What We Do - Jubilee Debt Relief

Man repairing bicycle. Photo: CWS

Church World Service assistance around the world helps to allay the shortcomings of government education and health programs — particularly in those countries that carry high international debt burdens. CWS assists partners in those countries in training low-income people in such areas as basic reading and math, basic health care, leadership skills, marketing, and legal rights, and helps to provide income-generation opportunities and loans to start small businesses. In Ethiopia, for example, a CWS-supported micro-project fund of our partner, the Christian Relief and Development Association, is assisting small-scale, community-based development projects that use appropriate technology to assist low-income people, particularly women, in providing a livelihood for themselves and their families.

In response to community health needs, CWS is providing or helping to provide training for community health workers and traditional birth attendants so that low-income people not only learn about sanitation and nutrition, but receive hands-on health care. CWS is helping to fill in the gaps for low-income people struggling to survive in countries with poor social programs.

Here in the U.S., Church World Service has supported the Jubilee debt relief initiative in numerous ways. Our CWS U.S. regional offices have made debt relief a primary education and advocacy focus of their fund-raising efforts. Participants in CROP hunger walks have been encouraged to "talk their walk" through advocacy for debt relief. CWS also produced other materials for church education, including a fact sheet and the Jubilee lapel pin, which CWS gave to all members of Congress and to key members of the U.S. Administration. CWS remains an active member of the Jubilee USA Network.

Rev. John L. McCullough, CWS Executive Director, says, "We are extremely proud of what we have been able to do as Church World Service to support this process. Our partners in these indebted countries have told us of the suffering this has imposed on them, and have shared their hopes for what debt relief will bring. The response across the country to the Jubilee debt relief movement shows that Americans do care about what our government does to help people around the world."