Fund Grassroots Earthcare Projects: QEW Mini-Grants

August 22, 2022 - Posted by Quaker Earthcare Witness in Mini-Grants, | 2 min read

Two students in 11th and 12th grades pointing to the new solar inverter. A mini-grant was issued to Monteverde Friends Meeting and School in Costa Rica to replace the solar inverter.

We did it!! Thank you so much for your help raising over $3,000 to fund grassroots projects!

Quaker Earthcare Witness has distributed dozens of “mini-grants” over many years to Friends meetings, churches, and groups to support creative projects that foster earthcare and address environmental justice, climate change and involve young people. Help fund future grassroots projects by making a donation this September. Our goal is to raise $3000 this September!

Can you make a donation today to our Mini-Grants Program?

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Our Goal

Donors So Far

Amount Raised So Far

Monteverde Friends and Meeting have installed net-metered, large solar arrays on both the school and some of the teacher housing.

Building with new fence and tractor — Landscaping to Divert Rainwater at Fellbaum Community Health Center, Kaimosi Kenya

Person with yellow hard hat working on landscaping — Landscaping to Divert Rainwater at Fellbaum Community Health Center, Kaimosi Kenya

Green lawn with solar panel array — Friends Theological College through the Grinnell Friends Church in Iowa received a mini grant for their solar panel array.

Centro de promocion y desarrollo de la mujer, acahual — In conjunction with ProNica, Mini-Grants funded reprints of pamphlets on birth control. These were used in a workshop for women. Copies were given to the Population Committee in Quaker Earthcare Witness.

Green pollinator garden — Quaker Earthcare Witness helped the church create a pollinator garden. The children completed very large, colorful models of the stages of butterfly metamorphosis displayed in the fellowship hall wall. Grandparents, adult children, and grandchildren planted native wildflower seedlings together.

Recent Mini-Grants Recipients:

2022

Albuquerque Friends Meeting (Fellbaum Health Center Landscaping, Kaimosi, Kenya): Landscaping to divert rainwater at Fellbaum Community Health Center, Kaimosa, Kenya
Kwibuka Yearly Meeting (Friends Church of Burundi): Tree Nursery for Reforestation Establish tree nursery to support reforestation efforts
Newtown Square Friends Meeting (Pennsylvania): Wildflower Garden
Monteverde Friends Meeting and School (Costa Rica): Solar Array Inverter Replacement: Funds to replace failed inverter for solar array for Friends School

2021

Project Abundance at Ithaca Monthly Meeting (New York): Building raised beds for community food sharing.
State College Monthly Meeting (Pennsylvania): Expanding the Keller St. Community Garden.
West Chester Friends School (Pennsylvania): Acquiring the “Exploring Organisms with Literacy” set for 1st graders.
New London Friends Meeting (Connecticut): Partially funding Chu Memorial & Meditation Garden using native landscaping.

Make a Donation Today

Financing QEW’s Mini-Grants Program through crowdfunding is a way to share in the excitement of these small, local, and creative projects. In a time when the realities of climate change are so overwhelming, donating to a concrete effort like this feels especially meaningful. Please consider contributing to this effort.

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Highlights from 2022:

In 2022, the Newtown Square Friends Meeting agreed to create a perennial wildflower garden next to the Meeting House in Newtown Square, Pennsylvania, for the benefit of Meeting members, attenders and the general public. Meeting members and attenders, together with the caretaker for the Meeting, will dig the garden and plant the wildflowers.

Also this year, we supported Dayton Friends meeting in providing an oasis on their property, full of natural plantings that offer hospitality to all beings and a space for them to flourish. This space expresses our Quaker values, led by our human community to be in touch with our animal friends, restoring our connection to the natural world. We hope to help humans give pause in their busy-ness to notice, reflect and reconcile with our Earth. This is part of the web which, when reestablished, may slow our planet’s warming.