NEWS FROM
LUTHERAN WORLD RELIEF
September 27, 2000
For more information contact Jonathan Frerichs at (410) 230-2802.
In this news release:
- Needed: Finish the Job on Landmines, Ban 'Conflict' Diamonds
- Parish Pitches In, Sets Possible World Record in the Non-Olympic Sport of Assembling Quilts
- North Korea, India, Venezuela Receiving Disaster and Recovery Aid
- More than Elephants and Zebras: LWR Study Visit Sees an Africa Few Tourists See
- After the Flood, Days in a Tree and Months Starting Over
NEEDED: FINISH THE JOB ON LANDMINES, BAN 'CONFLICT' DIAMONDS
Baltimore, September 27, 2000 -- Lutheran World Relief is seeking citizen
support for two specific changes in U.S. foreign policy - banning landmines
and blocking diamonds that have been sold to finance wars. Interested
parties are being urged to contact Congress and the President. LWR's
website currently provides background information and action steps on both
issues.
To date, 137 nations have signed the international treaty banning
landmines. However, after nearly three years, the United States is still
not a signatory along with Russia, China and Pakistan. Signatory countries
like Angola, Burundi and Sudan are also violating the treaty.
The US must set a definite, early date for signing the ban treaty, the
LWR 'Action Alert' says, and must refuse to use landmines in joint
operations with nations that are treaty signatories. The alert requests
letters and calls to Washington, plus reminders that President Clinton has
promised to sign the treaty. "Until the US pledges its own commitment to
eradicating mines, we cannot effectively influence other nations to do the
same," the on-line bulletin reads.
An estimated 22,000 people are killed or maimed by landmines every year.
Almost all of the victims are civilians. Landmines are a critical problem
in certain countries where LWR works and an LWR landmine ban petition three
years ago was signed by more than 100,000 people, then presented to key
government leaders.
'Conflict diamonds' are gems mined or traded by rebel groups seeking funds
to buy weapons. Under pressure from many quarters, including LWR and other
humanitarian groups, the World Diamond Congress recently adopted measures
to ensure that diamonds come only from legitimate sources. LWR has taken a
position on the 'conflict diamond' issue especially because of its work in
Liberia, Sierra Leone, Burkina Faso and Angola where long-running conflicts
and related trading are fueled in part by diamond sales.
American consumers provide another link. They buy 65 percent of the
diamonds sold internationally. The website bulletin notes that money we
pay for diamonds here might end up paying for guns in Africa. Readers are
urged to tell their representatives in Congress of the need for import
restrictions on 'conflict diamonds.'
[For further information refer to http://www.lwr.org/advocacy or
contact Adrienne Shannon of LWR's public policy office at 202-626-7933.]
PARISH PITCHES IN, SETS POSSIBLE WORLD RECORD IN THE NON-OLYMPIC SPORT OF ASSEMBLING QUILTS
Baltimore, September 27, 2000 -- A team of parishioners young and old at
Salem Lutheran Church in Jacobus, Penn., astonished themselves September 16
by assembling quilts at the rate of one every six minutes. "With a
terrific attendance, especially of youth and children, we set a 'personal'
best (and perhaps a world record)," said Pastor Ray Hutcher.
Salem women, who have been making quilts for Lutheran World Relief for more
than 20 years, decided last year to "instruct" the rest of the congregation
about quilt assembly and invite help. Their record setting "Quilt Assembly
Day" in September was covered in a local newspaper article, an editorial
and on local TV news.
"Our goal is to invite all the congregations in our area to expand their
quilting assembling next year and set the third Saturday in September as
"Quilt Assembly Day" throughout the land," Hutcher said.
NORTH KOREA, INDIA AND VENEZUELA RECEIVING DISASTER AND RECOVERY ASSISTANCE
Baltimore, September 27, 2000 -- Lutheran World Relief is helping
vulnerable groups in North Korea, flood survivors in northern India and
people working on long-term rehabilitation after last December's floods and
mudslides in Venezuela. Recent grants for these three emergencies total
$143,000.
North Korea, hit last month by the worst typhoon in 30 years, is facing a
bleak winter despite recent openings to South Korea and other nations. The
country has suffered nearly a decade of economic collapse and failed
harvests resulting in heavy loss of life. LWR assistance with food, relief
goods and a farm improvement program began four years ago. The current
work is part of a $2.8 million interchurch program for nursing mothers,
infants, the elderly and farmers in specific areas.
More than Elephants and Zebras
LWR STUDY VISIT SEES AN AFRICA FEW TOURISTS EVER SEE
Baltimore, September 27, 2000 -- It was the first trip to Africa for most
of the travelers but seeing elephants and zebras was not a priority. A
Lutheran World Relief study visit to Kenya and Tanzania last month went
places where few tourists will ever go, from big city slums to small
country farms where LWR supports local people tackling major problems?like
AIDS, food production, fair trade and Christian-Muslim relations.
The itinerary combined challenges with hope. On the outskirts of Nairobi,
the group visited an orphanage and family center begun by a Kenyan woman
determined to provide a future for children who struggle to make a living
scavenging valuables at a nearby sewage treatment plant. The children,
many of them AIDS orphans, offered the group songs and poems about their
life and their future. Also in the Kenyan capital, the travelers met a
dynamic, self-help group formed by women who are refugees from war-torn
Sudan. The LWR travelers said they were "thrilled" to see how united the
women were, despite divisions among their people back home and bleak
prospects in exile.
