The Match Factory
2 | International Day for the Abolition of Slavery
I opened the newspaper yesterday to see the big-eyed face of a five year old girl staring up at me. The words “Don’t let me be sold into slavery” written across her body struck me deep. It seems that adverts for humanitarian organisations such as this one is as close as many of us will ever come in to the slave trade. Yet it could be said that, indirectly, many of us actually benefit from some of the “milder” forms of slavery. An alarming number of the products we consume on a daily basis are bought to us through oppressive and coerced means. Of course slavery exists in extreme forms with more people being trafficked now then ever before in history, but also in situations where farmers and factory workers have a lack of freedom in their employment, and wages that mock their toil. If we think we can avoid it by turning over the page of the newspaper quickly, we are mistaken.
Let’s revisit some of the facts bought together by the Stop the Traffick coalition:
- At least 12.3 million people are victims of forced labour worldwide. Of these 2.4 million are as a result of human trafficking.
- 600,000-800,000 men, women and children trafficked across international borders each year. Approximately 80 per cent are women and girls. Up to 50% are minors.
- An estimated 1.2 million children are trafficked each year.
- The majority of trafficked victims arguably come from the poorest countries and poorest strata of the national population.
- Trafficking is the fastest growing means by which people are caught in the trap of slavery.
- Human trafficking is the third largest source of income for organised crime, exceeded only by arms and drugs trafficking.
- It is the fastest growing form of international crime, already generating $7 billion per year in criminal proceeds. There are even reports that some trafficking groups are switching their cargo from drugs to human beings, in a search of higher profits at lower risk.
Screen it: A couple of years ago a film about abolitionist William Wilberforce was released, Amazing Grace. Make a night of it by either hiring a local cinema to show it or put it on the big screen at church. Collect donations in exchange for tickets, get some tubs of ice cream in and send the profits to The Salvation Army’s anti-trafficking programme.
Feature it: Take seven minutes in your church service/ youth group night, share some of the facts above and this five minute video from Stop the Traffick.
Change it: If you decide your church should get further involved have a look at The Salvation Army USA Western territory’s web page or for an example of a more local expression of action look at the Croydon Community Against Trafficking website.
5 | International Volunteer Day for Economic and Social Development
This is a great day to reflect on the role volunteering has in society and to celebrate the work of people who passionately and tirelessly invest their time and energy in to their community. In reference to the importance of volunteer work in his local community President Obama once said
Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we’ve been waiting for. We are the change that we seek. We are the hope of those boys who have little; who’ve been told that they cannot have what they dream; that they cannot be what they imagine.
Or as musician Ben Harper sings,
I can change the world with my own two hands, make a better place with my own two hands!
This day is a chance to celebrate that God uses simple men and woman to bring about a world filled with love, joy and peace.
Here are some r
andom facts about the other benefits of volunteering taken from The Guardian:
- half of people (48%) who have volunteered for more than two years say volunteering makes them less depressed. 71% of volunteers who offer their professional skills and experience say volunteering helps combat depression;
- 63% of 25 to 34-year-olds say volunteering helps them feel less stressed. 62% of over 65’s say volunteering reduces stress;
- nearly half of all volunteers (47%) say volunteering has improved their physical health and fitness;
- 25% of people who volunteer more than five times a year say volunteering has helped them lose weight (20% overall);
- 22% of 18 to 24-year-olds say volunteering helps them cut down on alcohol. 20% of people who have volunteered for over two years and 19% of those who volunteer once a month or more say volunteering helps them drink less alcohol.
Celebrate it: If you rely on volunteer help in your line of work or community centre why not take some time to celebrate and thank people for the work they do. You could have an awards ceremony or perhaps just a large cake!
Do it: Find out the joys of volunteering yourself. Choose a subject that you are new to and discover new skills or choose an area you know well but can bless with your expertise. Be prepared to have your life enhanced by new people, knowledge and challenges.
Write it: Get a collection of cards and write to the people you know who do little things for the community. Leave them in secret places to give them a surprise dose of encouragement and energy for the next season.
