Westminster’s African Family Night

November 7, 2020 7:00 pm – 8:00 pm A Virtual YouTube Premier Event No need to leave your home to enjoy this year’s African Family Night program which serves as our major fundraiser for our African Mission programs. Please join us for a unique evening of online information and entertainment which will be presented via a YouTube Premier Video event at 7:00 pm on Saturday, November 7th. Join us on YouTube for this special event Click here for the Event Program This very strange and stressful year has not been limited to the United States; many of our partner programs in West Africa are also battling the challenges presented by COVID-19. We have decided to reach out to our community with a one-hour video presentation in support of our work in Ghana, Liberia, and Sierra Leone. The evening will include very brief recorded messages from many of the children and adults we serve at schools, clinics, and numerous community projects which are struggling to survive during this ongoing pandemic. Our goal is to raise $10,000 so we may continue to provide these critical programs all focused on improving the lives of children in impoverished circumstances. We support many orphans in both Sierra Leone and Liberia. We fund educational projects in Ghana and Liberia and have often been called upon to provide emergency assistance for disasters such as mudslides, Ebola, drought, and sudden economic crises. Much of our work is earmarked for keeping young girls in school in countries where educational opportunities are too often limited for young women. Over the past decade, Westminster representatives have made mission visits to these projects and we have seen first-hand the life changing impact that our efforts have had on communities that are too often left behind. We have constructed classroom buildings, helped to provide wells for clean water, funded small but significant healthcare initiatives and sent computers, hygiene, and educational supplies. A key feature of our work is encouraging communities to move towards self-sufficiency by expanding their own capacities to generate incomes to fund themselves and ensure continuity. We have seen progress but war, disease, and economic turmoil has served to make such progress painfully slow. Your help is needed. Our presentation will also feature some clips of drumming and dancing, as well as brief greetings from four local politicians who will introduce members of the Westminster family describing our current initiatives. A highlight of the evening will be keynote remarks of Mr. Wilmot Collins, the Mayor of Helena, capital of the State of Montana. Mayor Collins’ remarkable rise to become the first black person elected as mayor of any city in Montana is even more impressive considering he came to America as a refugee from Liberia’s brutal civil war of the 1990’s. Click here for further biographical information on Mayor Collins. We have always been inspired by the wonderful support so many of you have provide as we address humanitarian needs both here in the Capital District and through our work in West Africa. We need you now more than ever. The children of Ghana, Liberia, and Sierra Leone need you now! DONATIONS GRATEFULLY ACCEPTED: Online at wpcalbany.org/give (select “African Mission” in the pull-down menu) Checks also accepted payable to: Westminster Church (“African Mission” in memo line) John and Lyn are Schenectady residents who volunteer at Westminster on Liberian Projects. They both have 45 years of experience with Liberia and has chaired numerous US-based Liberian activities and organizations. John Kucij authored the successful grant application for funding from Presbyterian Women and is overseeing the implementation of grant activities and management of grant funds. Lyn is a retired Physician Assistant and John retired from Hudson Valley Community College (HVCC).