| LIFE-NET NEWS |
| by Ret Z. |
| Covering Poverty Widely in a Net of Many Voices |
| 2003 May 28 | No Profit; No Proceeds |
| Volume 7 Number 3 | All-Volunteer |
| "Give a family a fish, and they'll eat a meal; give them a Net, and they'll have fish for Life." |
| State Shelters Fail Kiev Kids |
|
Some 100,000 abandoned and homeless children sleep under
bridges or in heating shafts, begging or stealing food to
survive in Kiev, Ukraine. The overburdened state
children's shelters there house children behind bars and
pay little attention to their emotional needs.
"The atmosphere in state shelters is often very aggressive," says childcare worker Sergei Mikitin, of The Ark, one of the best shelters in Kiev, founded by two American expatriates. "The big kids beat up the little ones, and the caregivers often don't behave any better. The orphanages are very crowded and the children don't get good quality education or food. The number of homeless children has risen to frightening levels and the state social system simply can't cope." According to Ukrainian sociologists, Kiev has more homeless children today than during the desolate years just after World War II--some as young as three or four. "Living in Kiev, you can't help seeing the need, when there are children tugging on your sleeve every day in the market," says Ark co-founder Barbara Klaiber. Most of the children on the street still have at least one parent, though these mothers and fathers are often overwhelmed by alcohol or drug addictions or simply too poor to support their children. "This society has been through a series of shocks, especially after the Russian crisis in 1998," says Jane Hyatt, the other Ark co-founder. "Many families fell apart as a result." The phenomenon of street children in this former Soviet republic has so far only affected one generation, she says, adding, "We have to do everything we can to stop it before this despair is passed on to another generation." Source: Christian Science Monitor |
| Hard Times Make Lawyers Pro Bono |
|
Lawyers are getting laid off in California. Law firms are
merging or going belly up. Rookie attorneys are scrounging
for entry-level jobs. These are lean times in the law
business. But it's been a blessing for scores of
cash-strapped groups struggling to help elderly people,
homeless families, battered women and fledgling businesses.
For the past year, legal aid organizations say they've been swamped with calls from attorneys who want to volunteer, either because they don't have as many clients or they're out of work. The timing couldn't be better. Legal services groups are staggering under a dramatic drop in donations and drastic budget cuts. Meanwhile, the rock-bottom economy that has slowed business for lawyers is hitting low-income and poor people especially hard. A state report in October found that only 28% of the legal needs of the poor are being addressed. "It's kind of a weird situation," said John Hedges, executive director of the Pro Bono Project Silicon Valley, which boasts a roster of 512 lawyers, compared with fewer than 400 a year ago. "As the economy goes bad, our clients' needs go up, and our income goes down because nobody has as much money to give," he said. "But at the same time, there are more volunteers." The altruistic trend is spreading nationally. Source: San Francisco Chronicle |
| Somali Bantu Refugees Welcomed in US |
|
In 1999, the US Government recognized the extreme
vulnerability of the Somali Bantu refugees at Kenya's
Kakuma refugee camp and agreed to resettle some 12,000 of
them. The refugees have been waiting at Kakuma ever
since to begin the long journey to the US.
Centuries ago, the ancestors of these Bantu trekked east and south from West Africa, some settling in Mozambique. Many fell prey to Arab slavers. Others settled into second-class citizenship in Somalia's Juba River valley, with little access to education, land, or political rights. Thousands fled to Kenya's Dadaab refugee camp from marauding gunmen during Somalia's civil war. "The Bantu have proved their adaptability under all circumstances," says Joe Roberson, Director of the Church World Service Immigration and Refugee Program, "but in their early days in the US, they will need solid support as they adapt to their new lives and a vastly different culture. That's the strength of CWS's network of faith-based and other community organizations." The first two families were welcomed this past week, a family of five in Denver, and a family of nine in Phoenix. "It's the capacity and willingness of CWS affiliate agencies and local communities of faith who become hosts to the refugees that help guide even the least acculturated," says Roberson. CWS, a Life-Net News Featured Charity, expects to resettle more than 900 of the Somali Bantus. It is one of nine US voluntary agencies that will be resettling the Bantus over the next two years. Source: CHURCH WORLD SERVICE More: National Public Radio |
| Boom Time in NYC's Housing Court |
|
Since its inception 30 years ago, New York City's housing
court has sometimes resembled a chaotic netherworld worthy
of Dickens. There some of the city's poorest tenants, or
the most litigious, quarrel eternally with their landlords
in courtrooms so wretched that even judges have described
them as black holes of Calcutta.
