News Briefs: January 27, 2006
Providing Counselling in Pakistan
Fatima is fourteen years old and currently living in a camp for people made homeless by the October 8, 2005, earthquake. Her family comes from a small town about two hours north of Balakot, which is now intermittently cut off by severe landslides.
Fatima is bright and energetic and is usually accompanied by her younger sister for whom she cares. Unfortunately, Fatima stopped schooling several years ago to look after her younger sisters.
Fatima was living with her mother, father and her father's second wife at the time of the earthquake. In the quake, their house collapsed, killing her mother. Before the earthquake there had been conflict between Fatima and her father's second wife. Now, as she grieves her mother's death, she has had to move in with her aunt because of a conflict with her father's second wife. She misses her mother and says she feels very unsafe, even though her relationship with her aunt is strong.
CLWR’s partner, Church World Service, is offering psychosocial counselling to girls like Fatima, trying to protect them from becoming alienated, or, like many girls her age, married off.
Fatima’s family is not sure about what they will do after the winter passes. Their land and home in Jared has been destroyed, and they are concerned that it will be many years before the road is reconstructed, making life there extremely difficult. The psychosocial team will continue to support the family as they gradually start making some of these decisions.
- Reports from ACT and CLWR News
Peace High on Agenda in Sudan
They whooped in joy as their battered buses swept into a dusty sports pitch. Then they clambered out to hear a prominent church leader who had come to visit this troubled region to pray for peace and to meet with local religious leaders.
In the sun in Nyala, the regional capital of South Darfur, Cardinal Keith O'Brien, head of Scotland's Roman Catholics, lead an ecumenical prayer for peace in Darfur on Sunday evening (January 22) in the presence of more than 2,000 people - women in brightly coloured toubs, men in pressed shirts, and children.
The cardinal is on a four-day tour of Darfur as part of a ten-day visit to Sudan, accompanied by Paul Chitnis, head of the Catholic Church's aid organization in Scotland (SCIAF/Caritas Scotland).
The visit is to see for himself the situation in Sudan on behalf of the Catholic Church and to learn more about the projects that people in Scotland have funded.
Over the coming days, he will be visiting the projects run by the ACT-Caritas relief operation in the south and west of Darfur and by its church-based partner agencies.
ACT-Caritas is a grouping of Protestant, Catholic, and Orthodox relief agencies from across the globe that has come together to work in Darfur.
After meeting church leaders, the cardinal met dozens of leading imams. The general secretary of imams, Abdullah Adam Noman, welcomed the cardinal and spoke of how both Islam and Christianity speak of respect for other faiths. He described how people in Sudan - whether Christian or Muslim - lived together. "We share breakfast. We have Christmas. We eat with them. We share with them. We are living together."
And he spoke of the troubles in Darfur: "You know very well that in this nation there are killings and differences and a lot of things."
"The imams and sheiks are also suffering," he said. "Their houses were also burned. Their property destroyed. Their children are also without education."
In response, the cardinal told the leaders that when he visited camps for displaced people in Juba, South Sudan and Khartoum, they did not distinguish between Christians in need and Muslims in need.
He said they simply saw: "A human being, created by Almighty God, who will receive our help."
The meeting ended with an embrace between the cardinal and the general secretary of imams - a symbolic union of their respective faiths.
Other imams and other church leaders then embraced on the floor of the hall.
CLWR continues to receive support for the crisis in Sudan.
- Reports from ACT and CLWR News
Will Peru Swing Left Too?
A conservative former congresswoman holds a clear lead over a left-leaning former army officer ahead of April's presidential election, according to a poll released Thursday.
The poll followed a string of surveys showing a surprising surge by the officer, Ollanta Humala. According to the results, Lourdes Flores had 29 percent support from respondents to 18 for Humala, an ally of Venezuela's leftist President Hugo Chavez and Bolivia's new Socialist President Evo Morales.
Humala's surge in recent months has rattled Peru's financial markets and its political establishment. Stocks here rallied Thursday on news of Flores' lead.
If no candidate gains a majority in the first round, a runoff would be held.
The rapid rise in Humala's popularity led to a barrage of attacks by critics who raised questions about Humala's commitment to democracy, his family's alleged racist attitudes and bitter infighting within his political alliance.
Manuel Saveedra, director of polling agency, noted that Humala had been favoured by many supporters of former President Alberto Fujimori, but said that support might waver now that a Fujimori-approved candidate, Martha Chavez, had launched her campaign last week.
Fujimori, whose 10-year autocratic government collapsed in a corruption scandal in 2000, had hoped to run again for president, but election authorities vetoed his bid in early January.
CLWR continues to support projects in Peru that strengthen local communities so that they advocate for social, cultural and environmental rights.
- Reports from Islandpacket.com and CLWR News Service
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