CWS Update December 2009
In this issue:
>> Parishes launch 64th Christmas Appeal
>> Hurricane Ida
>> Climate Change - Churches to ring the alarm, NZ church leaders’ statement.
>> Food - faith groups ask WTO to recognise food as a basic human right.
>> Palestine - blotting out the other.
>> HIV and AIDS - latest report on global pandemic.
>> Pacific Tsunami - response update.
>> Darfur - a forgotten crisis?
• 1 World AIDS Day
• 2 International Day for the Abolition of Slavery
• 3 International Day of Disabled Persons
• 5 International Volunteer Day /Planet A events around the country
• 10 Human Rights Day
• 18 International Migrants Day
• Christmas Day
Parishes launch 64th Christmas Appeal
On 29 November parishes throughout the country launched the 64th
Christmas Appeal asking New Zealanders to support the many partner
groups working to end poverty. This year’s theme is “Give us a Chance”
and highlights how poor people want to be able to look after
themselves. They just need the chance to get clean water, nutritious
food, education, better incomes and more. Your donations will give them
this opportunity.
CWS hopes to raise over $600,000. “We realise that this year may be
harder for many people with the economic recession biting,” says
Pauline McKay, National Director. “Our concern is that whatever
difficulties we face in New Zealand, the reality for poorer communities
in developing countries is far worse. For many the coming year will be
a matter of life and death.”
In 2009, the number of malnourished people in the world hit 1 billion
people – nearly one out of every 6 people. It is reported that on
average, a person dies every second as a direct or indirect result of
poor nutrition. Yet the world produces enough food to feed double the
global population. The problem is the inequities of distribution and
access, issues CWS partners are helping to address.
Resource materials for the appeal are available featuring stories from
Uganda, Gaza, the Philippines and Fiji. A new feature is a short audio
visual presentation of photos of CWS partners set to music. They show
in a moving way how your donations help people with the necessities of
life. You can also download or order an Advent Calendar with a
difference. Children can add coins as they countdown to Christmas and
see how people around the world are working to build better futures.
See www.cws.org.nz for details. Please give generously this Christmas.
Give Us A Chance
The latest edition of CWS’s magazine for children is now available. It
features the stories of Muhammad and Hadeel who live in Gaza, Palestine
and looks at how children deal with the ongoing trauma from the Israeli
military bombings of December 08/January 09. World Watch includes
cartoons and games and is accompanied by a Leader’s Kit.
Hurricane Ida
El Salvador was hit by winds and rain of Hurricane Ida on 7- 8
November, discharging over 300 millimetres of rain in six hours. More
than 150 people were killed in mud slides and over 13,000 people were
left homeless. There are mudslides throughout the affected area,
including some major ones covering houses, crops, and roads. Rivers
have overflowed. 24 bridges have been affected, six of which are
totally destroyed. The World Food Programme estimates some 10,000 will
need food assistance in the coming months due to the loss of crops due
to the flooding and mudslides.
CWS partners through ACT International have provided food, cooking
utensils, clothing, trauma counselling, medicine, hygiene supplies and
provisional roofing material.
Faith groups call for WTO to respect the right to food
CWS has joined other faith groups in the Ecumenical Advocacy Alliance
(EAA) to sign a letter to Pascal Lamy, the Director General of the
World Trade Organisation (WTO). With a WTO Ministerial to be held in
Geneva from 30 November to 2 December, the letter asks the organisation
to respect the right to food as a human right as enshrined in the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the UN International Covenant
on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.
The letter calls for:
• The recognition of the right to food in the WTO negotiations.
• Just and sustainable agricultural production and trade systems.
• Safeguard measures that address import surges and price volatility
and the right of all countries to produce for domestic consumption and
ensure their food self-sufficiency.
The EAA initiated statement says, "We believe it is important for WTO
members to uphold a common vision of the right to food, which allows
countries to produce and have access to an adequate supply of food
while ensuring a fair income for their food producers."
The letter said trade rules are needed that will end "dumping" of
products in developing countries, referring to lucrative subsidies for
farmers in developed countries.
It concludes, “Food, for life, is a matter of justice and should not be
treated like any other commodity. “Give us this day our daily bread”
is a petition repeated by millions of Christians around the world every
day as they pray the Lord’s Prayer. This calls us to care for humanity
and all of Creation, leads us to provide food to those who are in
immediate and dire need, and simultaneously work to expose and
eradicate the causes of hunger. We believe that recognition of
everyone’s right to adequate food is an important part of reaching this
goal.”
Churches to ring the Alarm on Climate Change
The United Nations Summit on Climate Change runs from 7 – 18 December
2009. Churches are invited to ring their bells, drums, shells to call
people to prayer and action at 3 pm on Sunday 13 December. It marks
the midway point of the conference and enables New Zealand Churches to
join a World Council of Churches’ supported initiative that will
encircle the globe with prayer. By sounding their bells or other
instruments 350 times, participating churches will symbolize the 350
parts per million that mark the safe upper limit for CO2 in the
atmosphere according to many scientists.
