Moments for Mission

Harvest of Hope
“We can do about anything we want,” smiles Mama Fineza Cacessela (mah-MAH fee-NAY-zah kah-say-SAY-lah), member of a garden cooperative in northern Angola.

Some 400 families in three villages of northern Angola are allowing themselves to dream of a better future — many for the first time in years. These villages are coming back from 30 years of civil war. Only recently have the families returned home from their forced displacement. Today, secure in a country at peace, they are rebuilding their community — and their lives — aided by seeds, tools and technical assistance made available from Church World Service. Small steps like the garden cooperative are a big beginning.

“We can rehabilitate our homes. Many need new roofs. Or we can pay a teacher who can help us women to continue to learn,” says Engracia Antonio (ihn-GRAH-see-ah an-TOH-nee-oh), one of the cooperative leaders from Cassona Gasonga (cah-SOHN-ah gah-SOHN-gah). Virgina Jorge (VEER-hee-nyah JOHR-jay), another leader from Cassona Gasonga, adds, “We can help the elderly or the sick in the village. We can even start a pharmacy.” Maria Tito (mah-REE-ah TEE-toh ), a cooperative member from Negage-Kisseque (nay-GAH-gay kee-SAY-kay), says, “We can buy a grinding mill to save our backs from the hard work of pounding cassava and to fetch a higher price in the market by selling flour instead of cassava roots.”

Your gifts to Week of Compassion help make such programs possible.

Source: Church World Service/For congregational use


Finding Life After Disaster
Airda Mardia’s (AH-EER-dha MAR-dee-ya) youngest daughter was among the estimated 300,000 people killed or missing in the aftermath of the December 26, 2004, tsunami that devastated parts of South Asia. She and her family are coping with their loss and the effects of the disaster on their lives.

Airda lives in Suak Nie (SU-ahk NEE-ay), a small village close to Meulaboh (MYOO-lah-boh), on the northwest coast of Sumatra, in Indonesia. Before the tsunami, her village was home to 47 families. In the aftermath, only 25 families were left. And the land itself was contaminated by salt water.

Within months, the villagers worked together to acquire new land, where they began planting fruit and vegetables again. A new Suak Nie is being established. “It is time to look into the future,” says Muhamad Nurdin (Mo-HAH-mahd noor-DEEN), the community’s leader.

One way Church World Service assists the people of Suak Nie is by providing clean drinking water. Church World Service worked to install two water-purification units in Meulaboh, providing water to nearby camps and villages.

Your gifts to Week of Compassion help make such relief and recovery assistance possible.

Source: Church World Service/For congregational use

Education for Life
“I want to help my community,” says teenager Liliana Torres (lee-lee-AH-nah TOH-rays), “especially the women and children who don’t know how to maintain good health.”

Liliana lives with her family in a community of indigenous Wichi (wee-chee) people, in the Argentine Chaco (CHAH-coh), a dry, low-lying plain of grasslands and thorny forest. She is one of the first in her community to finish high school. Liliana wants to become a nurse.

Liliana’s village of 120 families lies on a flood plain. Church World Service partner FUNDAPAZ (foon-dah-PAHZ), Foundation for Development in Justice and Peace, helped the community obtain legal title to their land and prompted the provincial government to construct a levee to prevent flooding. FUNDAPAZ is also helping women of the community develop a cottage industry making and selling baskets and sandals.

Church World Service has launched a multi-year coordinated program with partners in Argentina, Bolivia and Paraguay to assist more than 250 indigenous communities in the Gran Chaco region of South America, where aggressive forestry and agricultural practices, along with mineral exploration, threaten the indigenous way of life.

Your gifts to Week of Compassion help make such programs possible.

Source: Church World Service/For congregational use

From Hurricane to Healing
In Moss Point, Mississippi, First Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) became a Disciples Mission Station for responding to the overwhelming needs caused by Hurricane Katrina. The church is home to approximately fifty members, some who are now facing homelessness, lack of transportation, and unemployment. When the hurricane hit, the residents of Moss Point experienced tremendous damage and destruction. Their lives were changed indelibly. While they have experienced hurricanes before, the effects of Katrina are incomparable. The recovery and rebuilding process will take a long time.

Mere days after Katrina devastated the community, Moss Point received an outpouring of love, support, and assistance from church partners. The sanctuary at First Christian Church now doubles as a health clinic where evacuees and victims of Katrina’s wrath receive free medical attention. Many members of the community have already received tetanus shots and other vaccinations. The Sunday School classrooms have been turned into warehouses full of supplies such as flood buckets, hygienic items, baby products, clothing, water, and food. People are getting what they need to begin rebuilding their lives.

Sharon Smith served as site coordinator for all of the relief efforts at the church. Week of Compassion provided funds for these efforts to rebuild and heal. “We didn’t know how blessed we were to be a part of a national denomination,” she said. “They’re taking care of us and providing financial assistance — and we couldn’t ask for much better than that.” Your gifts to Week of Compassion in the aftermath of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita have gone directly to help those most affected by these disasters.

Source: Amy Gopp, Week of Compassion

No Greater Gift
Angelo Bol (AHN-jay-loh bohl) is in his early 20s, an age when many young people are starting careers and families.

But Angelo is a volunteer aid worker with a Church World Service partner, the Sudan Council of Churches. He is one of a team of 30 Christians and Muslims who work to alleviate the suffering of families internally displaced by the genocidal violence in the Darfur region of Sudan. They distribute emergency aid from international donors such as Church World Service and assess needs in the camps that house internally displaced families.

Angelo has known the tragedy of war his whole life. He grew up in southern Sudan, where the country’s civil war raged throughout his childhood. “I’ve seen the suffering of these people, and this is the same experience that we faced in the south,” Angelo says. “I have nothing to give them, so I offered myself as a volunteer.”

In the Darfur region of Sudan, Church World Service is part of a coalition providing emergency supplies, seeds and tools, and trauma care to 500,000 of the most vulnerable people, as well as supplemental food for 50,000 children.

Your gifts to Week of Compassion help make such emergency and recovery assistance possible.

Source: Church World Service/For congregational use