On the slopes of Mt. Kilimanjaro, the group met with small coffee farmers
who provide coffee used in the LWR Coffee Project. Their cooperative sells
to the fair trade market, which offers price and other benefits compared to
the conventional coffee trade. The LWR group also visited Tanzanian
Lutheran church-related projects in fish farming, biogas generation and
water conservation.
Several group members marveled at the unapologetic blend of Christianity
and daily life they encountered in Africa. "Again and again the group
heard 'we love our neighbor because Christ loves us,'" said Charles Lutz,
group leader and a former LWR board member. Local LWR partner
organizations include Muslims and adherents of traditional religions, as
well as Christians.
In 1999, LWR provided over $20 million worth of development and relief aid
through some 30 partner agencies in 15 African countries. The study visit
was hosted by LWR's East Africa Regional Office in Nairobi. Two more
groups will follow the same itinerary, in February 2001.
AFTER THE FLOOD, DAYS IN A TREE AND MONTHS STARTING OVER
By Pamela Zintatu Ntshanga in Maputo, Mozambique, reporting for the
emergency network that includes LWR, Action by Churches Together. Six
months after the floods in Mozambique, women bear much of burden of
recovery.
Gaza Province, Mozambique -- "It was a Saturday night, when the water came.
We had been sleeping soundly and the next thing I remember is waking up wet
and cold. The water had already reached my bed by then. Amid all the
screams and the darkness, I sought out my children."
Salfina Fabiao Chivambo speaks with a sigh and a shrug. She has seen too
much. She will never forget the night of February 26, 2000, when
floodwaters swept away her home and all her belongings. But she still bears
a look of quiet resilience.
The floods and a cyclone that hit Mozambique destroyed towns and villages,
leaving the country to struggle back to a slow recovery. Every aspect of
life has changed, not least in women's daily lives. In Gaza province, women
lead 70 percent of households. The men work outside the country in the gold
mines and agricultural sector of South Africa. It is women who have to take
care of the family to make ends meet.
The night of the flood most people in the towns had been out at local bars
and discos. When the water came strong as a wave, some families were
separated. It took months for many to find each other. Some families, like
Salfina's, still wait.
She and her children struggled toward the nearest tree. The current had
become almost too strong. "We were thrown about. We were swirling around
whilst trying to give each other a hand. When we reached the top of the
tree, we discovered that my 70-year-old father was not amongst us." He is
one of 80 people in her area still missing to this day. She does not know
when and how he disappeared. "It is sad," she says gravely, "because I
will never get the opportunity to bury my father."
Nothing but Tree Tops
The world saw what happened next on TV. Salfina, her husband and her four
children spent four days in that tree, from Saturday night to Thursday
morning. "Those days were the longest in my life as we watched the water
rising and then subsiding," she says. "We had nothing to eat for four days
and our neighbors were far away, we couldn't even call to them. We were cut
off. You couldn't see anything, only tree tops. When we came down from the
trees, we couldn't find any food. We had one month left before the big
harvest when the floods struck. On our return to firm ground, all we found
was rotting maize. We searched in all kinds of places for food to no
avail."
After a few days, food arrived by air. "We heard airplanes zooming past the
area that used to be our house and we ran in the same direction that they
were flying. The whole village rushed to see what was going on." Later,
seeds reached remote villages by boat.
The first days of planting were easy, yet difficult. "We did not even need
to use hoes to dig out the soil. It was so wet that all we had to do was
use our own hands to scoop the soil up. On the other hand because we were
robbed of a harvest by the floods, we did not have enough seeds for
planting. We relied on the ones we were receiving."
"I cannot make money as yet. When times were tough, we used to sell our
livestock to buy some food and pay for school fees. But now I do not even
own any. All my nine goats were washed away by the floods. I have had to
start from scratch," Salfina says.
Post-Flood Workload Has Doubled
Salfina's husband cannot do any manual labor. Many years ago he had a
disease whose name they never knew because he could not afford to go to a
doctor to get a diagnosis. Since the flood, Salfina's workload has
doubled. She has to do everything on her own. "I have to go and collect
house building material and then build the house on my own. I still have
to make sure that my family gets something to eat. Many times I am forced
to go hungry and give what I have to my children. Life revolves around
survival. I have to fetch water and tend to the fields."
Salfina will not move to higher ground. She will build a new house at the
same place that was flooded even though she risks losing everything again.
"Where should I move? We are, after all, born here," she says.
Many people heard flood warnings on the radio or from government officials
with megaphones in town, but they didn't believe what the government said.
"None of us had ever seen anything like this. We couldn't just run away and
leave our livestock behind," Salfina says.
The price for ignoring the warning was high. Almost everyone lost their
house, belongings, crops and livestock. Brick-houses are the only buildings
left standing. For many months the women have been going back and forth
collecting building material. Trees were uprooted and everything was
covered in silt.
It is women who have to repair the roads too, because it is they who have
to sell their products in town.
Women also have to make sure that children learn under a roof and not under
open skies.
In one nearby village, the school was washed away together with all the
school files, equipment and furniture. The local women have decided to
work together to build a new school. The children have not only missed two
months of schooling this year but are still learning under the trees. "We
have to build a school quickly before the rainy season begins," Salfina
says. She might have added "again."
