Christian Aid News 32 - Summer 2006

■ We salute the ‘brilliant’ heroes of Christian Aid Week

■ Positive thinking: dealing with the challenge of HIV

■ Your chance to bang the drum for trade justice

6-PAGE SPECIAL

ws e n d i a n a i t chris

Making poverty permanent?

Why climate change is the biggest single threat to the world’s poor

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The Baobab tree (pictured) is native to Africa’s hot, dry plains and is a source of food, shelter and even folklore for local people. It is a true symbol of longevity and survival in an often hostile environment.

Leaving a legacy in your Will is a wonderful way to make an enduring contribution to the vital work of Christian Aid. For more information, including a free Will guide, please contact us by simply calling 020 7523 2173 or visit www.christianaid.org.uk

UK registered charity number 1105851 Company number 5171525 Republic of Ireland charity number CHY 6998

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Editor’s letter

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An audio version of this issue is available. Call 08700 787 788 for details

Picture: Christian Aid/Mike Goldwater/Getty Images

YOU CAN’T deny that it’s an appalling statistic. Some 182 million people in subSaharan Africa alone could die of illnesses directly attributable to climate change by the end of the century. Tens of millions more are likely to be left homeless or unable to grow food due to more frequent natural disasters.

If anyone was still wondering why Christian Aid, a development charity, should be adding its voice to the swelling chorus calling for urgent action to cut carbon emissions, those numbers should dispel their doubts. Climate change is the biggest single threat to development, and it’s the world’s poor who are already bearing the brunt of global warming.

That sombre threat is highlighted in a new Christian Aid report, The Climate of Poverty, along with a message of hope – that for less money than it would take to pay the region’s oil bill for the next decade, all of sub-Saharan Africa could be turned into a solar-generated economy. Our climate change coverage starts on page 16 and on page 28 we look at the challenge to curb our own energy-intensive lifestyles.

Here’s another sobering statistic. Some 40.3 million people around the world are living with HIV. Ahead of the AIDS 2006 conference in Toronto this August, this issue looks at some of the work organisations helped by Christian Aid are doing to tackle the HIV pandemic.

Elsewhere, we’ve news of our trade justice campaign, and a report on a visit to Nicaragua that inspired three supporters to spread the word for Christian Aid Week.

One final statistic. This was my first Christian Aid Week as editor of Christian Aid News. And thanks to you, this year is again a huge success. Doubtless, you’ll have your own memories of these seven special days – but, on pages 14-15, we’d like to share a few of ours.

Roger Fulton, Editor

Contents Summer 2006 Issue 32

■ 16 COVER STORY REGULARS

FEATURES

■ 4 NEWS Stories from the around the world – and at home

■ 8 LIVING WITH HIV From Jamaica to Tajikistan; from South Africa to Cambodia – how Christian Aid’s partners are adopting an holistic approach to the prevention and treatment of HIV

■ 13 REFLECTION The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, analyses the role the Church plays in delivering aid ■ 25 EVENTS Where to go and what to see ■ 26 DO THE RIGHT THING Cutting carbon emissions... an Ethiopian menu... win a hamper of Divine chocolate goodies ■ 28 OPINION You don’t have to be Christian to work here – but does it help?

■ 28 INPUT Your letters and emails

■ 16 COVER STORY: THE CLIMATE OF POVERTY A six-page special report on why global warming is the biggest single threat to the world’s poor – and how solar energy is bringing hope to sub-Saharan Africa.

■ 22 SEEING IT FOR THEMSELVES They came, they saw, they marched!

The trip to Nicaragua that inspired a trio of supporters

■ 30 FINAL WORD With BBC star Adrian Lester, plus ‘Where Your Money Goes’

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■ 14 CHRISTIAN AID WEEK 2006 Sponsored walks, book sales, tins, envelopes and Oswald the sheep.

Who were the movers and shakers of a memorable week of fund-raising?

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Christian Aid works in some of the world’s poorest communities in 50 countries. We work where the need is greatest, regardless of religion, supporting local organisations which are best-placed to understand their communities. We campaign to change the structures that keep people poor and challenge inequality and injustice.

■ Cover Edward Parker/Easi Images/CFW Ltd ■ Pictures Chris Lands ■ Subeditors Andy Jacques, Louise Parfitt ■ Design & production David Lloyd/Circle Publishing, 020 8332 2907 ■ Circulation Steve Tassie ■ Christian Aid head office 35 Lower Marsh, London SE1 7RL ■ Tel 020 7620 4444 ■ Fax 020 7620 0719 ■ Email info@christian-aid.org ■ Stay in touch with us online > News, campaigns and resources www.christianaid.org.uk ■ Christian and ethical service provider www.surefish.co.uk ■ Children and schools www.globalgang.org.uk ■ Our campaigning and student website www.pressureworks.org

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Christian Aid Week ■ Trade justice ■ Indonesia q

Time to drum home Christian the trade message Aid Week their economies in return for UK aid.

But more is needed.

In the 12 months since the government made its commitment, there have been at least 14 new cases of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank requiring poor countries to liberalise in return for loans and debt cancellation.

Campaigns officer Jenny Dawkins says: ‘The IMF and World Bank have huge influence over the economies of poor countries. And too often they use that influence to stop developing countries supporting and protecting their poorest citizens.

‘After the fine words of 2005, it’s time the UK government showed us they mean it. We’re asking them to carry their own

And that’s not all!

Christian Aid is also campaigning for trade justice at the World Trade Organisation and in trade negotiations between the EU and its former colonies known as Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs).

Rich countries’ proposals in these negotiations could spell disaster for poor countries. To find out more go to www.pressureworks.org/dosomething

message to the IMF and World Bank to make these powerful bodies use their money so that it helps, rather than hurts the poor.

‘Gordon Brown and Hilary Benn will be attending the IMF and World Bank’s annual meetings in September.

We want our message ringing in their ears: we won’t let trade justice drop – the beat goes on.’

At noon on Saturday 8 July, one year on from the G8 meeting, Christian Aid campaigners all over the country will be drumming on anything they can get their hands on. As well as drawing attention to our trade justice demand, they are hoping to break the record for the world’s largest simultaneous percussion performance.

This drum roll will come to a climax on Thursday 14 September. Thousands of campaigners will march to the UK Treasury calling on the government to put its words into action.

To join in, call 08700 787 788 or log on to the campaigns website (left).

WEARY BUT ELATED, Tim Bryan and Paul Humphries celebrate their success in this year’s London Marathon.

The marathon first-timers were among a 19-strong team of Christian Aid runners who raised more than £30,000 for our overseas partners.

Paul (right) led the way, breezing round in just three hours 30 minutes.

Tim, who works in Christian Aid’s London office, took an hour longer

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and said afterwards: ‘I have never experienced anything like it before.

The atmosphere was fantastic.’

If their efforts have inspired you, now’s the time to sign up to join the Christian Aid team taking part in challenging running events next year, including the London, Edinburgh, New York and Chicago marathons.

To find out more, call 020 7523 2229 or email events@christian-aid.org

THIS YEAR’S highly successful Christian Aid Week should raise more than £15 million.

The final total won’t be known for a few weeks yet, but early indications are that the amount will top last year’s £14.8 million by quite a margin.

Paul Langley, head of community division, called the result ‘brilliant, absolutely brilliant’ and said: ‘As ever, the true heroes of Christian Aid Week are the many thousands of collectors, volunteers, churches and communities who worked together to achieve what is a fantastic result. If you were one of them – a huge thank you and you should know that your efforts have made a real difference to some of the world’s poorest and most vulnerable communities.’

Turn to page 14 for a round-up of some of the events that made Christian Aid Week 2006 such a success.

Picture: Christian Aid/Helen Garton

Running poverty into the ground

set to top £15m

Picture: Christian Aid/Richard Smith

THIS SUMMER Christian Aid campaigners are drumming home the trade justice message by calling on the UK government to use its influence on the IMF and World Bank to persuade these two international organisations to reform their trade policies.

The trade justice campaign wants poor countries to be able to choose policies that support development. Too often they are forced to follow a one-size-fits-all programme that includes privatising services and opening markets before they are ready.

Last year, the campaign won a fantastic victory when the government said for the first time that it would stop requiring poor countries to liberalise

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a quake ■ East Africa appeal ■ Multiplier ad

A WORLD OF AID Snapshots of some of the work and issues facing organisations supported by Christian Aid

Picture: Christian Aid/Richard Smith

AFGHANISTAN Five medical staff who were part of a project run by a Christian Aid partner, the Rural Rehabilitation Association for Afghanistan, have been murdered in north-west Afghanistan.

Christian Aid’s Fazl Rabi said, ‘This clinic was in a poor area with no facilities, but the dedicated staff were providing essential services. We’re all very upset.’

MIDDLE EAST After pressure from Christian Aid and other development agencies, churches and Muslim organisations, Middle East mediators have agreed a plan to channel aid to the stricken Palestinians, though not through the Hamas-led Palestinian Authority. The EU, UN, Russia and US will set up a ‘temporary international mechanism’ for a three-month trial targeted to start in early July.

One big happy family ACTOR KRIS MARSHALL, star of BBC1’s My Family acquires an ‘extended family’ (above) on a visit to the Bolivian Amazon with Christian Aid to learn about the effects of deforestation caused by logging and cattle ranching.

With fewer wild animals and fish in the rivers indigenous people have to find new ways to survive. With Christian Aid support, the Centre for Research and Training of Peasant Farmers has

provided communities with animals they can breed themselves and is helping them to plant new crops and hardwood trees to reforest the land.

Kris says: ‘The work Christian Aid is supporting is really inspiring – not only helping communities learn ways to look after themselves, but also doing it in ways that protect this beautiful place.’

On his return Kris carried out extensive media work about the projects.

HELP FOR JAVA QUAKE VICTIMS CHRISTIAN AID is working closely with a local health organisation in Indonesia as it helps with the aftermath of the earthquake that struck the island of Java on 27 May, killing around 6,000 and leaving 200,000 homeless.

Yakkum Emergency Unit (YEU) is one of the main healthcare providers in Indonesia and is part of the Action by Churches Together network of emergency response agencies. A team of doctors, nurses and

volunteers is working out of YEU’s main Bethesda hospital in Yojayjarta, near the epicentre. All of the staff are local and were some of the first on the scene when the quake struck. Some of them lost their own homes.

Christian Aid made £50,000 available to partner organisations in the initial aftermath, when YEU staff provided emergency treatment for the most badly injured and cared for those operated upon. They also

provided blankets, mattresses and other essentials for pregnant women and children.

Medical staff also ran mobile clinics to more than 25,000 people in ten affected villages.

In following weeks YEU will help patients return to their homes and provide orthopaedic treatment, as well as continuing their mobile clinics. At every stage, YEU ensures local people are able to express their needs.

