ESL:   Saltwater offers English conversation Tuesdays and Thursdays from 7 - 8:30 pm, Sept 11th, 2007 through June. Free child care provided for participants. If you would like to volunteer contact the church office for more information.

Micro banks! The 2006 holiday fair-trade gift sale at Saltwater Church  more than succeeded in reaching our goal of funding another bank for the poor in a developing country. Our money was donated to FINCA to establish a bank in Tajikistan.  FINCA actually used the money to establish 2 banks! Click on the links below to learn more about our new banks in Tajikistan, as well as our previous banks. We have photographs and reports on the activities of seven banks, including brand new information on our latest banks in Tajikistan. Click here to read about our banks in Tajikistan, Haiti, Malawi, Afghanistan, the Congo, and Guatemala.

The Saltwater Recycling Project: Many tools and products of our modern world are not being adequately recycled. Hazardous materials that are recycled are often reclaimed by the poor working in unsafe conditions in developing countries. The SUUC Social Justice Committee has committed itself to a project aimed at increasing the quantity and quality of our recycling efforts. This project is just getting under way.

Saltwater Church raises thousands for Adopt-a-Minefield: In dozens of countries around the world, more than a million abandoned landmines lie in wait for unsuspecting civilians to literally stumble across them. Thousands of people, mostly children, are killed or crippled by landmines every year. In the spring of 2007, Saltwater Church completed our fifth successful Night of 1000 Dinners to raise funds for the removal of landmines and treatment of landmine victims. Led by Patrick Clay, members of the Saltwater Church organized an elegant dinner potluck dinner.  Wild Wheat bakery in Kent donated bread for our event. The project raised over $3000 to assist in clearing landmines and treating landmine victims.
For more information on landmines see www.landmines.org.

Hospitality House: Saltwater Church partners with other churches who are working to provide housing and food for homeless women in South King County. Volunteers from our church prepare nutritious meals for displaced women in need of temporary assistance. Thanks to the cooperative efforts of several local churches, Hospitality House remains open year-round to provide crucial assistance to women in need.

The Saltwater UU Social Justice Library is always open for your business in the welcoming room! Books and literature on social justice topics can be browsed at the church or checked out and taken home free of charge. Books and instructions are located on the bookshelf across the room from the welcoming table. 

The Etta Projects: Saltwater UU Church supports the Etta Projects in their continuing work to help impoverished mothers and children in Bolivia. Port Orchard resident Etta Turner died in 2002 in an automobile accident when she was an exchange student in Montero, Bolivia. The Etta Projects carry on in her memory, providing nutrition for local children as well as education and employment for their mothers. For more information, see the Etta Projects website.

Food Bank Support: Saltwater UU Church maintains an ongoing program of support for local food banks. Continuous sales of fair trade coffee produce proceeds that are given directly to food banks in our area. The congregation also holds food drives every month with successive drives typically benefitting different food banks in our area.

Congregation sent $4000 to UUSC for flood and hurricane relief: In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina as well as less-publicized floods of Unitarian communities in Romania, the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee set out to ease suffering in both regions. The congregation of Saltwater Church immediately donated $4000 to the cause. To date the UUSC has raised over $2.5 million for humanitarian aid to these areas. For more information, see go to www.uusc.org.

Congregation sent $3000 to UUSC for tsunami relief: In January of 2005, Saltwater Church took up a collection to help fund humanitarian efforts in the aftermath of the December 2004 tsunami of the Indian Ocean. On this first day of giving, the congregation donated $3000. The UUSC has raised over a million dollars for humanitarian work in the devastated Indian Ocean area. For more information on UUSC and their tsunami relief work see www.uusc.org.

Cocoa and Chocolate sales fund Education Projects:Funds raised from the sales of fair-trade organic cocoa and chocolate at Saltwater UU Church have gone to support education projects in Dimiao, on the island of Bohol in the Philippines, and in rural Mali (Africa). Click here for more information on this project.

Fair Trade: The social justice committee supports fair trade commerce. Saltwater UU church regularly sells fair trade, organic, shade grown coffee, and periodically sells fair trade crafts as a fund raiser for the micro-bank project. Click here for more information on fair trade organizations.