Global celebration urges “radically new ways of living” to protect our common home

The Season of Creation, an annual celebration of prayer and action for the environment, begins on 1 September. During this annual event, Christians around the world renew their relationship with the Creator and all creation through celebration, conversion, and commitment.

Although Christian communities have incorporated this annual event into their calendars for years, this year’s celebration has particular resonance. During the health, economic, and environmental crises that have shaken our world, the season asks Christians to enter a “jubilee for our Earth,” which is the suggested theme for the season, and to find “radically new ways of living.” 

The season begins with a prayer service led by young people. With their prophetic stand for radically new ways of living, young people are urging adult allies to act now, while the option for acting is still with us. 

Throughout the season, thousands of digital commitments and hundreds of local events continue the momentum in locations as diverse as Nanyuki, Kenya, where shade and fruit trees will be planted to protect an ecologically sensitive site, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, where a group will plant trees in commemoration of the Amazon, and Wellington, New Zealand, where an ecumenical group will hold a walking reflection on the Genesis creation story. These events will draw from the celebration guide available here. 

In addition to commitments from the laity, high-level leaders including the Vatican and Catholic bishops’ conferences and bishops, Anglican Bishop Holtam of Salisbury, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, and other leaders have made statements in support of the season and its opening day, the World Day of Prayer for Creation. 

The history of the Season of Creation reveals its true ecumenism. Ecumenical Patriarch Dimitrios I proclaimed 1 September as a day of prayer for creation for the Orthodox in 1989. The World Council of Churches was instrumental in making the special time a season, extending the celebration from 1 September to 4 October, the Feast of St. Francis. Pope Francis made the Roman Catholic Church’s warm welcoming of the season official in 2019.

An ecumenical steering committee suggests resources for the season each year. More information is available at SeasonOfCreation.org

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Through the ACT Alliance’s Global Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic, ACT continues to respond to the needs of affected individuals, families and communities around the world.

ACT members PELKESI, YAKKUM Emergency Unit (YEU) and the Center for Disaster Risk Management and Community Development Studies (CDRM & CDS), share two human impact stories from communities that they have supported during the pandemic. In line with ACT’s commitment to the Localisation Agenda, national ACT members are working with local partners, churches, faith actors, and governments to support the most vulnerable.

The first story highlights the impact of ACT member CDRM & CDS through their support to 38-year-old Mrs Jernita Sababalat, a small store owner from the Makukuet Hamlet of Matobe Village, Indonesia. Despite her disabilities and being a mother of three children, the support provided by CDRM & CDS has allowed Mrs Jernita to continue to work in her store and provide for her family amidst the difficulties that they face during COVID-19.

Mrs Jernita is one of the many women who received support from CDRM & CDS back in 2016 to set up her store, which, serves as an important source of income for her family. Today, CDRM & CDS continues to support the Matobe Village, this time raising awareness of COVID-19 and sharing transmission prevention tools and strategies.

“First, I heard about the Corona Virus through the TV/media. More and more people were infected and died. This situation scared our family of being infected by the deadly virus,” said Ms Jernita. “We got more scared and decided not to go out because we did not want to get infected,” she said.

Mrs Jernita’s family is one of the many who received informational materials and personal hygiene tools including buckets, soap and masks. “It is not because the virus is no longer dangerous, but the health information and personal hygiene kits make me and my family less worried of being infected as long as we follow the recommendations of CDRM & CDS,” said Mrs Jernita.

Mrs Jernita’s husband echoed sentiments of gratitude to the ACT member, “thank you very much to CDRM & CDS for sharing information on how to prevent COVID-19. More communities are aware of prevention techniques. Thus, I am calmer now,” he said.

The second story sheds light on the work conducted by ACT member YEU in supporting female-headed families, persons with disabilities, the elderly, and those with chronic illnesses.

Ms Mugiyem is a 76-year-old woman who harvested rice, cassava and peanuts. While some of her harvests were unsuccessful, others have been destroyed by monkeys. The destroyed crops, along with worsening pain in her knees, which have left her unable to work her farm and in need of support.

