| LIFE-NET NEWS |
| by Ret Z. |
| Covering Poverty Widely in a Net of Many Voices |
| 2003 April 16 | No Profit; No Proceeds |
| Volume 6 Number 12 | All-Volunteer |
| "Give a family a fish, and they'll eat a meal; give them a Net, and they'll have fish for Life." |
| Waging Peace: A Lesson from Guatemala |
|
Post-war Guatemala offers many cases of active local
participation in reconstruction, which strengthened and
legitimized the peace process while allowing those
involved to engage in their own struggles for social
transformation.
One inspirational example is the 'Comunidad Santa Anita La Unión', located in the department of Quetzaltenango, in Guatemala. Guatemala's 36-year internal armed conflict between the military and guerilla movements ended in 1996. An integral element of the peace accords was the devolution of power to local populations by providing access to credit and land and allowing for self-management. Santa Anita La Unión is one result. The community is made up of ex-combatants of the Unidad Revolucionaria Nacional Guatemalteca, the umbrella organization of three guerrilla movements and the Guatemalan Worker's Party. Santa Anita's economic activity is organized collectively in keeping with the 'communal spirit' of their Maya heritage. The collective primarily concentrates on the organic production of coffee and bananas. Following the crash in the world price of coffee, Santa Anita decided to diversify into raising chickens and producing eggs for the local market. In February of this year, they celebrated their fifth anniversary and began integrating a Spanish language school and an eco-tourism business into the community. The collective actively pursues gender equity. Both women and men share in decision-making, in profits, and in access to community-provided education and health services. Not content to put their ideals into practice in only one community, they provide workers and their families from surrounding private, capitalist farms access to their health and education programs. The Guatemalan Peace Accords provide an environment that empowers marginalized communities to achieve economic self-sufficiency and self-management. With an eye towards peace-time profits in Iraq, new battle lines are being drawn around whether the U.S. or the U.N. should be in charge of reconstruction, who will control Iraqi oil, and which companies will be getting multi-million dollar 'rebuilding' contracts. These debates completely exclude the potential for meaningful and creative local participation by Iraqis themselves. The lesson for Iraq from Santa Anita La Unión is that devolving power to the people can help hugely to promote equitable peace and social transformation. Source: Center for Popular Economics |
| Arab World Improves Quality of Living |
|
The first Arab Human Development Report, sponsored by
the United Nations Development Program, recently
highlighted human development achieved by the 22 Arab
states--with their 280 million people--over the past three
decades, while also focusing on the challenges that the
region still faces.
Life expectancy in the region has increased by 15 years, the report says, while mortality rates of children under five have fallen by two-thirds, and adult literacy has almost doubled. Moreover, the region's growth has been "pro-poor," and as a result there is much less abject poverty--defined as an income of less than a dollar a day-- than in any other developing region in the world. But the report also says that much still needs to be done to provide people in the region with the political voice, social choices and economic opportunities they need for a better future. It outlines the challenges faced by the Arab states in strengthening personal and institutional freedoms and boosting broad-based citizen participation in political and economic affairs. The report, commissioned by UNDP and written by experts from the Arab world, is the first of its kind for the region. Source: Global Village News & Resources |
| More Teens Volunteer |
|
Adolescents who are involved in community service or
volunteer in political activities are more likely to have a
strong work ethic as adults and are more likely to
volunteer and vote in the future. Youth who volunteer are
less likely to become pregnant or to use drugs.
Volunteering in adolescence is also related to overall
positive academic, psychological, and occupational
outcomes.
Recent data show that teenagers ages 16 to 19 in the United States are more likely to have volunteered in the past year than any other age group under 35. Of those who volunteer, most work with either education or youth-service related organizations (34%) or religious organizations (31%). 41% of teen volunteers reported that they approached the organization for which they volunteer, rather than being asked by someone else to volunteer. For students in eighth, tenth, and twelfth grades, rates of volunteering increased over the last decade. Among twelfth graders, volunteering increased from 24% in 1991 to 35% in 2001. In just the last year, from 2000 to 2001, there was an increase from 32% to 35%. For tenth graders, volunteering increased from 27% in 1991 to 29% in 2001. In 2001, 28% of eighth graders volunteered at least once a month, compared with 26% in 1991. Female youth are more likely to volunteer than males. In 2001, for example, 35% of tenth grade female students volunteered compared to 24% of tenth grade male students. Youth whose parents have finished college or have gone to graduate school are most likely to volunteer at least once a month. This is a consistent pattern over time and across grades. Youth who plan to complete college are much more likely to volunteer at least once a month compared with other youth. For example, among twelfth graders in 2001, 38% of those who planned to complete four years of college volunteered, compared to 24% of those who did not. Source: Child Trends Data Bank |
| New African Famine May Tower Over the Old |
|
Serious food shortages threaten more than 38 million
people across the African continent, according to the U.N.