COLOMBIA According to a new report by the UN High Commission for Refugees, in 2004 more than 280,000 Colombians were forced to flee their homes by guerrillas and paramilitaries who had siezed their land for political or economic gain. Ten of Christian Aid’s 16 partners in Colombia work to support displaced people.

ANGOLA A tiny organisation supported

by Christian Aid has been denounced as troublemakers by the Angolan prime minister after speaking up for hundreds of families in the country’s capital, Luanda, who were forced out to make way for new housing developments.

SOS Habitat, which works to protect poor people whose homes are under threat, is demanding that the Angolan government obey its own housing laws.

ZIMBABWE Ecumenical Support Services, which enables pastors and Christian groups to speak out against injustice, helped churches across the country to defiantly mark May’s first anniversary of the government’s ‘clean up’ campaign in which 700,000 people lost homes or jobs when dwellings and market stalls were torn down.

Services of remembrance displayed posters of bulldozers with the words ‘We will never forget’. Christian Aid is now supporting a countrywide project to help small businesses to re-open.

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news christian aid Christian Aid/Caroline Waterman

Good News AS OF THIS issue, Christian Aid News will be printed on 100 per cent recycled paper – one of only a handful of UK magazines to do so.

Ultralux Silk 65/70gsm is manufactured in Germany at Leipa’s Schwedt mill from 100 per cent recovered paper. Both the mill and paper have Forest Stewardship Council chain of custody certification. It is also 20 per cent cheaper than our old stock, thus cutting our costs while helping to reduce our contribution to carbon emissions. Each ton of 100 per cent recycled paper that replaces virgin pulp saves 24 trees.

The move is part of Christian Aid’s ‘green’ focus, with its report on climate change, The Climate of Poverty, warning that global warming is threatening development goals for billions of the world’s poorest people. Find out more on page 16, and read what else Christian Aid is doing to reduce its own impact on climate change, on page 26.

Three members of the Wirksworth and District Christian Aid Committee, in Derbyshire, have received Community Service Awards. Secretary Anne Holmes, former treasurer John Pearson and chair Anne Oldak, were presented with the awards

by Derbyshire Dales District Council at Matlock Town Hall, in April. The committee has raised around £130,000.

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CHRISTIAN AID’S East Africa Emergency Appeal, launched in March, has so far raised £1.8 million to help the nearly 12 million people affected by food shortages and drought.

But the appeal is still open and much more is needed. Although the recent rains in April and May brought relief after two years of drought, there are fresh fears that if the October/November rains fail – as they did last year – the millions who have been kept alive by famine relief will face an even greater disaster.

One of the most devastating impacts of

the drought was the huge loss of livestock, robbing the nomadic herders – known as pastoralists – of north-east Kenya and southern Ethiopia of their source of food and income. For families who have lost their entire stock of animals the rains brought little relief.

‘The pastoralists have been left extremely vulnerable,’ says Christian Aid’s Caroline Waterman.

‘Physically they are weak and economically they have few or no cows. If there were another drought most communities would face a crisis equal to or worse than that

HIV garden blooms If you’re planning a visit to this year’s Hampton Court Flower Show, which runs from 4-9 July, don’t miss the Christian Aid garden.

Award-winning designer Claire Whitehouse has created a garden that tells the story of HIV in the Caribbean and highlights the importance of education in the fight against the virus. As the artist’s impression (right) shows, this will be a garden of contrasts, of luxury and poverty. Visitors can also listen to the stories of our partners and the people with whom they work.

■ For tickets, contact the Royal Horticultural Society or book online at www.rhs.org.uk/flowershows

which they faced over the past few months as their ability to carry themselves and others is exhausted.

‘Pastoralists know how to cope with periodic drought, but they can’t cope with these frequent droughts as they do not have time to recover.’

The recent rains even caused problems in the region. In north-east Kenya, homes and animals were swept away by flash floods, which also washed away topsoil. In southern Ethiopia, flooding made several roads impassable.

■ From Birmingham to Ethiopia – see page 30.

Above: the Gabra and Guji, two pastoralist groups in Ethiopia with a history of conflict, particularly during times of drought, come together to build a large pond to collect rainwater

Illustration: Robin Griggs

Awards for trio

Africa appeal raises £1.8m

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TALK BACK THE THINGS THEY SAY

Multiple choice Christian Aid went for something completely different in its ad campaign to promote Christian Aid Week this year, unveiling a new weapon in the fight against global poverty.

The ads, on TV, online and in newspapers, featured The Multiplier, a Monty Python-esque machine that turns a donation into a future.

The idea was the brainchild of creative agency Shop, and was intended to counter recent negative press about the way developing countries, particularly in

Africa, are portrayed in the media. The ads show a hen, a pig, a goat, seeds and tree trunks going in one end of the machine and loads of animals, trees and school chairs coming out the other. It aims to demonstrate that, for example, by giving enough money to buy a pair of chickens for a family, villagers will ensure they are multiplied to help a whole community.

Jeff Dale, head of marketing, said: ‘We wanted to take a positive, optimistic approach

with our advertising for Christian Aid Week to inspire and motivate people to give their time, money and voice to help make a difference. Like all good ideas it’s incredibly simple. Whatever goes in gets multiplied. In this way, poor communities can grow their way out of poverty. We see it as a symbol of hope.’

‘Put at its most simple, there is no point in giving a family a sack of food every time a drought wipes out its crops – that’s just not sustainable. The only way to make sure they can feed themselves, without continual charity handouts, is to reverse the climate change that is turning their land into desert.’

Professor Richard Odingo, vice chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, commenting on Christian Aid’s The Climate of Poverty report.

‘Right now the region is facing the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.

Without massive and immediate support, relief agencies will be unable to continue their work and hundreds of thousands more people will die from hunger, malnutrition and disease,’ Kofi Annan, UN Secretary General, on the fragile peace agreement in Darfur.

‘The prime minister has made it clear to me he wants climate change to be a very high priority for me and the Foreign Office in the coming year,’ Margaret Beckett, after being appointed the UK’s first woman foreign secretary.

THE THINGS WE SAY ‘On trade, the G8 leaders did no more than write cheques that they promised to honour at the WTO meeting in Hong Kong. But the cheques bounced higher than a Gleneagles golf ball.’

Claire Melamed, head of trade policy, in Bono’s Red issue of The Independent

Irish pledge support for Sierra Leone peace and development to Sierra Leone. The second phase of its funding will last for five years and add stability to our work there.’

■ Christian Aid Ireland is one of several relief agencies that will share in a €10 million pledge by the Irish government to support humanitarian work in Africa.

Picture: Christian Aid/Siobhain Boyle

IRISH MINISTER FOR Overseas Development Conor Lenihan has pledged Ireland’s continuing support for Sierra Leone government in rebuilding the country’s infrastructure, as it emerges from 25 years of civil war.

Mr Lenihan (right) made his commitment on a recent visit to Sierra Leone, in western Africa, with Christian Aid Ireland whose head, Margaret Boden, said after her visit with Mr Lenihan: ‘The right sort of inward investment and a programme of sustainable development are crucial.

‘Support from the Irish government through Christian Aid in the past three years has been of immense help to our partners who worked hard to bring

‘Climate change is too serious to be left to politicians, scientists and environmentalists – even to development agencies. All people have an interest in the protection of our planet, the eradication of poverty and the building of a just, sustainable, poverty-free world.’

Dr Daleep Mukarji, director of Christian Aid, launches The Climate of Poverty report in London.

THE THINGS YOU SAY ‘Supporting the rights of Palestine to exist as a fully developed state with all the institutions and powers allowed to every other country is NOT anti-semitic.’

Christian Aid News reader Patricia Bryden responds to the article ‘Hungry for Change’, by communications officer Sarah Malian. See page 28.

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special report: living with HIV

positive thinking Around the world 40.3 million people are living with HIV. Every day 8,000 people worldwide die of HIV-related illnesses, with the virus having a devastating impact on poor communities. Ahead of the AIDS 2006 conference in Toronto this summer, which will press the international community to step up its global response to HIV prevention and treatment, we report on the work being done by some of Christian Aid’s 190 partners working on HIV-related projects in 40 countries across Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean.

Jamaica

THE CARIBBEAN HAS the world’s second-highest HIV-infection rate after sub-Saharan Africa. There are 300,000 people living with HIV in the region and 22,000 live in Jamaica, where HIV-related diseases are the leading cause of death among 15- to 44-year-olds.

Children and Community for

Change (3Cs) works with young people in a deprived area of Jamaica’s capital Kingston. It deals with issues such as HIV, domestic violence and self-esteem by engaging kids between the ages of seven and 20 in activities including art, music and dance. The HIV-prevention programme

teaches youngsters about the need to delay the age at which they start having sex and how to protect themselves.

Tashae Lewin, 13, explains: ‘We’re not supposed to have sex before marriage. We’re not too young to hear about that, because

Picture: Christian Aid/David Rose

Putting the focus on prevention

continued on page 10

From ABC to SAVE Judith Melby explains why Christian Aid is breaking with its traditional approach to HIV in favour of a more holistic, compassionate policy

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hristian Aid is changing its approach to HIV, in response to feedback from its partners around the world.

For many years HIV activists have used the acronym ABC as the cornerstone in the fight against the virus. ABC stands for Abstinence, Be faithful and use Condoms.

However, ABC has too often been presented as: ‘abstain; if you can’t abstain, then be faithful; and if you can’t be faithful, then use a condom.’

At a recent conference of our

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HIV partners, Christian Aid became aware of problems implicit in the ABC approach. Some of the messages given to mitigate the spread of HIV have added to the stigma surrounding it. ABC is one such message.

ABC is inflexible and dogmatic and it is for this reason that Christian Aid has decided to adopt a more comprehensive and pragmatic approach. Our new model, SAVE, was developed by partner organisation the African Network of Religious Leaders Living with or Personally

Affected by HIV and AIDS (ANERELA+ ). SAVE corresponds to: Safer practices, Available medication, Voluntary counselling and testing, and Empowerment through education.

Rachel Baggaley, head of Christian Aid’s HIV unit, explains: ‘HIV is a virus, not a moral issue.

The response to HIV must be based on public health measures and human rights principles. ABC as a theory is not well-suited to the complexities of human life. While abstinence may be appropriate at some stages of life, faithfulness is

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What does SAVE mean? refers to safer practices that prevent the different types of HIV transmission.

These include abstinence, using barrier methods during sexual intercourse, and ensuring blood for transfusion doesn’t carry the virus, and that needles and syringes for injections are sterile.

S

stands for all available medications. In addition to antiretroviral therapy there are many HIVassociated infections which need to be treated. Treating these infections results in a better-quality and longer life expectancy. Nutritional support is also essential.

A

for many the preferred choice.

Unfortunately, it is not a guarantee against infection. If you or your partner have tested positive for HIV and still have unprotected sexual intercourse, then this puts the other person at risk of HIV infection. ANERELA+ reports that about 60 per cent of HIV-positive African women believed they were in a monogamous, faithful relationship.

