Extra Commitment Opportunities

There is a channel through which gifts can be designated for specific items that support the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)'s work around the world. These are called Extra Commitment Opportunities (ECOs). You can give directly to an ECO account online or by mailing your check designating the name and account number of the particular item you have chosen to:

PC(USA) Individual Remittance Processing
P.O. Box 643700
Pittsburgh, PA 15264-3700

Your gift will go directly into the ECO Account designated, and you will receive a letter indicating that your gift has been received and will be used for the purpose intended.

Below are some ECOs related to Malawi. For a complete listing visit Mission Funding's Web site and type Malawi into the search box.

Children and Youth

Children of Africa

Development

Marion Medical Mission—Shallow Wells

Perhaps the most broadly impacting challenge facing Africa today is the need for safe, accessible and adequate supplies of water. Water is a key to good health, economic development, community stability and peace among neighbors. Since being founded in 1991, Marion Medical Mission has been able to help produce over 3,600 shallow wells that now serve nearly 900,000 people in northern and central Malawi.

Education

Education Department Blantyre Synod—CCAP

This fund supports the educational needs of all schools in the Blantyre Synod, Church of Central Africa Presbyterian (CCAP), Malawi.

Education Projects, Malawi

Health

Christ-centered care for AIDS patients addresses physical, spiritual and emotional needs by providing medical supplies, clinical referrals, food, household help, pastoral support and prayer. Gifts to this ECO will assist in all aspects of patient care and training of care providers as well as support for the caregivers themselves.

AIDS continues to be a crisis for entire families in many parts of the world. Gifts to this account will support congregation-based AIDS projects, prevention education, various forms of training and continuing education events, including the training of pastors, materials development, support of hospitals doing testing, counseling and training of staff among other things.

AIDS Orphans and Vulnerable Children in Africa

Because the needs of orphans and their caregivers (often a grandparent or an older sibling) are so desperate, this ECO has been established as a separate ECO. Gifts to this account go specifically to projects working with children who have lost one or both parents to AIDS to help provide their basic needs, including food, clothing, education and medical care. Through the ECO people who work to care for the orphans are also trained in ways to best support these children.

Funds are needed for equipment and to support and expand the integrated care and prevention programs at this hospital in northern Malawi.

New Malaria Initiative

Malaria kills more than 1 million people annually, most of them in sub-Saharan Africa, where malaria claims the lives of 3,000 young children every day. The 2006 PC(USA) General Assembly has responded to malaria's tragic toll by calling for a collaborative malaria initiative that will broaden and strengthen the PC(USA)'s current malaria prevention program. This effort is to begin with the formation of a special committee, to be composed of representatives of Presbyterian church partners in Africa and U.S. Presbyterians. The committee will develop an international plan of action to address the scourge of malaria and present the plan to the 2008 General Assembly. Contributions to this ECO will support the work of the proposed special committee.

Water for All

Without clean water, good health is impossible. In many parts of the world people suffer chronic and life-threatening illness and children die needlessly for lack of accessible clean water. Gifts to this ECO help provide technical assistance, equipment and training to develop sources of clean water in needy communities.

Women's Health International

In much of the developing world women's health is undermined by traditions and practices that leave women disempowered, marginalized and living in poverty. Gifts to this fund will support a range of programs, including health services, education and economic development that improve the well being of women.

Mission Personnel

Debbie Chase, an ordained PC(USA) minister, is an administrator and lecturer at the University of Livingstonia, College of Theology, a seminary of the Church of Central Africa Presbyterian. In a region where the member-to-minister ratio is 5,800 to 1 and growing, the training of pastoral leadership is a critical need. Debbie has been instrumental in assuring quality, accredited education for current and future leaders of the church in Malawi.

Sue Makin is an obstetrician-gynecologist at Mulanje Mission Hospital in Malawi, and has been under appointment since 1987. Three areas of special interest for Sue include repairing vesico-vaginal fistulas, preventing cervical cancer through visual inspection of the cervix and early treatment of precancerous lesions, and working diligently to reduce maternal mortality and morbidity in Malawi. Prior to her assignment to Malawi, Sue worked for eight years at the Good Shepherd Hospital near Kananga, Democratic Republic of Congo.

Jim and Jodi McGill have been under appointment since 1995. Their most recent assignment began in 2000 in Mzuzu, Malawi, where the average life expectancy is only 35 years. Their work through the Synod of Livingstonia of the Church of Central Africa Presbyterian is focused in health care and clean water and sanitation work. Jim serves as coordinator of protected water and buildings coordinator. Jodi serves as coordinator for primary health care and has also taken on the work of interim coordinator for the AIDS department.

Barbara Nagy serves as a physician specializing in internal medicine and pediatrics at Nkhoma Hospital. She was a mission co-worker in the Democratic Republic of Congo (then Zaire) from 1989 to 1993. “Soon after becoming a Christian,” Barbara writes, “I felt God calling me to mission. It’s both an expression of my faith in Christ’s salvation and an expression of God’s love for all. I feel privileged to be a Presbyterian because of the church’s rich heritage of mission and also because of the many missionaries I have known who have nurtured and inspired me in my faith.”

Martha Sommers is the only long-term doctor at the Embangweni Hospital in Malawi, serving a large rural area in a country where 25 percent of the population is HIV positive and one in four children don’t live to see their fifth birthday. “I’ve grown so much by journeying with Malawian friends,” says Martha, “and thank God for how they have picked me up when I have tripped, made sure I was not alone with illness, and taught me to enter into grief and grab joy.” She guardedly believes this past year’s marked drop in malaria and malnutrition is the success of ongoing prevention programs such as the distribution of malaria nets.

Other Support

Regional Liaison for Southeast Africa

Relief and Development Projects, Malawi Christian Council

Gifts to this ECO aid the Christian Council of Malawi's work in relief and development projects throughout the country. Malawi has had a major influx of refugees from the ongoing civil strife in Mozambique. The United Nations High Commission on Refugees depends highly on the work of the Council in providing shelter, health care and food for these people.