FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

 

Contact:          Sandi Newmark, Director of Public Relations

                        PTGTV/New Line Media Solutions

                        (800) 597-1186

 

 

“Today’s Family” show to feature FOCAS

--Ministries that aid Haitian & inner city youth--

June 5, 2006, Deerfield Beach, FL – PTGTV is pleased to announce the selection of FOCAS for its innovative, educational television show, Today’s Family.  The segment Reaching your world for Christ will be featured in “Until the Whole World Hears” series. The FOCAS segment will air, during the holiday season, in many of the top 100 markets nationwide.

The mission of FOCAS ministries is, through Christ, to transform lives: those of young people in Over the Rhine, which is the inner-city of Cincinnati, and the children and youth on the island of Haiti, teaching them the truth and the power of Jesus Christ, and offering tender loving care.

The evangelical organization was founded in 1986 by Richard P. Taylor as a non-profit, Christian corporation. His vision was to help the desperately poor in Haiti with their basic needs: education, food and medicine. His dreams to improve the lifestyles of the impoverished and less fortunate have materialized and expanded into multiple projects.

One of those projects is the Child Survival Program for the children of Haiti. Established in 1997, the goals of the Child Survival Program are to substantially reduce disease and death among the children and women of childbearing age, to offer high quality health care services through five program clinics and to help the indigenous partner organizations to successfully operate sustainable programs. The program also assists families with HIV/AIDS prevention, child spacing services and provides them with safe drinking water and sanitation resources.

FOCAS is also making a difference in Haiti through its Child Sponsorship Program. Several hundred children, many of whom would not be able to attend school, are getting an education, medical attention, a school uniform and a hot lunch incorporating the Gospel of Christ.

Through evangelism and programming, God has used FOCAS to lower death rates and malnutrition in Haitian children, while improving health conditions. For example, in FOCAS’s service area two-thirds of Haitian children are being immunized; and, healthy and sanitary deliveries of babies are being performed.

“We have quietly served in some of Haiti’s poorest areas for 20 years to help infants survive the dangerous early years and help kids get a basic education. I am delighted that FOCAS has been approached by PTGTV to tell our story in time for the holidays,” says Dick Taylor, Executive Director and Founder of FOCAS.

Programs have also been established in Over the Rhine, Cincinnati, where FOCAS ministries have been providing a safe place for children, young male adults and the homeless in three inner-city programs: The Lord’s Gym, the Lord’s Pantry and the Nicholas Hoyer Sportsclub. These safe havens function to meet the individuals’ needs but also to let them hear the “Good News” of Jesus Christ.

There are many ways to become involved in FOCAS so that these numbers can continue to increase.