‘According to the definitions of ABC, the use of a condom automatically categorises a person as someone who cannot be faithful or does not want to abstain. This can fuel stigma, and discourages safer sexual practices.

Many faith-based organisations use HIV as a way to reinforce traditional views of sex and sin.

Christian Aid’s faith-based partners believe that religious organisations can best protect people from HIV, and help those living with it, by extending Christian values of care and support and promoting safer lifestyles.

‘We have already had many responses from partners, staff, supporters and the general public.

Although most have been positive, a minority thought that, by adopting SAVE, we had somehow “abandoned” abstinence. It’s important to be very clear that the adoption of SAVE does not imply the abandonment of abstinence.

The “S”, for “safer practices”, includes abstinence as an important option alongside a range of evidence-based HIV-prevention interventions.’

refers to voluntary counselling and testing.

People who know their status are in a better position to protect themselves and others from infection. Studies show that people who have tested negative are more likely to protect themselves. A person who is HIV-positive can be given information and support to enable to them to live a productive, positive life.

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Above: 13-year-old Tashae Lewin is taking part in an HIV-prevention programme in Kingston, Jamaica

is empowerment through education. Accurate information is the most powerful tool against HIV. Inaccurate information and ignorance are two of the greatest factors in spreading HIV and in fuelling stigma and discrimination.

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special report: living with HIV

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Right: Zamira Tagaeva and a classmate are part of an HIV-education project in Tajikistan

South Africa

■ Christian Aid has been funding HIV projects through 3Cs and JASL since 1997, contributing around $US70,000 a year.

Tajikistan

some kids will just do it.’

And 18-year-old Anthony Lawrence, who is building a website for 3Cs, says: ‘In Jamaica kids are starting to be sexually active from a very young age even though it’s not legal. So here they just educate everybody.

‘When I was in fifth form we used to have unprotected sex. But when I came here they influenced me to go and get tested, and when I found out I don’t have anything they taught me how to use a condom properly.’

Jamaica AIDS Support for Life (JASL) works with the most vulnerable sectors of the community, including sex workers, homosexuals, prisoners, schoolchildren, orphans and children affected by HIV. It focuses on education, counselling, access to condoms and HIV testing, antiretroviral treatment, home support for people living with HIV, income generation programmes and campaigning work to decriminalise homosexuality and sex work in Jamaica.

Stigma and discrimination against people who are HIV-positive is a major problem in Jamaica.

One of those affected is Antoinette. She says: ‘In my community, when they found that I was sick, people used to point me out, taxis wouldn’t carry me anywhere.’

JASL helped her to set up a greetings card business that now means she can make enough money to get the treatment she needs. ‘Since I’ve started taking ARV, people come around me…’

Maurice Dunbar, who has also been helped by JASL, adds: ‘We’re alive and we’re human beings and we want people to see us as we are and not what has happened to us.’

Karen Hedges

HIV is a time-bomb waiting to explode IN A DILAPIDATED and icy village school situated on Tajikistan’s loamy southern plains, 16-year-old Zamira Tagaeva sits shivering through Ghamkhori’s HIV-prevention class. On top of the cold, decaying infrastructure and bleak employment prospects, Zamira and her classmates have a new worry – how to prevent themselves from being infected with HIV, especially given that they expect to be mothers one day.

‘We have to make sure we do not have sex with any man who has the disease. If our husbands go to Russia, to work, we should make them get their blood tested before they come home,’ she says.

Until 2004, Zamira knew nothing about the global HIV epidemic. The walls around the Soviet Union had generally kept its own people’s problems in and ‘other’ people’s problems out. But the Soviet collapse changed everything.

An alarming rise in HIV cases in this deeply impoverished central Asian republic in recent years is a chilling reminder of how poverty, weak government and geography can conspire to create an HIV explosion in vulnerable societies.

According to Mikhail Federov, health director of Christian Aid partner Ghamkhori, of the 500 people officially registered with HIV, 60 per cent have been infected through intravenous drug use.

A further nine per cent are sex workers and the rest are economic

migrants or have been infected as a result of deteriorating medical conditions in clinics and hospitals.

‘But you should multiply this figure by 20 for the real number of people affected,’ says Federov. ‘HIV is a time-bomb here. It will be a great epidemic.’

Lack of awareness of the risks as well as increasing numbers of women seeking to ease the burdens of poverty by joining a growing sex industry are fuelling the rising trend of infection.

Ghamkhori is focusing much of its community health work on awareness-raising and HIV-prevention workshops for teenagers and economic migrants It hopes to work with sex workers and drug users in the future.

Since attending the workshops, Zamira is relieved that she is now aware of the risks and can inform others about them. She has learned that needles should be disposed of once used, as well as how to spot the signs of a drug user.

As for a future husband, ‘If he wants his life to be OK, he should have a blood test.’ And if he refuses? ‘I will make him agree!’

Amanda Farrant

■ Christian Aid is providing £55,000 in funding this year to Ghamkhori, which is celebrating its 10th anniversary. It has been a partner since 1998.

Picture: Christian Aid/Amanda Farrant

continued from page 8

‘If you tell someone they are HIV-positive, you change their identity’ THE RAPHAEL CENTRE in Grahamstown, South Africa, is a welcome refuge for people who think they might be HIV-positive.

Situated in a quiet residential road

a few blocks back from the high street, it offers a drop-in clinic for free voluntary counselling and testing. During a typical month the counsellors can expect to see

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between 100 and 130 people ranging from students at the prestigious Rhodes University to poor men and women from the surrounding township.

Grahamstown has a strange mixture of cultures. The capital of so-called Settler Country (where the British settled during the 19th century), it has a high street that resembles that of an English country town. Yet poverty is endemic in the poorer outskirts,

where breeze-block houses are surrounded by small plots of land. Unemployment runs at an appalling 82 per cent.

Staff at the Raphael Centre help anyone who walks through their door; many come because they like the Christian ethos, but no one is turned away. Although there are 5.6 million people living with HIV in South Africa, stigma surrounding the virus is still rife in Grahamstown. So Rhodes

students come because if they use their campus sanatorium the university is duty-bound to share their medical records with their parents. Poorer locals travel in from the outskirts so that they, too, can remain anonymous.

Director Annalie van Nierkerk explains that she and her team follow World Health Organisation protocols when it comes to testing, but are even stricter. continued on page 12 Christian Aid News

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living with HIV

continued from page 11

Picture: Christian Aid/Claire Shelley

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Picture: Christian Aid/Elaine Duigenan

■ Christian Aid helps to fund the work of the centre with monthly grants of around £1,200, as part of the Isiseko Sokomeleza (Building the Foundation) programme, run by the Anglican Church of Southern Africa.

Cambodia

‘The WHO says that pre-test counselling can be done as a group but we insist that it is done on an individual or couple basis,’ she says. ‘We also run a positive living course, which gives people breakfast and lunch each day and teaches them how to grow food in their own garden to keep them strong. We like to work with the whole person – there is no standard way to adjust to having HIV. The only thing I know is that if we test someone and then tell them they are HIV-positive then you change their identity.

‘People are different. Some people take just three months and then they are fine and become wonderful supporters and home-based carers. Others are still coming to our support group years later.’

Claire Shelley

Taking an holistic approach Above right: Cambodian teenager Srei Neang has received HIV training Below: A postive living course teaches those living with HIV how to grow their own food

THE BRUTAL Khmer Rouge regime of the 1970s took a heavy toll on Cambodia. Society in general, and family life in particular, were deeply fractured. Since the regime was ousted, widespread poverty and high unemployment, exacerbated by a weak education system, have led to rising domestic violence, delinquency, gang rape, drug abuse and prostitution, and contributed to the spread of HIV. Cambodia’s infection rate remains the highest in Asia.

This is the context in which children and young people, such as 18-year-old Srei Neang, are particularly vulnerable as they try to form healthy relationships. Srei is a vibrant young Khmer girl from the rural province of Kompong Cham, who is studying tourism and English. Like teenagers the world over, she loves music and being with her friends.

To help Srei and others like her, Karol and Setha (K&S), an organisation which works with those most vulnerable to the risk of HIV, has adopted a rather unusual approach to tackling the subject.

Co-ordinator Jean Francois says: ‘We work on the principle that HIV is a symptom and that we need to address the deep roots of the problem, often to do with relationships. The level of knowledge in Cambodia today is

such that many people think condoms are the panacea for HIV.’ Karol and Setha stands for Knowledge and Reflection on Life and Sexuality Through an Holistic Approach. It runs programmes that help people to understand how responsible sexual relationships can help them avoid HIV, and empowers them to make informed decisions about their sexual behaviour. Training and education, using drama and role play, are offered, usually in mixed groups of around 20. K&S also aims to counter the discrimination and stigma that often accompanies a lack of information about the virus.

Srei is one of more than 900 people who have so far received training from K&S. ‘I have learned a great deal about HIV and how the virus is transmitted but I also understand now that protection is linked to our behaviour,’ says Srei, adding: ‘I used to be wary of people who were HIV-positive, but I have been helped to see them as human beings just like me.’

Ramani Leathard

■ Set up in 2002, K&S received support from Christian Aid through the small projects fund with a grant of $US7,000. The current grant allocation is £22,726 over two years (2005-2007).

For more information about our HIV work, go to www.christianaid.org.uk/hivaids

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Reflection

Christian Aid produces a wide range of resources for prayer and reflection.

Call 020 7523 2225 or visit www.christianaid.org.uk/worship

In Sudan, deliverance depends on delivery The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams explains why, when governments falter, the Church has a crucial role to play in getting aid to where it’s needed Picture: Christian Aid/David Rose

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The places where hope was most in evidence were those with strong links to the church

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IT IS AN extraordinary thing to fast on Ash Wednesday and stand among those whose homes and livelihoods have been destroyed by decades of war. How dare one make such a small spiritual gesture in the face of such overwhelming material need?

During my visit to Sudan I was often standing amid those whose ability to secure even the basic necessities for life was far from certain. They greeted their own Archbishop of Sudan and their British visitors with joy and ululation, but still wait for the promised delivery of US$5 billion in aid and development assistance packages from the international community.

It was the constant disparity between promise and delivery that worried me throughout my week in Sudan. The prospects for development in the south of the country should be good following the signing of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement in January 2005.

But dividends of that peace are not much in evidence. The painfully slow emergence of a government in southern Sudan; the posturing and preoccupation in Khartoum while Darfur literally burns; and the bureaucratic administration of the World Bank multidonor trust fund all play their part in slowing progress on the ground.

Given this bleak capacity gap in delivery by governments it is therefore all the more urgent that the churches use their miraculously enduring delivery mechanisms to greatest effect.