She has not sought medical assistance due to a lack of funds for the treatment and has also been worried about the risk of contracting COVID-19 at the Community Health Center.

Ms Mugiyem’s is one of 150 families that received cash-transfer assistance during the pandemic. Through a cash transfer program supported by ACT member YEU in collaboration with the local church, she received Rp.600.000 (approximately USD 41), enough to seek the necessary treatment for her knees and some needed household items.

“I used the money to buy things for my daily needs, such as seasoning, and clothes for my daughter.  I also used the money to pay for the treatment for my knee. Before I received this assistance, I did many things to meet my daily needs, but this assistance has helped me a lot,” she said.

These stories have been adapted from Human Impact Story, July 2020. The full stories are available here.

The consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic hit people hard all around the world. But it hits people like Sani and her parents-in-law in Nepal particularly strongly. Single mothers, persons with disabilities and elderly people with no or very small incomes have no resources to bridge a crisis like the current pandemic. That’s why ACT Alliance-members like Christian Aid focus their aid on highly vulnerable groups like these.

Sani Tamang lost her eyesight due to an illness when she was eight years old. She didn’t have the opportunity to study or learn a vocation skill. Currently, her life revolves around her four-year-old son who is her reason for living. Her husband left her a few years ago just after a month of marriage. She now lives with her elderly in-laws in Tamakoshi, Dolakha. Padam Lama is 77 years old and his wife, Batuli Lama, 73 years old. The couple are tenants on a small farm and their only regular income is the old age allowance they get. Sani helps them by cutting grass and peeling vegetables to cook. Her father-in-law works as a labourer whenever he can to meet the family’s needs. When the government of Nepal announced the lockdown due to the COVID-19 crisis though, he had no option but to stay home. As a result, the family has problems earning enough income to cover their daily needs.

Desperate situation

Sani says that there was no cash to buy food and the grocery shop also stopped giving anything on credit as they already had old debts to pay. Due to the lockdown, Sani couldn’t get the social security allowance for disabled persons as the government offices were closed for some time and the money was not released. This meant that they were not sure when they would get the allowance. Sani’s family urgently required support to meet their basic food needs. They had very little savings so they were depending on some food they had in the farm, including millet and maize. With their little available money, they had to buy vegetables, oil and lentils. They could not afford much and also had to save some of their money as they were not sure how long the lockdown would last.

Happy moment

However, the local government of Tamakoshi included Sani and her relatives in the list of families to receive support from organisations like Christian Aid and the Community Development Forum (CDF) Nepal that provide food supplies for the families in need.

It was really a happy and delightful moment for the family as they received enough food supplies for a month. For Sani it meant that she could feed her son a proper meal and not worry about food. “We are cooking the food we got and enjoying our meals. My son heartily savours eating and that makes me content and joyful,” she expresses.

Positive changes in the Municipality

The Tamakoshi Rural Municipality realised the difficulties that people were going through due to the lack of a social security allowance. So after a few weeks of lockdown they released the money to help them in these critical times. The municipal government in spite of the restrictions due to COVID-19 allowed development and construction work so that people could earn money for their daily household needs by working for the building owners.

As part of their response to COVID-19, Christian Aid Nepal has been supporting the communities of Rasuwa, Khotang, Dolakha, Dhading, Bardiya and Kailali districts, focusing on women, persons with disabilities, elderly and other vulnerable groups.

ACT Alliance Response

ACT Alliance launched its global COVID-19 response globally, directly funding ACT members’ support of communities affected by COVID-19. ACT’s total response includes members like Christian Aid who have raised their own funding. ACT members support people like Sani and her family in improving their own lives by supporting national health systems, working with community leaders in providing accurate and timely information to communities, and providing sorely needed support.  Always with a focus on gender, and the protection of the most vulnerable communities while engaging local faith actors to actively participate in humanitarian action. 

