26th August, 2011

TEAR’s partner, World Concern is providing emergency food, water and medical assistance and supplies to over 12 million people in East Africa are still in the midst of what the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs is calling “the world’s most serious food crisis”.

TEAR is continuing to respond to this ongoing crisis by supporting our partners on the ground. One of our partners, World Concern, is working on the Somali-Kenya border, providing emergency food, water, medical assistance and supplies, with the goal of reaching thousands of people in strained host communities on both sides of the border.

One of the key ways World Concern is helping immediately is by repairing and improving the performance of existing wells. It recently worked quickly to fix the only well in the town of Damajale in Kenya, one of the many communities on the Kenya-Somali border that has had an influx of displaced people. In the past month, an additional 2,000 to 3,000 people have arrived in Damajale, having walked for days—even weeks—in search of food and water. The overused pump of the well had failed due to overuse, but World Concern was able to secure a new pump and repair the system, bringing back the life-giving water supply.

“Their crops have failed, their animals have died, and they have left their homes in search of survival.”

- Dave Eller, World Concern

World Concern is carrying out work on other pumps like this one and also repairing and increasing the capacity of wells in the area to help secure crucial water supplies. It is also working in host villages like Damajale to get water and food to people there.

In addition to immediate aid, World Concern is also working to provide long-term solutions to the region, including drought resistant crops, rainwater catchment systems and new wells.

Please donate now and help us respond to this crisis.

According to the UN Food Security and Nutrition Analysis Unit, “Famine is expected to spread across all regions of the south in the coming four to six weeks,” and is “likely to persist until at least December 2011”.

The United Nations Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs has warned that unless there is a massive increase in the response to the East Africa food crisis, the famine declared in two regions in Somalia will spread to five or six more regions.

In a press briefing on Monday, the Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Valerie Amos outlined the needs around the intensifying crisis.

“These stories, these images, are a wake-up call. They remind us why we cannot spare any effort to ease the suffering; why we must do all we can to stop it happening again.”

She said that 12.4 million people—in Kenya, Ethiopia, Somalia and Djibouti—are in dire need of help, and the situation is getting worse.

“The stories we see and that we hear are dreadful. It is hard to imagine the horror of mothers forced to leave their infants behind to die, as they trek for weeks to reach safety.”

“The sense of loss felt by orphans as they reach overcrowded refugee camps, sick and malnourished, alone, and with no future.”

“These stories are a wake-up call. They remind us why we cannot spare any effort to ease the suffering; why we must do all we can to stop it happening again.”

TEAR is responding to the East Africa food crisis through our partners Christian Reformed World Relief Committee, and World Concern Africa and Somalia.

Many Somalis are seeking refuge in Kenya, and this massive exodus is complicating the already difficult emergency situation. Refugee camps near the border are overflowing with highly malnourished people who have walked long distances with little or no food and water.

TEAR Australia is now supporting our partner World Concern in its work with vulnerable, drought-affected communities on the Kenya/Somalia border. World Concern is working with displaced people on the Somalia side to provide water, sanitation, shelter materials and supplemental feeding for the most vulnerable. It is also working to expand medical support to this area.

On the Kenya side, World Concern is working to support communities that are suffering from the drought and also dealing with the strain on resources due to the influx of refugees to the town outside the camps.

As part of its work, World Concern will be providing 4000 people identified as most vulnerable with 20 litres of water per person per day and a monthly water ration for livestock. It will also provide support in repairing and maintaining key water points and constructing pit latrines for improved sanitation facilities.

In addition, it will be running an emergency feeding program and NFI (non food item) distribution to 10,000 beneficiaries.

Please donate now and help us respond to this crisis.

I’ve been reflecting on this reality as I have listened to the debates around a price on pollution this week.

As Christians, we embrace the core belief that we are not owners of creation, but stewards. It all belongs to God. Our responsibility as stewards is to use creation and care for it in ways that are consistent with the teaching of Jesus, the character of God, and the nature of the kingdom. That will necessarily include ensuring the way we use our resources results in justice for the world’s poor.

Our perspective on a price on pollution needs to be God centred and other centred. Certainly we consider our own needs, but never only our own needs. That’s the distinctive voice that has been missing from this debate, and one that Christians can bring – a selfless voice – and a necessary voice.

Our position on climate change:

Micah Challenge Australia is a campaign focused on the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals and halving poverty by 2015. Micah Challenge is not a climate change campaign. However, the poor communities that our coalition partners work with around the world are dealing with the effects of a changing environment. This issue is posing a very real threat to the achievement of the MDGs.

That’s why Micah Challenge has been asking the Australian government to take a leadership position in efforts to reduce climate change as part of our Share the Earth: MDG7 campaign.

