About RSWR
1. What
are some Quaker perceptions on development?
2. What is the mission of the Right Sharing of
World Resources program?
3. Who works with Right Sharing?
4. Why are we called partners?
5. Why are the projects small in scale?
6. What are some examples of projects?
7. What is the message of Right Sharing to Friends
in the United States?
8. What motivates our work?
9. How does the RSWR program function?
1. What are some Quaker perceptions on development?
Development is a process whereby more and more people achieve a flourishing 'quality of life' or well being. Development is also a process which, if it occurs as it should, is an expression of peace, justice and a right ordering with the natural world.
Governments, and indeed communities as a whole, have a responsibility to facilitate such a process of development. This responsibility in fact extends beyond individual societies. Morally we belong to a global community. Underlying the above elements is the idea of 'that of God' in every person and of the call to 'answer' that of God in others.
Quaker Peace & Service, London Yearly Meeting 1988
2. What is the mission of the Right Sharing of World Resources program?
God calls us to the right sharing of world resources, from the burdens of materialism and poverty into the abundance of God's love, to work for equity through partnerships with our sisters and brothers throughout the world.
3. Who works with Right Sharing?
On the one side are newly established and small organizations working in the developing world. Grants support innovative income generating projects and environmental regeneration. Partners in North America donate funds and educate themselves as to the meaning of our affluent lifestyle both in practical terms - the greater our wealth, the greater the need of the poor - and in spiritual terms - is materialism the highest good? is consumerism the path to happiness and to God?
4. Why are we called partners?
Partnership benefits participants mutually. Friends in the United States offer material resources and testimonies of peace, equality, integrity and simplicity. Project partners abroad offer experience and expertise working in grassroots development, a vision of community and a commitment to working toward a world of peace and justice.
5. Why are the projects small in scale?
People in the developing world often have little or no access to capital. Right Sharing grants provide seed money which is recycled within a community. RSWR supplies each project with no more than $5,000 per year, the idea being to provide just enough capital to 'prime the pump.' After receiving RSWR funds, organizations and communities are frequently able to obtain local funding. By giving small grants, Right Sharing is able to prime as many pumps as possible with our limited resources.
6. What are some examples of projects?
Centre for Rural Education and Development - India
In 2002 RSWR funded a project in which 78 loans were made (all have
been repaid) to establish 25 businesses. The women's income has
been increased by 65%. In the latter part of October 2003, 10 new
self-help groups, with a membership of 187, were established in
an area near the original project. The current project continues
support of the original 78 women’s work, provides loans to
50 new women, forms ten more self-help groups, and establishes one
enterprise center. To support this expanded business, CRED will
establish two “Women’s Enterprise Outlets” during
the project, one per year. The women's products include wheat flour,
ragi malt, wire baskets, rice pockets, spices, soap nut powders,
ready-made cloths, butter, ghee, pickles and fruit juice. What is
more important is that all of them are now confident and have a
clear vision about their future course of action.
Rafiki Mwema Women's Group - Kenya
35 women from Chavakali Yearly Meeting will participate in a 5-year
project to establish a tea business. The women can accommodate 500
plants on their land. Once production starts, monthly income will
be $8. From this, $2 will be paid to the group. At the end of the
year each member will receive $155, of which $25 will be remitted
to the group to operate the project. Each member will then earn
$195 per year and the group will have $970 to operate an office
and provide some staff. In addition, loans will be made to 50 women
to start small businesses.
This group had already established itself before learning about RSWR, and their site visitor reported: "...We were touched to learn that despite their financial limitation, they were able to pull their resources together and pay school fees for two girls in secondary school. These girls come from two different families that were unable to raise funds towards school fees. The group has also started a feeding programme for orphaned children.”
Tamaraneh Farmers Development - Sierra Leone
After completion of the disarmament in late 2001, TFD was organized
to alleviate the difficult situation people faced. 80 women members
are starting activities like integrated farming, rice, vegetable,
cassava, or groundnut production.
