Joining Hands Against Hunger

NEWSLETTER
Sixth Edition, March 2008

Greetings in Christ!

Here we are again in the Easter season when the church rises. We spend the dreary weeks of Lent shedding what is holding us back and then rise together into new life as one Body.

That certainly summarizes what I've observed in my 18 or so months with Joining Hands, where people around the world rise together. How and where we are rising is getting more visible, and, in some parts of the globe, our voices are rising louder and with greater precision and clarity.

Bolivia

- An update about UMAVIDA program foci of the new draft constitution, the right to clean water and the International Youth Congress on the Environment

- Youth Congress Meets: a report from the San Fransisco JH Task Force

Read the full update >>>

Cameroon

- A word of appreciation from the Co-Moderator of the PHP Advisory Committee

- A deadly outburst of suppressed frustrations

- Sixteen New Grain Banks established

- RELUFA volunteer reports on CAP Database Project

- Working together to raise animals and quality of Life through a CAP loan

-Voices of the People: videoclip on the destruction of sacred sites along the Chad cameroon Oil pipeline

Read the full update >>>

Egypt

- Update on the proposed amendment to the 1996 Egyptian Child Law

- Des Moines Delegation visits TFD Projects

- TFD-Des Moines joint participation in global Education for All (EFA) campaign

- Participants comment on Global Organizing for Social Change workshop

- TFD's UN Day Celebrations

Read the full update >>>

India

- Empowering Women: Empowering Rural Economy: Chethana's Women's Alternative Livelihood Initiative

- Upcoming relaease of network's documentary on marginalized Dalits

- Presbytery announces two initiatives for solidarity action

- A first account from Sacramento JH Correspondent Mission Advocate in India

Read the full update >>>

Lesotho

- Network focus and membership refined at KKM's 4th Annual General Meeting

- PHP International Coordinator Visits Lesotho

- Report on the January 2008 Global Organizing for Peaceful Social Change Workshop

- Lesotho Delegates Selected For July Conference

- The Rule of Law is under threat in Lesotho

Read the full update >>>

Palestine

- "What back road can I take to my house that is only 120 meters away?": a personal account of a network gathering disrupted by actions of Israeli army

- The journey of a PATH/JH Greater Atlanta delegation to Israel and Palestine

Read the full update >>>

Peru

- The Young Communicators of La Oroya Program

- JH participation in religious delegation to the Congress of Peru and to the Prime Minister

- "La Oroya: Hot Metal Air": a Prize-winning documentary produced by Joining Hands Peru

- "Eating Fish with Your Fingers": Giddings-Lovejoy members visit Joining Hands artisan partners in Huayanay

- Partners for Just Trade Director's trip report on her visit and work with peruvian partner artisans

Read the full update >>>

South Africa

- Weak legal framework causes community displacements by mining industries

- Exeperiences of the Global Organizing for Peaceful Social Change Workshop

- Western Reserve selects five delegates from Cleveland to head South in April for a visit to JH partners

Read the full update >>>

Sri-Lanka

- Praja Abhilasha organizes Regional Workshops on a Land Recovery People's Movement

- Network member organization NAFSO opens office with inter-religious celebrations

- The situation in which the network and its member organizations work

Read the full update >>>



Shadow teachers project

Rising up for the right to education

Take Together for Family Development (TFD), as one example: A Muslim/Christian coalition that is working to ensure that Egypt’s constitution provides for the education of disabled children, and that school systems will do whatever is possible to make it happen – whether it is specialized teacher training or the installation of ramps to enable wheelchair entry.

 

Some of the funding to create accessibility and training is being sought from the United Nations’ Millenium Development Goals.

Imam and pastor presenting Islamic and Christian perspectives of social justice during Global Organizing for Social Change workshop in Egypt

After a meeting in Cairo in February, TFD’s partners in Des Moines will be advocating with the U.S. government to ensure that it keeps its funding promises to the United Nations’ millennial efforts as announced at the G-8 Summit. Education for All is the plank where access to education for the disabled is lodged.

It is a joy to see the networks getting more focused. Watching folks develop a strategy, identify test cases, sharpen messages and build coalitions is a privilege.

Rising up for the right to water

Just last week, the network in San Francisco Presbytery began divvying up tasks to join together with its partner-network, UMAVIDA, in Bolivia in its concern for water contamination in the hemisphere.

Sarah Harling and Rachel Medema from San Fransisco, with Alberth and Saúl, two Cochabamban delegates at the International Youth Congress on the Environment in Potosi, Bolivia. To the left another participant from Canada

Like its sister networks, San Francisco is beginning the hard work of collecting data about industrial pollution in the Bay Area and how contaminants impact drinking water. So are network churches in Newark and Cascades Presbyteries, all readying for a gathering in Bolivia where the data are presented and examined so that people may mobilize for action.

Rising up for the right to land

Chethana groups in Andhra Pradesh participated in a protest march against Special Economic Zones

In Sacramento Presbytery, the Joining Hands churches are studying ways to mobilize against water privatization efforts in Northern California. Its partner, Chethana, is already engaged in a national campaign on land and water rights. The campaign is fighting how local and foreign companies are diverting water away from local populations for agro-industry and usurping farmland that once fed India’s millions.

If this isn’t resurrection, I don’t know what is.

Rising up to reclaim life

This Easter season, let’s keep each other in our prayers and more. Coming back from the dead often startles others.

So let’s not be afraid to do so. As Christ’s Body, what happens to one happens to us all.So let’s remember that we are joined together this Easter and be grateful for it. And raise our voices together as we rise.

Alexa Smith

Joining Hands

Associate for Presbyteries

 

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