from Act for Peace, the international aid agency of the National Council of Churches in Australia

Kohistan, Pakistan is one of the poorest and most remote and culturally conservative regions in the world. It’s also one of the worst places in the world to be a woman: a place where fathers arrange their daughters’ marriages when they are just children so they can marry them off as soon as they go through puberty. Once they are married, women are almost never allowed to leave their homes.
Australians who support Act for Peace’s Christmas Bowl appeal in 2011 will be helping to provide quality doctors and health workers in Kohistan, promote greater awareness of the importance of health care and hygiene and help women access the pre- and post-natal care they need

Act for Peace, the international aid agency of the National Council of Churches in Australia, supports partners in the mountainous Kohistan area. The rugged terrain and deep conservatism mean that few health workers will venture here. Finding female doctors is especially difficult.
A local health worker, Fehmida, is one of the few female health workers in the region. She works for one of several rural health centres Act for Peace supports.
“The people are so poor they can barely afford to feed themselves,” she said. “It is traditional that men eat first, next boys, then wives and finally, the female children eat last. If there isn’t enough food to go around, the wives and girls go hungry. The larger the family, the greater the risk of malnutrition.
“Women as a whole in this area suffer the most. They have no education and are not even allowed to socialise with other women. Their husbands do not allow them to have any rights, and most women who come to me are anaemic.”
Women in Kohistan have 10 to 12 children on average, and almost always give birth at home, with no trained birth attendant present.
Fehmida says, “The rural health centres are gradually making a difference in the lives of women and their families.  We are seeing more women coming into the clinic for pre- and post-natal care. When they do come to the clinic, I try to educate them about women’s health issues, nutrition and hygiene.”
Funds raised through the Christmas Bowl will help Act for Peace partners in Pakistan and many other conflict-affected regions of the world, including Iraq, Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, South Sudan, Zimbabwe and Burma. A gift of $45 can provide a baby kit to help keep a newborn baby safe and warm, and $460 can support a female health worker for a month.
To give to the Christmas Bowl, please free call 1800 025 101, visit www.actforpeace.org.au or use the Christmas Bowl envelopes at your church.
Christmas Bowl resources for congregations, including videos, worship resources, activities and PowerPoint presentations, can also be downloaded from the Act for Peace website.

from Act for Peace, the international aid agency of the National Council of Churches in Australia  

Link below for a copy of the report

A report on displacement and poverty in Burma has found that despite growing opportunities for change by the Burmese government, the Burmese army has forcibly displaced more people in the past year than at any time in the past 10 years.
Displacement and Poverty in South East Burma / Myanmar, the annual report by a consortium of humanitarian agencies including Act for Peace, the international aid agency of the National Council of Churches in Australia, has documented 105 villages which have been destroyed by the Burmese army and 112,000 people forcibly displaced in the past year in south east Burma alone.
Act for Peace, which supports displaced people in Burma and Burmese refugees in Thailand and Australia, believes the current window of democratic reform is the best opportunity in decades to resolve ethnic conflict. The aid agency is encouraging the Australian government to use the report to pursue an international investigation into crimes against humanity in Burma.

“Democratic reforms by the new Burmese government are welcomed, although the Burmese army has escalated its conflict with many ethnic groups,” said Alistair Gee, Executive Director of Act for Peace.
“The prospect of a genuine process of national reconciliation bringing an end to decades of war and displacement needs to be realised, and it needs to include the Burmese government bringing the Burmese army under control. Pressure from the international community, including Australia, will be important in making sure that the Burmese army is held to account for its crimes against humanity.”
The consortium involving Act for Peace has documented the destruction, forced relocation or abandonment of more than 3,700 villages in south east Burma since 1996. While some people have fled into Thailand, over 450,000 currently remain internally displaced in south east Burma.
“Surveys of displacement show why so many people continue to flee their homes in Burma, some of whom will be forced to flee across national borders. Most of the refugees in Malaysia are Burmese. We cannot hope to solve refugee movements affecting Australia and neighbouring countries in the Asia Pacific region unless we deal with the cause of their displacement,” said Mr Gee.
The survey also found that while Burmese government figures estimate that a quarter of the nation lives in poverty, almost two thirds of households in rural areas of the south east of Burma are unable to meet their basic needs.

