Harvesting Justice in the Dominican Republic

Cacao is grown at CONACADO co-op in Dominican Republic and used to produce chocolate for Equal Exchange, a fair trade enterprise.
Credit: Rosina Pohlmann

This is a second blog entry by Rosina Pohlmann, who is traveling for New World Outlook magazine this week on an UMCOR tour of the CONACADO cacao cooperative, an association of small-farm producers who grow a portion of the cacao beans that make the Equal Exchange chocolate line. Rosie will be posting blog entries this week about what she sees and hears, and in July, her article on the tour will appear in New World Outlook.

The past few days have been active indeed, as we try to fit what would ideally be a ten-day tour into seven days. During our stay in Yamasa we visited a cacao farm, swam in a local river, visited a small women-led business, visited the new credit union, planted our own cacao trees, and spent plenty of quality time with our home-stay families.

Many of the families who opened their homes to us are connected to the co-op, and they shared their stories as well as their food and hospitality. It’s heartening to see how much of a positive impact CONACADO has had on their lives and how quickly the community is progressing. We saw schools and water pumps that were paid for by fair trade premiums, and we listened as co-op members told us about their children, many of whom were able to pursue higher education. Also encouraging is the co-op’s new credit union, which allows members to take out loans at low rates and thus establish the community even further.

One of my favorite moments was our visit to the Asociación Mujer & Acción, a group of women who have used co-op funds to start their own small business venture. The women use cacao to make a sweet wine which they then sell. They started with a small loan, which they paid back, and then were able to take out a larger one with which they built a modest structure to house their business. To me, these women exemplify the progress which is possible within the community—the kind of positive outcome that results when we invest in people and not just things.

All of us on the tour feel very grateful for our home-stay families, and toward everyone else who has helped us along our way in Yamasa. We have now left Yamasa for San Francisco (yes, there’s one in the DR too!)—uncharted territory for Equal Exchange and the rest of us!

Thanks!
Rosie

Harvesting Justice in the Dominican Republic

At the CONACADO co-op in the Dominican Republic, Fair Trade chocolate is produced from cacao beans.
Photo Credit: Rosina Pohlmann

By Rosina Pohlmann

Rosina Pohlmann is traveling for New World Outlook magazine this week on an UMCOR tour of the CONACADO cacao cooperative, an association of small-farm producers who grow a portion of the cacao beans that make the Equal Exchange chocolate line. Rosie will be posting blog entries this week about what she sees and hears, and in July, her article on the tour will appear in New World Outlook.

This week I am blessed to join an eco-tour led by El Fuego del Sol that will take me into some of the farms where Fair Trade chocolate is produced, and allow me to learn from the farmers themselves.

I arrived on Saturday, and joined a team made up of Methodists, Catholics, representatives of Equal Exchange, and world travelers. We’ve been busy! Sunday began with back-to-back services at the Iglesia Episcopal de Santo Domingo, a lovely church just west of the colonial zone. The first service, conducted in English, was for the Union congregation, which combines several denominations not well represented in the Dominican Republic. The second was an Episcopal service and was lead in Spanish. After the services, we joined in fellowship and conversation with Pastor Bob Snow and his wife, Ellen Snow, who shared a little of the Church’s history.

They told us that the parsonage has seen both tragedy and great accomplishment: tragedy during the time of dictator Rafael Trujillo, when a socially minded pastor was murdered for his anti-governmental actions, and accomplishment in recent years, as social programs addressing orphaned children, AIDS, and other social issues have flourished and expanded.

After touring the Colonial City, a historically rich area that includes the oldest street in the Americas – La Calle de Damas – we learned a little about cultural relations from Jean Gentil, a well-educated and well-spoken Haitian who has sought fruitlessly a job in the Dominican Republic for 15 years (and whose story provides the plot for the award-winning film Jean Gentil). The conversation was eye-opening indeed.

Today, we began a new adventure, visiting the headquarters of CONACADO and travelling to one of the seven Bloques where Fair Trade chocolate is produced, called Yamasá. Several leaders of the chocolate-producers co-op, as well as a number of youth active in the community, welcomed us and led us on a tour of the fermentation facility, where we learned a bit about the painstaking process of fermenting, drying, and packaging the cacao beans. Perhaps as fascinating as the production process is the democratic structure of CONACADO, led by the organization of the cacao producers themselves. I’m eager to learn more about it as we visit the cacao farms and share with our home-stay families.

