Ouachita’s Students in Free Enterprise (SIFE) presented board members of the Pregnancy Resource Center for Southwest Arkansas (PRCSA) a new laptop, customized software and a more than $750 donation on March 16 in Hickingbotham Hall.
The SIFE team was awarded a $1,500 Walmart Women’s Economic Empowerment Grant, which it used to purchase the laptop and software. The team was also awarded a $300 Kluck Student Enrichment Grant and collected $459.92 in a student fundraiser, which it donated to the center for marketing and start-up costs.
A fundraiser among faculty and staff members at Ouachita continues.
“The purpose of the PRCSA will be to provide Christian counseling and resources to women and men in pregnancy crisis situations that will enable them to choose life for their unborn child,” said Beverly Hankins, a member of the center’s board.
Hankins said the idea for the center came after the closing of a pregnancy resource center in town several years ago.
“There was a pregnancy resource center in Arkadelphia about six years ago that was opened and operated by Change Point Pregnancy Resource Center in Hot Springs,” Hankins said.
That center closed after only three years, because of a lack of community support. Hankins said she was involved with that center and was “greatly disappointed that it closed.”
“I continued to pray that Arkadelphia would one day have a center [again],” she said.
Hankins said she began to feel called to open a center in Arkadelphia last year, when she was able to help a friend coach a young girl through a pregnancy crisis situation in Georgia.
“Through the circumstances of advising my friend in how to reach out to this young girl, she chose life for her child,” Hankins said. “She kept her baby, …and because of these circumstances, I felt that God was calling me to begin the process of opening a pregnancy center in Arkadelphia.”
After organizing several meetings to gauge the community’s interest in the center, Hankins said she was supported and encouraged by local churches and leaders. The center has already formed its board of directors, and is currently in the process of raising enough money to cover its first year of expenses.
“Once we have received that amount, we plan to open the PRCSA,” she said.
When the center opens, it will provide services like pregnancy tests, parenting classes and Christian counseling for young mothers-to-be. The center will also educate women and men on the value and sanctity of human life and “convey through our words and actions God’s unconditional love to them and their unborn child,” Hankins said.
The center will also educate these mothers-to-be about the emotional, physical and spiritual side effects of abortion, and provide information on the alternatives to abortion. For those who have already made the decision and aborted their baby, the center will provide Christian counseling services for the mother and the father.
“[We will also] be a resource center of information for other programs, agencies and ministries in our city, county and region that can meet the various needs of the clients who come to the center,” Hankins said.
Working with the PRCSA is just one of the projects SIFE has worked on throughout the school year. They are working with Hankins and other members of the board to raise money and help plan the center.
SIFE, sponsored by the Hickingbotham School, “seeks to empower people in need through economic, social and environmental projects.
“Our students have worked on 11 projects this year to improve the quality of life and standard of living for people in need,” said Britta Stamps, the president of SIFE. “Next week, we will present our projects to judges and compete against SIFE teams across the country.”
These projects range from hosting a recycling contest on campus and offering workforce training for local GED students to creating a tutoring center at Arkadelphia High School and teaching financial seminars to entrepreneurs in Honduras.
Ouachita’s SIFE team has 56 members who complete more than 5,000 hours of volunteer work each year. For more information about SIFE, contact faculty sponsor Dr. James Files at filesj@obu.edu.
To make a donation to the PRCSA, mail your contribution to Pregnancy Resource Center for Southwest Arkansas, P.O. Box 783, Arkadelphia, AR, 71923. All donations are tax deductible.
