Our New Board Chair Reflects on the Importance of Connection

By Matt Silva, Board Chair of Episcopal Relief & Development

I often think about what I will say when my children grow older and ask, “What was Covid like?” Maybe I’ll tell them stories about students going home for spring break and never returning to school, or how people expressed their personalities and worldviews through the masks they wore, or didn’t wear. But most of all, I’ll tell them about the lost opportunity to connect with others face-to-face—to listen, share, and be truly present together.

For my first 4 years on the board of Episcopal Relief & Development, we were grounded from visiting our partners abroad due to risk-related travel restrictions. Meeting partners over Zoom allowed us to monitor program progress and maintain relationships, but it wasn’t the same as communing in-person and seeing the impact with our own eyes. Even so, we continued to govern from afar and supported the work and our partners until travel could safely resume.

On February 14th, 2025–just a few weeks after I stepped into the role of Board Chair–that day finally arrived. My board colleagues and I flew across the world to Lusaka, Zambia, the home of one of our closest and oldest partners: Zambia Anglican Council Outreach Programmes (ZACOP). Since 2004, ZACOP has worked with us to pilot, launch and develop successful initiatives like NetsforLife® and Moments That Matter®.

The next day, we travelled together on buses along bumpy, red-clay roads to meet participants in our early childhood development programs. We listened as mothers, fathers, grandparents and other caregivers sang, shared stories and described the ways these programs are strengthening their families and communities. 

As I watched one little boy playing happily with a handmade toy car, I thought of the 90,000 other children served by Moments That Matter®—children with full bellies who are meeting important developmental milestones thanks to their engaged caregivers and a partner team dedicated to supporting their wellbeing and seeing them thrive.

At the end of the first day’s site visit, as we said our good-byes and began re-boarding the buses that would take us back to Lusaka, I noticed a Toyota pickup truck with a sun-faded Episcopal Relief & Development logo on the door. The truck was one used by local program facilitators to make regular check-ins to this and other program sites across Zambia. In that moment, the faded logo was a powerful sign that our work is not new and not temporary, but deeply rooted in, and an important part of, the local landscape. 

In Zambia, the outcomes were not just figures on a page or summaries discussed over Zoom—they were visible in the lives of the people we met. I understood why Episcopal Relief & Development continued to grow and deliver high-quality programming even when the world shut down. This visit reaffirmed what everyone on our board has long understood: the strength of Episcopal Relief & Development lies in the trusted daily presence of our dedicated local partners. 

As we enter a new year, our charge is clear. We must continue to steward our mission with courage and care, deepen the relationships that anchor our work and invest in the programs that deliver proven results for the communities we serve.

I am profoundly grateful for our staff, our partners around the world, our church and every supporter who makes this work possible. Thank you for your trust, your generosity and your commitment to creating lasting change.

Together, we step into the year ahead with purpose and great hope.

Matt Silva is the Chair of the Board of Episcopal Relief & Development. He works as the Director of Silva Enterprises in San Antonio, Texas where he leads Residential and Commercial Real Estate Development.