UnitingWorld Update Issue 4, 2020

UnitingWorld

UPDATE ISSUE 4 2020

this is how it feels. . to give the gift of hope

Mr Komang was gifted a pig and livelihood training by our partners in Bali, funded through your gifts to Everything in Common. His family have continued to be able to earn an income for food, medical and school supplies.

u! o y k n a Th

UnitingWorld is the international aid and partnerships agency of the Uniting Church in Australia. Together we work for a world where lives are whole and hopeful, free from poverty and injustice.

Because every person matters.

this

is how it feels...

. .to know you've helped put the future in safe hands.

This Christmas, Ni Lu’s joy as she watches her son Gede finish his fifth year at school will be even greater than usual. The family live in the highlands of Bali, Indonesia, where right now cases of COVID-19 are exploding. 90% of Bali’s population rely on tourists to survive, and the massive economic downtown caused by the pandemic is hitting their region hard. Ni Lu’s family, though, is weathering the storm. They’ve managed to hang onto their goats – gifted from Everything in Common along with small business training and an introduction to the work of our partner, the Protestant Christian Church in Bali. Gede has been learning from home, and his family still have enough income to keep him in school.

You can help keep the future in safe hands by giving the gift of education. can help provide school resources;

. .to drink water that's clean, safe, and close to home.

can help keep a girl in school for a whole year providing accommodation, food and contributing to teacher training.

For Maisy and her friends, clean running water changes everything. Instead of walking kilometres to bring back water from the well, they have everything they need close to home. Their community in Milne Bay, Papua New Guinea, have worked with the United Church of Papua New Guinea to install tanks, taps and toilets, as well as hosting training sessions on the importance of hand washing and safe food preparation. Maisy wants to go on to be a teacher and study in the city – being freed from the burden of water collection and having clean water and toilets at her school means she’s one step closer to achieving her dream.

Give the gift of clean water and share the feeling! can help equip educators to teach people how to stay safe from disease;

can help provide access to clean water from tanks and taps, as well as education about the importance of handwashing and sanitation.

...to be independent and ready for the future.

That smile! Raj is a graduate of our partner’s disability inclusion school project in Sri Lanka and he works with a local mechanic. He loves the work and brings home an income to help his family, who had often wondered whether he would manage to stay in school, let alone find a career when the time came. Gifts to Everything in Common support young people like Raj and their teachers to build lives that are independent and happy in places where people with disabilities are among the most vulnerable and poorest in their communities.

Put the tools for a better future into the hands of someone like Raj! can help a child stay in inclusive education and set them up to earn an income with dignity after they leave school.

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UNITINGWORLD UPDATE

Visit www.everythingincommon.com.au for gifts that beat poverty and build hope.

This year we have a beautiful new collection of cards under $30, plus Christmas cards and gifts for the special ones in your life.

ank you h T to everyone who has given with such

incredible generosity to the work of our partners in South Sudan and other places in crisis.

So far, you’ve helped us raise $108,428 to help our partners stay safe from COVID-19, provide food and water, and plan for critical peace workshops. You can read more about how the funds are being put to work at www.unitingworld.org.au/south-sudan

New Innovations in a Crisis

CHURCH PARTNERS WERE READY FOR COVID-19 PAPUA NEW GUINEA

Women In Amritsar are sewing and distributing masks to prevent disease and earn a small income.

AMRITSAR, INDIA

Australia’s recent experience of lockdowns, home schooling and economic downturn have been tough. How do these things play out in places where cases of COVID-19 continue to grow? We talked to one of our partners, Om Prakash (OP) in Amritsar, India, to find out.

UW: What’s the situation in India at the moment OP? We’ve been hearing that maybe the cases have peaked?

OP: Yes, we feel a little hopeful. We had up to 90,000 cases a day a few weeks ago but numbers have dropped in the last two weeks.

The rate of testing is still not high enough though and we are very worried about winter coming.

UW: What’s happening with the lockdown?

How much has opened back up?

OP: Pretty much all parts of society are open again except for colleges and schools. This is a big danger period for us with shops and malls operating again, but still many people don’t wear the masks, and it’s hard to enforce. But there has been such an economic impact, we can’t afford the lockdown. Many, many people have no work, no income, no food.

UW: What government services are available to help people survive and recover?

OP: Workers and other vulnerable people registered with the government have been allowed a small pension during the pandemic.

Two payments of 3000 rupees ($A57.00) have come through. But the problem is that most people are not registered. There is very low awareness in the community of the social services that are available, and people don’t know how to go about getting registered.

UW: That’s a huge challenge! How has your team responded?

OP: Even before the pandemic, we were running education workshops with communities to help people get registered for support. We still do that but we have to be smart and careful about social distancing. We do more door-to-door than in

groups, and we use posters and social media.

Our main practical impact right now is in education. School is online, but most families don’t have a smart phone to use for their children – there might be only one in each family. Our study centres are allowed to open even though schools can’t and so our staff are helping children who wouldn’t otherwise have access online to keep up with their schooling.

Government teachers are in contact with our staff to provide resources; we’re even helping students sit their exams this way. Without these centres, so many children would have lost almost a year of their education, maybe even more.