Already the effects of this changing climate are causing the deaths of over 300,000 people every year and 325 million people are severely affected. It is the poorest people of our Earth who are most at risk now, and will be most at risk from any further changes to our climate. Not only that, but over 90% of climate-related deaths are due to changes to the environment which result in increased malnutrition or disease , rather than through the weather-related disasters that we typically associate with climate change. It is these people who will suffer most, yet they have contributed least to the problem – the average person in the world’s least developed countries produces just 0.2 tonnes of CO2 a year, whereas on the other hand the average person in the UK produces 9.8 tonnes – that’s almost 50 times as much! Basically, if you care about people, you need to care about the Earth, because at the moment our Earth, through our actions, is harming our global neighbours in developing communities throughout the world.
Sign it: Sign the international “I am ready” campaign that will be presented at the conference to portray a global movement of people who hope to see climate justice.
Feature it: The UK Salvation Army International Development Team have put together an excellent resource, Earth. There are videos, Bible studies, dramas and much more for you to get involved in climate justice. Click here for more info.
Pray it: Sign up to receive the daily Copenhagen prayer updates from Planet Prayer.
Shout it: Join with others who care on the streets of your local city. Marches are planned in most cities across the world on the 5th and 12th December. To find details of your local one visit this link.
The Match Factory | Aug - Oct 2009
Here are a few of the many key moments in our global calendar from August to October. Use them to reflect on some of the issues facing our world and let the people behind the statistics inspire you to take action. You can spend one day or one minute on these things - but do something!
August
12 | International Youth Day
In the brilliant article, Why Stories Matter, by community organiser Marshall Ganz, he says
“…There’s something very particular about young people, not just that they have time. Walter Brueggemann writes in The Prophetic Imagination about the two elements of prophetic vision. One is criticality, recognition of the world’s pain. Second is hope, recognition of the world’s possibilities. Young people come of age with a critical eye and a hopeful heart. It’s that combination of critical eye and hopeful heart that brings change. That’s one reason why so many young people were and are involved in movements for social change.”
International Youth Day is a superb opportunity to not only celebrate the huge positive impact young people have had on society but also to take a chance to encourage it amongst the young people you know. Here in the UK it is our young people who are leading the way in ensuring political will for climate change action- they are utterly convinced that we must find urgent solutions for the world’s poorest who are suffering the effects.
Pray it: There is a beautiful “Prayer for our young people” here. Spend some time praying by name for the youth you know.
Dream it: Plan a “Dream Date” with your youth group/ young people you know. Plan in some time to think about issues and problems that affect your community, choose one to research further and begin to dream up solutions. Don’t leave until you have an empowering plan of action! Email the team at the Regent Hall Number 9 Project for a model of how they run theirs.
Encourage it: Spend some time researching some of the ventures young people in your town/ country have embarked on. Send them an email with a few words of encouragement - this has the potential to energise some fantastic people and their work.
Feature it: Take 5 minutes at your service/ youth group to share one or two local examples of great youth stories and one or two historical examples (What about the youngsters who began the Salvation Army in New Zealand?) Together, celebrate the way that God continues to reveal God’s kingdom through young people and children.
September
24-25 | G20, Pittsburgh, US
For the second time this year leaders of the world’s twenty wealthiest nations are gathering. It was hoped that the earlier summit would deliver the tools for an effective global deal on climate change but it fell well short. These meetings are often hailed as being key for global solutions to global problems, but far too often fail to produce any visible results. With only a few days together each time many issues can get sidelined. It is vital that these leaders realise the importance of reflecting not just the needs of countries present but those of the many countries not represented.
Pray it: Here is a website dedicated to praying for wise decisions at September’s G20. Keep your eyes peeled here for prayer events and guides.
Read it: Global Call to Action Against Poverty have written an interesting article entitled “Why we need a G192 not a G20″ that summarises some of the debate around this.
Host it: Host your own G20! At the time of the G20 organise a gathering of twenty friends/ colleagues/ youth group members. Plan yours to be a model of democracy and justice. Talk about some of the global issues impacting our world and spend some time praying for the leaders at the summit. Get some ideas from We20.
October
2 | International Day of Non Violence
This day falls on the birthday of Mahatma Gandhi and is meant to be a celebration of non violent solutions to conflict. In a world so ravaged by war and battles on a smaller scale it is important to take the chance to reflect on peace whenever we can.
“Non-violence is the greatest force at the disposal of mankind. It is mightier than the mightiest weapon of destruction devised by the ingenuity of man”. Gandhi
Do it: Research the conflict in your own community. Explore the local peaceful solutions already occurring and find out how you can support non violence in your neighbourhood.
