Moments for Mission
Pakistan
On October 5, 2005, a devastating earthquake struck South Asia, displacing tens of thousands of people in Pakistan. In the mountains of the Himalayas, entire villages were lost to the tremors, and harsh winters and monsoon rains made life in camps for the displaced precarious. Returning to destroyed villages and homes, families are working to regain what they lost in the quake – a process that will continue for years to come.
Church World Service and gifts from Week of Compassion are helping communities rebuild by training skilled craftspeople. Students are learning masonry, electricity, welding, plumbing, and carpentry, and taking ownership of the construction efforts.
With valuable skills in hand, the participants are not only building new homes for their families; they are also passing their knowledge to others and spearheading construction in their communities — working and leading in reconstruction efforts throughout the region.
Laos
Buga, or “Boo” as her friends call her, is a 10-year-old girl living in a remote mountaintop village in northern Laos. Boo’s family, like others in her village, are subsistence farmers and have very little cash income. In the past tradition has kept women and girls from interacting with others or going outside the domestic sphere.
With support from Church World Service and Week of Compassion, Boo’s village now has its first school, which the villagers helped build themselves. When Boo says she wants to be a doctor, there are smiles and sounds of encouragement from a crowd of adults surrounding the school. Boo’s village has no doctor or medical clinic and the mortality rate is very high — a homegrown doctor would make a world of difference to her community.
For Boo and for her village, the new school is making her dreams of being a doctor, and, in turn, of making her village a more healthful place, a promising one.
Guatemala
Some 570 Mayan families in 20 rural communities in Totonicapán (toe-toe-nee-kah- PAHN), in western Guatemala, are gaining appropriate technology, equipment, and training. Church World Service and a local partner organization are helping Mayan communities to increase and diversify family food production and improve the overall quality of life.
Antonía Tzul, a community leader and longstanding human rights activist, is especially vocal in defending the rights of indigenous women and children. She is also part of the field staff of the Food Security Program. Her village is in a region of Guatemala where nutrition levels are perennially precarious. New soil and water management methods that are efficient, sustainable, and protect the environment are helping villagers work to keep food on the table year round.
Your gifts to Week of Compassion are helping Antonía and her community move toward a more food-secure future.
Sudan
More than 2 million people in the Darfur region of western Sudan have been uprooted from their homes, and some 400,000 people have been killed by ethnic violence or have died from hunger or disease. Most of the displaced families are living in makeshift camps, and humanitarian needs are urgent.
A grassroots advocacy campaign here in the U.S. is working to raise awareness of the plight of the families in Darfur. Until peace comes, the pressing need for food and shelter must also be met
In a coalition effort, Church World Service is helping to provide water and sanitation, food, medicines, agricultural inputs and tools, and counseling to some of the most vulnerable. The program includes a supplemental feeding program for malnourished children
The internally displaced girl (pictured on this year’s poster) has waited in line for the water she now carries back to her family. Until the reasons behind her family’s flight from their home are resolved, your support for WOC is helping her and others like her in Darfur survive from day-to-day — and hope for tomorrow.