Time and again the places I visited where hope was most in evidence were those with strong links to the church. They were where

Above: The delivery of supplies brings some relief to displaced people in Sudan

international NGOs like Christian Aid and UN agencies, such as World Food Programme, are able to collaborate with bishops and dioceses in delivering the kind of development that enables children to eat, to learn and to discover that joyful human freedom to shape the world around them as they grow.

Without the ability to deliver development and to change perceptions on the ground – that there are things to be gained in peace and lost in war – then peace agreements have a history of

unravelling. For this reason the peace of southern Sudan is inexorably linked to that of the western Darfur region.

New cycles of violence can bring their own rewards for warlords against which the powerlessness of poor people can not compete. The Episcopal Church in Sudan, together with Christian Aid and other ecumenical partners, is one of the best hopes for deepening that peace and increasing the commonwealth of Sudan, without which no part can remain whole.

Dr Williams visited Sudan earlier this year as a guest of the Episcopal Church of Sudan (ECS). In Renk and Malakal the Archbishop witnessed the humanitarian and long-term development work of two partner organisations – ECS and the Sudan Council of Churches. In Renk, Christian Aid has funded ECS’s school construction programme and also humanitarian relief with funds from our Sudan Appeal. In Malakal, Christian Aid supports the Sudan Council of Churches who are providing shelter and health care to those forced from their homes by the 21-year conflict between northern and southern Sudan which ended with a peace agreement in January 2005.

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5/6/06 11:26:34

That was the week that was You walked, you delivered envelopes and rattled tins, you drank lots of coffee and bought even more books – some of you even went speed dating. Christian Aid supporters around the UK and Ireland once again went to heroic efforts to raise funds during Christian Aid Week. This is just a small selection of the many events that took place.

Scotland In Edinburgh, the annual St Andrew’s and St George’s book sale took place once more, this year raising £113,000 including more than £3,000 from the sale of a Doctor Who script signed by stars David Tennant and Billie Piper. In the first hour of the sale a portrait by artist Jennifer McRae sold for £1,500. Later one of Dame Elizabeth Blackadder’s (yes, really) original works sold for £800.

In Stranraer and district, west of Glasgow, residents donated one of the highest per head anywhere in the UK – £1.80 – through a series of events, including two auctions and a fashion show.

Wales In Carmarthen, one coffee morning raised more than £800, while children from north Wales visited the new national assembly building to hear the message of peace and goodwill they had written read out. First Minister Rhodri Morgan was there to meet them.

In Cardiff, this year’s Christian Aid plant sale at Llanishen Baptist Church – started 27 years ago by four children selling mud pies in a suburban front garden – raised £2,716. From small acorns great oaks grow!

Pictures: Christian Aid/Christopher Lands, Bill Morrison, Jean Webster, Barbara Bingham, Richard Buckley

Ireland Primary-school children offered their shoes to Gil Pintin, who works for a Christian Aid partner from El Salvador, when he toured schools and churches around Ireland revealing how most El Salvadorean children go barefoot. He explained that Christian Aid’s support meant he could buy shoes locally.

Many venues throughout the country held fair-trade coffee mornings – 150 took place over the week.

A Christian Aid supporter from Limerick, Hilda Gleazer, refused presents for her 100th birthday, asking her friends to donate through Present Aid instead. Hilda, a member of the congregation of the city’s St Mary’s Cathedral, raised more than €1,000 through gifts from the catalogue. Margaret Boden, head of Christian Aid in Ireland, sent Ms Gleazer a special card to thank her for her generosity.

England The chaplaincy at Oxford Brookes University became a speed-dating venue, with the £5 entry raising a total of £150.

In nearby Charlbury, an arts and flowers event at St Mary’s Church raised £8,500 over a weekend. Rotherham hosted a sponsored knit, while children at a school in Purbeck raised £250 by getting teachers to dress up in sumo suits and wrestle each other at a ticketed event.

In Methley, Yorkshire, supporters created a six-foot sheep, called Oswald, (below, left) inspired by Bolivian sheep in the Christian Aid Week publicity material. There were plenty of walks, around the country, including the 39th annual Newton Abbot racecourse walk which was attended by nearly 500 people, despite heavy showers. It raised nearly £23,000.

Staff at Christian Aid’s main office in London responded to the challenge of ‘one week to build a village’ (raising enough money to supply and equip a village with such facilities as a school and health clinic) by raising more than £10,000 throughout the week through a variety of events, including collecting at Waterloo station, running in a three-legged race and sponsored football. Some staff even dressed up as schoolchildren and wandered the building offering tuck in return for a donation.

In the north east, walkers followed the Lancashire coast from Formby to Crosby, a route that took them past ‘Another Place’, Antony Gormley’s unique exhibition of sculptures on Crosby beach.

‘It’s like a pilgrimage,’ said organiser Ben Humphries. ‘People are walking to change the world.’

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Natty headgear at a fashion show in Stranraer Browsing for bargains at the book sale in Edinburgh Going green at the Llanishen Baptist Church plant sale Hilda Glazer and her niece Heather Taylor Gil Pintin meets Brandonbridge National School pupils in Co. Cork Best foot forward in Formby Woolly-minded? Not these two knitters in Rotherham Stepping out at Newton Abbot

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Picture: Dieter Telemans/Panos

Global warming: a world in crisis

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can: cover story

Floods, famine, drought, disease and conflict are wreaking havoc in poor countries and are set to do untold damage as global warming accelerates.

Investigations editor John McGhie explains why Christian Aid is making climate change a major focus of its campaign and development work 2006 IS PROVING to be the year that climate change finally made it to the top of the political agenda.

Hardly a week goes by without a new set of statistics showing the accelerating process of global warming – and prompting ever more dire predictions about the future of the planet.

It may seem that the news agenda has moved away from the

issues of aid, debt and trade that dominated last year’s Make Poverty History campaign.

Christian Aid, however, believes that poverty and climate change are inextricably linked.

It is the poor of the world who are already suffering disproportionately from the effects of global warming. It is the poor in the world’s most vulnerable

communities who will bear the brunt of the forecast ‘future shock’.

Christian Aid research based on current scientific predictions has revealed that 182 million people in sub-Saharan Africa alone could die from disease directly attributable to climate change. That is three times the population of the UK. Already there are signs in Tanzania and Rwanda that rising Christian Aid News

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temperatures have enabled malaria-carrying mosquitoes to spread in regions where they had previously been unable to survive.

And that is only the start.

Elsewhere, a potentially even greater threat will come from floods and ever-more frequent natural disasters. Tens of millions of people are likely to be made homeless and left without the means of growing food or making a living to support their families.

According to the UK government’s Department for International Development, 94 per cent of disasters and 97 per cent of natural-disaster-related deaths occur in developing countries.

The potential ravages of climate change are so severe that they could nullify efforts to secure meaningful and sustainable development in poor countries.

At worst, they could send the real progress that has already been achieved spinning into reverse. No other single issue presents such a clear and present danger to the future welfare of the world’s poor.

If climate change remains unchecked, it is hard to see how the UN’s millennium development goals, which aim to halve world poverty by 2015, can be met.

Indeed, forget about making poverty history; climate change could make it permanent.

Everywhere, the twin threats of drought and famine – caused by increasingly unpredictable rain patterns in tropical areas – are expected to bring even more misery. The unfolding disaster in east Africa, where 11 million people have been put at risk of hunger by years of unprecedented drought, is a foretaste of what is to come. And where resources are scarce, especially water, the seeds of conflict between desperate populations are being sown.

Pestilence, floods, famine, war: an apocalyptic collection, indeed.

This is not a knee-jerk response from Christian Aid. A 45-page report, The Climate of Poverty: Facts, Fears and Hope, launched last month, is the result of months of research and growing evidence on the ground of the threat climate

change poses to the world’s poor.

We believe that, as a development agency, we bring a new perspective to the debate, viewing as we do environmental issues through the prism of poverty.

And so Christian Aid is turning its development and campaign energies towards these issues. As a first step we are adding our voice to those demanding that governments across the globe take immediate steps to cut back on life-destroying carbon emissions.

health and enhance opportunities for learning. For US$50 billion – less than it would take to pay the region’s oil bills for the next decade – every household in Africa could change to clean, renewable energy. Developing technology could even transform the world’s most impoverished continent into a net exporter of clean energy.

Over the next few pages Christian Aid writers report from around the world on some of the facts, fears – and hope – informing the climate change issue.

From Kenya, on the growing conflict over water; from Bangladesh, where a predicted rise in sea levels would leave millions displaced; from Haiti, where efforts are being made to break the cycle of poverty and deforestation, and from a solar-energy project in Nigeria, bringing light into the darkness.

Sir John Houghton, former co-chair of the scientific assessment working group of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, is one of the experts backing the report.

He says: ‘The devastating impact that human-induced climate change will have on many of the world’s poorest people exposes an inescapable moral imperative for those of us in the developed world who have benefited so much from cheap energy from fossil fuels.’

This is a crisis for global society and we need global solutions. We all have a role – governments, international bodies, organisations like Christian Aid and individuals.

It is time to truly share the welfare of the planet, for the good of us all.

Forget about making “poverty history; climate change could make it permanent This is a crisis of our making, so it is imperative that we in the rich world take the brunt of stopping pumping out greenhouse gases.

What we do today in the rich world has a direct bearing on the welfare of poor people across the globe. If we continue to pollute the atmosphere with CO2 emissions, we will be signing a death sentence for untold numbers of the world’s poor.

But there is an alternative. Our report offers the vision of a different future – a revolution in development thinking that could see poor regions using renewable energy to power a new, and clean, era of prosperity.

A switch by sub-Saharan Africa away from development based on fossil fuels to one using energy sources such as solar, wind and water, for instance, would not only be better for the environment but could also generate jobs, improve

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Pictures: Bangladesh: Christian Aid/Mike Goldwater, Christian Aid/Anjali Kwatra. Haiti: Christian Aid/Sarah Wilson

Global warming: a world in crisis

What needs to happen now Christian Aid is calling on the UK government to: ■ institute a strict ‘carbon budget’ which will reduce emissions, year on year, by two-thirds of 1990 levels by 2050 ■ lead rich countries in offering new financial support to developing countries – by way of compensation for the damage already inflicted on the environment ■ help to establish and fund programmes to provide renewable energy to poor communities Add your voice via our campaigns website www.pressureworks.org Christian Aid will also be setting its own targets to reduce emissions. As an agency seeking to serve poor people, we must not contribute to their suffering.

We encourage our supporters to do the same. Find out more on page 26.

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Haiti

Breaking the cycle Sarah Wilson explores the link between poverty and environmental degradation in Haiti WHEN THE rains come to Haiti, they come hard and fast. The town of Fonds Verettes has been washed away three times in ten years. Yet people continue to rebuild in the riverbed because they have nowhere else to go.

In May 2004, severe floods in the area claimed 2,000 lives, both in Haiti and across the border in the Dominican Republic.