Pray it: Spend some time focusing your weekly service or youth group night on the importance of peaceful solutions. Look at Francis of Assisi’s Peace Prayer and reflect on situations in your locality and in our world that need peaceful action.
Read it: Peacebuilding 101
5 | World Teachers’ Day
The relationship between poverty and lack of education is explicit and often cited, but the connection is a complex one. It is simply not a case of building schools to break the poverty trap. A main issue is the huge lack of educators in poorer nations. Poor education systems do not turn pupils into teachers and teachers that are found can not be retained with 100 pupil classrooms for little or no pay. There are options however; a key one being the management of overseas aid budgets - ear marking money for schools and teachers. Global Campaign for Education have been doing a sterling job in the last few years in creating awareness of the complexities and also providing solutions.
Did you know:
- 72 million children are out of school (over two-thirds are girls)
- 771 million adults worldwide are illiterate (64 per cent are women)
- Two million new teachers are needed today to provide kids with a decent education - and 15 million will be needed by 2015 to achieve education for all
Share it: Some things can only be portrayed visually. Have a look at this world map with a twist.
Do it: Take Oxfam’s Big Promise to play your part in ensuring the world’s poorest nations have enough teachers for education.
Join it: Get together with your friends/ colleagues/ youth group and create a Campaign for Global Education Group - there is an array of ideas and resources available for you at this website.
8 | International Day for Disaster Reduction
This day is devoted to raising the profile of the absolute need to mitigate against natural disasters. With the looming threat and reality of climate change, this date is taking on a significant prominence. One of the defining needs of a world with climate change is the need to help countries that are being hit hardest with adapting to these new circumstances. Very few governments in the world deny climate change, most have plans to lower emissions, yet what virtually all get stuck on is the idea that wealthy nations should help poor nations mitigate. It is deeply unfair that many of the countries that have caused climate change rarely experience the disaster that comes with it - it seems it is only right that we help reduce the impact in countries that suffer dire consequences.
You may agree- or not! Why not use this day to have that conversation?
Oxfam’s Right to Survive Report suggests:
- We need $42 billion more now each year in humanitarian aid to help meet people’s basic needs and another $50 billion now each year to help developing countries adapt to the effects of climate change.
- Rich countries, most responsible for the problem, must stop harming by rapidly cutting their carbon emissions and start helping by providing more money and support to help vulnerable countries adapt.
- National governments and the international community must provide more and better, more flexible aid. Aid should be provided on the basis of need – not tied to strategic or political interests, or favor one affected group over another or cherry-pick high profile emergencies.
- To avoid the most extreme potential impact of climate change in the longer term, developing countries must give greater priority to responding to emergencies and reducing people’s vulnerability to them.
Read it: The powerful report that perfectly outlines current and upcoming climate related disasters and their impact on developing nations. Right to Survive: Humanitarian Challenge in the Twenty First Century
Watch it: Franny Armstrong’s “Drowned Out” is a powerful film about traditional Indian families choosing to stay at home rather than move to the slums due to increasing flooding. A clip of this truly powerful film is available here.
Host it: Hold a film night screening Oxfam’s Sisters on the Planet. This DVD / online video selection has four separate stories of how women across the world are responding to increased natural disasters bought about through climate change.
Feature it: Spend some time in your service/ youth group reflecting on and praying for victims of recent natural disasters. Catholic Relief Service have a beautiful resource for a church service here.
You are always more than welcome to add your own ideas and links to this resource.
The Match Factory | May - July 2009
There are loads of exciting things to get involved with in the next few months. Last year we gave ideas for International Children’s Day and World Environment Day amongst others in the summaries of March to May and June to August but here are some ideas for the rest of dates happening over the summer months.May
3 | World Press Freedom Day
Many readers of theRubicon have the pleasure of living in countries that do not place heavy restrictions on media reporting. One of my greatest pleasures is coffee and The Guardian on a Saturday morning in the pages of which I can enjoy thoroughly cynical and critical accounts of anyone and everyone in government! We can often take for granted the usefulness of the press in holding people to account and, some at least, attempting to portray truth. There are an array of countries where journalists have no such liberty and World Press Freedom Day is chance to recognise the dire results of this.