But the daily combatants are a much more mixed lot these days. On any given day now, one might find Josie Gomez, a former dental-office manager who was making $52,000 a year plus bonuses before the office closed a few months ago. Unable to find a job, Ms. Gomez, a 29-year-old Queens resident, finds herself a couple of months behind in her $865-a-month rent and facing eviction. One might also bump into a former Bloomingdale's executive who once made $175,000 a year. She lost her job two years ago, bled through her retirement savings and ended up in Manhattan's housing court in October because she was three months behind on her $1,580-a-month rent. Eventually, she found a $26,000-a-year job and an apartment that was $500 cheaper. "You definitely see more working- and middle-class people coming through housing court," said Judge Fern A. Fisher. "You see more nonpayments, you see more small owners, and you can expect that we all will be under the gun for the next few years." Source: New York Times |
| Quakers Make Gains in Afghan Education |
|
To assess the needs of Afghan refugees and displaced
persons forced to leave their homes because of drought,
destruction of their homes, poverty, or fear of violence,
between October 2001 and January 2002 the American
Friends Service Committee, a Life-Net News Featured
Charity, organized short-term missions to northern
Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Iran. In addition to providing
emergency relief supplies, AFSC also concluded that its
long-term work in the region should focus on Afghanistan's
educational system.
The long-term work included construction and repair of primary and secondary schools for girls and boys, and a literacy program for women. Both projects have made inspiring progress in the past year. In August 2002, groundbreaking took place on the first school in Afghanistan to be built with AFSC funds. The school was completed this past February and opened its doors on April 13. It's a modest, eight-classroom building, but it will make a world of difference to young Afghan children eager to learn. Twenty war widows last March completed the first session of the AFSC-supported literacy and sewing program in the Foladi area of Bamiyan province. The women learned to operate a sewing machine and attended literacy classes four hours a day, six days a week, for six months. The combination of literacy and vocational training advanced the women's education and gave them a trade so they could support themselves and their families. Graduates received a sewing machine, cloth, and other tools needed to make a living as seamstresses. During the training, each trainee received a stipend of $30/month to help support her family. The Foladi area was chosen for this project because, in 2001, many men in the area were killed and many houses were burned to the ground. Source: AMERICAN FRIENDS SERVICE COMMITTEE |
| In Defense of Evangelical Aid Groups |
|
Old stereotypes of Bible-pounding, cross-waving
missionaries are alive and well. In reality, most relief
organizations subscribe to a "code of conduct" established
by the International Red Cross to protect the rights of
people receiving assistance. It includes a "humanitarian
imperative," emphasizing that aid be given regardless of
race, creed, or nationality. Most Christian humanitarian
groups operate pretty much the same way: They dispatch
workers to dangerous and impoverished parts of the world
to provide food, water, medical care, and other services
in the name of Jesus.
Officials told me they knew of no Christian agencies that condition aid on their ability to evangelize. "When our workers go into a place to provide relief, their primary concern is to offer a tangible expression of God's love," says Mark Kelly of the International Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention. "They respond to questions people ask, but there are no aggressive attempts to persuade people about matters of faith." Nevertheless, many assume that Christian ministries will be viewed as covert agents of an American war on Islam. Muslim scholar Abdulaziz Sachedina told Christianity Today that evangelistic groups should "wait until things cool off" in Iraq. Christian NGOs, however, appear as capable as their secular counterparts at overcoming local antagonism. Many evangelical charities, for example, have an impressive track record of assistance to Muslims. World Concern, launched in 1955, now operates in 30 countries, some with Islamic majorities. "Some of the most sensitive countries are the ones in which we've worked longest," says president Paul Kennel. Compassion International has cared for needy children in Islamic states since the 1960s. World Vision has provided food aid in the Middle East for over 25 years. "We don't go in through the back door," says public policy director Serge Duss. "We're invited in by government leaders." Source: Heritage Foundation |
| A Jewish Look at 'Values-Driven Capitalism' |
|
Over the past few years, there has emerged a movement for
"values-driven capitalism" that takes very seriously the
power of the system, not only to create upheaval and
innovation, but to uplift human beings around the globe.
Comprised partly of entrepreneurs, corporate managers and
management gurus, partly of philosophers and activists,
this new movement is like a preppy sibling to the more
grassroots, anti-corporate social responsibility
organizations of the left. Their shared lineage traces
back to the 1970s, when the counter-culture gave rise to
two broad branches, one political in orientation, the other
focused on "human potential" disciplines and modes of
spirituality.