There is growing conviction that the increased frequency of hurricanes in the North Atlantic is

Bangladesh

A country under water Anjali Kwatra reports on the threat to Bangladesh from increased flooding and river erosion BANGLADESH WILL be one of the countries hardest hit by the effects of climate change. It is threatened by rising sea levels and increased flooding and river erosion.

The International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) predicts a rise in sea levels of anything from nine to 95cm by the year 2100. A rise towards the top end of this range would leave about 18 per cent of Bangladesh under water.

About 35 million people live in coastal areas and many would be forced to migrate inland as land is swallowed up by the sea.

But climate change could also have an impact inland as floods and river erosion become more severe. IPCC models indicate Bangladesh could experience ten to 15 per cent more rainfall by 2030. And as global temperatures increase, more snow will melt in the Himalayas in Nepal and India each summer, running into rivers which flow through Bangladesh on their way to the sea.

Dr Atiq Rahman, executive director at the Bangladesh Centre for Advanced Studies, a Christian Aid partner organisation and the country’s leading environmental research group, says: ‘Patterns of rainfall and flooding have changed in the past few years. Severe floods used to come once every 20 years, but now occur every five

to seven.’ In 1988 and 1998, two-thirds of the country was under water at some point. In 2004, terrible floods left 30 million homeless or stranded.

Floods and erosion plunge people into dire poverty. Mazeda Begum, 35, had lived her whole life in Balashighat, a village in northern Bangladesh, until the river Tista began to erode the land she lived on. For three years in a row her family was forced to abandon their house and build a new shelter further back from the crumbling riverbank.

In 2000, the river finally swallowed their remaining land and they fled by boat. They now live on a raised flood-protection embankment, built by the government. But without their farmland, on which they grew wheat and rice, they could not earn an income, forcing Mazeda to send her nine-year-old daughter to work as a servant in Bangladesh’s capital, Dhaka. ‘I had no choice as we could not afford to feed the whole family.’

Mazeda has never heard of the terms climate change or global warming. She has never even been in a car. But it is people like her – already among the most vulnerable – who will be hardest hit by the effects of climate change.

Above: Villagers wade through flooded streets after the devastating rains of 1998 Below: Mazeda Begum has seen her home washed away three times. Many of Christian Aid’s partners are helping victims of erosion and flooding, like Mazeda, to prepare for future disasters

Above: Haiti’s poor cut down trees to produce charcoal linked to climate change. There is no doubt that the effects of these storms are greatly magnified by environmental degradation caused by poverty and cultural practices.

The vast majority of Haiti’s rural population, 82 per cent, live below the poverty line. In the winter months between harvests, most people have no income at all. To survive, they cut down trees and produce charcoal to sell.

Deforestation is exacerbated by rural custom that dictates that when a farmer dies, his land is divided equally between all his children. As each generation passes, the parcels of land get smaller. The son of a farmer who had five hectares might well find Christian Aid News

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Global warming: a world in crisis

Above: A cow is proving a good investment for farmer Paul Albert

Picture: Christian Aid/Sarah Wilson

break the poverty-deforestation cycle.

Paul Albert farms a small plot with his wife and five children at Nan Plak in the Foret de Pins.

When tropical storm Jeanne hit Haiti in September 2004, he lost five goats, one cow and most of his potato and bean crops. It has taken him 18 months to save up to buy another cow.

But it is a good investment, giving him the opportunity to take part in a new initiative. A Christian Aid partner, Veterimed, has set up a milk-processing plant within walking distance of Paul’s farm.

Veterimed, a Haitian organisation, buys milk from local farmers, packages it and delivers it to local markets. It also produces yoghurt and flavoured milk. In a country with very little fresh milk for sale, there is an enthusiastic market.

Veterimed intends to break the seasonal dependence on making charcoal by giving the poorest farmers a steady source of income.

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Kenya

Dying for a drink…

Katy Migiro reports on how the battle lines are being drawn in Kenya – over water ONCE SAMBARWAWA had water.

Now it has bodies.

Following prolonged drought, animal carcasses litter the valley; their stench pervades this village in the heart of northern Kenya’s Isiolo district. But it’s not only the animals that are dying. Some of the nomadic herders themselves – known as pastoralists – have also died, killed in escalating outbreaks of violence.

‘People fought the entire night.

Seven people died. There were dozens of injuries,’ recalls local official Wako Liba, of one incident.

The fight was over water.

Sambarwawa is a place where pastoral communities congregate during times of drought. It has been under extraordinary pressure since November 2005, when a severe drought began to bite.

Some 10,000 herders with 200,000 animals arrived, looking for water.

‘A good number of boreholes didn’t have water so the queues were relentless. People grew impatient. Suddenly it was a free for all,’ says witness David Kheyle.

Over the next 40 days, there were more incidents, and more deaths. More than 3,000 animals – the only assets owned by pastoral communities – were stolen.

‘This violence is simply because of the drought. People are fighting over pasture and water. There is a high influx from other districts which not only causes faster depletion of pasture but also creates enmity between ethnic groups grazing in the region,’ says Hussein Yussuf, head of several local peace committees.

Experts say drought is increasing because of climate change. Peter Ambenje, head of forecasting at the Kenya Meteorological Department, says: ‘Rainfall patterns for the last 25 years show a rise in severe drought events.’

This is driving the poor deeper

into poverty. Pastoralists are already among Kenya’s poorest and least-educated people. When their animals die, they have few options. ‘You can’t sell your labour – you don’t have skills. So you are left with your body. Women and girls, as young as seven, end up in small towns, in prostitution,’ says Dominic Kariuki of the peace organisation Chemchemi Ya Ukweli (Wellspring of Truth).

The future looks grim. Experts predict that cross-border conflict will escalate as water shortages worsen. Pastoralists from Uganda, Sudan, Ethiopia and Somalia already cross into Kenya to attack Kenyan pastoral communities and steal their livestock. The Kenyans stage revenge attacks.

The Rivers Omo and Nile could also become flashpoints. Kenyans complain that Ethiopians upstream are irrigating the Omo, leaving them with little water. Yet a treaty drawn up by British colonialists prevents Kenya doing the same with the Nile, whose waters are reserved for Egyptians.

Eric Odada, regional director for global change research in Africa for the International Council for Science, foresees a ‘doomsday’ when there will be mass migrations by people from Africa in search of food and water.

‘Europe should not think that the barrier between Morocco and Spain will stop people from the south moving into Europe.’

Below: Nomadic herders water their flocks at an emergency water station that has just been filled by a tanker.

Christian Aid and other Action

by Churches Together members are working with pastoralist communities to develop ways that will help them adapt to the changing climate. One strategy is digging wells and providing tanks to collect rainwater.

Pictures: Kenya: Christian Aid/Mike Goldwater/Getty Images; Nigeria: Christian Aid/Sam Faulkner

himself with just one hectare. To create an economically viable patch of land, the son will cut down trees in the surrounding forest and burn the undergrowth to clear more land for farming.

Deforestation is now so acute that only two per cent of the country’s forest cover is left. With the landscape stripped of trees and their roots, the recurring hurricanes wash away the land’s rich topsoil – making farming even more difficult and the terrain more dangerous. The lack of trees and topsoil mean hillsides can become deadly mudslides.

Now a unique scheme aims to

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Pictures: Kenya: Christian Aid/Mike Goldwater/Getty Images; Nigeria: Christian Aid/Sam Faulkner

Nigeria

Let there be light Judith Melby reports on a solar energy project in Nigeria that has become a beacon of hope in a world desperate for sources of renewable energy IN 2001, the state of Jijawa in northern Nigeria decided to invest in solar energy to provide essential services to its most remote villages. Baturiya, Wawan Rafi and Ahoto were chosen as the pilot villages. In each, a solar-powered pump now provides clean water, and street lighting, while 20 homes, schools, medical clinics and a business centre are all powered with solar energy.

Solar electricity has transformed the villages, allowing people to socialise and keep their businesses open late at night. When night falls in Ahoto, the main road leading from the school to the mosque is buzzing. Midway is the business centre with six shops; the lights are on the in the tailor’s, chemist and general store, business is brisk and children mill about playing.

‘Before, we had to work at night with a lantern; it was terrible, so much heat and smoke,’ says tailor

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Omar Aliyu. ‘Now we have a lot of business.’ Omar has done so well he now owns five farms and employs farmhands.

A guaranteed source of electricity also helps Ahoto’s young people stay in the village rather than migrating to the cities in search of jobs. Salisu Ibrahim worked for one year as a barber before setting up shop in Ahoto’s business centre.

‘Before, when I used hand clippers, I used to travel all over – to Abuja, Kano and around Plateau State – looking for business,’ he says. ‘Now I am staying put. I earn enough to look after my wife and child and my parents. Business is very good; people are attracted by modern equipment.’

Solar electricity has also made a difference to the mosques in these deeply religious villages.

In Ahoto the mosque now has

four inside lights and a public address system to call people to prayer.

The benefits have led the Jijawa state government to approve funds to allow 30 more villages to have solar energy. None of these is likely to have access to the national grid in the next ten years.

However, solar energy for a three-bedroom bungalow in the city of Kano costs 1 million naira (more than £4,300); a generator costs half that. Without serious research and development it is unlikely solar energy can make the leap from isolated villages to towns and cities.

Above: Cleaning solar panels in Wawan Rafi, Nigeria

To order a copy of Christian Aid’s report The Climate of Poverty: Facts, Fears and Hope, price £5, tel: 08700 787 788, or you can download a copy at www.christianaid.org. uk/indepth/605caweek

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Picture: Christian Aid/Claire Shelley

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Seeing it for themselves The realities of life in the developing world were brought home to three supporters who made a trip to Nicaragua to prepare for their fund-raising efforts in Christian Aid Week. Claire Shelley reports

Picture: Christian Aid/Claire Shelley

Left: Christian Aid supporters John, Gail and Dafydd hear how a footbridge built in El Molino Sur will help the village cope with floods

CHRISTIAN AID Week depends for its success upon the hard work of our 300,000 or so collectors, the Christian Aid Teachers who go into schools and the supporters who talk about our work in youth clubs.

It would be impossible to take every one of these volunteers to see our projects, but in March I travelled to Nicaragua with a collector, a Christian Aid teacher and a young volunteer from Wales.

The aim was to inspire and encourage them to tell as many volunteers as possible just why their efforts are so worthwhile.

Nicaragua is struggling to overcome the consequences of dictatorship, civil war and natural disasters, which have made it one of the poorest countries in the western hemisphere – 95 per cent of the population lives on less than £1.10 per day.

This level of poverty forces many families to send their children out onto the streets to sell produce, newspapers and chewing gum, denying them the chance to go to school. If the government achieves its aim of privatising the water system and pushing up the prices, this could get even worse.