Please click here to read the report Displacement and Poverty in South East Burma / Myanmar by the Thailand Burma Border Consortium.

from Act for Peace, the international aid agency of the National Council of Churches in Australia 

“Conservation farming has changed many lives of the people living in our community,” says Shanangurai Pedzisai, a farmer from the Mwenezi district of Zimbabwe. “I am getting enough food to feed my family and help other people. Now I am a better woman, because I can make some money to put my children through school.”

Church-goers who support this year’s Christmas Bowl will be helping to lift Zimbabwean farmers like Shanangurai out of poverty, thanks to improved farming techniques which deliver greater crop yields.

The Christmas Bowl is the annual appeal of Act for Peace, the international aid agency of the National Council of Churches in Australia. Act for Peace supports food security programs in some of the world’s poorest countries. In Zimbabwe, agriculture has been crippled by the combined effects of drought, HIV/AIDS and controversial government land reforms. As a result, more than 39 per cent of the population is undernourished.

Act for Peace’s project partners in Zimbabwe have introduced a low-cost and low-technology farming strategy, called conservation farming, which can increase a farmer’s yields by up to 200 per cent. Since adopting it, farmers have taken enormous strides towards achieving food security.

“With more funding, more farmers could be involved in the program, and we would be able to make a much bigger impact on food security across the area,” said Alistair Gee, Act for Peace’s Executive Director. “The flow-on effects are enormous. With better yields, farmers can buy clothes and school supplies for their children, and reliance on food aid is reduced.”

Conservation farming also has important social benefits. “Psychologically, if you don’t have to think about food because it’s already there, there is less strain on members of the family, and it creates security,” said Elleck Mabhena, a project assistant on the conservation farming program. “It also builds self esteem for the farmers, knowing that they can provide for their families.”

By supporting the Christmas Bowl, people in Australia can help communities in Zimbabwe to grow their own food and become self-sufficient. A gift of just $100 will provide vital training for four Zimbabwean farmers in this sustainable agriculture method, helping them produce bigger and better crops.

Funds raised can also help provide food, shelter, peace-building programs, land clearance of unexploded bombs and other assistance to people in conflict- and disaster-affected countries around the world, including Burma, Ethiopia and the new nation of South Sudan.

“The Christmas Bowl has long been helping communities in Zimbabwe and in other parts of the world where conflict and disaster have created poverty and instability. This life-saving work around the world simply would not be possible without the support of people of faith around Australia,” said Mr Gee.

“For the more than 60 years that it’s been running, the Christmas Bowl has been a shining example of how churches can work together to make a real and lasting difference for so many people around the world.”

To give today, please visit www.actforpeace.org.au or ring 1800 025 101. Christmas Bowl resources for congregations, including worship resources, activities and PowerPoint presentations, can be also be downloaded from the Act for Peace website.

 

 

Launch of Christmas Bowl Appeal

The Act for Peace Christmas Bowl Appeal for 2011 was launched during the Council of Churches WA General Meeting on Saturday 1st October.  WA Coordinator Virginia Macaspac arrived from Adelaide for a busy weekend of meetings and visiting Act for Peace Partners in local congregations, including the General Meeting.

The Christmas Bowl program has been supporting Act for Peace’s project partners around the world for more than 60 years. It is an important symbol for churches, schools and individuals all around Australia who work together to promote peace, justice and partnership.

The program started in 1949 when Rev. Frank Byatt placed an empty bowl on the dinner table during Christmas and asked guests to put in the bowl the cost of their meal, so that it could be distributed to people displaced from their homes due to World War II. Since then, our supporters have given over $200 million to support people living in war-torn countries.

