September 27, 2008 in Life
Here is a story written by RAMAMBATIANA Nasolo Henintsoa. He is a friend from the Lutheran Youth Organization in Madagascar and is a first year student of medicine:
“I would like to share especially my experience at the prison of Madagascar about HIV/AIDS. Indeed my mother works for a project at 11 prisons in Madagascar. The main goal Read the rest of this entry →
September 26, 2008 in Church, Justice, LWF, Youth, Youth participation
A post by Mathias Möller, Brazil:
“In my last post I wrote about the event promoted by the Department of Public Information in order to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the compendium of advances made since then.
One noticeable issue was the gap between rhetoric and daily reality. Therefore I would like to exchange with you some lessons learned during the week I were attending to the Human Rights Council (HCR) at the United Nations. For those who shall not know, this Council is a very important part of the UN Human Rights machinery. Here main issues are addressed to the Council and their solutions harmonized between the governments and where even the Civil Society has an important role to take.
For the challenges remaining Read the rest of this entry →
September 23, 2008 in Life
To many people the mention of the word Kenya sends memories of the bloody post election violence witnessed early this year where over a thousand people lost their lives, property worth millions destroyed and worse of all, scores of people were left homeless and internally displaced.
Springs of Life Lutheran Church-Kibera was a hard hit victim of the violence as it lost its sanctuary, pastor’s office, nursery school and a newly constructed clinic to ruthless arsonists who stole and set ablaze whatever they couldn’t steal ablaze.
It was a sudden and sad reality for the kibera church which was a victim of circumstance due to the fact that it is located right in the middle of the second largest slum in Africa,Kibera, and which was one of the areas hardest hit by the post election violence.
Rather than retaliate to the general perpetrators of the violence or withdraw from responsibility, Springs of Life Lutheran Church has keenly embraced the command of Jesus Christ of loving our enemies and doing good unto them that wrong us. The church has successfully organised community dialogues for peace and a string of sporting competitions right at the church compound with the goal of reconciling the warring functions and also as a way of bringing the youths who were the main victims of the violence to the church for positive and virtue inculcating sporting events. This have proved successful and the place which would otherwise have been avoided for fear of suspicion of those involved is now a busy hub where youths from all ethnic backgrounds from all over kibera meet daily for volley ball, football and basket ball.
Springs of Life Lutheran church believes that harmonious and peaceful co-existence is a collective responsibility not only for state leaders and politicians but also for the church to take a centre stage in. The church should be a go between the state and the community who are both its members and neighbours as well.
The youths in the church have a grand responsibility of reaching out in love to their fellow youths in the community as they speak the same language, understand each other better, and above all, this is a sure way of fulfilling the Great Commission of making all disciples of Jesus.
Author:
Josephat Suweh- LUCCEA Youth Acting Secretary.
September 22, 2008 in Justice, LWF, Youth participation
Here is a contribution by Pavlína Buzková from the Czech Republic:
“People who fought for the abolition of slavery before the 1830s were looked at as unrealistic, naive and dreamers”
said Fatou Bensouda, one of the speakers at the 61st DPI/NGO annual conference when a possible reform of the UN Security Council was discussed. “Reaffirming Human Rights for All. The Universal Declaration at 60″ was the title of the conference which brought together over 2000 NGO representatives. It was held in Paris from 3rd to 5th September 2008.
The Lutheran World Federation, Read the rest of this entry →
