A Workshop on Strategies and Campaign Development

by Garry Cox, Sacramento JH team member

How do you connect with people in a country on the other side of the planet? India is 12,300 miles give or take from Sacramento and the cultural divide is almost as wide, so how do you work to build solidarity with people struggling to gain access to land, water and sustainable livelihood with a middle class group of Presbyterians in sunny California?

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You begin by bringing in Alexa Smith and Lionel Derenoncort from Louisville to put on a workshop on campaign development and strategies. To sweeten the pot you bring CG Jacob, the executive secretary of CHETHANA, to help inform the group about the current projects of the India group and you have the makings for a very stimulating discussion.

Our Joining Hands working group in Sacramento is made up of 10 enthusiastic members from 5 different churches in our Presbytery, almost all of whom made it to the workshop held the Friday evening and all day Saturday of October 5-6 2007, at Westminster Presbyterian Church, right across the street from the state capitol. We talked about complementary and parallel campaigns that work to support each other and how to identify a focus project to develop the right campaign. We also embarked on the issue of using the media, Alexa’s expertise, to empower the campaign and developing alliances with interested groups locally and nationally who would support the campaign.

Our focus is leaning toward issues of water privatization and use by multinational corporations. In Northern California Nestle Corp is trying to build a bottling plant that will use a great deal of water and may harm the environment. This possible campaign will be parallel to the current campaign in India seeking to prevent Coca-Cola from overusing ground water and thereby harming small farmers in their region. The workshop was very helpful in helping us see the process of working on hunger issues that affect both US & India and has given us confidence to tackle the challenging work of seeking God’s justice around the world.

Joining Hands is a model for systemic change that the whole church can embrace. Our work directly affects the poor families in our world who are seeking sustainable ways to feed themselves and provide for healthy families and communities. God calls us to share resources that empower others to gain access to the abundance of life that God intends for all people. It also helps educate our members & congregations about our responsibilities to examine our own lifestyle habits that may affect others in the world. We can see the connection between our over consumption and the injustices it brings on our sisters and brothers in India and other developing nations.

Campaign building on the issues of Land and Livelihood

by Thomas John

On November 9 and 10, 2007 about 20 participants representing 18 member organizations, including Bishop Christopher Asir of the Madurai Ramnad Diocese of the CSI, participated in a Training Program on Campaign Strategies held for Chethana with the facilitation and leadership of Lionel Derenoncourt, the Associate for international Hunger program of the PCUSA. The Rev. Dr. Garry Cox from the Presbytery of Sacramento was also present to learn more about the campaign focus of Chethana. He attended the workshop to help identify ways in which the Joining Hands partners in Sacramento could engage in either a parallel campaign or a joint campaign with Chethana on a common issue with vital global linkages.

Bill of Demands for Land Rights: the next step

Already early on, Chethana had identified Land and Livelihood as the focus issue of a campaign. The network had done some work on developing a Bill of Demands for Land Rights around which a common platform could be created with member organizations and like-minded groups.

The training program helped Chethana to build on its experiences and to convince its constituencies and leadership of the need to develop a sharper focus, collect reliable data, develop a strategy, identify the targets, sharpen the message, build coalitions and alliances and engage local, national and international media for taking the campaign effectively to its next phase. The necessity to choose one or two test cases that will give the network best opportunity for visibility and success was further emphasized.

As heads of Chethana member organizations, the participants continued their deliberations in workshops. The event was closed with the resolve to follow the training up with a consultation on the Bill to further sharpen the demands with all the necessary components of a campaign strategy as the participants had come to understand through the training.

The real success of this extremely valuable training program was the commitment of Chethana constituencies to a decisive shift in direction and method of doing campaigns. There was a general acknowledgement fo the fact that historically, that would be the only way it could move forward.

Accompaniment by Sacramento Presbytery

Rev. Garry Cox shared with the group what the Sacramento partners had been planning in terms connecting with the concerns of Chethana. He further suggested a concrete proposal of placing a volunteer from Sacramento for a term of three months each for effective accompaniment and learning. It was also heartening to realize that their exposure to some of global powers of exploitation in India had helped them to identify almost similar exploitation going on their backyard. There was an acknowledgement of the hubris that had prevented them to realize that such things could happen in the US.

Chethana is committed to follow up on these helpful hints to further strengthen its campaign thrust.

Joining Hands in the US

If your church or group would like to learn more about Presbyterian Hunger Programs work in India please contact Joining Hands Sacramento, garrycox@westminsac.org and we will be happy to arrange a slide presentation and discussion on this important mission project. You may also call Garry Cox at 916-442-8939.