World Food Program. Agency spokesman Dean R. Owen
described the situation in Ethiopia as a "huge crisis" and
warned it was quickly going to get worse. "More than 7
million people are in need of emergency food and that's
probably going to double to 14 million in July unless these
people get help," he said.
The problem is also being seen in Somalia. Numerous countries in southern Africa, including Malawi, Mozambique and Zimbabwe, are facing a significant food shortage and also have been hit by the HIV/AIDS pandemic. "When you have a food shortage and drought, and it's exacerbated by the AIDS pandemic, it's an absolute recipe for disaster," Owen said. "People in their prime are dying off at a higher rate than they were five to 10 years ago because of the AIDS epidemic, so they are not able to work to provide for their families to save their lives." The Ethiopia famine was "something that the world hoped would never happen again," officials from the Adventist Development and Relief Agency (ADRA) International said. "But it is happening today and if action is not taken now, this famine will dwarf the famine of 1984." To prevent another famine, agencies have joined in an unprecedented effort to work together. For example, World Vision, CARE, and Catholic Relief Services are working together on a project funded by a $100 million USAID grant to deliver food and assistance to eight high-risk countries in southern Africa. The war in Iraq has had a dramatic impact on donations, officials said. "With so much media attention focused on Iraq, this is not on people's radar screens," said Owen. "It's always easier to raise money for programs that people watch on television." Source: Disaster News Network |
|
New System Aims to Help Ex-Prisoners and Communities |
|
With more than 600,000 prisoners returning to society
each year, prisoner reentry poses many challenges to the
communities involved, including an increased risk to public
safety and a limited availability of jobs, housing, and
social services for the returning prisoners. The Reentry
Mapping Network, a three-year partnership that kicks off
this month, seeks to strengthen communities' capacities to
acquire information that will help them better understand
and address these challenges.
Partners will collect and analyze data related to incarceration, community supervision, and indicators of community well-being (e.g., employment, crime, housing, and education). Partners will use the data to pinpoint neighborhoods that experience high concentrations of returning prisoners and examine the extent to which such communities are equipped to address the challenges that prisoner reentry creates. Some partners will also conduct surveys and focus groups to inform the data collection and analysis process. Partners will work with community stakeholders to target intervention efforts and resources where most needed and to help assess their effectiveness. Although mapping has been used to effectively address a wide range of criminal justice challenges, until now only a few cities have mapped neighborhood-level incarceration and reentry data. Even fewer cities have attempted to link incarceration and reentry data with other indicators of community well-being. Source: Urban Institute |
| Questionable Evangelism in Kashmir |
|
Amid booming guns and endless violence, Kashmir is
witnessing a discreet spurt in conversion--from Islam to
Christianity. At least a dozen Christian missions and
churches based in the US, Germany, the Netherlands and
Switzerland have sent evangelists to the Valley and are
pumping in money through intermediaries based in New Delhi.
In the Valley, where death and trauma are a way of life, the missionaries are getting immediate attention because they reach out to the poor, needy and those affected by violence. Also, they bring in a lot of money. Though conversions have not encountered any resistance from Muslim organisations, it has led to tensions between Kashmir’s native Christians--a miniscule community of 650-- and the enthusiastic evangelists. The native Christians are increasingly getting vocal against the outsiders. "This type of conversions aren’t good for local Christians who had shared a cordial relationship with Muslims here for centuries. The conversions they are doing are Bibilically wrong. There are umpteen cases in which one person has been baptised thrice within a few months. These so-called evangelists have set up businesses in the garb of Church and social work," says Pastor Leslie Richards, a native Protestant living in Braen, Srinagar. "The converts here do it for monetary reasons and the people who convert them too do it for the same reasons," he adds. An article in Christianity Today reasons: "Wearied by violence, thousands are interested in the Prince of Peace. They have faith in Jesus but don’t come out. Their number goes into thousands in the rural areas." The estimates pieced together by the evangelists here say the number of converts to Christianity touch 12,000 in the Valley. The founder of Agape Mission, Pastor Neethi Rajan, a Hindu convert from Chennai, says, "God spoke to me clearly and asked me to go to Kashmir." Determined to spread the Gospel among Kashmiris, Rajan says as long as people are not exploited, spreading the message of Christ isn’t wrong. Source: Indian Express |
| Child Care Busts Family Budgets |
|
Child care in New Jersey can be more expensive than
housing. Infant care can cost more than a minimum-wage
job pays. So says a new survey of child-care costs in the
state.