The focus country for 2011 is Zimbabwe and the resource kit features worship resources, activities booklet and posters.  There is also a free dvd available.   Also included is the story of Shonani and her family who live in Zimbabwe and participate in the conservation farming programme.  If you would like any further information on the appeal, or would like to be an Act for Peace partner, please contact Virginia at christmasbowl@ncca.org.au .  The Council of Churches office in Subiaco has a supply of advertising corflutes and a limited number of resource kits available.  Please contact ecumenical@churcheswa.com.au

Painting on a wall at the University of the West Indies campus where the WCC held a peace convocation in May. Photo: Katrin Rux

 

 

From Fiji to Rwanda, prayers and signs of commitment are being offered for the annual International Day of Prayer for Peace on 21 September. This year’s observances are taking place in parishes and on Facebook, led by people who attended a World Council of Churches peace convocation in Jamaica this May.

“Use me, Lord, to build bridges of hope,” is the Rev. Edelberto Valdés Fleites’s prayer in Cuba.

“Make us artisans of peace in the example of Christ, women and men of courage and discernment. Rather than fleeing from conflict, make us willing to identify, to denounce and to dare to become mediators for peace and justice,” asks Father Bernard Ugeux, a missionary in Rwanda.

Katrin Rux of Germany remembers a mural in Jamaica with the words “Peace Wi Seh” [photo]. “Peace we say,” she writes, “so that the faces burned by violence will change into laughter and happiness.” 

Noting the military drones appearing in local skies, a prayer from Wales begins: “Mewn byd lle mae mwy a mwy o sylw’n cael ei roi i ryfe” which translates, “In a world where increased attention is being given to war, in a country where there is an increase in military activity…it’s essential that the people of Wales continue to work for peace and reconciliation”.

The Fellowship of Reconciliation there will open a large, handcrafted book for signatures on the International Day of Peace to testify that many wish to see a world of peace rather than war.

21 September is also the United Nations International Day of Peace.

Elsewhere in the UK, Stefan Gillies’ peace day prayer is for a man in prison, naval medic Michael Lyons. Lyons is a conscientious objector in detention for refusing to deploy to Afghanistan. Churches Together in Britain and Ireland are publicizing his case.

“Father God, we ask your peace to prevail amongst countries where there is no peace,” Shina Chileshe writes from Zambia. 

Peace convocation provides inspiration

“The [Jamaica] convocation has helped me to see how I can contribute to peace in the community,” Wessley Manasa of Fiji says. He has organized two new youth groups since returning home. 

“The Palestinian Coalition of Christian Organizations, with Palestinian Moslem brothers and internationals, is celebrating this day at the YMCA Shepherds’ Field in Beit Sahour with much commitment and dedication to work for peace and human dignity,“ writes Nidal Abuzuluf, in Palestine.

Ten theological schools in Boston that sent students to the Jamaica meeting are promoting the peace prayer day in the USA. The National Council of Churches in India is staging a public event with local peace activists and movements, using the statement from the International Ecumenical Peace Convocation in May.

“Often the victims of violence are … the poor and the disenfranchised, the marginalized of society, women and children, even the unborn. … We pray for empowerment for a peace that is just and right, that we may thus exalt and honour our Saviour and Lord, Jesus Christ, the Prince of Peace,” says a prayer by the Rev. Dr Tony Richie, bishop in the Church of God (Cleveland, Tennessee, USA).

Dr Reena George, in India, offers a song titled “Make Us Channels of Your Peace”.  It begins, “May peace flow gently through our hands, strengthened by what Your love commands.”

“You, God, bring peace; we know that security does not bring peace,” the Rev. Esther Suter writes from Switzerland.

“We ask that humans will encourage each other for making a peaceful world and help those who suffered from war and violence,” is a prayer from Marlin Junita Paranggai in Indonesia. “May there be just peace in the world.”

