Six major Nordic aid and development organisations, and members of ACT Alliance, have called on governments in Europe to take immediate response to the refugee crisis on Europe’s doorstep.

“People are dying on our doorstep – Europe needs to act now,” was the call from the organisations, highlighting: “In Europe, we pride ourselves being leaders when it comes to values like democracy and human rights. As organisations based on Christian values, we believe that we need to act. Now is the time to bring our values into action.”

As hundreds of government officials from across the world return to Bonn in one of their last bids to hammer out components of a climate agreement in time for the Paris, ACT Alliance is cautiously optimistic that a meaningful agreement is still within reach.

“With barely three months before the Paris summit, we in ACT Alliance, like many other climate justice oriented networks and organisations, have increased our efforts towards raising awareness on the critical importance of ambitious climate action,” says John Nduna, ACT General Secretary.

The alliance has been engaging since the beginning of the year in advocacy for climate justice and has together with its members and partners launched the ‘act now for climate justice’ campaigns in all regions of the world.

“We have spoken with many governments who have indicated to us that they are making effort towards an agreement in Paris that will curb emissions and protect millions of people and communities already affected by the impacts of climate change,” says Nduna.

Since there already is a draft agreement on the table, it is expected that negotiators will do their utmost over the next few days in Bonn to move the negotiations forward. ACT Alliance will have a delegation in Bonn for the entire period.

“At the end of this session, we want to conclude that there has been progress. Even though every country has its own priorities, now is the time to look for shared solutions. Bonn must move the negotiations closer to an agreement,” says Mattias Soderberg, Chair of the ACT Alliance advisory group on climate change advocacy.

ACT Alliance, as one of the largest humanitarian networks in the word, has been giving humanitarian aid to communities affected by severe floods, droughts and other impacts of climate change. In Pakistan, for example, members of the alliance are assisting communities that have been suffering the impacts of flooding for the last 3 months due to unprecedented increase in precipitation.

‘We are increasingly receiving many requests for humanitarian support to respond to different impacts of climate change,” says Nduna.

Meanwhile a 6500km Pan Africa Cycling Caravan for Climate Justice will be launched in Mozambique, to coincide with the beginning of the Bonn session. The cyclists will go through South Africa, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Malawi, Uganda, Tanzania and finally Kenya. This is one of the initiatives of the ACT Alliance climate ‘act now for climate justice’ campaign, which will culminate in Paris, during COP 21.

———–

Notes:

For further information contact: Vitumbiko Chinoko (Vitumbiko.Chinoko@actalliance.org, Tel.: +41791063912)

The We Have Faith – Act Now for Climate Justice Pan Africa Cycling Caravan launches this Saturday 29^th August. Cyclists are setting off on a 6500km journey from Maputo to raise the voices of people at the forefront of a changing climate. The caravan will go through South Africa, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Malawi, Uganda, Tanzania to Kenya. Along the way the cyclists and activists will collect one million signatures demanding action on climate change.

“This is the first ever long-distance caravan on bicycles led by young men and women from faith communities and civil society organisations in Africa, in support of one of the most important yet challenging issues of our time,” says John Nduna, ACT Alliance General Secretary.

The launch is expected to be presided over by His Excellency the President of Mozambique, plus Government Officials, the ACT Global Ambassador Representative, Bishop Carlos Matshinhe, the Climate Justice National Ambassador in Mozambique Rev. Marcos Macamo among others.  After a weekend of action and mobilisation, the cyclists leave the city on 31^st August (to coincide with the first day of the UN Climate Talks in Bonn).

“We need an agreement that immediately recognises the need for protection of the millions of people affected by the impacts of climate change, through building their resilience and adaptation capabilities,” says Archbishop Thabo Makgoba, of the Anglican Church in South Africa, who is the global ambassador of the campaign.

We Have Faith – ACT Now for Climate Justice is a joint Pan African initiative of the We Have Faith, Act Alliance, PACJA and Oxfam in Africa. Cycling is part of the global campaign of ACT Alliance and churches all over the world demanding for just, equitable and ambitious climate agreement from COP 21 in Paris, France, later this year.

——————

Notes:

Campaign up-dates are available on Twitter at @ACTNowforCJ and Facebook.  The global petition is available at www.actclimate.org

For further information contact: Benson Ireri (BIreri@christian-aid.org) or Vitumbiko Chinoko (Vitumbiko.Chinoko@actalliance.org, Tel.: +41791063912)

People, mostly men of all ages, crowded around the narrow walkway between the shelters and the wire fence surrounding the refugee camp high on a mountainside on the eastern shore of Chios, Greece. The atmosphere was noisy and chaotic with many languages being spoken at once. Garbage overflowed from the few bins along the path where people stood, sat, and walked.

Since March, 10,000 refugees have landed on Chios. Local authorities on this small Greek island of only 35,000 residents have been overwhelmed by the hundreds of men, women, and children who arrive daily at Chios’ small and outdated immigrant reception center. They struggle to register the refugees and provide basic shelter and food.