The survey found that families earning the median household income in each county in New Jersey would spend between one-third and one-half of their gross income on licensed child care for a baby and a preschooler. That scenario is "a crisis that we must address," said Mary Jane DiPaolo, chairwoman of the New Jersey Association of Child Care Resource and Referral Agencies, which commissioned the study. Child-care advocates said the state's dilemma is part of a nationwide problem. "Nationally, child-care consumers pay significant amounts that equal or exceed housing, or public college tuition," said Helen Blank, director of child care and development for the Children's Defense Fund, a children's advocacy group. In New Jersey, the least expensive licensed child care for a preschooler, in Cumberland County, exceeds Rutgers University's $5,770 tuition (not including room and board and other fees), the survey found. The study, "Child Care Wage & Benefit Survey and Child Care Market Rates," released last week, also found that child-care workers in New Jersey earned $16,900, below the federal poverty level for a family of four. Ironically, many child-care workers would not be able to afford to place their infants in a licensed child-care center. Experts attribute low wages and lack of benefits--68% of workers in the survey did not get benefits--to a high turnover rate in child care. In the survey, turnover was nearly 50%, meaning half of child-care workers left their positions within a year. At least half of the centers surveyed had unfilled positions at the time of the survey. But Blank said it's difficult to raise salaries when parents shoulder most of the burden of paying for the licensed centers and registered family day-care centers, which are required to maintain minimum standards set by the state. Source: Newark Star-Ledger |
| Life-Net News Extras |
| When Earth Meets Spirit (4/22/03) |
|
People of faith are giving a boost to the
environmental movement, offering a spiritual dimension to
Earth Day. "Passover and Easter both celebrate life and
its renewal, as does Earth Day," says Gary Gardner,
Worldwatch Director of Research. "The co-incidence of
these religious and secular events is symbolic of the
increasing collaboration among the religious and
sustainability communities."
Environmentalists have a strong grounding in science. Religious institutions enjoy moral authority and a grassroots presence that shape the worldviews and lifestyles of billions. As these groups meld their strengths, they are successfully addressing issues from sustainable consumption in Sri Lanka to green investing by stockholders in New York. "You might not think spirituality and environmentalism are natural allies," says Gardner. "Yet in a recent survey, 56% of Americans said we should preserve the environment 'because it is God's creation.' Religious motivations for environmentalism lie just below the surface for many Americans. These sentiments are blossoming in the U.S. and worldwide, helping to renew the environment." Source: Worldwatch Institute |
| Credit Counseling Under Fire |
Consumer complaints about consumer credit counseling
agencies to the Better Business Bureau rose to 1,480 last
year from 261 in 1998. There are several types of
complaints and problems, according to the consumer groups:
Source: Newark Star-Ledger |
| Drug Discounts for Millions of Americans |
|
U.S. Rep. Michael Michaud announced legislation last
week that would have the federal government negotiate
prescription drug discounts for millions of Americans. The
Maine Democrat modeled his law on Maine Rx, the state's
landmark prescription discount law that was enacted in 2000
but has been blocked by legal challenges from the
pharmaceutical industry.
The proposal, called America Rx, is not meant to replace a prescription drug benefit that Congress is considering for the federal Medicare program, but to serve as a complement, Maine's junior congressman said. America Rx--a complement to a Medicare prescription plan, not a replacement--would require the federal Secretary of Health and Human Services to act as a pharmacy benefits manager for an estimated 65 million Americans who lack adequate drug coverage, regardless of their incomes. Savings could reach 25% per prescription and would come at no cost to taxpayers, Michaud said. Non-participating companies would lose out on federal income tax deductions for marketing and advertising--the most noticeable departure from Maine Rx, which penalized drug manufacturers by making it more difficult for them to offer their products to Medicaid patients. Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, which is challenging Maine Rx in the courts, called America Rx equally flawed and vowed to oppose it. Source: Portland Press Herald |
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