HOTLINE - week of April 18, 2005

Earth Day is Friday, April 22.

In the West African country of Burkina Faso, an environmental project involving three villages is helping some 600 adults to improve their families’ food security. The villages are in an area where soil degradation and erratic rainfall have led to chronic food deficits. Malnutrition is a common problem – particularly among children.

In the three-year project, which comes to a close the end of this year, members of six cooperatives (predominately women) are digging holes to retain rainwater, planting a total of 87 acres of wood and fruit trees, digging and maintaining 150 composting sites, and building rock dikes to control erosion on some fields surrounding the villages, with the help of Church World Service and partner Association for Peace and Solidarity.

Each village has a tree nursery that will produce as many as 10,000 seedlings per year. The trees will help prevent soil erosion, and provide wood for cooking, construction, and income-generation. The sale of nursery-grown fruit tree seedlings will provide operating costs for the nurseries. The fruit from these trees will help improve nutrition among the families.

In various parts of Africa, a CWS-supported project of partner the All Africa Conference of Churches is helping to spread knowledge through women’s groups to some 560,000 women from five sub-regions in Africa.

In Africa, women grow most of the food consumed by children and families, but very few women are involved in development planning across the continent.

To help address this need, the project enabled seven women from various parts of Africa to take part in a three-week exposure visit to the Self Employed Women Association in India, where they participated in seminars and field visits. Each woman gained an understanding of the impact of government economic policies, international financial institutions, and globalization on their daily lives; learned about the implications of gender in the economy; explored networking possibilities for economic development; and sharpened their skills in business, advocacy, and lobbying.

Each of the seven is now passing on what she has learned to ten of her colleagues -- knowledge that will eventually reach women's groups in 169 member churches and Christian councils in 39 African countries -- empowering women economically, politically, and personally.

"We were anticipating this day," exclaims a village fisherman in India. "It's a great feeling to go back fishing after such a long time. The water was quiet, and I was able to catch some fish." CWS partners are providing livelihood kits (fishing boats, motors, nets) to fishing families along the hard-hit southern coast of India. Some of the tsunami-affected families are also receiving distributions of food and other non-food items to tide them over until their livelihoods can be re-established.

In Sri Lanka, CWS Pakistan is working in support of local partner Sarvodaya, conducting assessments and facilitating relief assistance to tsunami-survivors living in 14 coastal-area camps. These relief packages also include items to revive fishing livelihoods, the primary source of income for 90 percent of affected Sri Lankans. Sarvodaya is also training teachers to counsel children exhibiting symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder.

CWS is also responding to needs of tsunami and earthquake survivors in Indonesia, and those affected by the tsunami in Somalia and Thailand.

In a recent letter to CWS Executive Director Rev. John L. McCullough, Thailand's ambassador to the U.S, Kasit Piromya, thanked Church World Service, on behalf of the Royal Thai Government and the people of Thailand, for the donation of 100 Interchurch Medical Assistance medicine boxes (medicines to meet the needs of approximately 100,000 people for three months) used to treat tsunami-survivors in six southern provinces of Thailand. Ambassador Piromya expressed his deepest appreciation and offered prayers for CWS’s ongoing tsunami relief and recovery work.

Your prayers and support - and your participation in CROP WALKS and the TOOLS & BLANKETS Program - make possible these and other life sustaining programs. For information on how to get involved, please call your Church World Service/CROP Regional Office toll-free at 1-888-CWS-CROP, that's 1-888-297-2767.

For information about free loan videos, please call 1-800-297-1516, ext. 338, or e-mail us at: videos@churchworldservice.org.

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