We welcome the government’s announcement on Sunday because it represents a step towards Australia showing leadership in efforts to reduce climate change – which is what we’ve been asking them to do. Click here to download a full outline of our response to the government’s announcement and the the Micah Challenge coalition’s position on climate change.

So what are we asking you – our supporters – to do?

Pray and act!
- Join Christians around the world to pray for creation.
- Let your politician know you care by running a Share the Table event.
- Learn more about MDG7 and our other environmental asks, such as water and sanitation.
- Read our latest blog that explores this important issue and join in the discussion – we welcome your thoughts about ways we can speak out for and with the global poor.

While we acknowledge that climate change can be a confusing and sometimes controversial issue, we also believe it is vitally important that we do not forget the world’s poorest people as we continue to seek a sustainable future for our environment and the people who depend on it.

Thanks for the work you are doing standing with and for the world’s poorest people.

- John Beckett
National Coordinator, Micah Challenge Australia

Micah Challenge Australia
Ph: (02) 9356 8500
www.micahchallenge.org.au

Micah Challenge is a global campaign to mobilise Christians against poverty, in the spirit of Micah 6:8 “…what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God”,and in support of the Millennium Development Goals to halve poverty by 2015.

Now, we’re going global…

Welcome to a brand new approach to world peace.

All across India, tens of thousands of children have begun writing heartfelt letters to the students in Pakistan. All across Pakistan, tens of thousands of children are replying with heartfelt letters back. New connections are being made. New friendships are being formed.

Imagine if all the schools from both nations were to participate? What will happen when this generation grows up?

At Friends Without Borders, we are making this possible, and invite you and your school to take part in this historic heart-to-heart experiment.

Children have a natural instinct toward friendship and will jump to reach out and create new friends, when given the opportunity. The simple act of writing a letter leaves deep and lasting impressions that help to humanize ‘the other.’ These are the seeds that promise to mature into a safer, friendlier world.

Check out http://www.friendswithoutborders.org/

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/politics/world-hunger-is-manmade-and-only-we-can-end-it-20110601-1ffxq.html#ixzz1OoUuveXG

There are over 8.2 million of us now, growing by 100,000 people per week! Two weeks ago, 650,000 Indians joined our campaign for a powerful new anti-corruption bill, and we won!! We’re racking up major victories every month — fighting political corruption in Italy, media-corruption in the UK and Canada, environmental destruction in Brazil and more. And across the Middle East, brave democracy activists are getting vital equipment and communications support funded by donations from almost 30,000 of us.

From people-powered revolutions in the Middle East to national anti-corruption movements, you can feel it and see it everywhere today –democracy is on the march, and together we are beating the drum. The press is noticing in hundreds of stories, with one 2000 word feature in the Times of London calling us ‘One of the most important new voices on the global stage’. Here’s a quick summary of the last few months in our amazing people-powered community…