ACT member International Orthodox Christian Charities (IOCC) with a local partner, Apostoli, the humanitarian arm of the Church of Greece, is working to ease the burden on the island and improve poor hygiene and health conditions for refugees at the crowded reception centers. New portable showers have been installed, and plumbing and sewage systems upgraded to accommodate the influx of refugees with a place to take care of their personal hygiene in privacy and with dignity. IOCC is also providing hygiene kits customized to meet the needs of men, women, or infants, and promoting good hygiene practices with bilingual posters in English and Arabic.

During the distribution of hygiene kits, a young man not older than twenty emerged from his group of companions. His eyes were large and dark, his gaze unsettlingly serious. He held a necklace, a crucifix, in his hand, and offered it as a gift of gratitude for the assistance he had received on the Greek island. And just as quickly, he vanished into the throng of people.

This man is one of thousands of Syrians who have left their homes in recent months, crossing much of Turkey, often on foot, before navigating a narrow strip of the Aegean Sea in small boats to reach Chios. It is one of several Greek islands that lie closer to Turkey than to the Greek mainland. To the refugees, Greece is Europe, a place which offers the hope of a peaceful existence for those fleeing war and persecution. Chios and the neighboring islands Mytilini, Kos, Leros, and Samos are just one stop along the long, treacherous journey that the refugees hope will end with a new beginning.

IOCC is providing immediate and ongoing humanitarian assistance to families in need who have endured four years of Syria’s brutal civil war. Since 2012, IOCC has provided relief to 3.1 million people displaced inside Syria, or living as refugees in Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq, Armenia, Greece, and Serbia.

Young people from different Christian churches from remote areas and from major urban centers in Nicaragua, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Colombia will be connected via internet tomorrow, August 28, to participate in the first on-line session of the International Diploma in Culture of peace, equity and sustainability.

The Diploma, part of the project “Emprendemos Paz” carried out by CREAS (1), with the support and in partnership with Christian Aid (2), is an initiative to build capacity for the promotion of cultural peace in young adult leaders from different churches in Central America and Colombia. “With this project, we aim to make the young people have a positive social role and can make a difference in building peace projects with equity from the perspective of faith,” said Humberto Shikiya, General Director of CREAS.

Meanwhile, Mara Manzoni Luz, Deputy Head of the Division of Latin America and the Caribbean Christian Aid, welcomed the launch of the diploma, noting: “We are confident that this Diploma will  boost the renewal of the leadership of the churches. In times as complex as these, we live in a region that the faith-based organizations are called to give a deep testimony. This way, the young adults can express new energy and creativity in this process.”

The four-months diploma will take place through virtual and classroom sessions, and support the development of proposals that can be developed in the context of young adult participants. “Through the design and implementation of sustainable and replicable initiatives and projects, we look to strengthen the vocations of young adults in contributing to processes of social change,” said Humberto Shikiya.

“With this project, we aim to make the young people have a positive social role and can make a difference in building peace projects with equity from the perspective of faith,” said Humberto Shikiya, General Director of CREAS.

The pedagogical coordination of the Diploma will enable the use of ICT and social networks like Facebook and Twitter, to create a community of learning and practice, where the participants can exchange challenges and proposals online from a regional and inclusive perspective. It is noteworthy that 50% of young participants will be women.

With this training process, CREAS and its partners are committed to revitalize the action of church, broaden the approach of Christian youth, strengthen its leadership in the transformation of local communities and create opportunities to generate sustainable answers to face the challenging economic, political and social context of the region. (3)

This project is developed by CREAS in cooperation with universities and organizations in countries where the diploma will be implemented, including: University Corporation Reformed (Colombia),Mencoldes (Colombia), Justapaz (Colombia), Foundation University Baptist, University Maya Kaqchikel (Nicaragua), FUNVIPAZ of El Salvador, University Lutheran Salvadoran, Evangelic University Martin Luther King of Nicaragua and Honduras CASM.

—————————

CREAS is a regional, ecumenical and multidisciplinary organization. Since 2000, carries out activities of cooperation, capacity building and knowledge production to generate and sustain processes of change in Latin America and the Caribbean. For more information about CREAS: http://www.creas.org / Follow us: www.facebook.com/CreasCentroEcumenico / https://twitter.com/CreasTwitt

Christian Aid is a global development organization based in the UK, as part of the movement for social justice, work for profound changes to eradicate the causes of poverty and achieve equality, dignity and freedom for all and all, regardless of their faith or nationality. For more information about Christian Aid visit http://www.christianaid.org.uk

CREAS and Christian Aid are members of the ACT Alliance, a global coalition of over 140 churches and church organizations, working together for humanitarian assistance, promotion and development. More details on https://stage.act.acw2.website

Reverend Sally Foster Fulton, Church of Scotland, ‘ACT Now for Climate Justice’ Ambassador

Aaron Tate from ACT member CWS talks about the influx of Burundian refugees in Tanzania and the ACT Appeal

Araga Danrani, 75, (pictured above: LWR/Emily Sollie) is a farmer living in Niger, in the West African Sahel. Over the past few years Niger and surrounding countries have experienced a combination of drought and rising food prices that has left more than 18.7 million people at risk for hunger.

