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Daudi, a Peacemaker in South Sudan
Mundri East County is located in Western Equatoria State, South Sudan. Due to recent conflict, over seven thousand people have been displaced in the area and are now living with relatives. The average household size has climbed from 7.6 to 12.4. Households are strained to provide enough food and water.
World Relief provided farming inputs to 1,300 vulnerable people to reduce hunger and improve food security. World Relief then assessed levels of vulnerability to determine who would get what type of support. Community leaders were trained to distribute the seeds and supplies.
Five weeks after the distribution, World Relief followed up to see how crops were doing. Staff members met a man named Daudi Elinai who had brought his family of 13 to live with his grandparents. He struggled to provide enough food for his family members, who live together in two small, grass shelters.
He and his community used the assistance they received and worked together to plant corn and other vegetables so they could feed their families. Though he and his family are displaced by conflict, they have been able to collaborate with their community, live securely and provide for their families.
“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called the children of God.” Matthew 5:9 Peacemaking is a Biblically-based, long-term strategy for preventing and addressing man made conflict. It directly addresses the tensions woven into the fabric of societies that often lead to conflict and violence.
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Mr. Osman, a Peacemaker in Sudan
Mohamed Hasaballa Osman is a community leader and chairman of the Peace and Reconciliation Committee (PRC) for UmTagouk in Darfur, Sudan. Many who live in this region are nomads and farmers. Water, which is used for cleaning, cooking, drinking and tending crops and livestock, is scarce and difficult to access due to the arid climate. In situations like this, it is easy for underlying ethnic and tribal tensions to quickly turn into violent conflict. To help maintain peace within the community over this life-sustaining resource, Mr. Osman and his PRC are tasked with mediating conflicts over use of the water pumps provided by World Relief.
One afternoon, members of two opposing groups were waiting in line to use the water pump when an altercation escalated between two women. On both sides, there were severe injuries. Threats mounted and weapons were compiled. A deadly fight nearly ensued. Thankfully, Mr. Osman and the members of his PRC had been trained by World Relief in mediation and conflict resolution techniques, and were informed of the conflict before it spiraled out of control.
Mr. Osman and other PRC leaders were able to help facilitate dialogue and mediation between the two groups. Compensation was made to the victims, and the groups came to an agreement that allowed them to co-exist while ensuring each group had fair access to the water pump by adhering to the guidelines established by World Relief. Through several hearings, both groups came to a better understanding of their cultural differences that originally led to the conflict. Because of the peacebuilding expertise of people like Mr. Osman and the other members of the UmTagouk PRC, lives were saved and peace was brought to the region.
“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called the children of God.” Matthew 5:9
Peacemaking is a Biblically-based, long-term strategy for preventing and addressing man made conflict. It directly addresses the tensions woven into the fabric of societies that often lead to conflict and violence.
Empowered to Empower – Consolee’s Story
Consolee is 37 years old, married and a mother of two sons. Like many vulnerable people in Rwanda, she and her family did not realize the importance of integrating vegetables into their diet or using mosquito nets to prevent the spreading of disease.
Empowered, educated and trained local care group volunteers visited Consolee in her home and delivered messages about the importance of adopting all of these practices to promote good health.
Today, Consolee lives very differently to protect herself and her family from disease and malnutrition. “I cannot prepare a meal anymore without vegetables,” she said, “which is the reason why I build two kitchen gardens, one for carrots and another for amaranths.” (Amaranth is a plant that yields grain and serves as a leafy vegetable).
Consolee’s entire family sleeps using Mosquito nets to protect themselves against Malaria and makes hand-washing a regular habit.
Now, Consolee is transforming other families to live similarly. “Today, I am an example in my church for good hygiene. Sometimes during the church mother group meeting, I’m given time to transmit messages about hygiene issues,” she said.
Serving the Most Vulnerable in South Sudan: Nama’s Story
Nama is a mother of four and a member of a local savings group in South Sudan. She first attended one of the weekly meetings with some of her friends. “We felt challenged to save our money,” she said. “At the moment, we did not see the money to save.”
Nama first believed that a humanitarian organization would provide loans to members of the group. When she and her friends found out that members actually loaned money to one another from within their own pooled resources, several people declined joining. Nama, however, wanted to learn more.
She was sick at the time but could not afford treatment. “One needs about SSP 100-150 to get proper treatment,” she said. That cost is the equivalent of about $30 USD.
“We started saving our income little by little with the hope that we could give assistance to ourselves.” Said Nama. “By this time, we had given up all the initial thinking that we would get any money from the organization.”