Sunjuli Singh Kunwar, Christian Aid Nepal

The ACT Brazil Forum (FEACT) has been closely following developments around the eviction of 650 families in the Quilombo Campo Grande, a community that has been producing healthy, organic food for over 2 decades and whose land is desired by agribusiness.  FEACT has issued this statement in the wake of the actions taken against the families in Quilombo Campo Grande:

Today is a sad day for Brazil.

Amid an unprecedented pandemic that has already killed more than 100,000 Brazilians, the “Quilombo Campo Grande” camp, in southern Minas Gerais, was surprised last morning by war-like acts. Hundreds of police cars made a violent appearance to evict the 650 families that have resisted and produced healthy food over the last 20 years. One of their products is the Guaií organic coffee: Quilombo Campo Grande is located in an area that produces one of the best coffees in the world. Coveted by large agribusiness corporations, those lands are the scenario for a dispute between two models. One of them shares income and respects the environment, whereas the other concentrates wealth, excludes people and destroys the environment.

Those families have suffered with threats from gunmen for many years. According to some sources, they act under the command of the former owner of a bankrupt plant. Over 22 years, there were 5 evictions and many demonstrations of national and international solidarity.

The eviction we witness today is consequence of the pressure made by João Faria, one of the biggest coffee traders in Brazil. This agribusinessman is seeking to extend his production area and the interests of large corporations are also involved in this eviction, including multinationals like Nestlé and Mondelez. It is worth highlighting that João Faria was one of the main donors to the President Jair Bolsonaro campaign in 2018.

We “demand” from Governor Romeu Zema and from competent institutions the immediate suspension of the eviction, and the respect for the human rights of those families and other thousands that suffer with similar violence in Brazil nowadays.

Once again, this action evidences how the Brazilian government is exclusively oriented by the interests of the financial capital and multinationals. The lives of Brazilian people are jeopardized by those who should protect them.

They want to extinguish our culture, our spirituality, our right to dream. It is no surprise that the first act of the military police was to attack the local church and the local school, which is called Eduardo Galeano.

These are the open veins of Latin America, which bleed in face of a new colonialism that “hastens the domain of violence”. (Am 6.3)

                          12 August 2020.

Today, on International Youth Day, ACT Alliance is celebrating the work of young people from within its network across the globe who continue to strengthen and amplify the work and impact of the Alliance. The theme for this year’s celebration, Youth Engagement for Global Action, allows us the opportunity to highlight and celebrate ACT’s youth in the life of the Alliance.

Through ACT’s Youth Community of Practice (CoP), young people continue to actively engage in various forms of advocacy and actions at the local and global level, ranging from demanding climate justice, to campaigning for gender justice and inclusion, to taking measures to mitigate the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Since the ACT Alliance General Assembly in Uppsala (2018), significant efforts have been made to mainstream young people in the life of the Alliance. ACT is currently in the process of integrating young people to the Governing Board to ensure that youth directly contribute to the decision making processes of the Alliance.

“Youth engagement in ACT Alliance has various purposes. It provides a platform for youth organisations within ACT’s network, and it gives youth the opportunity to participate and to raise a unified voice in global discussions and in the decision making processes of ACT Alliance,” says Amanda Björkell, Co-chair of ACT’s Youth CoP.

Today, ACT’s youth are present and active in national and sub-regional forums, the newly established reference groups, and in various global processes within which ACT engages. ACT Youth have participated in key platforms and processes including the Beijing +25 youth taskforce, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change negotiations, the High-Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development, the Civil Society Partnership for Development Effectiveness, among other platforms that are key for facilitating Global Action.

In these spaces, youth contribute their voices, perspectives, experiences, and solutions from the local to the global level. By acting together, ACT’s youth demonstrate the Hope in Action that is needed to enrich national and multilateral processes for a better and more sustainable world.

As we celebrate these milestones, ACT also recognises the various challenges that young people across the globe are currently facing, particularly amidst the COVID-19 pandemic.