A committee of four has been set up to monitor the general activities of the project. There will be a one-month training on income generating activities, two weeks on crop production, one week on vegetable production and one week on leadership. 25% of the total production will go to the members for their own consumption, 25% will be sold, and the remaining 50% will be put into further production.
Christ the Rock Evangelical Friends Church - Philippines
36 (initially) members of the community cooperative in Pinagsakayan,
Quezon (approximately 120 miles from Manila) are participating in
this three-year project, which is being implemented as a collaboration
between Christ the church and the Pinagsakayan Multi-Purpose Cooperative.
Early in 2002 a pilot project of growing seaweed was started. It
demonstrated the ability to increase family income by over 125%.
A community grocery store and a community banking program have also
been established in the area.
This project will start with 2 weeks of mobilizing and training. It will take 3 months to raise a crop of seaweed, followed by a week of evaluation. The training will be provided by the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources. Three persons will receive a loan of $875 to begin production on ¼ hectare (about ½ acre) of water. With each harvest of seaweed (4 per year) they will repay 25% of the loan. 10% of net income per crop will be given to the cooperative as share capital.
It is expected that total net production (after seedlings for the next crop are taken out) per harvest will be 5,792 Kg. This will be dried to 827 Kg., worth $.50 per kilogram. Total annual income will be $1,660. Net income (after the loan of $875 is paid) will be $785 per year, $260 per person per year, $21 per person per month.
7. What is the message of Right Sharing to Friends in the United States?
We in the United States benefit from more than our share of the world's resources. Some of these resources are available to us as gifts of God and some as a result of exploitation. From its beginning, Right Sharing has offered Friends a deeper understanding of how most people in the world live and of the inequitable distribution of the world's material resources. It has also challenged Friends to respond to these inequities through spiritually rooted Quaker witness. Right Sharing lifts up two queries for all Friends:
- How does materialism and consumerism affect my relationship with God?
- How could my lifestyle be adjusted so that it is more consistent with Quaker values and sustainable in the world without depriving others?
8. What motivates our work?
"Is not this the fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of injustice,
to undo the thongs of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free and
to break every yoke? Is it not to share your bread with the hungry
and bring the homeless poor into your house; when you see the naked,
to cover them, and not to hide yourself from your own kin? Then
your light shall break forth like the dawn and your healing shall
spring up quickly; your vindicator shall go before you, the glory
of the Lord shall be your rear guard."
Isaiah 58:6-8, NRSV
"But just as you excel in everything - in faith, in speech, in
knowledge, in complete earnestness and in your love for us - see
that you also excel in this grace of giving... Our desire is not
that others might be relieved while you are hard pressed, but that
there might be equality. At the present time your plenty will supply
what they need, so that in turn their plenty will supply what you
need. Then there will be equality, as it is written: 'He who gathered
much did not have too much, and he who gathered little did not have
too little.' "
2 Corinthians 8:7, 13-15, NIV
"Our gracious Creator cares and provides for all creatures. His
tender mercies are over all his works; and so far as his love influences
our minds, so far we become interested in his workmanship and feel
a desire to take hold of every opportunity to lessen the distress
of the afflicted and increase interest from which our own is inseparable
-- that to turn all the treasures we possess into the channel of
universal love becomes the business of our lives. Oppression in
the extreme appears terrible, but oppression in more refined appearances
remains to be oppression, and where the smallest degree of it is
cherished it grows stronger and more extensive: that to labor for
a perfect redemption from this spirit of oppression is the greatest
business of the whole family of Christ Jesus in this world."
John Woolman, 18th Century Quaker
9. How does the RSWR program function?
The board of trustees meets twice a year with program staff to review and make decisions about grant applications, plan program work and set policy. Friends are invited to act in partnership with Right Sharing in any or all of these ways: 1)by contributing to project work, 2) by planning activities such as a Simple Meal or Lighten Your Life Garage Sale, which build community and widen our spiritual consciousness, 3) by using the educational materials for study, discussion and prayer, and 4) by providing feedback on how to improve outreach and deepen our understanding of economic discipleship. (see HOW YOU CAN HELP for more specific suggestions.)