Water is a scarce commodity in the dry season but in the rainy season hurricanes sweep through the region, often bringing down houses and causing rivers to burst their banks.

The supporters – John Jackson,

73, a retired sommelier from Weston-super-Mare who has coordinated Christian Aid Week collections in his area for the past eight years; Gail Ratcliffe, 62, a retired infant teacher from Southampton who now volunteers as a Christian Aid teacher; and Dafydd Tudor, 26, who has just finished his PhD in Theology and Religious Studies at the University of Wales, and helps his local Christian Aid office in Bangor with youth work – met several partner organisations and even took part in a march against water privatisation.

The trio visited a community called Neuvo Amanecer (New Dawn) where, after Hurricane Mitch struck in 1998, our partner, the Community Movement of Matagalpa (MCM), helped residents to devise a better way to protect their community against disaster. They produce hand-painted maps illustrating which houses are most at risk from the threat of floods and landslides.

John, Gail and Dafydd also visited a support centre called Las

Hormiguitas (The Little Children), run by MCM, which provides educational and recreational activities for 82 working children.

They saw how another partner, Associacion Nochari, is helping women in rural communities to set up livelihood projects, and heard how The Lutheran Church of Nicaragua is working with other churches and Christian organisations to develop guidelines for HIV-prevention in vulnerable communities. This work is helping to change attitudes towards HIV in a country where Catholic reticence to talk about sex means the subject is rarely addressed.

■ Since returning to the UK, all three have given talks in their local schools and churches. Dafydd has also spoken about the trip on BBC Wales TV and radio; Gail has written an article for The Methodist Recorder and a film of her experiences is being published

by BBC Southampton Video Nation and John has been interviewed on BBC Radio Bristol.

How far your money goes… £1 £8 £20 £80 £848

will pay for a tap for a community drinking-water system will buy a piglet for breeding will provide a loan to help a family start up a small business will build a latrine will pay to construct a house with one room

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Christian Aid Week

John, Gail and Dafydd share some of their lasting impressions from their trip to Nicaragua

John It had never occurred to me that people would have so many vehicles, but they haven’t made the roads yet. It’s the same with electricity and water; electricity is in there and working and yet they are desperate for water. But then I heard why: hydro-electric schemes are financed first because it is much easier to run electric cables, whereas water takes a great deal more installation. And I was intrigued to read here that they are rebuilding the roads at the rate of 1km a day. That is wonderful but gosh, how many thousands and thousands of kilometres still to do!

John People were full of joie de vivre.

Gail Yes, and I think that organisations such as Nochari are giving them positive information the whole time, ‘yes, you have your rights’ and ‘yes, you can do this’.

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Gail …and incredibly well behaved! If I put English children in some of the situations these children have been in, they wouldn’t have sat quietly and listened to things in their own language – and other languages – for hours on end. They would have got bored, they would have whined, they would have insisted on being heard, but these children sat and behaved like adults. They were so mature in their outlook. But they were the privileged ones, in that the children’s centre was giving them more than most of the children who work would have. And it is a very small number of children who are that lucky.

“

People here are not asking for handouts; they are just asking for a hand-up

Claire Is there one thing that you will take home with you?

John I have seen how thankful people are that they get this help from Christian Aid and that there is a wonderful sense of community. I think of 15 houses that benefit from a well that had been supported by Christian Aid. We heard that 180 people had physically dug the well and had to go 80 metres deep to find the water so I found myself thinking, well, what did Christian Aid do? They provided the money and all the materials and made the whole thing practical.

Gail I think of the very simple footbridge that we saw which is going to help the village of El Molino Sur through the winter. It cost US$4,000, which is nothing, really, but the fact that the community built it and therefore owned it meant it wasn’t just a ‘Christian Aid bridge’.

Also, the threat of water privatisation; it is not until you see how much they need even non-clean water for irrigation, that the scale of poverty hits you.

Dafydd I will take home with me a sense of responsibility to share what I have seen with other people, and a sense of responsibility on behalf of the people of Wales and the UK that even though the people of Nicaragua suffer from natural disasters on a frequent basis they have problems that can be solved through support from people in the UK. All that’s needed is a simple donation that enables people here to help themselves out of the situation they are in and to develop their own resources. I have learnt more in this week than I did in two months of reading.

Gail We have only scratched the surface , but I agree we do have a world responsibility. They are not asking for handouts; they are just asking for a hand-up. The material stuff is only part of it; what they are getting is a sense of self-value.

Pictures: Christian Aid/Claire Shelley

Gail I looked at some of the homes alongside the road and thought, these can’t be somebody’s home, they are ‘fallen down’ shacks that you wouldn’t put an animal in. In the dry season you don’t need much shelter but what happens when it starts raining? They must fall apart. It surprised me even more that people seemed to be so cheerful and so determined to keep going. And so dignified; noone we met whinged about their situation. They stated what they needed, and they knew what their rights were, but none of them moaned at all.

John I think that the culture here is such that the children are valued and they appear to have far more self-confidence than children of the same age at home.

“

Claire What has most surprised you about what you have seen here?

Dafydd What’s been shocking for me is that even though I knew about problems Nicaragua is facing through what I had read, I am still overwhelmed by the scale of the poverty here. I thought I had prepared myself for it but until you actually see it… well, you can compare it to culture shock in a way. What has also surprised me is the extent to which the projects have inspired me. I have admiration for those who take part in them. There is a strong sense of community – it’s not just about their material circumstances but to do with issues such as empowerment, self-esteem and self-confidence.

Top: John, Gail and Dafydd join a march against water privatisation Above: Dafydd puts some of the locals in the picture

Christian Aid News

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Events ■ 30 June-2 July Making it happen The Hayes Conference Centre, Swanwick, Derbyshire A weekend conference for those involved in bringing Christian Aid’s work to life in a local church.

Contact 020 7523 2241 or email volunteering@ christian-aid.org ■ 1 July Biennial concert 7.30-9.30pm Chester Cathedral With the Northop Silver Band, a choir of more than 100 Chester primary school children and drummers from Sir Thomas Boteler High School, Warrington.

Tickets £3.

Contact Ben Humphries, 01925 241222 or email bhumphries@christian-aid.org ■ 1 July Sheffield night hike 8.30pm St Luke’s Church, Blackbrook Road A 17-mile sponsored night walk in the Peak District.

Contact Sylvia Buckley, 01142 465064 or email rbuckley@christian-aid.org ■ 3 July Global student forum 10am-3.30pm Westminster City Hall A Stop AIDS conference for 900 sixth formers, promoting global citizenship. Speakers include Hilary Benn and Christian Aid’s Winnie Ssanyu Seruma.

Contact Nicola Inson, 020 7523 2237 or email ninson@christian-aid.org

■ July-August Music for a summer’s evening 8pm, every Tuesday Hawkshead, Parish Church, Lake District, Cumbria.

Classical and choral concerts to be held on Tuesdays throughout July and August.

Contact Judith Marshall on 01539 436417 or email bhumphries@christian-aid.org ■ 7-11 July Pilgrims’ challenge Rochester to Canterbury, Kent A 45-mile sponsored walk following the Garden of England’s ancient and medieval paths – leading to the shrine of Archbishop Thomas a Beckett. Deposit £50; fundraising target £750.

Contact Alison Gregory on 020 7523 2221 or email events@christian-aid.org ■ 8 July Lynford Walk 9am Thetford Forest, Norfolk Step out for four or 16km, and support the Act Justly appeal for HIV projects in Uganda.

Contact Eldred Willey on 01603 620051 or e-mail ewilley@christian-aid.org ■ 14-17 July Coast to Coast Whitby to Whitehaven Cycle 186 miles across England and raise money for Christian Aid. Deposit £50; fundraising target £600.

Contact Alison Gregory on 020 7523 2221 or email events@christian-aid.org ■ 29 July-5 August Globalistic youth camp From 3pm, 29 July Buckland Momchorum, Devon Sixteen-19-year-old campaigners create a multimedia roadshow which will be performed at August’s Greenbelt 2006 festival Contact Lucy Waldron, 01395 222304, or email lwaldron@christian-aid.org

Drumming up support This summer Christian Aid is headed for some of the UK’s best festivals, joining in the fun and reminding festival-goers that the beat of trade justice does go on. We’re warming up our djembes to ensure that the rhythm will resound with festival-goers, and then urging them to help us drum it home (literally!) to the UK government that the 2005 talk of making poverty history needs to become action in 2006. If you want to help us keep the beat, listen out for us at the following festivals: ■ 29-30 July WOMAD Reading ■ 19-20 August V Festival Hylands Park in Chelmsford or Weston Park in Staffordshire ■ 25-28 August; Greenbelt Cheltenham Racecourse

Trade justice: the beat goes on ■ 8 July 12noon Grab a drum and add your rhythms to this attempt by supporters around the country to bang home the message on trade justice with a record-breaking simultaneous ‘drum-in’.

Join one of the events listed below or contact your local Christian Aid office to find your nearest venue.

Aberystwyth, Carmarthen Contact Tom Defis 01267 237257 Bangor, Caernarfon, Llangollen, Denbigh, Penmaenmawr, Llangefni, Porthmadog, Llanidloes Contact Anna Jane Evans on 01248 353574 Bideford, north Devon Contact Avril Lowe on 01237 479427 Brecon Contact Jeff Williams 02920 844646 Bristol Contact Martin Cottingham on 0117 965 7058

Cardiff Contact Robin Samuel 02920 844646 Dorchester Contact Peter Mann on 01305 266796 Exmouth, Cathedral Green Contact Martin John Nicholls on 01395 222304 Jersey Contact Rev Liz Hunter on 01626 211255 Manchester city centre (tbc), Contact John Logan 01942 214656 Newcastle, St Thomas’ Haymarket church Contact Judith Sadler on 01912 280115 Nottingham, city centre Contact Andrew Barker on 01159 881377 South Gloucs Contact Helen Harrison on 0117 950 5006 Swindon Contact Rev Angela Overton-Benge on 01793 491454 Truro, Lemon Quay Piazza Contact Julie Millar on 01872 225235 Picture: Christian Aid

■ 3-29 July ‘Every time I see the sea...’ – life after the tsunami The multimedia exhibition about the challenge of rebuilding Sri Lankan and Indian communities devastated by the tsunami, continues to tour the country.

■ 3-15 July Truro Cathedral Contact Julie Millar on 01872 225235, or email jmillar@christian-aid.org ■ 18-29 July Guildford Cathedral Contact Rebecca Rust on 01273 470504, or email rrust@christian-aid.org

visit www.christianaid.org/aboutca for regular updates of events around the country

■ 3-4 September Walk the Line Aberdeen A sponsored walk along the old Deeside Railway Line, organised by the Aberdeen Christian Aid committee.

Contact Jean Rutherford, on 01224 480654.

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5/6/06 11:52:09

Do theing right th

Putting our own house in order….