The World Association of Newspapers (WAN) portrays some of these stories;
“Moussa Kaka, the director of the private radio station Saraouniya Radio talks about his coverage of the Niger Justice Movement that led to a one-year imprisonment. Mohammad Al-Al Abdallah, a 26-year old Syrian blogger, reveals his family hardships that have arisen from the fight for press freedom. In Yemen, Abdel Karim Al-Khaiwani, talks about spending a year behind bars for his reportage on high-level corruption, nepotism, and human rights abuses. Colombian journalist Claudia Julieta Duque discusses the long battle she has faced for her investigative reporting. Barry Bearak of The New York Times describes his arrest, detention and expulsion from Zimbabwe for trying to report from the country during the last elections.”
Feature it: Take 5 minutes in your church service to look at one of the stories WAN features. Pray that the media everywhere will be a tool for truth and accountability.
Do it: We also have a role in ensuring that we hold the media to account. Newspapers can often portray minority groups unfavorably or allow heavily opinionated pieces that are not truthful to dominate their pages. We have a role to play in this, for example by getting the ‘other side’ heard in the Letters to the Editor. In the lead up to the May, the Match Factory will publish a guide to influencing you local media for social justice. Why not use World Press Freedom Day as a prompt to get to grips with it.
Foot Stomping
Momentum at the G20 in London
Yesterday, here in London, UK, 40,000 people to took the streets to send a message to world leaders meeting at the G20 summit here next week.
The day was planned by churches and charities and despite the hail and wind, the day was a short term success. I say short term, because:
- lots of people attended (including a grand bunch from the Salvation Army)
- it seemed that the people who attended were inspired to envision a new world order.
The next few weeks will reveal whether this action will be a long term success. Mass mobilisation has a huge potential to shape political agendas, history has proved this, but whether it has this time, only the Summit’s minutes will reveal.
What is the potential of the G20 meetings this week? There is great hope that these leaders will turn the recession into an opportunity for a fairer, greener economy. Read this article to find out what local campaigners are wanting out of the summit.
How can you contribute to making these hopes reality? Micah Challenge are calling all Christians to pray throughout the next few days and you can join this movement and get the resources here. If you are in the UK you can also participate in some of the action aiming to influence the decision makers. While the biggest demo happened yesterday, there is lots of stuff going on that you may want to get involved with.
Lucy AR
Two things…
…to bring out the optimist in you.
Duncan Green of Oxfam has written a powerful book, from Poverty to Power, which is free to download. It is full of gems and here is one of them:
“An old development saying runs: ‘If you give a man a fish, you feed him for a day. If you teach him how to fish, you feed him for a lifetime.’ Fine and good but as a village leader from Cambodia points out,
‘A man is just as likely to be a woman and that woman already knows how to fish. She would like her river left alone by illegal logging companies or fish poachers. She would prefer that her government not build huge dams with the help of the Asian Development Bank, dams that have damaged her livelihood. She would prefer that the police not violently evict communities to make way for the dam. She doesn’t want charity. She would like respect for her basic rights.’”
The more days I spend in the ‘anti-poverty industry’ the more I realise how complex the issues are. The economy has collapsed so we ask for a greener system for the future, but also the need to get rid of tax havens, and other general corruption in the sector, which of course leads you to the arms industry- and the pharmaceutical industry - and the connections… between… oh… everything. It is a little hard not to get a bit conspirational about the whole thing, and a little despairing about the potential for change.
Pole dancing and poverty
Here in the UK gender equality is taken for granted. By all means, legislatively, women get a fair deal. However human rights organisation Amnesty recently pointed out that 1 woman in 10 each year in the UK is a victim of rape or violence. We also have pole dancing being taught in our schools and at local gyms. Are these things even related? Do these things have an impact on the overall, global situation of womankind?International Women’s Day is gathering momentum each year and provides a perfect chance to discuss these questions. People are beginning to realise the huge role of gender in human rights and poverty. I would argue that the oppression of women lies at the very heart of many of the world’s issues.
A few days before becoming the most recent General of The Salvation Army, General Clifton outlined the significance of women’s current position across the globe, particularly focusing on the problem of gender stereotyping and exploitation. General Clifton suggested The Salvation Army was “beautifully poised” to address some of these issues. Here are some sobering statistics:
- 70 per cent of the 1.2 billion people living in extreme poverty are female.
- There are twice as many women as men among the world’s 900 million illiterates.
- On average, women are paid 30-40 per cent less than men for comparable work.
- Above 80 percent of farmers in Africa are women.
- A woman living in sub-Saharan Africa has a 1-in-16 chance of dying in pregnancy. This compares with a 1-in-3,700 risk for a woman from North America.
