 NEWSLETTER |
First Edition, March 2007 |
Peru
by Hunter Farrell |
The Retama is the bright yellow flower that grows abundantly throughout the Peruvian Andes. Its deep roots make it extremely difficult to uproot. And even if you could, so effective is the bush's seed production that the next season, a hundred more retama bushes would sprout up. The retama was soon transformed into a symbol of indigenous resistence to the Spanish Conquest and is mentioned in many popular ballads and poetry.
As Peruvian and North American churches and communities, illuminated by their shared Christian spirituality, join together to create an alternative community to the pressing currents of globalization (Romans 12:1-2), we propose to keep you informed of our progress and struggles in this monthly newsletter. |
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Profile JH partner network Uniendo Manos contra la Pobresa
Website Uniendo Manos contra la Pobresa
Profile JH Companionship Facilitators Hunter and Ruth Farrell |
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Joining Hands is glad to welcome seven Young Adult Volunteers from the Presbyterian Church USA to our network in Peru. The YAV program is an opportunity for young adults ages 21-30 to dedicate a year of volunteer service domestically or abroad. Volunteers are placed through a discernment process cultivated by the program, with input from the volunteer, the site coordinator and the YAV staff. Feeling a sense of call to the service of a more just world, to learn and experience a different culture, and in search of their next paths in life David Andrews, Emily Fletcher, Jamie Milton, Sutton Morris, Kori Phillips, Jimmy Wells and Jason Woods enlist as the inaugural YAV group in Peru.
"If we truly wish to understand our impact on the rest of the world we must live in solidarity with the people we are affecting," Andrews says. "If we intend on making changes in the world, we must look within ourselves and at the part we play." Here the YAVs are placed with six of Joining Hands' organizations. |
In this Issue:
Human Rights: Accompanying Widows and Orphans Opposing the Trade Agreement
Links in this issue:
Mother Jones News article
http://www.motherjones.com/news/feature/
2006/11/lead_astray.html
The Blacksmith Institute
http://www.pcusa.org/trade/
http://www.wola.org/economic/econ_trade.htm
http://www.maketradefair.com/en/assets/
english/sirens.pdf
Link to La Oroya Web Site:
www.todosobrelaoroya.org
Link to Fair Trade Web Site:
http://fairtradeperu.com/ |
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| Three live and work in Lima: Milton with Fraternidad Cristiana Vida, Woods with Paz y Esperanza, and Phillips part-time in the network office and part-time with Iglesia Evangelica Presbiteriana Misionera Luz y Vida. Andrews is in Huancavelica to live and work with ATIYPAQ and Fletcher with the Paz y Esperanza branch in Huanuco. Wells lives and works in Huancayo with CEDEPAS and Morris in Huanta with Radio Amauta . |
Pictured left to right: Woods, Andrews, Morris, Wells, Milton, Phillips, and Fletcher |
"I am learning a ton, but the one thing that
sticks out is this: I am learning how to be a three year old again." Wells explains, "I am an adult with complex feelings and emotions, but I express myself like a toddler. What I mean is that I am learning that I have an opportunity to simply listen, for a change. I can't do anything else. I am learning how to listen and learn and I am beginning to understand how valuable that is for me." This year Joining Hands hopes to foster an environment in which the YAVs can absorb as much information as possible. Our organizations anticipate teaching the YAVs much about doing mission in Christ's way, in community with brothers and sisters in Christ.
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In turn, Joining Hands hopes to learn from the YAVs as they share their talents and outlooks with new and fresh eyes. "The difference," Andrews says, "between those of us who live in the US and the people I have met in Peru is that they do not have the benefit of being able to turn their heads and look the other way."
-Kori Phillips, Current Young Adult Volunteer |
Joining Hands Continues to Defend La Oroya's Children |
La Oroya Named One of World's Most Polluted Places
"Since 1922, adults and children in La Oroya, Peru - a mining town in the Peruvian Andes and the site of a poly-metallic smelter - have been exposed to the toxic emissions from the plant. Currently owned by the Missouri-based Doe Run Corporation, the plant is largely responsible for the dangerously high blood lead levels found in the children of this community..."
Read more of their report:
The Blacksmith Institute
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U.S. Magazine Reports on La Oroya Campaign
"Warden's voice wavered as she addressed the session, but her mere presence made the Doe Run executives in the room flip open their cell phones and begin dialing frantically. "I came here," she said, "to share some of what Herculaneum has learned and experienced over the last few years. Our children should not continue to be the price the world pays for lead..."
Read more of this article in Mother Jones Magazine: http://www.motherjones.com/news/feature/
2006/11/lead_astray.html |
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| Human Rights: Accompanying the Widows and Orphans |
It is in the small communities where the violence was strongest, that CEDEPAS, a non-governmental organization (NGO) based in Huancayo, is steadily working to heal and provide hope to those still suffering. CEDEPAS is an ecumenical organization with three goals: to promote economic development in poverty-stricken communities, to improve the efficiency of local governments, and to provide spiritual and emotional support to those most in need. In order to achieve these goals, CEDEPAS has created a dynamic team of economists, political experts, and pastors all working from a Christian perspective.
| "Even though the most intense violence ended 13 years ago, there is a large segment of the population that continues to suffer." |
Two years ago Presbyterian Disaster Assistance provided a grant to CEDEPAS so that they might continue their ministry to those still suffering from the aftermath of the political violence. The program is entitled Tayta Diosmi Michimani which is Quechua for The Lord is my Shepherd. In the program, pastors from CEDEPAS organize workshops in counselor training, psychology, peacefully confronting violence, self-esteem and gender equality. One of the organizers of these workshops is Juan (now 26), who after experiencing the violence as a child, now works for CEDEPAS and has decided to devote his life to helping Christians confront the problems of the world. Juan says, "even though the most intense violence ended 13 years ago, there is a large segment of the population that continues to suffer. In the past few years there has been a sharp rise in suicide rates and spousal abuse. Many never recovered financially after being displaced and as a result, still suffer from low self-esteem."