Cherry Blossoms and Hope

UMCOR executive, Melissa Crutchfield (second row, fifth from left), attends an ecumenical gathering in Seoul, South Korea, to help the National Christian Council in Japan build a long-term response to the March 11 disaster in Japan.
Photo Credit: Ciony Eduarte/UMCOR

By Melissa Crutchfield

On May 6 and 7, the United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR) joined some two dozen faith-based relief organizations in a forum in Seoul, South Korea, convened by national Christian church councils of Japan, Korea, Hong Kong, and Taiwan. The objective of the two-day meeting was to help the National Christian Council in Japan (NCCJ) flesh out a long-term relief and reconstruction strategy and explore the establishment of an ecumenical consortium to accompany those efforts in the wake of the March 11 earthquake, tsunami, and still potential nuclear disaster in Japan. Melissa Crutchfield, UMCOR’s International Disaster Response executive, attended the meeting and read her reflection, below, at the closing worship.

Reflection – Closing Worship – Japan Earthquake/Tsunami Relief Ecumenical Solidarity Meeting – Seoul , South Korea – May 7, 2011

When I began to contemplate what might be appropriate words to share on such an occasion as this, I kept thinking about cherry blossoms. Perhaps they were on my mind because I could see them outside my window in Washington, DC as I worked, calming in their simplicity yet inspiring in their abundance.

Or perhaps it was because the annual National Cherry Blossom and Japanese cultural festival had just taken place down the street – honoring the gift of the cherry blossoms from Japan to America many years ago, symbolizing friendship and solidarity between our nations. Then thinking about our gathering together here in Seoul, again showing solidarity with Japan, the parallel was pretty easy to see.

Or it could have been that a colleague had just shown me a touching and poignant haiku, accompanied by an image of a cherry tree (that you can see on the front cover of the bulletin):

My weeping cherry tree
Bloomed today
Pink Blossoms
Crying
For the people of Japan

Or perhaps I kept thinking of cherry blossoms because they are an iconic image of spring, renewal, rebirth, hope… after a long winter – or, after an earthquake, tsunami and nuclear disaster – when the earth looks as desolate as it might have to Jeremiah, all we need to do is have faith in God’s word that the land will be restored to life, will flourish as before. Or as the Gospel tells us the story of the Resurrection –we just need to believe that life which we thought had ended, has in fact, begun again.

The cherry blossoms – the first sign of spring – consistently reassure us, the small pink and white flowers a signal to us that life goes on, grows, blooms, replenishes, recovers from the harsh winter of previous months. Embodying optimism and hope in their very existence.

Through my work with UMCOR, responding to other disasters across the globe, what has always struck me is the cycle of renewal and hope that abounds after every crisis. Especially working with and through the church, we see first-hand how faith in action inspires, restores, revives. A little over a year after the devastating earthquake in Haiti, progress is indeed slow. But there IS progress. All around we see the hope of renewal, of life begun again: literally tons of rubble removed, families with new homes, women with new jobs through a microcredit program, crops and trees replanted, students returning to school in classrooms built back better and stronger than before. Recovery in Haiti is taking advantage of the opportunity to build back better. As Rev. Victor Hsu implored us yesterday, we are striving for quality, not quantity. Integrity and strength, not speed. We are committing ourselves to standing in solidarity with the Haitian people as they map out their future and the long road ahead. We are committed to being there, being a manifestation of hope.

In a world plagued by devastation, doubt, destruction; a world of natural calamities and man-made crises, it is easy to see the world as a place without hope… a world that looks more like Good Friday. But we are an Easter people who live with the conviction that land can be restored, that lives can be restored. That even in the face of death and despair, we have faith that life and hope are the final word.

With this conviction, together, we can change the landscape of Japan’s future. Together, we can raise awareness, and raise buildings. Together, we can repair and replenish lives and spirits. Together, we can nurture the support and momentum to carry us forward on the long road to recovery.

And so, we are again called to be like the cherry blossoms, to be Easter people in a Good Friday world, to be in God’s name that beacon of hope and promise of renewal and solidarity, for our friends, for our partners, for all of the people in Japan.

St. John's UMC responds to storms and flooding with 'a whirlwind of love'

Flooding in Memphis, Tennessee.  Photo by J. Collins Dillard

By Lane Gardner Camp*

5/2/2011

As weather emergencies have been taking place throughout the Memphis Conference all during April and now into May, churches are reacting and responding in many ways.

St. John’s UMC in midtown Memphis is seeing and feeling the effects in its neighborhood and throughout the city as waters rise from the nearby Mississippi River.

“When disaster happens, whatever form it takes, we tend to feel helpless, like we just want to do something to help. But we also know that there are specially trained responders who need to assess the situation and make a plan for what help is needed and how to provide it, said Renee Dillard, Associate Minister of Discipleship Ministries at St. John’s.

On Sunday, May 1, members of St. John’s decided to help in the way it thought was “best” at the time, said Renee – by making donations to Advance #3021326 (U.S. Spring Storms 2011) of the United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR), the global humanitarian aid organization of The United Methodist Church.