More information on the International Day of Prayer for Peace:
www.overcomingviolence.org/IDPP

Peace prayer wall on Facebook

More on the International Ecumenical Peace Convocation:

www.overcomingviolence.org

EAPPI News Summer 2011

“We witness with concern and compassion the struggle for freedom, justice and human rights of the people in many Arab countries and other contexts where brave people struggle without global attention. Our love for the peoples of Israel and Palestine convinces us that the continued occupation damages both peoples.” 

The Arab Spring has caught Middle East watchers by surprise. Last year, few would have predicted the revolutions and uprisings that have rocked the region in recent months. As the Palestinian leadership prepares to make a formal request to the United Nations to recognise an independent State of Palestine inside the armistice lines of 1949, commentators are struggling again to predict the unpredictable. The United States Congress has already threatened to cut off aid to the Palestinian Authority if it goes ahead with the plan.

Civil society’s job is not to predict scenarios but to uphold human rights. For groups such as EAPPI, one thing is clear: basic human dignity must be protected, no matter what the future holds.

Home demolitions double in first half of year

 

A boy stands on the ruins of his house, demolished by the Israeli army in January. (Photo: EAPPI)

As international attention has focused on conflicts in Libya and Syria, the Israeli military has stepped up its policy of house demolitions in Area C, the 60 percent of the West Bank that it controls directly. The United Nations reported that the Israeli military made 706 individuals homeless in the first six months of 2011, including 341 children. That is more than the total for the whole of 2010.

UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, has set up a ‘Demolition Watch’ page on their website. The agency called on the Israeli government to respect its obligations under international law not to infringe the basic rights of persons under its jurisdiction to housing, health, education, and water.

For more on how you can take action to prevent house demolitions, visit http://www.icahd.org/

Another flotilla scuppered

Activists have criticised the Greek government for preventing a flotilla from leaving Greek ports towards Gaza. Greek commandoes raided the flotilla and arrested several participants, including the American captain of one of the ships.

Human rights groups have emphasised that Israel’s blockade of the strip is illegal. Israeli-imposed restrictions on movement in and out of the coastal territory are perpetuating the economic stagnation of Gaza, which has around 45 percent unemployment – one of the highest rates in the world.

Jewish Voice for Peace, an American activist group, issued a statement supporting the Gaza Freedom Flotilla’s effort to end the blockade of Gaza. The group continues to call for equality and justice for Israelis and Palestinians.

WCC News

The Arab Spring has also focused attention on the Middle East’s shrinking Christian minorities. Over recent years, occupations in Iraq and Palestine have led to significant drops in the Christian populations. This was the topic of a recent World Council of Churches (WCC) conference . The participants explored a number of topics including the impact of the Kairos Document, issued by Palestinian Christian leaders in December 2009, concerning the long running Israeli occupation.

EAPPI News

As September draws closer, we are strengthening our presence on the ground in the West Bank with a new placement. A team of Ecumenical Accompaniers (EAs) will be based in Yatta, one of the West Bank’s most southerly towns, to monitor checkpoints and accompany vulnerable communities throughout the South Hebron Hills.

We are pleased to announce the arrival of Group 40, which includes our first ever EAs from the Philippines. Thirty-one strong, this is our biggest group yet and will be well equipped to face the challenges of life under occupation for the next three months.

And finally…

A group of musicians in Britain have released a song called ‘Freedom for Palestine,’ in cooperation with War on Want. You can listen to the song here.

 

To keep up with all kinds of actions you can take for a just peace, remember to join EAPPI’s Facebook Group.

MEDIA RELEASE - 5 July 2011

from Act for Peace, the international aid agency of the National Council of Churches in Australia

International support needed for South Sudan as violence increases

As South Sudan prepares to become the world’s newest country on 9 July, Act for Peace and other humanitarian organisations are deeply concerned about heavy fighting in the disputed border areas between North and South Sudan, including Abyei and South Kordofan. Between January and mid-May 2011, over 117,000 people were displaced and almost 1,400 killed in South Sudan alone, more deaths than in all of 2010.

