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Church World Service's McCullough Speaks of Injustice, Immigration, Poverty and Hope in Historic Visit to Dominican Republic
(l-r) SSID Executive Director Lorenzo Mota King, Rev. McCullough, and CWS staffers Richard Williams and Martin Coria view with pride the plaque commemorating the CWS role in SSID's founding in 1962, on the SSID office building.
Photo: SSID
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[Full text of McCullough address]
For agencies involved in the vital business of changing lives, "there can be no neutrality or paralysis when it comes to matters of injustice." That was the message of the Rev. John L. McCullough, in an historic visit with Church World Service partners in the Dominican Republic.
McCullough made the remarks at the May 26 Annual Assembly of CWS partner Servicio Social de Iglesias Dominicanas (SSID) in the Dominican capital of Santo Domingo.
The trip, in which McCullough, executive director of Church World Service spoke of immigration, social justice, poverty and hope at the assembly and later in visits to programs run by CWS partner agencies, was both historic and celebratory.
SSID was established by Church World Service in 1962 as part of a localization effort aimed at helping global partners organize and run independent organizations. Now representing 17 member denominations and 16 church-related agencies, SSID is recognized as a major provider of social services in the Dominican Republic.
McCullough is the first Church World Service executive director to visit SSID and other Dominican partners of the New York-based humanitarian agency.
He congratulated SSID for being "a transforming influence in Dominican society" and for playing an important role in alleviating tensions over illegal migration.
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| A woman tends the fields in an income producing garden provided for Haitian sugar cane workers in the Dominican Republic. Photo: SSID |
The influx of Haitian immigrants has long been a source of tension between the two countries, which share an island. McCullough said SSID is helping to decrease that tension by creating a more sensitive environment in the Dominican Republic. "By their presence and their work, the agency serves as a conveyor of a positive and constructive message that is largely being well received by the people of the Dominican Republic."
In a nod to the current national debate over illegal immigration in the United States, Church World Service's support for the rights of immigrants, and its opposition to discriminatory legislation, McCullough told the delegates, "We respectfully disagree with those who propose building walls and electronic fences to keep people out when our custom has been to welcome strangers to the shores of the United States."
Following his address to the assembly, McCullough traveled inland for a pastoral visit with about 40 Haitian families who have settled on a private sugar cane plantation with the permission of the owner. These families do the backbreaking work of cutting cane for wages as low as $2 per day during harvest season.
"They are living in extreme poverty in inferior housing that provides adequate shelter only because of the mild climate," McCullough observed.
The workers' shacks have no electricity or running water. And, because the harvest season is no longer than six months, the workers and their families survive the rest of the year on the income from small crops of vegetables they grow and sell at local markets.
An SSID agronomist advises the families about the best crops to plant. The agency also helps the farmers get their produce to market.
Despite the extreme hardship, McCullough says he found visible signs of hope.
"Even with very limited resources they have a church and a school to educate the young people. That they are witnessing hope for their children is evidence of the deep and abiding faith that sustains them even under the hardest of conditions," he concludes.
Children--saving them--is the sole mission of Project Caminante, another CWS partner, which operates in the beachside resort town of Boca Chica. It is in this tourist playground that vulnerable girls and boys looking for a way out of poverty are regularly lured into the booming sex industry.
McCullough met with a group of high school students who work to steer their peers away from the abuse and exploitation of commercial sex work by holding Caminante-sponsored workshops in local schools and by pressing the cause of vulnerable children with local elected officials. He says the students--called "multipliers"--want to have a positive influence on other boys and girls in an environment that makes it difficult for youngsters to thrive.
"They recognize the huge vulnerability that comes with living in the midst of poverty and broken households and they realize that life offers more than what they see everyday. They have a strong desire to break free of the limitations of Boca Chica and to take advantage of the opportunities that education, employment, and travel might offer."
Since 2001, CWS has channeled $1.5 million in development and relief assistance to programs run by its Dominican partners. McCullough says the continuing commitment to this Caribbean region is possible because of the concern and generosity of people here in the U.S.
"This is not nameless, faceless support. It comes from the thousands of urban and rural congregations who participate in our annual fundraising CROP Walks and from the thousands of other people of goodwill all across the United States who send donations to Church World Service as a way of sharing with people whose way is hard in places these donors may never visit but whom they nevertheless care about."
McCullough also consulted with Dominican church leaders and government officials during the five-day visit and was briefed on the ongoing dialogue between Dominican and Haitian church leaders.
Church World Service, the relief, development and refugee assistance agency supported by 35 Protestant, Orthodox and Anglican denominations in the United States, this year is celebrating its 60th year of humanitarian service.
[Full text of McCullough address]
Media Contact:
Lesley Crosson, CWS/New York, 212-870-2676;
Jan Dragin, 781-925-1526;
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