When borrowing began, Nama was the second to receive a loan from the group. Two others applied for loans on that day but declined and agreed to wait in order to protect Nama’s health. She was approved to receive SSP 100 for her treatment. In the same time period, she lost a relative and the group gave her SSP 25 as a form of condolences.
Nama has been repaying her loan since January. She says that the group not only gave her access to the resources she needs, but a group of new friends. “The group members kept on visiting me when I was sick,” she said. “They comfort me and I feel I have brothers and sisters.”
When asked about her future plans, Nama said her health will give her new opportunities. She plans on devoting time and energy to her garden and using her savings in eight months to start a kiosk so she can sell goods after farming.
World Humanitarian Day – A Humanitarian Church
At World Relief, church leaders are our humanitarian heroes. On World Humanitarian Day, we’re celebrating pastors and other leaders who are committed to making a lasting difference through the local church. In Rwanda, church leaders are owning initiatives to fight HIV/AIDS in their communities. World Relief empowers local churches by holding workshops and training seminars so local leaders can educate their peers about prevention and treatment. Every year, thousands of youth and adults are trained to be agents of change in their churches and larger communities.
Recently, two local churches organized a Voluntary Counseling and Testing event to benefit their members and the surrounding community. Overall, 400 people attended and were tested for HIV. Church leaders stepped up first to be tested in order to encourage and challenge their congregations.
At the end of the day, 15 people were found to be HIV positive. They were each given a counseling session and have been transferred to a local hospital for follow-up.
Events like this bring together entire communities to address something that often leads to isolation and fear. Once trained, local authorities and church leaders become the champions of serving the vulnerable. We love that!
Today, join us as we pray for pastors like these who are following in the footsteps of Jesus: laying down their lives as they faithfully walk alongside their neighbors towards restoration and healing.
Cell Churches in Cambodia – Sarith’s Story
Sarith is a farmer living in a small house in Cambodia. He became an actor when he was young and traveled all around Cambodia for performances. While he traveled, he engaged in risky behaviors and did not understand the consequences of his actions.
In 1997, Sarith got married and had two children. He continued to travel frequently as part of his drama group, but his absence from home resulted in a broken marriage.
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As Sarith spoke about this time in his life, he held back tears. He said he carries much sadness and regret about his broken family.
Sarith remarried in 2005 and had a daughter with his new wife. His daughter passed away of disease. Soon after, Sarith also became sick. He sold his property to get medical treatment. To subdue his fear of death, he engaged in traditional practices such as Khmer magic, water sprinkling and dark magic. Whenever he heard of a new possible cure, he would spend his money hoping to be healed. Still, nothing worked.
Sarith learned about HIV/AIDS from World Relief. World Relief volunteers encouraged Sarith to get tested for HIV/AIDS and connected him to a support group. Initially Sarith was resistant, but he finally decided to be tested for HIV/AIDS. The test confirmed what Sarith feared – he was HIV positive. When he learned of his diagnosis, he felt hopeless. He said he wanted to die. But the support group he belonged to continued to encourage and assist him. Slowly, his attitude changed and he realized that he wanted to live.
Sarith still faced persecution by his parents, relatives and neighbors. But as volunteers from the support mobilized and educated the village about HIV/AIDS, including its real causes and how to prevent it from spreading, the community understood and stopped discrimination against Sarith and his family.
As Sarith received assistance from a local cell church, planted and mobilized by World Relief, he and his wife were introduced to the Gospel and became Christians. Today, they are members of a local support group and cell church. Sarith serves his community and shares with his neighbors what he has learned, not only about health, but about Christ’s love.
A friendship that brought life
Proverbs 17:17 says,”A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for a time of adversity.”
World Relief empowers the local Church in Mozambique to serve the most vulnerable by training community health workers to provide in-home care for the marginalized. Often, these volunteers provide lasting friendship to the people they serve, meeting not only their health needs but their spiritual and relational needs as well.
Esmeralda Fernandowas in a very vulnerable state before a trained community health worker reached out to her and helped her achieve a better quality of life. She has HIV/AIDS and Tuberculosis. At only 22 years old, she is a widow and a single parent to her seven year-old child. Her husband passed away in 2013.
When she was first visited by the volunteer, Esmerelda and her husband both knew they had HIV/AIDS but had not been adhering to treatment. After her husband passed away, Esmerelda began heeding the words of the volunteer.
“When she first came to talk about our health and our possibility to re-start our normal life if we do regular treatment, we didn’t believe her because, for us, our life was close to the end,” said Esmerelda. “When my husband passed away, [she] visited me more times and one day asked me who is going to take care of my child if I die.”
