February 2013

By Gabriel Salguero, President, National Latino Evangelical Coalition

January 2013

By Loretta Minghella OBE, Director of Christian Aid

Psalm 99: 4 "The mighty King loves justice. You have established fairness; You have administered justice and righteousness in Jacob." 

This year British development agencies and civil society groups will be joining forces to call on the UK Government to tackle global hunger. In a world where nearly one billion people go to bed hungry every night, this year the UK Government has the opportunity to show leadership and bring about real change for the world's poorest people.

December 2012

By Lawrence Temfwe, Jubilee Centre, Zambia

After her speech at Yale University on 27 September, Myanmar democracy leader Aung Suu Kyi was asked what kept her going during her years of house arrest. Suu Kyi, who is Buddhist, said “inner resources” and a focus on others is needed to face adversity. Suu Kyi was under house arrest for 15 years from her first incarceration in 1989 until she was released in 2010. During her incarceration she became one of the most prominent political prisoners in the world.

November 2012

By Denison Jayasooria, Principal Research Fellow at the Institute of Ethnic Studies, UKM in Malaysia

At the Rio Centre where the UN Rio +20 global discussions on sustainable development were held, a passive but enlightening discussion on "Brazilian policy to reduce forestation through international cooperation" was awakened by three young people representing forest communities in the Amazon.

They held posters in the meeting room and when the final speaker concluded, they shouted "bull****", "all lies", "what they say is not true".

October 2012

By Jean Kpetere, Micah Challenge, Benin

[Lire cet article en français]

Reducing maternal mortality is something women in the Union of Evangelical Churches of Benin (UEEB) are passionate about.

September 2012

By Melba Maggay, President ISACC (Institute for Studies in Asian Church and Culture). Melba Maggay is based in the Philippines.

What does it take to uphold the law and at the same time show mercy?

In the story of the hanging of Jesus, we see how even then, justice gets derailed when indifferent officials like Pilate merely wash their hands and give in to popular demands.

August 2012

By Jean-Valery Vital Herne, Micah Challenge Coordinator, Haiti

[Lire cet article en français]

For many months a question has been going round my brain.   Often I caught myself thinking it, again and again.  It pursued me like an obsession. Like an old stuck record, I asked myself over and over: what can be done in a society where justice is inexistent? Or rather, what is one’s recourse in a context where justice is represented by this adulated blindfolded woman but respected by none?

By Peter Seeberger (coordinator, StopArmut2015)

[Artikel auf Deutsch lesen]

Spring – it’s blossoming again with all its might in gardens and fields. Even the woods are already shimmering with light green leaves. I’m amazed by the power of nature, which is awakening with new life after the rigor mortis of the winter months – and that’s after several unbelievably cold days of -15 in January.

Having been involved in aid work over the last 20 years I have witnessed significant developments in gender awareness and action for gender equality being slowly mainstreamed into programme activities. Wonderful policies and guidelines have been published promoting and defending the need for gender equality. Certainly a cause for celebration. Interestingly, many of the leaders of Christian organisations and churches give verbal assent to gender equality, yet their personal lives and their work environments reveal a different story.

“(Australian Aid will) increase the number of trained midwives from 2002 to 8635, and increase the number of deliveries attended by skilled birth attendants from 18 to 62 per cent.”

 When Zambian Christian leaders go to Lagos, Nigeria for “anointed” water they may do well to visit the northern part of Nigeria to learn of the Christians facing torture, discrimination and murder. As Zambian Christians we face very little threat of persecution from any quarter of the community. The press, the judiciary and politicians are generally kind to Christians in Zambia. Even the army and police commands honor the Christian faith by appointing chaplains.

But there seems to have been a spate of unusual and positive abdications in recent times.

I’ve been trying to work out whether faith should make us champions of injustice or whether we should concentrate on the basics of life like prayer, family and Bible study group.