Over 700 people signed CWS’s Clean up the Climate postcard petition
which has been sent to the Prime Minister and almost the same number on
a Pacific Conference of Churches’ petition asking for an ambitious
agreement and support for Climate Change refugees from the Pacific.
CWS is asking the New Zealand Government to support a binding 40 per
cent cut in domestic emissions by 2020 at Copenhagen and for any
agreement to provide poor countries with the means to adapt to the
changing environment Poor countries need additional assistance to
develop with clean technology and to escape poverty.
CWS is joining with other agencies and groups to support a series of
concerts, walks and events on Saturday 5 December in Auckland,
Wellington and Christchurch to show the support for the New Zealand
Government to take a stronger stance in the talks. More information is
available at: www.cws.org.nz
Statement from New Zealand Churches
New Zealand Church leaders have joined international efforts
calling for bolder action on climate change. In launching the
statement Archbishop John Dew of Wellington said that the world is
“perched on the brink of a Kairos moment” – a moment which in scripture
is a moment of opportunity, grace and truth. In the statement the
leaders note that recent debate in New Zealand focuses on the costs of
meeting higher obligations but not “the costs of doing too little, the
benefits from cleaning up the environment, and of tackling climate
change.” The statement is available at www.cws.org.nz
Church leaders call for reunification of Korea
In October the World Council of Churches’ General Secretary, Rev Dr
Samuel Kobia, met with North Korean president Kim Yong-nam before
attending an international consultation in Hong Kong on the challenging
situation facing the peninsula. The “Tozanso Process”, which brings
together Christians from the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea in
the north and the Republic of Korea in the south, as well as
representatives of partner churches from other nations, was initiated
by the World Council of Churches (WCC) in 1984. Subsequently the WCC
issued a statement urging the United States of America and the
Democratic People’s Republic of Korea to hold bilateral talks.
In a 12 November letter to the governments of North and South Korea,
Japan, China, Russia and the US, Samuel Kobia conveyed "alarm and
disappointment" at the "breakdown of the Six-Party Talks", which has
"led to actions that escalate tensions and confrontations".
A multilateral framework launched by these governments in 2003 to
address the North Korean nuclear programme, the Six-Party Talks have
been stalled since the beginning of 2009, when a contentious rocket
launch put the North Korean government and the other parties at
loggerheads. Further North Korean nuclear testing contributed to the
stalemate.
"We urge each of you to return to the negotiating table prepared to
deal with the difficult but eminently solvable issues before you",
wrote Kobia. He expressed the conviction that "negotiations which could
build a lasting peace in the Korean peninsula are within your
governments' power".
Israel Palestine: Blotting out the Other
Blotting out the Other: Israeli – Palestinian Mutual Exclusion
Dr. Bernard Sabella
Al Quds – Jerusalem
Saturday, October 30th, 2009
At a time when some still hope for better days to come in the process
of peace making between Israelis and Palestinians, the realities on the
ground take a different shape. Israel has constructed the separation
wall and put up checkpoints all over the West Bank. Gaza Strip remains
blockaded for more than four years now. On the Palestinian side, what
appears at first instance accommodation to Israeli control measures
necessitates a closer look. A majority of Palestinians adopt a style of
life that would minimize their contacts with Israelis, except for the
most necessary like crossing a checkpoint or exiting from Jericho to
Jordan or official transactions that necessitate contact. The same way
that the Israelis have concretely separated themselves from the
Palestinians, the Palestinians by their turn have developed
psychological and practical mechanisms to separate themselves from the
Israelis. These may appear on the surface as accommodation to the
control mechanisms imposed by the Israelis. The primary motives for
Palestinians to separate stem from the fact that they need to economize
on time as much as possible and to go on with their daily lives.
Crossing a checkpoint, the Israeli guard that stands on duty becomes a
number exactly as the Palestinian to him/her is treated as a number. It
is rare to personalize the relationship. The practice of passing a
checkpoint is how to get through it as quickly as possible. Israeli
guards are aware of this fact and hence, often on purpose, take their
time in checking people through in order to assert that they are in
control. The moment a Palestinian passes the checkpoint, the border or
the separation wall, he/she leaves the Israelis behind, in effect
blotting them out of his being. This enables one to go on with life as
if there were no Israeli occupation checkpoints and no Israeli guards.
The essence of the blotting out mechanisms, on the Palestinian side, is
to contain the effects of Israeli control mechanisms. Thus the
Palestinians live in two cognitive worlds: the one that needs to deal
and improvise when in contact with Israelis, particularly those
responsible for control measures and the second is the one that is free
of Israel and the Israelis. Avoiding the Israelis is motivated not out
of fear but out of the economic and practical utility that allows
Palestinians to avail themselves of time and space needed to go on with
daily living relatively unhindered. For Palestinians who are forcibly
confronted by the Jewish settlers who wish to expand their illegal
settlements on account of Palestinian properties, the situation
involves direct confrontation often provoked by the actions of the
settlers. These Palestinians, including those in Bil’in and Ni’lin
villages threatened by the construction of the Separation Wall and
those in East Jerusalem threatened by home demolitions and evictions,
develop confrontation mechanisms that seek to affirm their rights and
to put into question the measures adopted by settler groups and by the
Israeli military, municipality and other official agencies. The
Palestinians in the middle of confrontation go on with the various
chores of daily living: picking olives, attending school, going to
work, upholding religious obligations, undertaking social visits and
the other prerequisites for maintaining community. The burden on these
‘front line’ communities is that they cannot, like the majority of
Palestinians, adopt liberally the blotting out mechanisms as they have
to deal with physical presence of Israelis and Jewish settlers. And yet
in their own ways as they strive to maintain a semblance of normalcy in
their daily undertakings they too have developed blotting out
mechanisms.