ACT stands in solidarity with youth affected by discrimination, increased domestic and gender-based violence, the humanitarian crisis in Beirut, the protracted and violent conflicts in South Sudan and Syria, the human rights violations due to anti-corruption protests in Zimbabwe, the post-electoral protests in Belarus, and youth affected by other challenges in their attempts to contribute to a better future.

ACT’s youth are committed to continuing to set an example for youth engagement in global actions by building on the learnings of St. Paul to young Timothy in 1 Timothy 4:12, “Let no one despise you for your youth, but set the believers an example in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, in purity”.

Background

ACT Alliance’s members work through national, sub-regional and regional forums, supporting each other and leveraging collective action in humanitarian, development and advocacy engagement. ACT Alliance is in a key position to act to transform gender injustices by bridging the discourse of religion with that of secular and human rights, and by mobilizing faith leaders.

ACT Alliance, through support from Sida, will fund projects that will help to implement overarching priorities in six gender thematic areas. The application process is open to all ACT Alliance Forums. Projects will be developed by Forums with direct implementation by ACT Alliance members. Collaboration with other Forums and members is highly encouraged.  

Interested Forums should submit concept notes directly to the ACT Alliance Secretariat contacts found at the bottom of this call by September 13, 2020..

Objective

This call for concept notes will be the first of two steps towards supporting projects that contribute to gender just societies and build on the Global Strategy for ACT Alliance 2019-2026 and ACT’s Gender Justice Policy.^[1] ACT Alliance seeks practical initiatives that strengthen the engagement of faith in the service of human rights. Developed by and with ACT Forums and members, the objective of the proposed initiatives will be to mainstream gender into member projects and programmes, as well as address gender justice issues directly, to ensure that:

• Women have a voice, agency and increased decision-making power,
• Gender norms, roles and inequalities have been considered, and measures have been taken to actively address them (including work on transformative masculinities), and
• Gender security sensitivity has been raised in the ACT Alliance membership in order to address security threats to women, men, and LGBTI-people that work for gender justice.

The projects will have to address one or more of the following thematic areas of the Gender Justice Programme:

1. Gender-Based Violence
2. Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights
3. Economic Justice
4. Transformative Masculinities
5. Family Law
6. Migration and Displacement

Selected projects will receive up to USD 50,000 and guidance from ACT’s Gender Programme team. A small number of proposals could be considered and receive funding up to USD 75,000 based on their strategic or innovative contribution to gender justice. Please indicate in your application if you consider your project as strategic or innovative.

Ultimate Outcome

Under this call, your concept note must address the following outcome:

• Contribute to changes in policy, practices, narratives and attitudes on gender justice in faith communities, by positively affecting the commitment of churches and other faith-based organizations within the Alliance, as well as their programming, and their advocacy to promote and realise gender justice.

Additional Guidance

Gender Policy

Applicants should indicate whether they have a gender policy, or if a policy is not in place they should indicate their interest in developing a policy through ACT support.

Advocacy

Concept notes may contain advocacy activities aimed at lifting existing barriers and reducing the occurrence of harmful social norms and practices that prevent rights-holders from realizing their fundamental rights.

Preference may be given to proposals that:

• Demonstrate collaboration, in the form of partnerships with other forum members.
• Include innovative approaches that are adapted to the specific context of their implementation.
• Demonstrate clear strategies for addressing sustainability and local ownership, including enhanced participation by local organizations.

How we assess your concept note

Please note that this call will use a two-step application process. In this call, applicants must submit a brief concept note based on the template found as an annex in this document. Successful applicants will be asked to work in collaboration with ACT’s Gender Programme in a second step in the process to refine aspects of the project concept and develop full project proposals. Successful applicants will also be expected to work with ACT staff to ensure that effective monitoring, evaluation and reporting is integrated into projects. Where appropriate, applicants should seek guidance from ACT’s Gender Programme team.