Two weeks ago, Anna Hazare, a 73 year old Gandhian activist, declared a fast unto death until the government agreed to let civil society draft a powerful new anti-corruption law. In just 36 hours, an unprecedented 500,000 Indians joined Avaaz’s campaign to support Hazare’s call for sweeping reform. In 4 days, the public outcry forced India’s government to sign a written submission to all of Hazare’s demands! We won!! Today, a new India is being born — and just as last year in Brazil with landmark anti-corruption legislation, Avaaz is helping to breathe life into it.
Funded by donations from almost 30,000 Avaazers, an Avaaz team is working closely with the leadership of democracy movements in Syria, Yemen, Libya and more to get them high-tech phones and satellite internet modems, connect them to the world’s top media outlets, and provide communications advice. We’ve seen the power of this engagement — where our support to activists has created global media cycles with footage and eyewitness accounts that our team helps distribute to CNN, BBC, Al Jazeera and others. The courage of these activists is unbelievable — a skype message from one last week read ‘state security searching the house, my laptop battery dying, if not online tomorrow I’m dead or arrested’. He’s ok, and together we’re helping to get his and many other voices out to the world.
24 hours after 317,000 Avaazers called on the Hilton CEO to sign a code of conduct on the rape trade or face hard-hitting ads in his hometown, we got a frantic call from his vice-president. ‘You’re going to WHAT?’, she asked. Hilton had dragged its feet for months. We gave them four days, and they signed. Now 180,000 hotel employees will be trained to spot and prevent the horror of of sex slavery of women and girls.
Global media kingpin Rupert Murdoch’s bid to tighten his stranglehold over the UK pressfaces a relentless challenge from Avaaz members, who’ve run adverts, staged public stunts, delivered massive petitions, and organised phone-ins week upon week in an effort to safeguard public debate. An Avaaz-commissioned independent poll found that only 5% of Brits take Murdoch’s side – and new criminal charges for hacking politicians’ phones are further eroding the momentum of the Murdoch media machine. The government has been forced to extract concessions from Murdoch, and has now delayed a decision on the deal — costing Murdoch billions and giving us more time to stop him for good.
Our messages called for sanctions, asset freezes, and an internationally enforced no-fly zone to protect civilians in Libya. Our voices got through: the UN Ambassador from the US, one of the last hold-outs to back the motion, publicly thanked us for our messages.International action began just as Qaddafi’s tanks encircled the rebel-held city of Benghazi — and is widely credited with preventing a likely massacre of large numbers of civilians.
Italy’s Silvio Berlusconi, facing souring political winds and a trial for statutory rape expected to coincide with general elections, tried to force a censorship law through parliament that would have silenced his critics on independent TV shows. But Italian Avaaz members fought back — powering a70,000-strong petition and thousands of phone calls to parliament at the crucial moment that helped swing the final vote. The law was blocked, in a huge victory for Avaaz members and for the future of Italian democracy and free speech.
This week a Spanish newspaper trumpeted Avaaz as its ‘Angel of the Day’ for battling corruption– one highlight of a nationwide torrent of media coverage of Avaaz’s 100,000-Spaniard petition and theatrical stunts calling for Spanish politicians with records of corruption to be barred from upcoming elections. The rising pressure is fuelling a national debate on corruption, and political parties are feeling the heat.
The proposed Belo Monte dam complex, an environmental catastrophe in the making, has been delayed — thanks in part to the spectacular delivery led by indigenous tribes-people of more than 600,000 petition signatures from Avaazers in Brazil and around the world. The Organization of American States has now joined the opposition to the dam, saying it violates human rights — and the momentum is building to cancel it and focus on clean renewable energy sources instead.
Over a million people, including 200,000 in France, signed an explosive petition to ban pesticides that are mass-killing bees the world over — and, standing with a team of French beekeepers, delivered the petition to the French Agriculture Minister at a major conference. The campaign continues, building pressure for action in France, the EU, and around the globe.
Conservative officials in Canada have been working to launch a Murdoch-style propagandistic TV network — but in February, when they moved to strike national journalism standards against false or misleading broadcasts, they brought down a firestorm of opposition. 100,000 Canadian Avaazers signed in opposition, and the outrageous proposal to undermine balanced reporting was withdrawn.
In the darkest hours of their struggle for liberation from Mubarak, Egyptians told the world they needed solidarity — and Avaaz members answered the call. 600,000 of us around the world signed messages of support carried by Al Jazeera broadcasts straight into Tahrir Square — helping to sustain a movement fueled by hope through some of it’s darkest and most uncertain hours.
When Mubarak left power in Egypt, he tried to take his stolen fortune with him — but within days, more than half a million of us petitioned the G20′s Finance Ministers to immediately freeze his billions, delivering the message with a ‘protest pyramid’ built opposite the Eiffel Tower during the ministers’ meeting. In the weeks following, the EU and countries around the world agreed to freeze the assets of Mubarak and his top aides.
When a local group in South Africa launched a petition demanding that their government address ‘corrective rape’ — the sickening epidemic of rapes of lesbian women to ‘turn them straight’ — they were, at first, ignored. But when their petition reached 170,000 signatures, the government noticed – and now, with nearly a million of us signed on and massive media attention, the pressure for meaningful action is becoming unstoppable.
Before the ink even dried on an exciting new tool for direct democracy in Europe, over one million people from every country in the EU took part in the first-ever European Citizens’ Initiative – a process where people can lodge official petitions that require a response. Avaaz members called for an immediate freeze on genetically modified crops entering the EU until objective studies free from industry influence could show they were safe. The initiative had a spectacular delivery directly to the EU Commission that flooded the media with coverage and sent a clear message to officials.
With hope and enormous appreciation for the service of every person in this amazing community

SOURCES:

Avaaz feature article, Times of London
http://avaaz.org/times_of_london_feature

India corruption campaign coverage, The Hindu
http://avaaz.org/the_hindu_hazare_launch

Hilton joins anti-trafficking agreement, ECPAT-USA
http://avaaz.org/ecpat_release

Murdoch poll coverage, The Guardian
http://avaaz.org/murdoch_poll_guardian

‘Angel of the Day’ article, La Republica (in Spanish)
http://avaaz.org/republica_angel_of_the_day

European Citizens’ Initiative lauded, Le Monde (in French)
http://avaaz.org/le_monde_eci

See more Avaaz media hits here:
http://www.avaaz.org/en/media.php

Avaaz also partially funded and housed a project which conducted the first-ever public opinion survey of refugees from the brutal conflict in Darfur, Sudan. Here’s the poll result:
http://avaaz.org/darfur_report