Palestinians and Israelis are on parting ways. The realities today on
the ground affirm the need for the establishment of two states as
natural conclusion to the mutual exclusivity experienced by both
Palestinians and Israelis. The ongoing expansion and building in the
illegal Jewish settlements on the West Bank could torpedo the prospect
of the two-state model and could in effect increase the likelihood of a
de facto one state for both Palestinians and Israelis. The priority for
Palestinians remains ending Israeli occupation. But as this is not a
plausible prospect for the time being, the blotting out mechanisms
ensure not simply mutual exclusivity but Palestinian self and communal
preservation in the face of most difficult odds.
Latest AIDS statistics verify need for sustained, comprehensive response
Christian leaders in the Ecumenical Advocacy Alliance have welcomed the
latest statistics on the HIV and AIDS epidemic indicating a decline in
new infections over the past eight years, while emphasising the need to
expand comprehensive treatment and prevention services to continue the
positive trend.
UNAIDS and the World Health Organization released its annual AIDS
Epidemic Update on 24 November, indicating that 33.4 million people
were living with HIV in 2008, up slightly from 2007. The higher figure
is credited to increased availability to treatment allowing more people
to live longer. Overall, the data indicates that new infections have
dropped 17 percent over the past eight years.
Despite areas of progress, worrying gaps exist. Children still account
for 2.1 million of those living with HIV, although the number of deaths
has declined. The number of children newly infected with HIV in 2008
was roughly 18% lower than in 2001. The report also highlighted that
as modes of transmission shift within countries – such as from
injecting drug use to heterosexual sex – HIV prevention approaches have
so far not been able to shift effectively.
“It highlights the challenge of HIV prevention,” says Manoj Kurian,
Programme Executive for Health and Healing, World Council of Churches.
“No single approach is effective, but we need to use the combined
efforts of the variety of organizations involved in the response to
raise awareness, share information and resources, and provide the
support necessary for culturally appropriate and evidence-based forms
of prevention.”
Pacific Tsunami Response Update
CWS has sent NZ$10,000 to the Free Wesley Church of Tonga to replace
two boats lost in the tsunami. The boats are needed for the people of
Niuatoputapu to get to their plantations on neighbouring Tafahi Island
so they can resume their livelihoods. The boats are also used for
fishing and will be fitted with outboard motors, safety equipment and
fishing gear.
An additional NZ$20,000 has been sent to the Lower Hutt Family Centre,
Anglican Social Services, which is working with its long time partner
Afeafe o Vaetoefaga i Vaialua in Vaialua, Nofoali’i in North West
Upolu. Their response to the Samoa tsunami aims ‘to address the need to
restore wellbeing and resilience to people, families, children and
youth in the village severely impacted by the tsunami of 29th September
2009’. Key activities so far have included an ‘initial trauma response
phase’ (6 weeks) working with families and children who have been
severely traumatised by the tsunami. The next phase is a trauma
counselling community outreach training programme for youth
facilitators in tsunami affected villages, and through that programme
to train youth leaders.
Darfur Must not be Forgotten
Darfur is in danger of becoming a forgotten emergency, according to
Nyika Musiyazwiriyo, the outgoing Head of Programmes for the joint
ACT/Caritas Darfur Programme. The UN says that out of Darfur’s 6
million people, 4.5 million still need support and 2.7 million people
remain displaced throughout the region.
“Thousands of people are still living in camps,” explains Nyika. “Peace
and security remain elusive - people do not yet feel secure enough to
leave the camps and return home. And such living conditions mean people
do not have the opportunity to build their own lives. They still need
humanitarian aid to survive. “Food, water and health care - all of
these essential and basic things - still need to be provided on a daily
basis as people cannot access these themselves.”
CWS is supporting the ACT/Caritas programme, which includes providing
clean drinking water for nearly 300,000 people living in eight densely
populated camps for internally displaced persons (IDPs) in South and
West Darfur, as well as in villages and host communities in the areas
around these camps. The aim is to provide an average of 15 litres of
clean, safe and portable water for each person living in the camps
every day. This means digging new bore holes or wells, introducing
motorised water bladders, or ensuring existing water supplies are well
maintained. In the last three months, ACT/Caritas has provided over
200,000m3 of safe drinking water to these camps – enough to fill 80
Olympic swimming pools.
Christmas greetings from CWS and our overseas partners.
Thank you for your support in 2009!
