Mampujan citizens march for justice

January 30, 2012

Mampujan citizens marching

Anna Vogt, service worker for Mennonite Central Committee’s SEED Program, recently wrote an article about the Mampujan community in Colombia. The Mampujan community has experienced the full extent of Colombia’s previous and current armed conflicts. This past December, members of the Mampujan community decided to march in protest against the lack of reparations given by the Colombian government in response to the conflicts.

Therefore, the community of Mampuján is getting ready to march, not only for their own benefit, as they demand their reparations, but for the benefit of all the victims of armed conflict in Colombia.

Read the full article>>

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Posted by jacobkanagy

Earthquake Reconstruction: Another look at progress

January 25, 2012

Wawa and Kristen Chege reflect on the international response to the Haiti earthquake and the need for transparency in reconstruction efforts in the latest Third Way Cafe.

In this chaos of reconstruction, with an influx of aid money and the pressure to spend quickly, international companies have instead found an opportune time to push Haiti down the path of industrialization. Investors have reframed their factories as opportunities for development, and in the process secured significant funding from USAID and international financial institutions.

Read the article here.

Leave a Comment » | Issues, Latin America/Caribbean | Tagged: , , , | Permalink
Posted by jesseeppfransen

We Remember Haiti

January 12, 2012

Photo by Ben Depp/MCC

Today marks two years after a devastating earthquake killed more than 300,000 people and displaced more than a million in Haiti. Haitians continue to struggle through the process of recovery with at least half a million people still living in displacement camps and many other survivors struggling to meet their basic needs.

We pray for Haiti’s continued recovery and remember all those who have endured much hardship.

Advocate for Haiti | Haiti Photo Gallery | MCC’s Response

 

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Posted by Theo Sitther

Stop Gun Smuggling to Mexico

December 20, 2011

Diego Luna, a Mexican film star, calls for action to stop the flow of weapons from the United States to Mexico. Sign a petition to President Obama calling on him to take action to the stop gun smuggling to Mexico.

Leave a Comment » | Action Alerts, Latin America/Caribbean | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Theo Sitther

Reflect | Serve | Advocate

December 13, 2011

Back row left-right: Daniela Velasquez (Peru); Will Morris (US); Leonel Elias (Mexico); Erica VanEssendelft (US); Anna Vogt (Canada); Cellia Vasquez (Colombia) | Front row left-right: Larisa Zehr (US); Juan Sebastian Pacheco Lozano (Colombia); Carolina Pérez (Colombia); Jessica Sarriot (US)

Earlier this year ten young adults from the Americas (Canada, US, Mexico, Colombia, and Peru) and two coordinators began a two-year Mennonite Central Committee term in Colombia to reflect, serve and advocate alongside Colombian communities.  “Participants of the program come together for two years to reflect on the issues that maintain barriers – from economics, politics, and war; to culture, geography, and theology.  The program connects the reflection on the big issues with community grassroots service together with communities who are working against significant violence, poverty, and oppression.  While seeking to connect the macro to the micro, and learning to see how the large structures affect real communities, participants learn to speak as a community to advocate for peace, justice, and equality with global partners.”

These young adults have published their first set of reflections on their experiences so far. Read about it.

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Posted by Theo Sitther

“A Culture of Cruelty”

November 21, 2011

“They treated me like a dog…They asked if [I] wanted water, but when [I] responded ‘yes,’ they wouldn’t give [me] any.”  -2010, 16 year-old boy from Guatemala, in A Culture of Cruelty.

Credit: No More Deaths (No Mas Muertes) www.nomoredeaths.org

When we, as Americans, hear about human rights abuses we imagine distant mass atrocities, reminiscent of genocide in Cambodia and Rwanda or widespread abuses in today’s Democratic Republic of Congo and Colombia. We fail to associate human rights violations with our own country, occurring within our own nation’s borders. However, the organization No More Deaths has released a shocking new report, A Culture of Cruelty: Abuse and Impunity in Short-Term U.S. Border Patrol Custody, detailing widespread abuse of migrants by the U.S. Border Patrol along the U.S.-Mexico border.

Read the rest of this entry »

Leave a Comment » | Crime and Justice, Immigration, Issues, Latin America/Caribbean | Permalink
Posted by emilywh

The War We are Living

November 1, 2011

Tonight, PBS television stations across the country will broadcast an under-reported story from the front lines of Colombia’s resurgent war in a documentary called The War We are Living. This is the fourth part of a five-part series called Women War & Peace, a comprehensive television initiative exploring women’s strategic role in conflict and peace-building.

Watch the trailer for the War We are Living.

Leave a Comment » | Latin America/Caribbean | Tagged: , , , | Permalink
Posted by Theo Sitther

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