Applications under this call will be assessed on the ability of applicants to sufficiently demonstrate how they will contribute to the objectives and outcomes appearing above. Applications will be assessed by a selection committee that will include ACT members who are part of ACT’s Global Gender Reference Group and by Gender Programme staff. Applications that do not fully demonstrate a contribution to the expected requirements will not be further assessed but could benefit from other ACT Gender Programme initiatives and support in the near future. ACT Alliance Secretariat is also anticipating a call for gender justice projects during 2021. You will be notified if your concept note is selected or if it does not meet expected requirements.

Submissions and questions specific to this call

Please send your complete concept note by September 13, 2020, to Elaine Neuenfeldt, ACT Alliance Gender Programme Manager, at elaine.neuenfeldt@actalliance.org, and to Jaime Hidalgo, ACT Alliance Gender Project Coordinator, at jaime.hidalgo@actalliance.org.

 If you have any questions about this call, please email both contacts above by August 28, 2020.

^[1] Global Strategy for ACT Alliance 2019-2016: https://actalliance.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/10-Global-Stategy-2019-2026.pdf — ACT Gender Justice Policy: https://actalliance.org/documents/act-gender-justice-policy/

The scale, resilience and rapid transmission of COVID-19 has caught the world by surprise, leaving nations, healthcare workers and the general population scrambling to obtain access to adequate personal protective equipment (PPE) overnight. To ensure that the most vulnerable of communities and health workers on the frontline are well-protected and guarded from the virus, Community World Service Asia (CWSA) distributed PPE kits to provincial hospitals in Laghman province of Afghanistan. This intervention is supported by the ACT Alliance’s Rapid Relief Fund (RRF) in response to humanitarian crises.

Laghman’s provincial health directorate facilitated with the smooth implementation of the project activities. A hundred-and-fifty PPE kits were distributed to health workers and hospitals that are engaged in COVID-19 screening[1]. Each kit includes a head cover, a heavy-duty apron, surgical scrubs (trousers and shorts), a patient coversheet, disposable gown, gloves, facemask, face shield, goggles, safety shoes and hand sanitizers. These kits will help provide front-line aid workers with a safe environment for monitoring, diagnosing and treating COVID-19 cases.

The distribution took place on June 20^th in the presence of Laghman’s Provincial Health Director, Director of Economy, Governor Representative, Hospital Director, CWSA’s project team and health workers from the provincial hospital. “These kits are vital to protect frontline health worker from the virus when they are on duty. I urge the health workers to use these kits responsibly to avoid the spread of the coronavirus and help overcome this pandemic with limited number of lives lost,” remarked Dr. Samad Ali, Public Health Director.

Discussing the COVID-19 pandemic’s effect on the global economy, Shafiqullah Shafaq, the Economy Director, shared, “This pandemic has impacted not only human lives, but has also weakened many countries’ economies, contributing to employment losses, industry declines, and reducing income production for both households and companies. Many countries’ GDP has been hit hard like Afghanistan. This form of assistance that humanitarian organisations offer plays a significant role in working together to overcome this pandemic and bring back normal life.”

“There is a desperate need for PPE kits for health workers at several hospitals in Afghanistan. Immediate provision of such safety kits to heath staff will enable them to respond quickly to COVID-19 positive cases. We intend to conduct an internal training to educate personnel on the correct usage of such packages and to prevent their misuse,” Director of the Provincial Hospital further added.

[1] ‘Emergency Response and provision of Personal Protective Equipment Project’, implemented by Community World Service Asia and funded by ACT Alliance in Afghanistan’s Nangarhar and Laghman Province.

Public Statement on peace and human rights along the Armenia-Azerbaijan border

ACT Alliance welcomes the cessation of direct military action on the Armenian-Azerbaijan border last month. We urge the parties of the conflict to continue to respect the ceasefire and de-escalate the situation in order to avoid further casualties. We deeply regret all loss of lives, and offer our sincere condolences . We stand in solidarity with those who lost a loved one in the hostilities.

We recognize the efforts of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) Minsk Group Co-Chairs and reiterate our full support to their efforts to peacefully address the situation.