The community health worker helped Esmerelda realize that her health was fragile, precious and vital for the well-being of her daughter. Esmerelda began treatment and today, her health has improved.
When we spoke to her, Esmeralda Fernando had a lot to say about the volunteer who showed her the love of Christ in word and deed. “I feel relief because of the work [she] did in my life,” she said. “She is like a sister to me. I decided to restart the treatment again and with the support of the [health worker] and my relatives even, [though we were not] sure of the results.”
The volunteer also helped Esmerelda enroll her daughter in school and obtain necessary school supplies. “Today, I am feeling good,” said Esmerelda. “I farm and produce my own food. I and my child are very happy and I am thankful too because it was able to help enroll my child in the school I also was able to learn a lot about community health. I am willing to pass the message to other people in the community.”
Addressing HIV in India means strengthening marriages
In India, we are empowering the local Church to transform marriages, protect families, care for those living with HIV/AIDS and prevent HIV/AIDS. All of this is done by addressing the root causes of HIV/AIDS – broken relationships. Our Families For Life curriculum, taught by the local Church, reinforces the importance of commitment, faithfulness and communication in marriage. We have seen these live-saving, Gospel-centered messages bring healing to broken families and entire communities.
World Relief introduced these pastors to the curriculum in February 2014. They said they wanted to be trained in the curriculum with their spouses so they could deliver the curriculum to their congregations. Since March, 65 new pastors have been trained to restore and strengthen their marriages and the marriages within their churches.
Our local staff member, Jeyaprakasham, said, “All the participants were very happy and actively involved in the program. It was a first time experience for many of the pastors and their wives to attend a meeting of this kind.”
One pastor said, “I have been married for 24 years and I never thought of this – that my wife is my friend. Here begins our friendship, and we will be the best friends to each other.”
His wife added, “I attend[ed] this kind of meeting for the first time in my life. I missed a lot in my married life. I will make it further and take it to our church.”
Women must be leaders of peace-building in West Darfur
World Relief deeply believes that sustainable peace-building without involvement of women is impossible.
In Sudan, particularly West Darfur, deeply rooted socio-cultural issues prevent women from being involved in many decision-making processes. Usually, women assume lower positions in the community and their voices are neglected. However, women constitute a large proportion of the society and are actively involved in economic activities.
In 2011, World Relief launched a peace and reconciliation project aimed at tackling the root causes of conflict and enhance co-existence among the different tribes in the operational areas. To achieve this objective, World Relief launched community-based peace-building initiatives. Peace and Reconciliation Committees (PRCs) oversee and promote peace at the community level. Sub-committees focus on things like crop protection, water supply area protection and more.
Through these committees (PRCs) and the subcommittees, World Relief has worked to ensure participation of women by confronting the cultural practices that exclude them from leadership.
Recently, World Relief organized workshops on peace-building and gender awareness. At first, World Relief staff and volunteers trained 150 women on the issues of gender equality and peace-building. Next, men and women were brought together and taught about the importance of women’s involvement in the peace-building process.
Following the training, 73 women joined the existing peace committees. Today, those women are working alongside men in their community to actively restore peace.
When the Church in DR Congo serves the most vulnerable
In the DR Congo, we want to empower church leaders to bring sustainable transformation to their own communities. We are seeing pastors and church leaders, including women leaders, from different tribes and denominations come together to serve the most vulnerable. Additionally, community-based care groups called Compassion Groups are forming within local Churches to assess and meet the needs of the most vulnerable in their regions.
Lydia Vumilia is a 32 year-old woman who belongs to one of the local Baptist churches in Minova in South Kivu, DR Congo. Four years ago, she lost her husband and is now a widow caring for her six children. When the family needed a new shelter to live in, she couldn’t afford to buy it on her own.
The Compassion Group at her church saw the family’s urgent need and mobilized congregation members from all the local churches for Lydia. They all came together to contribute materials, money and food for the construction project. The next day, members from all the denominations came, starting early in the morning, to build a house for Lydia and her family. Now she is living in the house with her five children (the oldest daughter was recently married).
Through her tears, Lydia explained to our team how since that day, she has believed more and more in God’s Word and promises. Lydia said that she now feels she is a child in God’s family: She has fathers, mothers, brothers and sisters who love her in word and in deed.
Lydia and her children have continued faithfully in their church, serving as singers in the church’s choir. “I will stay faithful to the Lord Jesus until he returns because I cannot leave him,” said Lydia. “He has done lots of good things for me and I rely on him for all of my spiritual and physical needs.”