Are you a Thrivent Financial member? If so, you may be eligible to take part in Thrivent Choice, a program where you can recommend where some of Thrivent Financial's charitable outreach funds go. Since 2010, members have used this program to direct $54 million to churches and nonprofits nationwide.
The deadline to direct 2015 Thrivent Choice Dollars is March 31st!
Directing Dollars to Lutheran World Relief is a lot like making an investment - in lasting solutions to hunger and poverty around the world!
Here are just a few people whose lives have been touched by people like you, who support the work of Lutheran World Relief in so many ways.
Make Thrivent Choice count for Maria from El Salvador
Maria del Cid Aguilar (pictured above) is a mother of five and a coffee farmer in Las Marias, Usulután, El Salvador.
Like many other farmers around the world, a crop disease called leaf rust nearly destroyed her coffee farm. But with the support of people like you, she and other farmers are diversifying their crops, so they are not so dependent on coffee to support their families. Maria is now planting cocoa alongside her coffee because it's more resistant to high temperatures and humidity.
Your support helps farmers like Maria with agricultural training, seeds, technical assistance, and processing equipment that helps preserve - and even increase - the quality of crops so that they sell for a good price.
Make Thrivent Choice count for Sevu from Kenya
Sevu and his family live in the Makindu district of Kenya - one of the world's driest places. Because of this, he's had trouble growing crops and his family has known hunger.
But because people like you invested in Sevu, his life is now a lot different. He now has access to water for his crops through a simple innovation called a sand dam which traps water from the rainy season and holds it so that farmers can use it throughout the dry season. He and other farmers also now have access to boreholes with solar powered pumps that reduce the time and expense of accessing underground water.
Your support helps farmers like Sevu access water to grow a variety of nutritious crops, earn income and feed his family.
Make Thrivent Choice count for Dugar from Indonesia
Dugar Lumbagaol is 62 years old and a father of five. He started farming coffee fifteen years ago in the North Sumatra village of Hutajulu. After several years of making meager profits in rice, Dugar gave up and returned home to try his hand at coffee farming, but it was a struggle. In fact, many coffee farmers in his region found it difficult to make a good income and support their families from coffeee.
The support of people like you made a difference for Dugar! He belongs to a coffee cooperative that works with Lutheran World Relief to improve the livelihoods of coffee producers with important resources such as farmer field schools. These schools are where cooperatives use improved growing methods, seeds tools and fertilizers to grow coffee, so that farmers like Dugar can observe and learn to replicate these methods on their own farms.
At his field school, Dugar learned to use pruning to increase the productivity of his coffee trees. Now that he's producing more, he feels more confident in his ability to support his family as a coffee farmer.
Direct Your Choice Dollars!
If you are an eligible Thrivent member, you have a powerful tool to fight poverty through the Choice Dollars program. But to direct 2015 Choice Dollars to LWR, you must act now! The deadline to direct 2015 Choice Dollars is March 31st!
Make Choice Dollars count for farmers like Maria, Sevu and Dugar - and so many others around the world. Direct Thrivent Choice Dollars to Lutheran World Relief today!