In the current context, with the novel coronavirus pandemic, efforts to ensure peace are more important than ever. As both sides have been badly affected by the pandemic, we are concerned that the threat of violence could exacerbate both the health risks and have heavy socio-economic implications for the citizens living in the border regions. Difficulties with access to water reservoirs and farmland present an increasingly greater risk to the civilians’ livelihood in the area. The hardship faced by civilians reconfirms the need for mutual understanding and cooperation across the border. Such cooperation has to consider the duty to protect all civilians as per commitments to uphold human rights and International Humanitarian Law.

Therefore, ACT Alliance calls for:

• The engagement of faith actors and civil society in peacebuilding efforts along the Armenia-Azerbaijan border. 
• All parties to continue to respect the ceasefire, de-escalate the situation and avoid further casualties.
• All parties to respect the duty to protect all civilians as per obligations to uphold human rights and International Humanitarian Law.
• All parties to engage in existing opportunities for peaceful negotiations as well as enhanced mechanisms for communication to ensure the safety of all civilians.
• Inclusion of local faith actors and civil society from all sides in dialogue processes that seek solutions to the conflict.

Download the statement here

ACT Alliance EU collaborated with Islamic Relief Worldwide, Caritas Europa and EU-CORD to address a significant gap in the COVID-19 response at EU level: engagement with religious leaders and faith communities. A large proportion of EU assistance is operational in countries and regions where religion and faith play a large part in shaping customs, practices and frameworks of well-being. The EU itself has noted:

“Sometimes religious leaders are the only way to reach out to local communities.

Religion and the EU’s external policies: Increasing Engagement, EPRS, pp.8–9

Evidence and input from ACT Alliance global members and field teams contributed to shaping tools provision of practical considerations for policy makers and civil society on ways of collaboration with religious leaders and faith communities, navigating complex and significant challenges in doing so and developing religious literacy. We also evidence many examples where religious leaders and faith communities play an essential role in helping the broad community to prepare for, respond to, and recover from shocks such as the COVID-19 pandemic.

When faced with a crisis with the urgency of a pandemic, what can staff in EU Delegations or the ECHO field office do to engage with religious leaders and faith communities?

The toolkit aims to answer this question.

Download it here: Toolkit – Engaging with religious leaders and faith communities

ACT member Diakonie Katastrophenhilfe (DKH) has trained volunteers in the Hobyo district to inform community members about the dangers of the Coronavirus.

Nasteha Nor Abdi is 27 years old and lives in Wisil, a small town in the Hobyo district of eastern Somalia. Nasteha was trained as a volunteer health worker in May with Diakonie Katastrophenhilfe’s partner organization Center for Peace and Development (CPD). Since then, she has been travelling with other volunteers to public places and to markets in her community to raise awareness of how communities can protect themselves from the Coronavirus, and how to deal with those who are ill.

“We have social values and beliefs that make it difficult to fight the pandemic. Due to a lot of misinformation, many people here believe that this is a disease that only non-Muslims can be affected by. It is difficult to educate people about the dangers of COVID-19.” Nasteha believes that her calling is to support the health of her community. “The health care system in Somalia is weak. Here in Hobyo, the health center is already struggling to treat underlying diseases. Therefore, prevention is our only hope.”

“So far, the volunteer team has educated about 500 people in Wisil,” Nasteha proudly reported. Through this initiative, Nasteha and other community mobilizers have trained youth groups on how to wash their hands properly, to use masks, and to be aware of possible treatment options. The volunteers also worked with community leaders, including elders, religious leaders and women’s groups to disseminate their messages.

“Thanks to our efforts, local communities have now accepted that COVID-19 is a real threat and are practicing preventive measures. This motivates us to reach out to even more people in Hobyo, Wisil and the surrounding area to protect them from the disease,” said Nasteha.

“Our biggest threats are misinformation and misperceptions, and I am pleased that people are now better informed about the pandemic. They know how to deal with patients and suspected cases and how to protect themselves,” she continued.

Nasteha is happy to be able to help to protect her community and is grateful for the support of CDP,” without that help, we could not have accomplished so much,” she concluded.