- Every minute, a woman somewhere dies in pregnancy or childbirth. This adds up to 1,400 women dying each day, an estimated 529,000 each year from pregnancy-related causes.
How are we perpetuating the feminisation of poverty in our own lives? Will the rights violation of women across the globe ever be sorted out if we ignore the smaller issues evident in our conversation, our church leadership teams, the guest speaker list of the latest conference?
Here are some idea’s to get gender on the table:
Screen it: There are plenty of hard-hitting films about the role of gender in the outplaying of human rights. India’s Missing Girls and Water are documentaries/films about very real situations. Here is a recent list of hard-hitting films about women.
Discuss it: Hold a discussion panel at your church about the situation of women in the church. Throw in some meaty questions about equality in the scriptures, the Booths’ stance on women in ministry and the current situation.
Feature it: Have a slot in your Sunday morning to talk about the issues affecting women across the world and highlight some of The Salvation Army’s developing nation work with women - the human trafficking work is particularly pertinent.
Host it: Host a dessert evening at your church to explore the situation of women around the world - get in touch with some local development agencies and see if they would be willing to come and do a presentation.
Do it: When organising an event or conference be deliberate about inviting women as workshop leaders and speakers. There are equal numbers of male and female speakers, it is just the women may be a little harder to find.
Have you found a good way to talk about this stuff? Have you cracked the gender equality equation? Please post a comment!
Prayer changes nothing…
| February 23, 2009 | to | March 1, 2009 |
Be the change you want to see in the world
F
ebruary 23rd will see the start of Global Poverty Prayer Week, the second of its kind, organised by Tearfund. It is the second time that these two organisations have come together to call people to a week of focused prayer for our global neighbours. The first, which took place last year, saw tens of thousands of people taking to their knees and lifting up the poor before God.
It’s difficult to measure the fruit of such an event. We can’t know for sure that less people now and in the future will be living in extreme poverty because of GPPW but my belief is that is the case. I don’t believe this so much because I believe that ‘prayer changes things’ but because I am convinced that prayer changes people. It seems unlikely to me that our praying changes God’s mind, instead our minds and hearts are changed. As a result of this transformation, the world around us is changed and during GPPW as the poor, marginalised and vulnerable are particularly remembered their world is transformed.
A few drops of web goodness
Hope and little green monsters
The weather is bleak here in the UK, but fortunately jolly old cyberspace is throwing out some sunshine. This simple but powerful Youtube video is bursting with hope and sums up this generation of young world changers. Time to reverse apathy, statistics and despair!
Davos, the meeting of many of the world’s elite, has been and gone. Whilst they may not have solved the global financial crises they have been tangling with some important questions over the last few days. Here Barbara Stocking, Chief Executive of Oxfam, answers the question ‘Will development and sustainability drop down the global agenda?’ Her answer is a clear one: “It is a time of unprecedented global challenges. If ever there was a moment for an unprecedented global response, it is now.” Here, here.
The All New, and Improved…
… Post Global Economic Collapse, 100% Value Match Factory
Welcome to the first post of the new-for-2009 Match Factory. In the joyful confidence that less and less of you are content simply dreaming of a more just and peaceful world we have been quietly expanding the Match Factory.
You may notice a few changes.
This year we will be dedicating a lot more space towards the climate change conversation. This is because:
- It is a matter of social justice. Climate change impacts the worlds poorest and most vulnerable first and worst. If we care about inequality and injustice we must care about climate change.
- Time is short. We only have a limited amount of time to get off the collision course we are on and to show global leaders that the December 09 UN meeting at Copenhagen must produce a global green deal that works for the world’s poorest.
- The time is now. At the end of last year Ed Miliband, the UK’s Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change called for a mass moblisation on climate change similar to Make Poverty History. We all need to be part of a movement that makes a global green deal not just politically viable but politically necessary.
A Strikingly New Match Factory
Social justice, fair trade, environmentalism, agitation, change…
T
he Match Factory is where you can join the plotting for the revolutions that will make the world a better place. Here you can join the discussions about returning to the Army’s roots of wedding a passion for change to a practical desire to “do something”. Named after the Army’s original Match Factory, this blog will have a life of its own within theRubicon.
Lucy AitkenRead is the section editor and she will be getting things underway - right here - in late January 2009. So don’t stay in the dark for long…
Upcoming Events
- No events.