Picture: Christian Aid/Sam Faulkner

Following the publication of Christian Aid’s report The Climate of Poverty, Andrew Pendleton outlines some of the steps we are taking to reduce our own carbon emissions

THE CENTRAL tenet of The Climate of Poverty report is that carbon emissions – one of the causes of global warming – hurt poor people.

It therefore follows that Christian Aid’s emissions hurt poor people and must be reduced where possible.

Christian Aid is a development organisation.

The majority of our income must be spent helping the poor escape poverty through sustainable development programmes. We must balance our efforts to reduce our own emissions against this core purpose. That said, we will aim to reduce our carbon emissions, taking the obvious steps first, including: ■ seeking to buy energy from a renewable energy supplier Christian Aid is currently negotiating with a number of renewable energy suppliers over the provision of energy for our offices in the UK. We have installed low-energy lighting at Inter Church House and a sensor system which will turn lights off if no movement is detected.

■ reducing staff travel, especially involving flying While Christian Aid staff have to fly in order to monitor the

WIN SOME DIVINE CHOCOLATE GOODIES Divine, the delicious chocolate with impeccable Fairtrade credentials, is offering TWO lucky winners a wonderful selection of chocolate indulgence worth £40

26

Set up by Christian Aid, with EU funding, togetherTV makes short films featuring individuals from developing countries that challenge the media’s conventional view of the developing world.

These personal videos have been shown frequently on the Discovery Channel and the Community Channel.

You can also watch the films on www.togethertv.org.

The mouth-watering prize hampers will include varieties of milk and dark chocolate (with 70 per cent cocoa solids), after dinner mints, Divine drinking chocolate and Divine cocoa.

Divine chocolate ensures that small-scale Ghanaian farmers get a fair price for their cocoa, so you can indulge yourself with a clear conscience!

Picture: Day Chocolate

Simply log on to the website of Christian Aid’s media project togetherTV – www.togethertv.org – and sign up to receive updates.

Your name will automatically be entered into a prize draw, which closes on 31 July.

Once you sign up, you will receive an email every two months alerting you to new videos on togetherTV’s website.

Christian Aid News

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5/6/06 11:54:54

Recycling tip Buy loose fruit and vegetables rather than over-packaged pre-packed varieties with Lambeth Council in London and Cleanaway to recycle our paper, cardboard, and plastic, and are currently awaiting delivery of a ‘battery’ bucket for the disposal of spent batteries.

Picture: Christian Aid/Brenda Hayward

progress of projects in almost 50 different countries, we are committed to reducing our flights and will set reduction targets from next year.

■ taking all feasible energy-efficiency measures, which will help cut emissions and may also save money.

Our aim is to reduce our emissions by at least three per cent per year. We will then ‘offset’ our remaining emissions each year by investing in sustainable development and renewable energy projects in the developing world, such as the Kibera Community programme in Kenya (left).

We will also work with our field offices and partner bodies in poor countries with the eventual aim of monitoring the environmental sustainability of projects across all our programmes.

In house, as well as Christian Aid News being printed on 100 per cent recycled paper, all Christian Aid headed paper and logo paper together with the paper we use for photocopying is 100 per cent recycled ‘post consumer waste’ paper. We now take advantage of a scheme run in conjunction

world eating Staff at Christian Aid’s Waterloo offices enjoyed an Ethiopian feast prepared by Seble Abera (right) during Christian Aid Week. The least we could do was ask Seble to share two of the recipes with you…

RESOURCE PACK ■ From 15 August, a free resource park, Time to Change the Climate, on the impact of climate change on the poor and what Christians can do to help, will be available for churches to order. It will include suggestions for worship, along with partner stories and theological reflections. Go to www. christianaid.org.uk/worship

RECYCLE FOR CASH ■ Christian Aid is linking up with Environmental Business Products to launch an ink cartridge recycling scheme that will raise money to fight poverty and benefit the environment. Christian Aid will receive £1 for every recyclable cartridge donated. Details are on the envelope inside this issue of Christian Aid News.

Blogging on WHETHER IT’S a BBC journalist working in Iraq or a political activist speaking out in China, weblogs – or blogs – are making a real difference to how the world shares information. Similar to a webpage, blogs provide a series of diary-like pages, published as soon as the author writes something. The entries are typically more candid and in-depth than traditional news channels.

Earlier this year a group of Christian Aid UK staff travelling in Central Asia experimented with a blog, writing entries and posting photographs within hours of meeting some of the world’s poorest people. More than 10,000 readers were able to join the group on a highly emotional journey.

As the number of blogs grows at Christian Aid, we’ll try to cross-reference relevant ones against stories in Christian Aid News – giving you more of an insight into what we do. You can access the Central Asia weblog, which has links to other blogs at http://nightingalesangatwcc.typepad.com/tajikistan/

Injera (Ethiopian crêpe) Makes 5 to 6 injera

■ Ingredients 1lb self-raising wheat flour 3 cups lukewarm water 1 tsp yeast

■ Method 1 2 3

4

5

Combine ingredients by hand in a large bowl.

Allow to ferment overnight (12 hrs).

Pre-heat a large pancake pan, and leave on low heat during baking.

Bake in a circular motion, as for a pancake, and put a lid on the pan. Heat on one side only.

This takes about two minutes.

Carefully remove injera and set aside on a plate to cool. Serve with vegetable alecha (see recipe below).

Vegetable alecha (vegetable sauce) Serves: up to 8

■ Ingredients 1 cup chopped onions 4 tbsp oil 4 carrots, peeled and cut into one-inch slices 4 green peppers, cleaned and quartered 3 cups water 6oz can chopped tomatoes 2 tsp salt ½ tsp ground ginger 2 tomatoes 4 potatoes, thickly sliced 8 cabbage wedges, one inch wide salt and pepper to taste

■ Method 1 2

3

4

5

Sauté onions in oil in a medium saucepan.

Add carrots, peppers, water, canned tomatoes, salt and ginger. Cover and cook for ten minutes.

Plunge tomatoes in boiling water, remove skin and cut into wedges. Add to stew, along with potatoes. Cover and cook on a medium heat for a further ten minutes.

Add cabbage wedges. Season and cook until all vegetables are tender.

Transfer to a bowl and serve with injera.

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Opinion

What’s your view? Write to the Editor, Christian Aid News, PO Box 100, London SE1 7RT or email canews@christian-aid.org If you would like to discuss this article online, visit www.surefish.co.uk

You don’t have to be a Christian to work here, but does it help?

Following the article in our spring issue by Jeff Williams, national secretary for Wales, on what it means to be a Christian at Christian Aid, communications manager Judith Escribano (below right) offers a different perspective…

I

have a confession. I am not, nor have I ever been, a member of the Christian faith. Sure, I was christened Catholic. Daughter of a Spanish immigrant, how could I not have been? But for my dad, instilling Catholicism in his family was never high on the agenda.

I first came into contact with Christian Aid 12 years ago. I was coordinator of a group working with Guatemalan refugees and we needed funds. Although a secular group, we knew that Christian Aid supported people regardless of religion so had no qualms about becoming a partner.

A few years later, I applied for a job at Christian Aid as I wanted to work for an influential organisation that represented the poor, defended their rights and sought social justice. Some agencies demanded membership of the Christian faith as a prerequisite for working for them.

Christian Aid was the perfect match – as well as supporting people of all faiths and none, it employed them as well.

Some people have said that I should not work here because I am not a Christian; a couple of churches refused to accept me as a speaker; one pastor told me I did not understand a partner (which was – incidentally – secular) because I am not a Christian. I think they are wrong. I am proud to work for a church-based organisation that believes it is more important to employ people with the right skills, rather than because they are Christian. It hurts and puzzles me when people question my ability to do my job just because I am not a Christian. As a member of the International Communications team, I write, I edit, I give talks, I interview and photograph people and I organise travel: none of which require me to be a Christian. Am I embarrassed about the ‘Christian’ in Christian Aid? Not at all: some of my best friends are Christians!

I believe it is the role of the church and church-based organisations to assist those less fortunate than themselves. Do I understand Christians who refuse to support Christian Aid because they do not think that we are Christian enough? No. When I look at what Christian Aid does – fight poverty, overturn injustice, promote peace, assist the most marginalised people in the world – I think it is common sense. Others would call it God’s work in action.

I know my friend Jeff Williams agrees that we’re not so different, after all.

28

Inpuatil your m

Rights and wrongs Sarah Malian is absolutely right that the only thing that will end Palestinian poverty is an end to Israeli occupation of their land. No natural disaster has befallen the Palestinians.

Rather it has become impossible for them to develop their economy as their best agricultural land has been systematically stolen, their key water resources expropriated, their olive trees and other crops destroyed, barriers have been erected that prevent trade and their prime sources of tourist income, Jerusalem and easy access to Bethlehem, have been denied them. All this has been caused by the actions of the Israeli government, whilst Western governments continue to turn a blind eye.

Dr Stephen Leah, York In response to Sarah Malian’s article, it saddens me to think that you wish to ‘support democratic elections whatever their outcome’.

Presumably, then, you would have supported Hitler because he came to power through democratic elections. The problem is that Hitler did not uphold democratic values and tried to murder as many Jews as he could. Hamas may have come to power by democratic elections but does not have democratic values. It is a militant terrorist organisation intent on murdering as many Jews as it can. You say the main cause of Palestinian poverty is Israel’s occupation of the Territories. In 1923 the UK created Jordan on 77 per cent of Palestine. Jordan is Palestine. The Palestinians do not attack Jordan because Jordan is a Muslim country.

The root cause of Palestinian poverty is their corruption, terrorism against Israel and refusal to build a state. If you support Hamas you support

terrorism. You are supposed to be a Christian organisation.

Why not read the Bible and see what God says. God gave the Land of Israel to the Jews as ‘an everlasting covenant’.

That includes Jerusalem. It seems to me that you do not care about what is written in the Bible – you only seem to care about what men think or what Islam wants.

Phil Lumley, via email Thank you, Sarah, for putting so clearly the problem for Palestine and Israel: the occupation. Supporting Palestine’s right to exist as a fully developed state with all the institutions and powers allowed to every other country is NOT ‘anti-semitic’.

Israel’s own peace would be better secured if it acted justly, in accordance with the already agreed covenants pertaining to Palestine’s proper existence.

Patricia Bryden, Edinburgh The solution to end poverty can come about by Israel taking positive steps to improve living conditions for Palestinians, provide fairer access to employment and health facilities and maybe allow a degree of autonomy in the form of local council or government. And any future Palestinian state should be created in equal measure out

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Inspired? Enraged? Send your views to the editor.

Christian Aid News, PO Box 100, London SE1 7RT or email canews@christian-aid.org

A difference of opinion Our postbag has been dominated by your responses to the article ‘Hungry for change’ (Opinion, issue 31)

by Middle East communications officer Sarah Malian.

