DOERS: Doers Offering Emergency Relief Support

P.O. Box 259525, Madison, WI 53725-9525
(608) 223-9571       e-mail: doers@terracom.net      Website: www.doerswi.homestead.com

What do these three scenes have in common? In Iraq, a mother is finally able to offer her children clean water to drink, ending their constant, potentially deadly bouts of diarrhea. In Afghanistan, a destitute, illiterate widow hears that she will be sponsored to take a 3-month literacy and sewing course, and receive a sewing machine and worktable upon graduation. On a bald, deforested mountain top in Haiti, a young forest is growing, preserving fertile soil and precious water, and bringing hope to a people who thought they had to choose between starvation and the chance of drowning en route to the United States.

The common link is that DOERS is funding them all. We bring to the public’s attention worthy projects to support and thought-provoking ideas about how our actions affect the lives of refugees. And our “doing” events, such as the kit-making bees, bring people together in joyful work, and introduce people to neighbors they never knew they had.

In May, we raised $4016.67 for the “All Our Children” campaign of a consortium of 9 North American charities to buy basic medicines and supplies for Iraqi children. We also made over 50 colorful kit bags, and assembled and sent 49 school kits and 57 relief kits for Iraqi families made homeless by the war. (A special thanks goes to the Lands’ End Co., which donated 50 towels when we came up short!) Our efforts were part of the overwhelming response the Mennonite Central Committee received: more than 62,000 relief kits flooded their offices throughout North America and Europe! (www.mcc.org/respond/rapid_respond/iraq/index.html)

DOERS is now collecting money to bring clean water to the 3000 people of Abosoda, a poor, rural, agricultural community 70 miles west of Baghdad. The community has a Compact Unit (CU), which draws water from the Euphrates River and supplies the village households, but it is in disrepair and no longer treats the water. Diarrhea, cholera and typhoid are some of the many diseases which people can get from drinking untreated river water.
     CARE International, supported by the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC), is raising funds to purchase a mobile water purification plant for Abosoda. The project, which should take approximately four months, will provide residents with an acceptable amount and quality of water. If and when the national water system is extended to Abosoda, this system can be transported elsewhere. The price for the project is $68,000. (Visit www.afsc.org/human-face/relief_updates/entries/111103_print.htm for details.)

So far, by leafleting at the Farmers Market and collecting at the Willy St. Fair, we have been able to send $656. Now we are appealing to you, our very generous supporters, to help us raise thousands more dollars to bring life-saving water to the suffering people of Abosoda. There are so many things that need changing in Iraq, but this is one thing that we can actually accomplish, because we are lucky enough to have more than we need to live. Please send in a donation today, made out to CARE, and we will bundle them and send them on.

Meanwhile, we haven’t forgotten the people of Afghanistan. To quote an article in War Times by Frida Berrigan, entitled “Agony Deepens in Afghanistan,”

“ Japanese physician Testu Nakamura has been battling the devastating effects of drought and starvation on the people of Afghanistan. In a recent article in Dawn, a Pakistani newspaper, Dr. Nakamura estimated that four million Afghans are on the verge of dying from lack of food and water. He also described children dying in their mothers’ arms as they wait for medical attention in crowded clinics.”

But there are people doing heroic work to save lives in Afghanistan, and we are honored to be linked to one of them, Fahima Vorgetts. You can read her moving report in this mailing, and be astonished as to how many people she was able to help with $29,000. Once again, to raise funds for her projects, we will be selling Afghan handicrafts, including mug rugs, tapestry bags, and jewelry of silver, lapis lazuli, carnelian and other semi-precious stones. And we will be raffling off another rug, a bigger one this year, 4’ x 6, worth $800, with gorgeous colors!

The first sale is Sunday, November 23, at the Orchard Ridge United Church of Christ annual Christmas Gift Fair, from 8:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. The church is located at 1501 Gilbert Rd. on Madison’s west side. There will be gifts from around the world to benefit various worthy causes.

On Sat., Dec. 6, we will have a table at the annual Fair Trade Fair, at the Pres House, on the UW Library Mall at the end of State St. in Madison. The fair runs from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and features an amazing array of gifts. Please come and buy some gifts from Afghanistan, and raffle tickets as well. You can also order raffle tickets through the mail, and sell them to your friends. Even if you “hate to ask people for money,” you will find selling these tickets to be easy!

The drawing for the rug (you need not be present to win) will be held on Sunday, December 14 at a potluck supper for people who have sponsored a widow in the HOOWA sewing and literacy course, or who would like to learn more about it. It will be at the Willy St. Coop community room, 1221 Williamson St., Madison, from 6 to 8 p.m. There will be an audiovisual presentation from Women for Afghan Women, and a talk with slides, by Dr. Cynthia Haq. She recently traveled to Afghanistan as part of a group assessing doctor-training needs, with an eye to improving maternal and child health. The room only holds 35, so call Emma at 223-0802 to reserve a place.

