Meet the 2007 Recipients of
the International Women’s Fund

Through the International Women’s Fund, Mennonite Women USA contributors support women around the globe in church leadership training. In the fall of 2006 ten women were selected for grants totaling $5,500 U.S. to help pay education-related expenses. The women represent seven countries: Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Honduras, Nicaragua, Tanzania, and Ghana. An additional $1,500 from the International Women's Fund was transferred to the new African Women Theologians scholarship fund to benefit African recipients named by the AWT steering committee. The total amount of $7,000 reflects an increase of $1,000 in scholarship allocations for the year 2007.

Three new recipients in 2007 are:  Emilia Adzo Amexo, Ghana; Yesenia Avila, Colombia; and Millicent Mboyo, Tanzania.

Emilia Adzo Amexo is the first IWF recipient from Ghana, West Africa.  She is studying at the Good News Theological College and Seminary in Accra.  Emilia comes from the Volta area of Ghana where she has served as a worship leader and head of the children’s Sunday School.  She was referred by her pastor Michael Badasu, the moderator of Ghana Mennonite Church, and Mennonite Mission Network.

Yesenia Avila, Colombia, is studying at the Mennonite Biblical Seminary of Colombia in Bogota toward a degree in theology. She represents the Mennonite Church of Santa Marta in community work.  Yesenia has served as pastor of children and youth and since 2005 has helped coordinate the program “Pan y Paz” (Bread and Peace). Her goal is to assist in pastor needs of indigenous communities. 

Millicent Mboyo, Tanzania, is studying at the Mennonite Theological College of Eastern Africa.  Her husband, a faculty member there, was recently ordained as a pastor and plans to study at Eastern Mennonite Seminary in Harrisonburg, Va.  While he is in the U.S. Millicent will stay in Tanzania with their three children.  (She is pictured here with baby Edith.)  The funds from IWF will allow her to continue her studies.  Millicent’s ministry involves working with persons with leprosy and other disabilities as well as the care of  orphans.

Viviana Machuca, Colombia (second year recipient), serves with her husband as co-pastor of an Anabaptist community in Bogotá, where a focus of their work is with abused women. Viviana is in a four-year theology program at the Mennonite Biblical Seminary of Colombia (SBMC).

Patricia Rosero, Colombia (fourth year recipient), is working on her theology degree at the Mennonite seminary in Bogotá. She serves as pastor in the Santa Martha Mennonite Church. “She is an excellent student with an unusually warm and compassionate personality,” her application sponsor writes. “Her commitment to her studies and ministry is all the more impressive because she has been confined to a wheelchair since her early teens. Bogotá buildings and streets are far from being wheelchair-friendly. Seminary classes are on the third floor and so Patricia needs to be carried up and down in her wheelchair by two able-bodied men.”

Rosario Joaquina Rosales, Honduras (third year recipient), is continuing studies at SEMILLA and is working for the Central Mennonite Church in La Ceiba as a youth coordinator. She also organizes services in her home community for the disabled and those having health problems.

Albania Molina, Honduras (third year recipient), also studies at SEMILLA. She is coordinator of the national-level Christian Education Commission of the Iglesia Evangélicia Menonita Hondureña, vice-president of the national women’s association, and a volunteer teacher for the Bible Institute. She and her husband pastor the Central Mennonite Church in San Pedro Sula.

Elizabeth Vado, Nicaragua (third year recipient), is studying at SEMILLA. She  is active in the Fraternidad de Iglesias Evangélicas Menonitas Nicaragua, has served as director of the Bible Institute for SEMILLA and is active with the Peace and Justice Commission. Elizabeth assisted in organizing the Central American gathering for women studying theology in the summer of 2006.

Mónica Parada, Chile (third year  recipient), works with women in Bible studies and holistic development through annual retreats for single women.  She also has begun a support group for sexually abused women.  She has served as an Anabaptist leader in Chile for years, relating to Mennonite Mission Network and Mennonite Church Canada Witness.  Monica currently has completed 50 percent of her study program at a theological school in her home of Concepción.  She is an ordained pastor with her husband of Iglesia Anabautista Puerta del Rebaño. 

Sandra Campos Cruz, Costa Rica (fifth year recipient), plans to complete her final year of study at SEMILLA in 2007. She is the fiscal overseer of the Convención Menonita de Costa Rica and coordinates and teaches in their Bible Institute program. She trains leaders and pastors and coordinates the higher level group of students at SEMILLA, where she is board president.  Sandra coordinated the Central American gathering of 73 women theologians in the summer of 2006. 

Other recent IWF recipients: 

•  Canada: Donna Dang, Hue Do
•  Chile: Cristina Paola Lizana
•  Colombia: Lucila Pabón Diaz, Alix Lozano Forero, Lina Maria Obando, Martha Santanilla
•  India: Rachel Bagh, Preeti Chauhan, Elisabeth Kunjam, Esther Maddimadugu, Nisha Subaiya, Reena Tandi, Veena Wankhade
•  Kenya: Rebecca Osiro
•  Korea: Ah-Sung Choi Kim
•  Nicaragua: Elizabeth del Carmen Vado Sandoval
•  Nigeria: Esther Gunok
•  Panama: Betzaida Ismare Chamarra
•  Paraguay: Myrian Palomo, Viola Harder, Darleen Ratzlaff, Liliana Sosa
•  Taiwan: Cherry Chen
•  Tanzania: Grace Nyanyika Samwelia
•  U.S.: Rita Litwiller, Elizabeth Soto
•  Venezuela: América Beomónt

You can support the International Women’s Fund through your tax-deductible contributions to Mennonite Women USA: P.O. Box 347, Newton, KS 67114-0347.