Prominent Advocates for Children and Justice to Speak at Faith-Based Advocacy Gathering

February 20, 2007

Ligna Rosa Pulido Mosquera of Colombia and Tom Loudon of the Quixote Center in Maryland at a panel on the Andean Free Trade Agreement during Ecumenical Advocacy Days 2006. Photo: Lynda Selde/CWS

Church World Service is bringing several international partners to speak and lead workshops at the March 9-12 Ecumenical Advocacy Days for Global Peace with Justice in Washington, DC.

As a primary sponsor of the annual gathering, Church World Service is also providing full scholarships for 10 participants from the U.S.

Ecumenical Advocacy Days is a movement of the ecumenical Christian community and its recognized partners and allies. More than 1000 people of faith from throughout the United States and representing a wide array of Christian communions are expected.

“And How are the Children?” is the theme of this year’s gathering. Participants will receive training in advocacy on behalf of policies that better meet the needs of the world’s children. The gathering will conclude with meetings on Capitol Hill where participants will ask their Congressional representatives to make the needs of children the center of the 2007 legislative agenda.

The plenary sessions and workshops are organized into eight tracks. Children's Defense Fund founder and president Marian Wright Edelman will speak at plenary, along with Stated Clerk of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) Clifton Kirkpatrick and Latin American Coordinator for the Global Network of Religions for Children Mercedes Roman.

International partners who providing leadership include:

• Pahola Yanina Rímola García, Program Coordinator of FEPAZ, the Guatemala Ecumenical Forum for Peace and Reconcilation, will participate in a panel on gang violence in Central America and present finding of a regional study on the subject, funded by CWS.  WOLA, the Washington Office on Latin America, is funding Pahola's visit.
• Germán Bournissen, National Coordinator of ENDEPA (National Team of Indigenous Pastoral in Argentina), who will speak on the impact of deforestation and environmental contamination on indigenous communities in South America’s Chaco Region.
• Francis Ng’ambi, Project Officer on Budget, Debt and Trade for the Economic Justice Network of the Fellowship of the Christian Councils in Southern Africa, who will address the Global Economic Justice track plenary;
• Jorge Freyre Scafati, General Coordinator of the Latin American and Caribbean Network for the Defense of the Rights of Children and Adolescents, who will give a workshop on the movement for children’s rights in Latin America;
• Paul Maina, CEO, Centre for Development Services (CDS), Kenya, providing consulting services for rural water projects evaluation and management, who will lead a workshop on making water accessible to all, in an African context;
• John (Jack) Dunford, Executive Director Thailand Burma Border Consortium, who will address the Asia-Pacific track plenary, and
• Sharon Rose Joy Ruiz, Marie Hilao Enriquez, Dr. Constancio Claver, Bishop Eliezer Pascua, and Jonathan Sta. Rosa from the Philippines who will speak on the violence in that country aggravated by foreign military and mining investments.

Representing US regions and CWS CROP networks are Jewel Traudt of Denver, CO; Karole Bradford of Wichita, KS; Ellen Fisher of Cedar Rapids, IA; Rev. Mark Richardson of San Luis Obispo, CA; Rev. Dr. Thomas Brow of Indianapolis, IN; Faye Caskey of Northfield, MN; Mark Coats of Austin, TX; Rev. Phillip Grigsby of Schenectady, NY; seminarians Lorrie Cooney and Kimberly Ruth of Harrisburg, PA, and Mary Catherine Hinds of the Carolinas CWS Office.

For more information and to register, visit the Ecumenical Advocacy Days web page at http://www.advocacydays.org/index.php . A bulletin insert is also available at http://www.advocacydays.org/bulletin_insert.pdf