NEWS FROM
LUTHERAN WORLD RELIEF
December 22, 2000
For more information contact Jonathan Frerichs at (410) 230-2802.
In this news release:
-
Let Santa Pass The Checkpoint: Children of Bethlehem Pray for Peace
-
Kakuma Camp in Kenya Faces Financial Crisis
-
The Year 2000 As Told By The Numbers
Let Santa Pass The Checkpoint: Children of Bethlehem Pray for Peace
Baltimore, December 22, 2000 - Children in Bethlehem and neighboring towns this Christmas are asking God to keep missiles away from homes and send angels into the hearts of rulers.
The prayers are from students in schools struggling through the violence and curfews of the last three months. A local partner organization provided LWR with English translations. LWR is assisting hospitals, schools, a rehabilitation center and needy Palestinian families in Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza.
"At this sad time and with the continued Israeli siege of our town Bethlehem, I wish for peace to come and for gunfire to stop and for angels to reside in the hearts of rulers and light for them the road," wrote Marwan Hanna Touchieh, a fifth-grader in Bethelehem.
"Oh Lord, protect us and make us grow up!" said the prayer of Gina and Geries Abu Abbara, age four, of Beit Jala.
"Oh Lord, that they will not shoot from any home so that we will be able to live and that we will live in your love," said Marina Abu Abbara, a six-year-old. "We are not afraid because you are with us all the time."
"Protect us from danger and distance the bombs away from our homes because they have been destroyed and we are forced to live in the street. Oh Jesus, distance the evil from us and the missiles and rockets so that we can go back to living peacefully and so that Santa Claus can come to us," Bisan Mousa, a third-grader in Beit Jala, prayed.
"Our teacher told us that, at the military checkpoint, the soldier did not allow Santa Claus to enter Bethlehem," the seven-year-old went on. "We want Christmas to come and we want to decorate the tree like the rest of the children in the world."
Christian and Muslim students also offered prayers for peace at the holy places in Jerusalem and freedom for the land of Palestine. "Oh Lord, listen to me, a Palestinian girl, sad about her country and her people," wrote one Jerusalem ninth-grader.
Staff of the Middle East Council of Churches in Jerusalem added their own plea for both sides in the conflict: "We should not lose hope and we should all strive to create in this Holy Land the possibility for better things to come to all peoples inhabiting this land."
This is the 54th Christmas since LWR began helping Palestinian refugees.
KAKUMA CAMP IN KENYA FACES FINANCIAL CRISIS
Editor's Note: In the final weeks of 2000, young Sudanese refugees are being welcomed to America.
The new arrivals are the first of about 3,600 unaccompanied minors and young adults who, in the months ahead and with help from many Lutheran households and parishes, will begin new lives in the U.S. Back in the remote refugee camp that was their home in Africa, however, times are becoming even tougher than usual. For every camp resident bound for America, there are 20 refugees who remain behind.
by Klaus Rieth and Rainer Lang, Action by Churches Together.
Kakuma Camp, Kenya -- Kakuma refugee camp in northern Kenya is facing a severe financial crisis. Dwindling funds threaten the supply of food and clean water provided by Lutheran World Federation to the nearly 70,000, mostly Sudanese refugees in the camp. Lutheran World Relief helps LWF keep Kakuma running - securing $2.7 million for basic services there in the past three years.
Largely due to recent cuts in funding available through the United Nations refugee agency, LWF urgently needs $200,000 just to maintain basic services in Kakuma. LWF is responsible for camp management, security, water and sanitation, food distribution and schooling. The agency has had to cut both services and staff, laying off over 70 permanent staff and 200 refugee workers. Also, the current LWF budget for the year is nearly $1,000,000 short, according to the interchurch aid alliance, ACT.
"Should I further cut the food rations for the people in the camp?" asks the LWF camp manager, Graham Greene. There is not much to cut. Rations are already down to 1,600 calories per person -- well below the UN rule that every refugee should receive about 2,300 calories a day.
Meanwhile, new refugees arrive every day, often because of fighting in Sudan. One recent arrival was Sabina Itubo who came from a village in southern Sudan. Her husband and all her relatives were killed in a bombing raid by the Sudanese air force, she said. She fled with her four children, walking for nine days till she finally reached a border town near Kakuma. Her family had nothing to eat and no water, in 110-degree heat. When she lost her baby during the journey, Sabina said, she nearly gave up. Now she and her surviving children are waiting to get a small hut at Kakuma.
Kakuma was established in 1992 for thousands of boys and young men who had wandered for up to two years after fleeing civil war in Sudan. Today the camp is home to eight nationalities. It extends for 10 miles across a landscape parched for much of the year by a long-running drought.
As a result of the drought, the local Turkana people face challenges which are in some ways worse than those facing Kakuma residents. Lack of water and pasture has decimated the herds that they depend on. Malnutrition rates among the Turkana currently run as high as 40 percent, more than three times higher than in the camp. LWF, LWR and other aid groups are providing 80,000 local people with emergency food, but funding for this work has been difficult to find as well.
(For a report on work with the women of Kakuma, see http://www.lwr.org/news/072700.asp#abuse)
THE YEAR 2000 AS TOLD BY THE NUMBERS
Baltimore, Dec. 22, 2000 -- Here are some of the numbers that stand out from a review of Lutheran World Relief activities during the past year. The list below includes examples of emergency aid, agricultural development, skills training and health care:
-
13,000 people in Mozambique received bedding, kits and layettes after widespread floods.
-
140 small farmers in Ecuador received training in organic agriculture; they in turn trained 600 other farmers.
-
A new project in Mali produced 650 efficient stoves for burning scarce firewood.
-
227,000 families received emergency aid and recovery help after a cyclone and floods in India and Bangladesh.
-
$4,941,811 came from the World Hunger Appeal of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America - a gift that goes where needed most.
-
1,500 mothers at rural clinics in Kosovo began receiving health care; 400 future health workers began training.
-
106 tons of aid reached Tajikistan - enough clothing, quilts, kits and soap for 64,000 people including Tajiks displaced by civil war and refugees from neighboring Afghanistan.
-
12,000 villagers in the Philippines formed cooperatives in order to protect their lands and livelihoods from the incursions of multinational fruit companies.
-
209 women from poor communities in Guatemala learned how to manage small businesses.
-
The Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod provided $2,127,269 through LCMS World Relief.
-
2,000 young people in Turkey began learning new job skills in an area that suffered two severe earthquakes.
-
19 non-governmental organizations in the Philippines held extensive training programs on reaching gender "equity" in community development.
-
$3.3 million worth of medicines reached hospitals in India.
-
Ken and Muriel Greene, of Tescott, Kansas, organized their 17th annual in-gathering of relief goods; 200 churches took part.
"LWR gives thanks and praise to God for the many individuals and organizations who make such life-saving and life changing results a reality," said LWR President Kathryn Wolford, referring to these and many other activities of the past year. In every LWR project overseas, a local partner organization is involved. In large-scale emergencies, numbers reflect cooperation with other international church aid agencies as well.