“The people of South Sudan voted overwhelmingly for independence, and they have much to celebrate on 9 July,” said Alistair Gee, Executive Director of Act for Peace, the international aid agency of the National Council of Churches in Australia. “It is a tragedy that this joy is being marred by violence and atrocities and the very real fear of a return to civil war.”

Across the whole of South Sudan, there are massive challenges to long-term development, stability and security, including deeply rooted poverty, high rates of illiteracy and a lack of physical infrastructure. For the people of South Sudan, including the worldwide South Sudanese diaspora, independence has been hard won following decades of war.

Currently, there are around 27,000 South Sudanese people living in Australia, of which more than 9,000 voted in the January referendum. One of the voters was David Nyuol Vincent, a community development worker in Melbourne, who was born in Warrap state in South Sudan and arrived in Australia as a refugee in August 2004.

Mr. Vincent’s journey to safety in Australia included 16 years living in refugee camps in Ethiopia and Kenya. On arrival in Australia, he participated in Act for Peace’s Healing Trail program, which links refugees to church communities for support and community-building activities.

“Independence means that I can finally put my past to rest. Many of my friends were killed fighting for independence for South Sudan — this new freedom will mean their death has a meaning,” Mr. Vincent said.

Mr. Vincent has recently returned from six months in South Sudan, where he worked on reconciliation, peace building and development projects. In Australia, he is running peace and conflict training for young Sudanese people. “The independence of South Sudan should have meant that my family back home are safe now.”

Act for Peace’s project partner, the Sudan Council of Churches (SCC), played a vital role in the lead-up to the January 2011 referendum on self-determination, conducting peace assessments and delivering training and civic education to ensure voting was peaceful and fair.

The SCC’s General Secretary, the Rev. Ramadan Chan Liol, said that the organisation plans to engage local communities, politicians and the government in consultations in order to bring lasting peace in the troubled border regions between northern and southern Sudan.

“The SCC is renewing its efforts and commitment to mediate between warring groups,” he said.

“With less than a week until South Sudan’s independence, the international community must reaffirm its commitment to support the people of both North and South Sudan,” said Alistair Gee. “For the Australian Government, this means working with the African Union and the international community to support humanitarian efforts, protect civilians and develop sustainable peacekeeping plans.”

Available for interview: Alistair Gee, Act for Peace; Rev. Ramadan Chan Liol, Sudan Council of Churches in Sudan; and David Nyuol Vincent, Sudan-born community development worker in Melbourne.

To arrange interviews, please contact Emma Halgren, Media & Online Coordinator, Act for Peace, on 0458 303 515, (02) 8259 0828 or ehalgren@ncca.org.au

Simply Sharing Week resources are available from our office, 1 Roydhouse Street Subiaco or email Isobelle on ecumenical@churcheswa.com.au to obtain your copy

Act for Peace, the international aid agency of the National Council of Churches in Australia, is responding immediately to assist the flood ravaged people of Pakistan.  The death toll has soared beyond 1,100 and disease outbreaks are emerging. Act for Peace’s partners on the ground are already distributing food packages, shelter, drinking water, hygiene kits and mosquito nets for flood affected families in Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Our project partners have also put into action a mobile health unit to provide emergency health assistance in Mansehra.

We need your assistance to save lives!

This coming Sunday, please take a special collection at your church or organisation for the Act for Peace Pakistan Floods Appeal. Please click here to download a Church Appeal Gift Form.  The form at the bottom of Page 1 can be used for your church’s collection.  The tax deductible gift form on Page 2 can be photocopied and distributed at the services on Sunday.   Please make all cheques out to the ‘Act for Peace Pakistan Floods Appeal’ and post to:  Act for Peace, Locked Bag 199, Sydney, NSW 1230.  If you would prefer to distribute emergency appeal gift envelopes, please ring Edwyn or Sarah today on 1800 025 101 and we’ll post them to you straight away. Your prayers and gifts will empower our local church partners to respond immediately and effectively to assist the victims of this disaster.