Inter-America director speaks to ADRA country directors from throughout the territory on the importance of having professional and well-equipped offices to have greater impact in their countries.
“This forum was key because it gave us the opportunity to emphasize how professional and well equipped our ADRA offices must be, and to maximize its inner strength through well organized church resources and volunteer systems,” said Wally Amundson, ADRA Inter-America director and organizer of the forum. The forum reaffirmed that church officers as board members chairmen, church presidents play a crucial role in moving forward, added Amundson.
ADRA offices carry their own national identity, said Amundson “Each country office must function within the global context of ADRA offices worldwide,” he added as he spoke to the more than 32 country office directors and church leaders.
With this functionality intact, donors can aid in specific projects and as disaster relief to communities, according to Amundson.
Throughout the forum, ADRA country directors shared their involvement and progress through national and local projects in their countries and reported on the on-going partnerships with government and non-government agencies.
ADRA Canada Executive Director James Astleford spoke to leaders on the importance of ensuring that an integrated system must be foundational for ADRA donor offices to be able to partner with country offices.
James Astleford, ADRA Canada director, emphasizes the importance of pursue a strong national office to maximize grant partnerships.
Working with an office like ADRA Canada which has channeled grants to some 77 countries around the world since the 1980s, Astleford emphasized that it is crucial for ADRA country offices to have a strong national office to maximize grant partnerships.
“If a proposal comes through an auditing system to process funds, must be built into the project,” said Astleford who has in the most recent years overseen funds to go towards specific projects in Haiti in the aftermath of the devastating earthquake which struck Port-au-Prince in 2010.
Consequently, added Astleford, “where the church is strong, there’s opportunity to mobilize the church.”
Banking on mobilizing the church is what has been very successful throughout ADRA offices in the IAD, according to Amundson. It is a partnership with the church and church members that has proven effective in strong ADRA offices like ADRA Haiti, ADRA Dominican, ADRA Nicaragua, ADRA Guatemala, ADRA Honduras, Mexico, and ADRA Colombia.
For Luis Miguel Acevedo, ADRA Dominican director, relying on a volunteer network of thousands of Seventh-day Adventist volunteers has been crucial in partnering with the government in a Dengue Fever and Cholera awareness campaigns held recently throughout the island. Acevedo said agricultural projects in needy communities, and awareness of violence against women and children have also been effective initiatives during the last four months.
“The government in many of its ministries has been impressed by the number of volunteers that the church can provide through ADRA,” said Acevedo.
“Part of the success we have had with the local or national government has been because we have been able to maintain that respect and cooperative relationship with the church,” explained Acevedo, “after all, the church is the parent organization of ADRA even though ADRA has its own legal personality.”
ADRA Guatemala’s country director Gustavo Menendez agrees that successful response to the vulnerability of natural disasters, which have battered the Central American country for years, has depended on ADRA’s transparency with its community and reliance on leadership of the church and its church member volunteers.
ADRA leaders from throughout Inter-America met for 10 days to network, report on their successful projects and training Jan. 15-24, 2013.
“Our communities trust ADRA, they trust the Adventist Church, our members are actively involved in helping during crisis and donating money and their time to assist in projects to benefits those in need,” said Menendez. “In just the last two years, ADRA and the church have responded to hundreds of communities amid flooding, mudslides, hurricanes, two major earthquakes and volcano eruptions,” he added.
The response has not only depended on local funding but thanks to the support network, ADRA International and ADRA donor offices have, the response has been immediate, according to Menendez.
Menendez was particularly impressed with the three-day training ADRA Germany leaders focused on during the forum. “ADRA Germany emphasized that our is not only about serving our neighbor but ensuring that each action and decision in executing a project needs to be made professionally and with transparency because it benefits everyone in the ADRA network,” he said.
“It’s been an eye opener to see church leaders on board and working together to accomplish good for humanity,” said Christian Molke, ADRA Germany director.
“As an implementing office, we can’t work at the grassroots without becoming partners with the local [ADRA] offices,” said Molke. “So we are here to learn to work together to partner and deliver European funds…so there’s real potential for mutual advantage.”
Most recently ADRA Germany has been in partnership with ADRA Haiti and the Haitian government to develop a vocational teaching system according to German standards. Molke said he’s looking forward to partnering with ADRA Colombia and developing some projects in Cuba as well.
Cuba is one country in great need and one that could definitely benefit from a partnership with ADRA donor offices, according to Pastor Aldo Perez, president of the church in Cuba.
Pastor Eliseo Bustamante (right), president of the church in South Colombia, listens in during the forum.
As a board chair of ADRA in Cuba, he is excited by the possibilities of partnering with donor offices. Just recently the Cuban government opened the doors for organizations and business to be recognized, so the process of registering ADRA Cuba as a non-government organization in on the way.
“Right now, the government recognizes the Adventist Church as a respectful church and that will open doors for ADRA Cuba to be officially established on the island,”
Up until now the church has been aiding needy families as much as it can with little resources, said Perez. Perez said that many families were affected after Hurricane Sandy hit the island back in October 2012. The emergency response was not as good as they wished, but because a special offering for disasters had been collected throughout the churches during the last two years, a few materials were obtained to help some families with their losses and house repair.
Already, many projects have begun such as nation-wide blood donating activities among church members in Cuba, and some agricultural and childcare projects are ready to be developed with funding, according to Perez.
For ADRA Colombia Chair Board Pastor Eliseo Bustamante, president of the church in South Colombia, the forum shed new light on how the ADRA office and the church must work together more.
Bustamante has been a church president for more than a decade and admits that his earlier concept of ADRA offices was different.
“I’m happy to hear this new language for many years ago ADRA was considered like a totally separate organization doing its own thing without the church,” said Pastor Bustamante. He wants church members to get more involved in supporting ADRA very simply by encouraging all members to donate at least $1 for ADRA projects throughout the year,” said Bustamante.
For Amundson it was visible to see how “this meeting ‘clicked’ with church administrators because they saw the mission of the church, along with their mandate to reach out to the poor and suffering in the community. Now the varous parties are committed to work together on an equal horizontal plane to achieve common goals and strategies.”
IAD leaders sign agreement to affirm partnership between ADRA offices and the church departments to address community priority needs.
To affirm the partnership between ADRA offices and the church, leaders signed agreements to pursue new opportunities as a team with the church departments such as the youth and children’s ministries to address community priorities.
In essence, Amundson said, “ADRA is an integral part of the thrust of the church, the two working closely together for greater good of the global and local community. Each partner has its own strength and we all need each other.”
For more on ADRA Inter-America, visit us at interamerica.org
To view photos of Inter-America’s ADRA Donor meeting earlier this year, click here