Not long ago Mr. Danrani had to leave whole fields on his farm vacant because he couldn’t afford enough seeds to plant them. Now he’s participating in ACT member Lutheran World Relief’s Resilience Plus project, aimed at helping farmers in West Africa support their families, continue to produce crops and become resilient against changing weather patterns.

Across West Africa, the Resilience Plus project has reached more than 79,000 people with agricultural training that will help farmers grow food despite the challenging conditions. In partnership with a local cooperative of more than 7,800 farmers, Lutheran World Relief has distributed fast-growing, disease-resistant millet seeds so that farmers can continue to plant this traditional dietary staple.

Lutheran World Relief has also provided cash-for-work projects that give families the opportunity to earn income for doing work that will help preserve natural resources.

After receiving an allotment of improved millet seeds, Araga planted his vacant fields. From an original distribution of nearly 18 pounds of seeds, he harvested 1,239 pounds of millet. He saved seeds from his harvest for replanting, and expects to harvest even more this year.

“If not for this project,” he says “my family and I would have had to leave because of hunger.”

Thankfully Araga does not have to leave his farm in search of work and is able to stay on his farm, work hard and make a living to support his family.

Learn more about Lutheran World Relief’s work in resilience.

Her assortment includes salt, onions, Maggi flavour cubes, little yellow peppers and cooking oil. Pointy plastic bags with the yellow liquid are shining in the afternoon sun. Once in a while, a customer comes to buy one of the little spice bags at Cecile Endamag’s (pictured above with her nephew photo: LWF/C. Kästner)  market stand in Gondje refugee settlement, Chad. “People here miss the spices,” she says. “We receive cereals and basic food but nothing to make it taste good. Spices sell the best.”

Endamag is a refugee from the Central African Republic (CAR), whose border is only 60km from the settlement. Back home, she had a small food shop and her own warehouse with a good stock of supplies.

“When the war started, we went to hide in the bush,” she recalls. “After a while, that became too dangerous and exhausting, so we fled.”

Making life a little better

Endamag lost her husband in the war. She arrived in Chad in 2008.

A year ago, ACT member Lutheran World Federation (LWF) helped her open the business with a cash grant. “I do not earn much but the small money already makes life here a bit better,” she says. “I now have the means to buy school supplies and clothes for my children, and some additional food.”

Like her, 600 CAR refugees and vulnerable people living in the host community have received cash grants to open a business.

“We encourage them to form groups,” says Marie-Grace Longaye, LWF supervisor for income-generating activities in Gore. “This way, refugees form communities organize themselves and ideally also hold each other responsible for paying back the loan.”

The situation of Endamag’s family is what humanitarian agencies call a protracted refugee situation. Because of recurring conflict in their home country, people are forced to live abroad for years, sometimes decades. They build semi-permanent houses of clay with thatched roofs, farm a little piece of land allocated to them by the host country, and wait for peace and stability in their place of origin.

Some of the CAR refugees arrived way back in 2003 – their children know only the refugee settlement. The latest group arrived in 2014, when Anti-Balaka militia staged a coup against the Muslim president of CAR and started a war against the Muslim population. Many of them are Chad migrant workers in CAR. Although considered “returnees”, they have lost their homes and come to a country foreign to them.

A home away from home

Helping people create a business, therefore, is much more than a means to supply them with additional money.

“It gives them purpose again,” Longaye says. “They have seen terrible things and lost family members. Many women lost their husbands. Helping them to take life into their own hands again is also a way to help them heal.”

Small loan groups are meant to provide occupation, stability and a new community. This is most visible in the “Groupement Garage”.

As the name suggests, the group used their loan to open a business in car repairs, painting, welding and carrying out general metal work.

“We were the first to repair a car in the region,” says Amidou, the group’s president. “We now receive requests from people in nearby host communities who wish to join us.”

The group is integrating young and old, making use of a wide variety of talents. The youngest apprentice in training is Abulai Amadou, a 15-year-old boy with a hearing disability. “His mother brought him,” president Amidou explains. “Because of his hearing problem, he cannot go to school, so she asked us to train him.”

The oldest group member is Mamadou Abu, 53, the treasurer and unofficial teacher of the group. “We wanted someone old and wise to handle the money. We also come to him for advice and to train the young ones,” Amidou says. “He used to train apprentices in CAR.”

“This group gave me the opportunity to learn something,” Amadou Soufa, 22, says. When he arrived, he was still a teenager, with no hope of further education. Group members trained him in various aspects of car repair and metal work. Now he plans to one day open his own business.

“It is important to train the young people,” Amidou says. “The situation is psychologically difficult. We have been here since February. After all we have seen, there is no hope of going back anytime soon. We did not just want to sit around and do nothing.”