AFSC Program Highlights
News from around AFSC
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Getting to work in Logan, West
Virginia |
Community
“There is more a sense of community here than
anywhere I have ever been.”That’s how one tenth grader from Sandy Spring Friends School summed up the school’s annual visit to Logan, West Virginia.
Students and faculty members from the Maryland school spent the week of March 15-21 in community service with AFSC’s Appalachian Center for Equality in Logan County. It marked their ninth year of work with the program.
The work group replaced the roof of one house and laid flooring in the House that Love Built, which was featured in the summer 2008 issue of Quaker Action.
“When I go home,” the same tenth grader said, “I’m going to try to find something to do to help like you guys have shown me how to do. If a lot of people do a little, it can make things better for people.”
Peace forum cultivates U.S.-China relations
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Delegates at the second annual U.S.-China
Peace Forum. |
That was the underlying message of the second U.S.-China Peace Forum spon-sored by AFSC early in March and held in Washington, D.C. The forum was a follow-up to an AFSC-led delegation of U.S. peace activists to China late last year. It was initiated by Joseph Gerson, director of regional programs for AFSC’s New England office.
“In the 21st century, there is no more important bilateral relationship than that between the U.S. and China,” says Jason Tower, AFSC’s Northeast Asia Quaker International Affairs Representative. “Yet there is a severe disconnect between the importance of this relationship and the low level of understanding among both society and government actors on both sides.”
The Chinese delegates met with principals in the U.S. government, think tanks, grassroots groups, and advocates for human rights.
The seven members of the Chinese delegation were:
- Mao Rubai
- Niu Qiang
- Lü Zhi
- Yu Xiangdong
- Chen Huafan
- Wang Hao
- Wang Wei
Participants are now assessing the visit and suggesting followup activities.
Eyes—and hearts—wide open
Becoming a full-fledged Friends Meeting is a process, sort of like moving from high school to college to a master’s degree. Recently, nine Friends in Norman, Oklahoma, who were part of a worship group, started the next “degree” step after they sponsored an AFSC Eyes Wide Open exhibit at Oklahoma University this past winter.The small group set up the traveling display on the human cost of the Iraq war, manned it all day, and dismantled it after an evening candlelight ceremony. It proved to be a turning point for them. “We felt we had started something,” says John Warram, a member of the group. “Now we had to follow through, and continuing indefinitely as a worship group did not seem adequate.”
The group received Preparative Meeting status in 2008 from the Oklahoma City Friends Meeting and is in the process of deciding on a date for moving to Monthly Meeting status.
Gaza: Restoring normalcy in difficult times
| Psychosocial workshops in Gaza Photo: AFSC |
After first aid treatment at the main government hospital, Feryal was taken to Al Ahli Arab Hospital, which serves 250,000 residents of Gaza City. There, three of the fingers of her right hand were amputated and a cast was put on her fractured left leg.
The doors of Al Ahli Hospital might have been closed to Feryal if not for the funds for fuel and medical supplies it has received from AFSC and several partner organizations. Like so many vital services in Gaza, the hospital is under severe stress following the Dec. 27-Jan. 19 Israeli assault, as well as the eighteen-month old embargo that has restricted the importation of food, medicine, fuel, and other essential goods.
“The cumulative effect of the assault and the embargo will likely have a lasting impact on children—some of whose growth has been stunted—and pregnant women who have been unable to obtain food and neo-natal care,” says Bill Pierre, AFSC’s Interim Middle East Regional Director, after visiting Gaza in mid-March.
AFSC focused its initial relief efforts on the three largest needs in Gaza: fuel for power generation, food supplements, and replenishment of medical supplies.
In addition, to address the high level of trauma experienced by Gaza residents, AFSC is providing long-term psychological support. The college-age coaches who lead the youth groups of AFSC’s Palestine Youth Program (PYP), our youth and civic engagement program, have been trained to help PYP participants deal with the issues in their lives. More training for former coaches and other youth workers is planned for this spring and summer.
As one of the coaches recently noted, “The psychosocial support is also building youth confidence to help them deal with the future.”
New video resource
Israel-Palestine: A Land in
Fragments
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Fabric of hope
| Women from Hatcliffe Extension with
finished products. Photo: AFSC |
In 2008, AFSC began to work with Silveira House, the Zimbabwe Women’s Bureau, and other nongovernmental organizations to improve the living standard of 1,200 vulnerable households in the Hatcliffe Extension area, which lacks running water and electricity.
Training for the residents includes the technical skills involved in making the products, followed by a business management course. The goods are sold within Hatcliffe and in neighboring suburbs and farms. Efforts are underway to create other markets.