“In the weeks and months ahead, we hope to put our hands and feet to work helping to rebuild, but supporting UMCOR was the best way we could immediately begin helping our neighbors," said Renee.

“Be a Whirlwind of Love” is the theme St. John’s chose to communicate its caring, concern and action.

St. John’s member and artist-photographer J. Collins Dillard, Renee's husband, created artwork to illustrate the theme and is offering the art to other churches who might want to use it. (Contact Collins at heroboyjr@earthlink.net.)

“This started as a prayer for Alabama and the tornado victims," said Collins, "but quickly became more broad in meaning when the waters (from the Mississippi River) became so dangerously high.”

Renee called Collins' art “a powerful image” and expressed hope that other churches might use it to “encourage support for storm relief.”

Collins said the idea for the theme and art hit him during the night.

Knowing that Christians must respond with love to the “unimaginable pain” and “devastating loss” from recent storms, he said he was reminded of the words “His way is in the whirlwind and the storm” from verse 1:3 of the Old Testament Book of Nahum.

“To justify destruction in God’s name,” Collins said some people take the verse out of context.

“We, of course, know God is present in the recovery and healing. God is not the violence of destruction," he said.

St. John's created a "focal point" table for its May 1 worship service by combining Collins' art in poster form with a three-dimensional sculpture, also created by Collins, that conveyed the same image and message.

"Members were invited to pause at the table (after receiving Holy Communion) to offer a prayer for storm victims and those who are responding to the needs all around us, and then to place a small (paper) heart at the base of the sculpture," explained Renee.

Placing the heart was "an act of hope, an act of prayer, a tangible way to demonstrate our trust in a loving God who is working to bring healing and wholeness out of this chaos and despair," she said.

"We will now live into God’s purpose by being a 'whirlwind of love' through prayer, giving and service," added Renee.

*By Lane Gardner Camp, Director of Communications, Memphis Annual Conference.

View original post here.

South Carolina UMVIM ERT Disaster Response to North Carolina

While the South Carolina Annual Conference’s Disaster Response Team helped their neighbors to the north clean up following historic tornadoes, they heard many stories of people saved by the grace of God, and saw evidence such as this of the devastation. Photo: Billy Robinson

By Billy Robinson*

From April 21 to 23, ten members of South Carolina United Methodist Volunteers In Mission’s Disaster Response Team (Early Response Team – ERT) responded to the call to aid people in need following the devastating tornadoes that hit across North Carolina on April 16, 2011. That was the worst single-day outbreak of tornadoes in North Carolina history; 24 people were killed.

When we arrived on Thursday, April 21, at the town of Rowland, we were amazed at the amount of destruction a tornado had ravaged there. We placed a tarp on one damaged roof and preformed chainsaw work at three homes, clearing trees from roofs, driveways, and yards. We spent the night at a nearby Baptist Missions camp.

Friday and Saturday, we were directed on to Fayetteville, NC, where we saw a massive amount of destruction from an EF3 tornado. Some believed it became an even more powerful EF4 tornado along part of its devastating path. It left many homes destroyed, several people injured, and one dead in Fayetteville. It launched a minivan up into a tree.

Friday, it rained all day on us, but our dedicated volunteers continued to work right through the cool, pouring rain. We were called to be “God’s hands and feet” to hurting and devastated people who were in dire need of love, compassion, hope, and a sense of normalcy. We placed tarps on three roofs and preformed chainsaw work at seven homes.

Survivors told a lot of amazing stories of how they were spared by the grace of God. There was also the story of two 4x6-foot construction company signs found near Raleigh, 49 and 54 miles, respectively, from their original locations. We saw a minivan sitting in huge forked branches that had broken off of a big oak tree when the van landed in it and then fell on top of two other vehicles. It was an amazing sight to behold, as were the splinters of wood that pierced through homes and roofs.

We saw an awful lot of devastation and, also, a wonderful amount of good being done by volunteers, including Baptists, Methodists, Presbyterians, Mennonites; people from Samaritan’s Purse, various faith-based and civic organizations, and the Red Cross. It is always so wonderful and uplifting to see so many good-hearted people come together for a common cause. You see the best of people, as they give their all to help others in need. Unfortunately, you can also see the worst of people, when some try to take advantage of others who already are in deep, emotional distress.

We experienced and also heard of how Jesus was ever present in both the storms and the response to them. When a tire and rim of one of our disaster-response trailers was destroyed on I-95, team members stopped to help us. Relief workers included a father and son on their first out-of-state mission together; people from all walks of life who worked together in perfect harmony; and neighbors who came together as never before. We learned of a mother who stretched herself over her children to protect them from harm during the tornadoes. And we experienced God’s protective hand of safety over all of the relief and recovery workers who had come to North Carolina to help.