Here is a selection of your letters and emails. Among other matters that have prompted you to write to us are Jeff Williams’ views on Christian Aid (Reflection, issue 31), ethical travel and an old man’s plight… of Jordan and the West Bank; Israel should accept no less.

D Doherty, Cheltenham Sarah is right that we should ‘support democratic elections, whatever their outcome’, but this doesn’t mean we have to agree with or support the policies of those elected.

Sarah is wrong, however, in equating the Northern Irish situation, where the precondition of the renunciation of violence was agreed between the parties involved, with that of Hamas which continues to affirm its goal of Israel’s destruction and its terrorist means. Supporting the democratic process in this case means requiring similar guarantees from what remains a terrorist organisation.

Robin Pagan, Diss, Norfolk UN Resolution 242, that all sides should return to pre-1967 borders, asked Israel to do what no other victorious side in war has ever done. We want a fair and viable border, but also mutual recognition of the right to exist, permanently.

Israel has accepted the case for a Palestinian state. It is Hamas which hasn’t bitten the bullet. Unless it does so, Israel will set the agenda, the international community’s protests will be muted, and the Palestinians will lose out.

Cedric Dowe, via email Sarah replies: In its commitment to eradicating poverty, Christian Aid cannot stop at the provision of aid. It also needs to challenge

structures that keep people in poverty; our analysis has shown that Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian Territories is the main contributor to poverty through high unemployment, dependency on food aid, and inadequate healthcare. Speaking out against some of the policies of the Israeli government – policies we believe contribute to Palestinian poverty – does not mean we do not simultaneously affirm Israel’s right to exist in safety and security. We also unequivocally condemn all acts of violence.

Who benefits?

I know I may come across as a spoilsport, but what are we really doing when we promote so-called ‘green’ holidays on the other side of the world (Do the Right Thing, Issue 31)? Surely, flying vast distances and dumping high levels of pollution on the earth, so furthering global warming, is going to kill the sick penguins and young orphans people are keen to help, and exacerbate droughts and natural disasters. How can this be ‘responsible’ travel? To me it’s more a clever way some businesses have found to give Europeans the stimulating lifestyles we wish to maintain, while eliminating guilt and giving us the feel-good factor.

Ann Milston, Cumbria As founder of Tourism Concern, the UK charity that campaigns against

exploitative tourism worldwide, I congratulate you on helping to spread the word about ethical travel. Tourism Concern has just published a new Ethical Travel Guide, with all sorts of ‘fair trade’ holiday ideas. I’d also recommend our website www.tourismconcern.org.uk if you want to support communities affected adversely by tourism development. Readers might be interested to know that Christian Aid provided the seed money to start Tourism Concern, in the late 1980s.

Alison Stancliffe, Ryton

An aim too far Christian Aid’s job, says Jeff Williams (Reflection, Issue 31) is to ‘challenge and change the systems that favour the rich and powerful over the poor’. However worthy such an aim may be, that statement is overtly political, at best naïve and at worst highly damaging to what I regard as Christian Aid’s proper mission, to root out poverty, and to love and care for our neighbours worldwide. My experiences as a collector is that many citizens are not prepared to donate to Christian Aid due to its perceived political message to which they cannot subscribe, at least not in the terms they feel Christian Aid is asking them to do.

A J Harrow, Surrey

God is there I was saddened to read (Input, issue 31) the Rev Maurice Stewart’s condemnation of Christian Aid’s apparent lack of commitment to God and his Son’s teachings. Surely the very work of Christian Aid is, in itself, proof of the charity’s desire to love our neighbour as we love God. Its role is not to spread the Gospel – there are other organisations who

work in that field. Just because God isn’t mentioned on a regular basis doesn’t mean he’s not there. To quote Carl Jung: ‘Bidden or not bidden, God is there.’

Felicity Frith, Watford From ministers of religion who can no longer see or hear God except in the letters G, O, and D, good Lord deliver us. On the other hand, Jeff Williams’ punchline, ‘The Christian in Christian Aid is diminished only when we fail to do what has to be done’, should appear in much larger print in all future editions of Christian Aid News.

Bernard Brown, Lancs

Just ‘good copy’?

I was interested in the photo showing the conditions in Kyrgyzstan (The Big Picture, issue 31). You report on the cataracts that Nikolai has, but what has Christian Aid done about that? Did they – or some other organisation – take Nikolai to a hospital for the cataracts to be seen to?

Who has taken the next step, or is it just good copy?

C M Phillips, Dorset Amanda Farrant, Central Asia communications officer, replies: Nikolai’s case was extremely distressing to witness, even more so knowing that he was just one of thousands facing such hardship. Addressing the individual needs of all of them is a mammoth task – and one the Kyrgyzstan government should also be addressing.

That said, through our partner, Resource Centre for the Elderly, we are monitoring Nikolai’s situation. Results are not always achieved overnight, but we hope in the future we can report that he is receiving treatment, as well as an adequate pension and other support.

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5/6/06 11:59:51

Final Word

FROM BIRMINGHAM TO ETHIOPIA

Coming clean Adrian Lester, star of BBC1’s Hustle, shows his hand to Christian Aid News What would you save if your house was on fire?

Just boring practical stuff like making sure we were warm and had shoes on our feet.

What makes you cry?

Suffering. Some of the appeals made for children around the world during Comic Relief had me blubbing.

Where is the most remarkable place you have ever visited?

100 feet down, scuba diving in the Mediterranean, off the coast of Turkey.

Which book or song do you most wish you’d written?

Song? As, by Stevie Wonder.

Who would you choose to be shipwrecked with?

Dr Martin Luther King, Stevie Wonder and Kelly Brook. Someone to talk to, someone to play with and, erm, someone to play with.

What miracle would you like to work?

Alchemy. Water into wine. Stone into bread…

What’s your favourite food?

Thai.

What was the last text message you received or sent?

I had a drink with a friend who confided in me a few things a film producer had told her. The next day she texted me saying she felt terrible and asked me to keep it to myself. I replied, ‘Don’t worry. The LA Times is very discreet.’

What’s the scariest thing you’ve ever done – and would you do it again?

While swimming in the sea off Negril beach in Jamaica, I got caught in a series of six foot waves and the current pulled me out to sea.

I’m not a very strong swimmer and the waves were taking what strength I had. After a while I made it to the beach, completely exhausted. I’d swallowed a lot of seawater as each wave turned me. I felt a bit sick and wobbly on my feet. Yes, I was scared. No, I wouldn’t do it again.

What talents do you have, or think you have, which have so far been hidden from the general public?

I can make instrument sounds with my mouth.

Drums, mouth organ, bass. It’s called ‘human beatbox’… and I think it should remain hidden from the general public.

Adrian Lester, 37, is one of Britain’s most versatile actors, having achieved success in films, the theatre and television. On stage, his most famous roles include his Olivier Award-winning turn in Stephen Sondheim’s Company in 1996 and Henry V at the National Theatre in 2003. His films include Primary Colours, the global warming blockbuster The Day After Tomorrow and this summer’s upcoming Spiderman 3. He is best known to British TV audiences as Mickey in BBC1 drama Hustle.

30

Students raise funds for Africa Liz Wainwright (above), the Christian Aid student rep at Birmingham University, raised £300 for the East Africa Emergency Appeal in May. She staged an evening of live music and dancing combined with talks from Christian Aid staff about the injustice of global trade and the opportunities to take action. The evening was a huge success, with dozens of students asking questions, signing action cards, and donating money.

Weathering the storm Money raised during Christian Aid’s East Africa Emergency Appeal is being used to help those affected by the drought to develop ways to cope with the increasingly erratic weather. For example, in southern Ethiopia (below) the Ethiopian Evangelical Church Mekane Yesus, is helping pastoralists restock their herds through livestock feeding centres, and is working with communities to dig ponds and wells to harvest and store rain water. Partners are also providing nomadic farmers with tools and hardy seeds that grow well without regular rainfall, ensuring a constant source of food.

Christian Aid/Caroline Waterman

If you ruled the world, what is the first law you’d introduce?

Schools devoted to a single religion would be broadened to teach other faiths. Religious education in schools would be all-encompassing.

What’s made you laugh today?

My two year old doing impressions.

How your money reaches the people who need it most

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? e c n e r e f f i d The Bangladeshi lives. f o s d e r d n u H

CAT s I X D E s I G N

We believe in life before death.

CLIENT JOB NUMBER

STUDIO NUMBER DATE DESCRIPTION

Christian Aid CHR0000 C00178 2 JUNE 2006 AQUAID

SIZE

300x225 COLOUR

PAGE

1 of 1

PROOF NUMBER REPRO PUBLICATION

1 ESL MASTER

Water is water. One bottled brand is as good for you as the next, isn’t it? Wrong.

There is one brand that makes for a much healthier world: AquAid. The money it raises goes towards Christian Aid’s work in improving the lives of people in the developing world. Just 15 AquAid water coolers used for a year would raise £235: enough to pay for a well in Bangladesh.

A well that will provide safe water and could save hundreds of lives for years to come. Please, use whatever influence you have to put AquAid in your office, school, church, or home. It makes no difference to you which brand you drink. But we know which brand the poor of Bangladesh are rooting for. To find out more, please call AquAid on 01223 508 109

06 Greenbelt Festival 2006 25—28 August Cheltenham Racecourse www.greenbelt.org.uk

Join 20,000 people – young and not so young, those with faith and those with none, lovers of the arts, dreamers and doers, good life and good food aficionados – in the life-affirming, world-changing kaleidoscope of humanity, colour, carnival, and campaigning that is Greenbelt.

One festival, many faces.

Music.

Daniel Bedingfield.

Michael Franti and Spearhead.

T-Bone Burnett.

Maria McKee. The Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain.

Switchfoot.

Nizlopi.

Lleuwen Steffan.

Reem Kelani.

Martyn Joseph.

Talks/Debates.

Andrew Motion, Poet Laureate.

Bill Drummond.

Christopher Booker.

Sara Maitland.

Jim Wallis.

Rudo Kwaramba.

Clive Stafford-Smith.

John Bell.

Alastair McIntosh.

Walter Wink.

Kathy Galloway.

Plus: Visual Arts and Film.

Performing Arts.

Literature.

Comedy.

A full youth programme. (for 11–18s) Children’s festival. (for 0 –10s) All-age family events.

The Pulse resources exhibition.

Organic food and drink.

Book before 31 July and save up to 10% off onsite ticket prices Book online — no booking fee greenbelt.org.uk/tickets Or call the ticket line on 020 7374 2760 The Performance Café.

Christian Aid will be collaborating on the Festival’s prime acoustic music venue as well as campaigning onsite as ‘the beat goes on’.

Generous.

Greenbelt’s online community experiment based on a hunch that if many of us make small changes in our everyday choices then we can make a big difference for everyone. www.generous.org.uk

For the latest details go to greenbelt.org.uk/lineup

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