Shortcomings aside, the emphasis that this new movement places upon the transformation of economics through spiritual growth is not to be discounted. Harnessing the power of capitalism so that it sustains, rather than ravages, the planet and its inhabitants requires many harness-makers--and each, in turn, must have access to a moral understanding that enables him or her to be motivated by communitarian values and not simply by greed and competitiveness. Jewish thought makes this clear by offering no distinction between "the system" and the individual when it comes to fulfilling commandments-- including the commandment of yishuv olam, "settling the world" (i.e., creating wealth, based on Genesis 2:15). By Judaism's light, however, yishuv olam should yield (in Rabbi Milton Bonder's formulation in The Kabbalah of Money) "abundance [that] we create for a given human need, without generating the scarcity of another need." Judaism, in other words, favors economic sustainability, which we achieve by "remembering God," remembering the common cause of humanity, as we function in the marketplace, and by finding disciplines and systems that channel our natural yetzer hara, the lustful urge that fuels human civilization, in socially redemptive directions. At the very core of the Jewish concept of sustainability is the covenantal metaphor, which posits a divine-human partnership in the many tasks of creating and recreating the world. This partnership is based on a contract that places limits on human greed and on divine power. At Mt. Sinai, every slave-cum-"harness-maker" is called to participate in this contract, "each and every one in keeping with his or her particular capacity" (Exodus Rabbah). In our own age, when corporate power over resources, time, distance and life itself is exercised on a "god-like" scale unimaginable to our forebears, the covenantal idea has greatly renewed relevance. Source: SocialAction.com |
| Life-Net News Extras |
| Quarter-Trillion Needed for Full African Farming |
|
The FAO representative in Senegal, Edouard Tapsoba has
emphasised the need for a $251-billion investment to
implement the 2002-2005 detailed programme for the
comprehensive development of agriculture in Africa.
The programme calls for the development of 20 million
hectares of irrigated lands, increased productivity and
food availability, the construction of rural
infrastructures and the development of new agricultural
technologies. "A part of these resources will be devoted
to urgent food aid and rehabilitation operations following
natural disasters and assistance to vulnerable groups,"
Tapsoba said.
African ministers of agriculture approved the programme in Rome last June, and its implementation will require the support of FAO and the African development bank (ADB), Tapsoba told a NEPAD workshop on agriculture here Tuesday. At the sensitisation workshop on the objectives of the agricultural component of NEPAD (the New Partnership for Africa's Development), Tapsoba deplored the poor performance of African agriculture, which has been declining since the late 1960s. "Though agriculture represents 60% of the continent's working population, it contributes just 20% toward export commodities, or 17% of gross domestic product (GDP). And Africa currently continues to import food products relentlessly in contrast to the 1960s when it was exporter of agricultural products," Tapsoba said. He said the continent has been spending about $19 billion on food product imports since 1980. Irrigated farming covers 7% of arable lands in Africa, Tapsoba said, compared to 41% in Southern Asia and 10% in Latin America. Africa uses 19 kg of fertilisers per hectare as compared to 100 kg in Asia and 230 kg in Western Europe. Source: PanaPress |
| Bush to Phase Out Environment by 2004 |
|
One day after Christine Todd Whitman departed her post at
the EPA, President George W. Bush announced ambitious new
plans to phase out the environment altogether by 2004. "In
addition to cutting taxes, it is the goal of this
administration to cut our wasteful, bloated environment,"
Mr. Bush said in a speech before the Association of
Indiscriminate Applauders in Washington, D.C.
While plans to eliminate the environment entirely are still being formulated, the general strategy of the White House is to phase out the environment gradually "so that hardly anyone will notice it’s gone," an aide said today. Apparently, the plan to phase out the environment may have prompted Ms. Whitman's decision to leave the EPA, since the agency's mission seemed increasingly nebulous in the absence of an environment to protect. "Christie decided to move from the EPA to New Jersey because a year from now New Jersey will still be around," one source said. The President's plan to eliminate the environment calls for a comprehensive review of all species currently living in the United States and the accelerated extinction of all superfluous organisms by the end of fiscal 2004. The plan also calls for a gradual reduction of air and water, with water most likely to get the axe. "If it comes down to choosing between air and water, the President will probably scrap water," one aide said. "After all, the Iraqis haven't had water in weeks and look how well they're doing." Source: The Borowitz Report |
| Israel Tries to Help the Money-Troubled |
|
Israel now has a record number of unemployed persons--
281,400, or 10.8% of the work force. The tight economic
situation is beginning to take its toll, even before the
onset of the new economic decrees scheduled to be voted on
very shortly. Three people committed suicide over the past
few days because of apparent economic difficulties.
Welfare Minister Zevulun Orlev (National Religious Party)
discussed this topic today with psychologists, welfare
department heads around the country, and Ministry
officials. He said afterwards that he plans to propose the
establishment of a high-level committee, staffed by the
directors of various government ministries, to deal with
the problem head-on and in a uniform manner.
Orlev said that ways must be found to deal with those who are having trouble meeting mortgage payments, small-business owners in trouble, and others. He also suggested the establishment of support groups for those who have lost their jobs, and called upon employers who have fired their workers to continue to invite them to work-related events, "so that they will not feel alone at this critical point in their lives." Minister Orlev had some advice for family members: "Unite and support each other; family support is critical when dealing with financial difficulties." He then turned to the media, saying that journalists must "show more responsibility" when covering suicides. He said that studies have shown that the size of headlines and the way in which suicides are reported can influence others, particularly young people, to imitate those they read about. Source: Israel National News |
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