*Billy Robinson is the South Carolina Annual Conference’s UMVIM Disaster Coordinator

World Malaria Day

By Nyamah Dunbar*


For the United Methodist Church’s Imagine No Malaria (INM) campaign, every day is World Malaria Day. In the East African nation of Mozambique, where the United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR) will commemorate World Malaria Day this year, every 45 seconds marks the unwritten inscription of another life lost to this deadly disease.

INM is the denomination’s global health initiative to create awareness of malaria and build support for its eradication. April 25 is internationally recognized as World Malaria Day, a day to remember the millions of people whose lives are lost or affected by this preventable disease. Children are among the most vulnerable, and in Mozambique, about 36,000 children die annually of the disease.

This spring, UMCOR is partnering with the United Methodist Church in Mozambique, the Missouri Annual Conference, United Methodist Communications, and the Mozambique Ministry of Health’s Malaria Control Program to launch the National Malaria Nets Campaign in Mozambique on May 14.

The campaign kicks off in Golo, Homoine District, where Bishop Thomas Bickerton, Western Pennsylvania Conference, will join Bishop Joaquina Nhanala, Mozambique Annual Conference, along with several local and national authorities for a festive celebration.

After the celebration, 100,000 long-lasting, insecticide-treated nets, provided by the Global Fund through the Government of Mozambique, will be distributed to residents of Homoine and Panda districts. UMCOR is coordinating and funding the logistics of the net distribution, with additional support from NetsforLife and Nothing But Nets.

In cooperation with the Government of Mozambique, 550 trained community workers will provide ongoing malaria-prevention education and treatment to the districts’ more than 200,000 residents.

The net distribution serves as the first major health program to be executed through Center of Hope (CESPE), a community-based health center located on the grounds of Chicuque Rural Hospital, which is supported by UMCOR. CESPE offers community-based health workers training and education on malaria, HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and maternal and child health. The volunteer health workers then bring life-saving education and preventative measures to remote communities.

*Nyamah Dunbar is the INM executive for Grant Management, UMCOR Health

Reaching Out to Vulnerable Communities after the Storm

Stony Brook Mobile Home Park was one of the places hardest hit by April 16 tornadoes in North Carolina. Photo: Barbara Tripp/UMCOR

Driving around the town I have lived in all my life, I realize how very much things have changed. Hundreds of thousands more people live in Raleigh, North Carolina, than did when I was small. The city has spread its boundaries way into the former countryside. But no amount of year-in, year-out change compares to the sudden changes a tornado—like the one that blew through here on April 16—can make!

Take my favorite seafood shop for example: the roof now resides in a neighbor’s yard. The historical African-American University closed up before the end of the semester, the windows blown out of all the dorm rooms. And homes, thousands of homes, damaged or destroyed in a jagged line that cuts across the heart of Wake County.

Where does one begin? We begin with prayer and then with hard work — work that will continue for a long time for many people all across North Carolina.

But there is much hope and help available. One of the extremely hard-hit areas in Raleigh was the Stony Brook Mobile Home Park. Rev. Heather Rodrigues is an associate pastor at Millbrook United Methodist Church, one of those churches originally established in the country, but now located deep within the city limits. Heather’s church works with a local nonprofit ministry, Centro Internacional Raleigh (CIR), which helps the local Latino immigrant population.

“John Fasion of CIR and I met a month ago,” she says. “He walked me into the woods across the street from our church to meet the homeless people living there. Many of them are Latinos, and John works with them out of his home church and CIR. That first meeting, to me, was a ‘God-Thing,’ providential,” Heather says, “as now, after the tornadoes, we have been able to connect concerning support for Stony Brook,” where many Spanish-speaking, Latino immigrants also live.

“Our church has the added bonus of having a Latino Outreach pastor on our staff,” she continues. “Rev. Leo Reich is heavily involved in the effort to assist people at the Stony Brook Mobile Home Park, and his Spanish-speaking gift is coming in handy.

“And yet our non-Spanish-speaking members are also out there doing good work” Heather says. “This morning one of them told me, ‘I don't speak Spanish, but that's OK—the people understand the words God, food, drink, and they understand my hugs and my tears.’ What a testimony to the Spirit's ability to overcome language barriers!” Heather remarked.

We, as United Methodists are connected not only to our own multitude of churches, but also to the communities in which we serve. This is one of the blessings of our church and of our training to respond to emergency situations, which encourage and guide us to reach out.

By Barbara Tripp, UMCOR disaster response consultant, and a native of Raleigh, North Carolina