FOCUS

FOCUS ON MIGRATION: Displaced Women Face Double Jeopardy in Haiti

Women's rights and development activists working in Haiti say that greater attention must be paid to the immediate needs of women and girls, as well as their role in the long-term reconstruction of the devastated country. Ninaj Raul, director of Haitian Women for Haitian Refugees (HWHR), an NGO based in Brooklyn, New York, is currently in Leogane, Haiti providing medical and nutritional aid for victims of the Jan. 12 earthquake at a grassroots level and trying to fill in the gaps larger organisations have failed to reach.

COLOMBIA
Human Rights Watch Calls for Stop of Abuses by Paramilitaries’ Successor Groups in Colombia
Sunday, February 7, 2010
Colombia needs to respond effectively to the violent groups committing human rights abuses that have emerged around the country in the aftermath of the flawed demobilization of paramilitary groups, Human Rights Watch says in a report released February 3. + Details

Lutherans in Great Britain Represent Variety of European, African Cultures
London, Sunday, February 7, 2010
The Rev. Timothy Dearhamer describes the congregation he serves here "as an example of what the Lutheran Church aspires to be -- multicultural and multiracial." Dearhamer, an Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) pastor from Oklahoma, said regular worshipers at St. Anne's Lutheran Church include more than 30 nationalities, not unusual for Lutheran congregations in Great Britain. + Details

ITALY
Haiti must build a new society based on justice, says Haitian Catholic bishop
Rome, Thursday, February 4, 2010
The tragic destruction of Port-au-Prince and surrounding areas is an opportunity for Haiti and the world to rebuild a nation free from poverty and prejudice and based on justice and compassion, said the president of Caritas Haiti. Bishop Pierre Andre Dumas of Anse-a-Veau et Miragoane also appealed to the international community to make aid be "more humane" in a way that respects human dignity and is free from self-interest, speculation, and politics. + Details

PERU
Indigenous groups, post-Copenhagen
Lima, Thursday, February 4, 2010
Indigenous groups from 14 countries around the region sought to take advantage of and defend their traditions and teachings to combat climate change in the second Latin American summit on Climate Change Impacts on Indigenous Peoples: Post Copenhagen, held Jan. 25-26 in Lima. + Details

USA
Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) Presiding Bishop to Lead Delegation to Visit World Church Leaders
Chicago, Wednesday, February 3, 2010
An official Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) delegation of clergy and lay leaders will travel through Europe Feb. 3-17, visiting world Christian church leaders and key staff based in London, Istanbul, Rome and Geneva. The 2010 Ecumenical Journey, led by the Rev. Mark S. Hanson, ELCA presiding bishop and president of the Lutheran World Federation (LWF), is part of the church's declaration of ecumenical commitment, adopted by the 1991 ELCA Churchwide Assembly. + Details

ECUADOR
Pioneering alternative development program at risk in Ecuador
Quito, Tuesday, February 2, 2010
President Rafael Correa´s double about-face on an intrepid plan to preserve one of the most biodiverse corners of the Amazon rain forest has put the initiative at risk. Correa had invited the international community for donations of US$3.50 billion over 10 years if Ecuador did not drill in the oil-rich fields located in the Yasuní National Park, the country´s largest.The Ishpingo Tiputini Tambococha, or ITT fields, sit within the park, which is also home to a number of indigenous communities, and hold 856 million barrels of crude, which could generate US$7 billion for the cash-strapped government. + Details

SWITZERLAND
Churches Urge the European Union to Strengthen the Ethical Dimension of its Economic Policies
Geneva, Tuesday, February 2, 2010
Rüdiger Noll, Director of the Church and Society Commission of the Conference of European Churches (CEC),explains: “The economic crisis has revealed that a socially, ecologically, and globally committed market economy is morally far more demanding than is generally realised. In order to endure, market structures must be embedded in a system of values supported by all relevant stakeholders. It is an ethical task to balance self-interest with economic, social and ecological responsibility.” + Details

COLOMBIA
FOCUS ON MIGRATION: Who Cares About the Victims of Forced Displacement in Colombia?
Monday, February 1, 2010
"Why is the government, which is so generous towards the richest sectors of the economy, so stingy towards the displaced?" asked activist Marco Romero at the presentation of a new report on the dire situation faced by the millions of Colombians who have been forced out of their rural homes by the country's nearly half-century old armed conflict. + Details

BRAZIL
Brazilian Lutherans Send Help to Haiti
Porto Alegre, Thursday, January 28, 2010
The campaign to collect offerings for the victims of the earthquake in Haiti, being carried out by the Evangelical Church of Lutheran Confession in Brazil (IECLB, Portuguese acronym), has so far received $12.000,00, which have been sent on January 26 to the Lutheran World Federation (LWF), informed Pastor Walter Altmann, President of the IECLB. + Details