UW: It’s an incredible role to play – and the church has also been providing income generating opportunities for parents?

OP: Yes, we started with sewing masks and women were gaining skills and some cash to buy food. We have a huge order about to go out to a Motorcycle Rally we have planned for the city to raise awareness about COVID-19 safety protocols. But we have also been helping women make and sell paper bags – plastic bags were due to be made illegal last year right across India because of the environmental impact, but that didn’t end up happening. We’re still committed to providing an alternative and an income opportunity at the same time.

Our partners, the United Church in Papua New Guinea (UCPNG) are out in force educating communities about the threats of COVID-19 and the importance of regular hand washing. They’ve been running a successful behaviour change campaign for many years, teaching thousands of people about the importance of clean water and good hygiene. When the pandemic hit Papua New Guinea, they were ready to expand this work to include COVID-19 awareness and prevention, and they were able to do it safely.

With the permission of the PNG Government, over the past six months the UCPNG team (along with volunteer change agents) have: • educated 14,500 people on best practice water hygiene and sanitation • distributed 687 pamphlets, 2505 posters, six banners and 3840 bars of soap • worked with 11 congregations, 14 communities and six schools along the East Cape Coast A team of three theologians also shared COVID-19 safety messages to help people understand this and other disasters from a theological perspective. One of them was Kerron, a recent Master of Theology graduate of Raronga Theological College.

“Every home now is implementing the tippy tap approach to wash hands in the villages we visited, church seats are marked a metre apart and masks are sewn by women to help with schools and public,” said Kerron.

Thank you for supporting the work of our partners UCPNG and helping them make a huge impact in their communities!

The United Church in PNG Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Project is supported by the Australian Government through the Australian NGO Cooperation Program (ANCP).

UW: OP, your team’s commitment and innovation is really inspiring! We’re praying for you all.

OP: Please pass on my love and thanks to UnitingWorld and to the people of the Uniting Church in Australia. We are very grateful for your prayers and your investment in our work.

A Volunteer with UCPNG’s ‘Rait Mama’ behaviour change campaign.

#ENDCOVIDFORALL UPDATE Thank you so much to all those who signed the pledge to urge the Australian Government to provide vital support to nations hardest hit by the COVID-19 crisis.

You were among more than 25,000 Australians whose signatures were passed on to government to let them know we care about our neighbours. In the 2020-21 Budget announced in early October, the government committed $304.7 million of additional money for the Pacific and Timor-Leste to help them recover from COVID-19. This is critical assistance for nations whose economies have been devastated by the pandemic and a real win for the campaign you’ve been a part of. Thank you!

Another win was the fact that the overall aid budget was not cut considerably, and the Australian NGO Cooperation Program (ANCP) was not reduced, keeping our partnership with the Government strong. That means we can continue to combine your donations with Australian Aid funding – giving both parties added value and making a bigger impact by working together!

The wins notwithstanding, the aid budget remains at its lowest level ever, and this budget missed an opportunity to invest in building the level of global cooperation and generosity needed to overcome COVID-19 and prevent hard-won development gains from being lost.

The World Bank estimates that COVID-19 could push up to 150 million people into extreme poverty by 2021.

So it’s critical that we keep speaking up for aid and collaborating for a more just world in these challenging times. Thank you for standing with us.

NOTES FROM THE NATIONAL DIRECTOR Recently I stood among others and hummed the tune—COVID-19 protocols didn’t allow me to sing—to that great hymn, ‘It is well with my soul.’

“When peace like a river, attendeth my way, When sorrows like sea billows roll Whatever my lot, thou hast taught me to say It is well, it is well, with my soul.”

Given the current state of the world, that’s a level of assurance I often find difficult. My soul is more likely to cower and quake; to rollercoaster between many different emotions, perhaps even within the course of a day.

Maybe yours does too.

It lifts and steadies, though, when I look around at those who are standing here beside me – physically and in spirit. Within my own congregation, I receive an email from a faithful woman who shares her steadfast compassion and love with us in the most encouraging prose imaginable. At work I join a conversation with the global church in support of human

rights in the Philippines, hearing the stories of courageous men and women on the frontline of the work to protect others and fight for justice.

Online, I talk with a staff member in Bali, a doctor who has seen members of her church die of COVID-19 and yet who presses on with new ideas to safely serve her community.

Being part of this global conversation is not just a privilege, it’s truly mind-blowing. Indeed, we have a great cloud of witnesses, people of incredible courage and steadfast faith who fight for justice for the oppressed, and risk violence and death. No need to look to history for heroes of the faith.

This Christmas, I pray that you too will find steadfastness and inspiration among your family, friends and faith community. Tell the

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stories. Share the encouragement, the love and the joy. I’m so grateful that you’ve committed another year beside us as collaborators in the Kingdom.

With love and hope,

Dr Sureka Goringe, National Director, UnitingWorld

This newsletter was printed using vegetable-based inks on paper that was sustainably sourced from plantation forests.

UnitingWorld PO Box A2266, Sydney South NSW 1235 ABN 47 817 183 926 Telephone 1800 998 122

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