-Mark Curtis, short term volunteer for CEDEPAS earlier this year
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Although he was only 7 years old, Juan remembers clearly the early morning in 1986 when the army broke into his house. Juan recounts, "It was probably 5 am, and my family and I were still asleep. All of a sudden, soldiers with guns were inside our house yelling and cussing at my family. We soon realized that the soldiers had used battering rams to break down both the front and back doors."
The soldiers had broken in because they suspected Juan's family of being sympathizers to Sendero Luminoso, a Marxist guerilla group waging an underground war against the government of Peru. Juan says that they tore the house apart looking for Marxists magazines and materials. Thankfully, the soldiers were unable to find any material they deemed to be incriminating. However, that morning many of his neighbors were taken away, some never to be heard of again.
Between the years of 1980 and 1993 these events were commonplace as Peruvians suffered from an intense period of political violence which pitted Sendero Luminoso against government-sponsored military forces willing to take any measure necessary to squelch a revolution. The violence took a large toll on both groups, but sadly the group with the largest number of casualties was neither Sendero Luminoso (Shining Path) nor the government forces. Rather, it was those that were caught in the middle, the Peruvian people, who lost the most.
A government sponsored report on this period of political violence states that an estimated 120,000 people were either killed or simply disappeared. The majority of the violence did not take place in the large cities, but in the smaller, Andean communities where Sendero Luminoso was based. In these areas not a single person escaped the violence unscathed.
These deaths and their multiplying effects have left an indelible mark on the country. The violence caused thousands of children to be left orphaned, thousands of people to be displaced, rampant poverty and countless emotional and psychological problems. |
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Analysis of Free Trade Agreement
"The Interfaith Working Group on Trade and Investment and the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) urge you to oppose this extension of damaging trade rules to Peru..."
http://www.pcusa.org/trade/
"WOLA approaches trade discussions from a human rights perspective, highlighting how core rights such as the right to food, the right to a healthy environment and labor rights will be affected by trade agreements..." http://www.wola.org/economic/econ_trade.htm
"Song of the Sirens: Why the US-Andean FTAs undermine sustainable development and regional integration..."
http://www.maketradefair.com/en/assets/english/sirens.pdf
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Alexa Smith has drafted a letter (below) that you and your congregations may use to write to your congressman in opposition to the U.S.-Peru Free Trade Agreement. A vote is expected this month, so it is important to get these letters out, the sooner the better. We hope this letter works for you; if not, modify it as you wish.
Dear _________,
As a person of faith, I am writing to oppose the U.S.-Peru Free Trade Agreement (U.S.-Peru FTA). I think that it is yet another international trade pact that fails to uphold the dignity of God's people around the world and further undermines equitable development and economic justice abroad. I urge you to vote against it when it comes before Congress.
My Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) congregation is currently working in partnership with a church in Latin America, the Presbyterian Church of Peru. In my conversations with my Peruvian brothers and sisters, I have learned that Peru is burdened by poverty and a growing chasm between the rich and the poor. On visits to Latin America, I have learned that trade pacts like this one often do just the opposite of what they promise, hurting rural communities by putting the small farmer out of business who cannot compete with industrialized agriculture. Nor is alternative employment created for the many displaced from their traditional occupations. How can that possibly increase democratic stability? Plunging more small farmers into poverty will only increase the instability in Peru, not decrease it. It may well further inflame the anger about the social inequalities that have especially hampered the lives of indigenous peoples there. Peru is already struggling in the aftermath of decades of armed conflict. I do not want the vote of my Congressional representatives to further complicate the already delicate reconciliation process that is under way.
My objections are as follows:
· Why risk producing in Peru the kind of damage that NAFTA has caused in Mexico? Since NAFTA passed 12 years ago, more than 1.3 million farmers have been displaced in Mexico by making the country vulnerable to cheap subsidized imports from the U.S.
· Threatening the livelihoods of small farmers may only escalate coca production, which is harmful both to Peru and to the U.S.
· An agreement like the U.S.-Peru FTA will likely harm low-skilled workers abroad as multi-national corporations search the world for lower labor costs. We have seen the spread of sweatshop labor in Latin America, and, without resources to ensure enforcement of Peruvian labor laws, the pact will perpetuate rather than alleviate the abuse of workers.
· Finally, protecting the environment is of grave concern in a country that is home to the upper Amazon basin. This requires multilateral environmental agreements that protect those resources. The mining industry in Peru has left a legacy of pollution and environmental degradation that is appalling, so I have little confidence that there are guarantees in place to protect some of the most bio-diverse areas on earth.
I am writing to you as a concerned Christian. As a Presbyterian, I have learned that the Gospel has implications for the public sector. I want my vote and my representatives in Congress to uphold the well-being of people in other nations, promote care of the earth, support just wages for low-skilled workers and reverse the escalating gap between rich and poor.
Vote against the U.S.-Peru FTA.
Sincerely,
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