Last year we made the decision to broaden our focus and address ways that we can help stop the forces that drive people from their homes. On Feb. 15 over 275 people attended a wonderfully successful energy fair, which featured a speech by atmospheric scientist Dr.Jon Foley; 27 vendors of sustainable goods and services; a drawing with great prizes like a home energy audit; free baklava; and a “goals sheet.” Fifty households filled out these sheets, setting specific goals for how they could cut back on their C02 emissions. The estimate for the number of pounds of C02 that these actions would keep out of our atmosphere yearly was a whopping 168,000! When we called them back in May, we found a high level of follow-through on these good intentions. We would like to thank MG&E for giving us a $500 grant and for paying Bryant Moroder for his excellent work in preparing the fair.

We’d like to remind all who participated to take another look at your lives, and see if you can find more ways to reduce your “carbon footprint.” (A good website for practical suggestions is www.yosemite.epa.gov/oar/globalwarming.nsf/content/index.html.) And we’d like to recognize the efforts of just a few DOERS members who made big changes in their lives following the energy fair. Emma Czarapata is currently looking for a used diesel car to retrofit to burn used vegetable oil. Phyllis Hasbrouck and David Simmons bought a Hybrid Prius (and the salesman said he had sold 3 others to energy fair participants) and are getting 52 mpg in the summer and 47 mpg in the winter. Jeffrey Weiss won the home energy audit, and has already sealed up major airleaks around his chimney, discovered by the blower door test. Considering that the price of natural gas is 32% higher than it was a year ago, his plan to blow more cellulose insulation into his crawlspace is a wise investment. If you would like to report a change that the energy fair inspired you to make, please tell us and we’ll include it in our next newsletter!

We hope you had a chance to see our wonderful huge display about how global warming will cause millions of people to become refugees, and the steps you can take to help stop it. But if you didn’t, you can visit it at the Alicia Ashman Library, 733 N. Highpoint Rd., on Madison’s far west side, where it will soon be on display, thanks to the efforts of Cat Coberly. If you can find another placement for it in 2004, please contact us!

One of the causes of global warming is deforestation, and we have chosen that as this year’s educational and “doing” theme. Though a newsletter in February will give you many more details about that, we want to get some dates on your calendar and thoughts in your head right away!

On Sat., March 13, we will host another delicious and educational dinner, again at the Orchard Ridge United Church of Christ. (Thank you, Rev. Winton Boyd!) This time it will feature Haitian food cooked by Joe Duplan, a Haitian chef (and our volunteers), and the speaker will be Melinda Miles, the Co-Director of Haiti Reborn, a project of the Quixote Center. The proceeds will benefit a reforestation project in Haiti. (Visit www.haitireborn.org/about/ for details.) We will need many helping hands to pull this off, so please contact us if you want to help with publicity, media work, phonebanking, planning or cooking.

One thing that sets DOERS apart from other groups is that we try to offer hands-on activities. This year, in line with our theme of stopping deforestation, we will be planting trees. Those of you with keen memories will recall that we hoped to do this last spring. Though it didn’t happen then, we have since done a lot of planning, and we feel confident in saying that next spring, probably around Earth Day in April, you will have an opportunity to plant trees!

Thank you for reading this far about our plans for the coming year. It is all due to you that we are able to make these ideas blossom into reality. We want to take this opportunity to thank the many donors who have given generously in the past year, both to DOERS and to the charities we support. We have not sent individual thank you notes only because, as an all-volunteer group, we have to choose carefully where to put our limited time and energy. So please accept this heartfelt thank you, and give yourself a pat on the back! When you read Fahima Vorgetts’ letter, you will know she is talking to you.

As you make your plans for holiday gift giving, we hope you will consider one or more of the options we’ve outlined here. A donation to CARE or Women for Afghan Women will save lives immediately. A donation to DOERS will enable us to continue our work of educating and organizing, and your dollar will be multiplied many times over, as we reach people hungry for a chance to help others. The newsletters we send out and the dinners and events we organize raise tens of thousands of dollars, change attitudes and habits, and help establish ties of friendships between supposed “enemies.” At this point in history, our work is crucially important. Please take a minute to send a donation today, to help us continue. Thank you so much.

      Yours,

            Susan Becker, Karen Carlson, Phyllis Hasbrouck and Bonita Sitter,

            The Board of Directors of DOERS

P.S. Please help us combat hate and violence by countering it with love and healing. Your contribution will send ripples of compassion in a world that needs it badly.