Dignity that Cannot be Seized — Interview of Women in a Zimbabwean Village

[“SHARE” JUL – SEP 2019 ] FOCUS ~ The Poor and Dignity

 

Written by: Tony Chan (Senior Partnership Development Officer)

 

“Although I’m HIV-positive, you can take photos and videos of me. I’m not scared of being seen,” said Branda, a 17-year-old girl grown up in a Zimbabwean village in Africa.
Branda lived in in Bulawayo Province of Zimbabwe. Many young people left their homes to South Africa or Botswana for a better life. However, in view of financial restraints, Branda stayed with her mother and grandmother in the village.

 

Branda in red long dress stood in front of my camera and performed her poems enthusiastically. Her smiles and actions showed her extraordinary self-confidence.

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2018 CEDAR’s Exposure Trip – A Tale of the Border Towns

(Starry sky in a Thai-Myanmar border town)

 

(CEDAR’s note: The writer, Dr Ho Shun Yee, joined CEDAR’s Exposure Trip to the Thai-Myanmar border towns and the northern regions in Thailand at the end of last year. In this article, Dr Ho shares her experience and thoughts about the tour. CEDAR will host another in-depth tour to Bangladesh to visit the poverty-stricken communities. For more information, please visit: http://cedarfund.org/trip/)

 

In mid-December 2018, more than ten of us from CEDAR arrived at the Thai-Myanmar border – a place that turned out to be quite different from the land of orchids, Thai silk, massages and water fights that most people would have in mind when the place is mentioned. There were cloud-shrouded mountains and singing streams, but what we heard was a song of a thousand sorrows from the border towns. Yet, in a way, it was also a song of hope.

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CEDAR Visited Rohingya Refugee Camp in Preparation of Future Relief and Development

 

(CEDAR’s Project Officer Pui Shan visits a Rohingya family in Cox’s Bazar. The mother, who gave birth to a newborn baby, heard about infant vaccination service during regular household visit conducted by community health workers.)

 

While strolling through a muddy and dusty field, CEDAR’s Project Officer Pui Shan saw rows of tents sitting next to each other that were simply built by timber and canvas.

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The Hottest Year, both Literally and for the Development vs. Environment Debate

Temperature in January has fluctuated more than ever, and we could see more short-sleeved pedestrians than before. The climate change has reached the point where 2016 was recorded as the hottest year in the history of recorded temperature since 1880.

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We Can Find the Risen Lord Among the Poor

[ ‘SHARE’ Jul-Aug 2016 ] STEP INTO THE WORLD

In 1991, CEDAR was born with a Christ-guided vision to alleviate global poverty, during which the rise of globalization and the internet had made the vision ever approachable.

Jesus said, “The poor you will always have with you, but you will not always have me.” (Matthew 26:11) The outlook of poverty seems positive as the population under poverty has decreased from 1.9 billion to 840 million in the past 25 years. Yet during the same period, our workers at CEDAR were overwhelmed by cases where the environmental conditions and resources were still degrading for the underprivileged, due to over-extraction from other countries, climate changes, and civil wars. For some of the people we came to know, safety and dignity were such a luxury when $1.25 USD was all they have. The poor is still here with us, often as a deflating thought.

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For People in Syria, Life Must Go On

The four-year crisis in Syria is devastating. Suffering includes not only the loss of lives and properties, ruined economy, but also crippling poverty impacts on the communities. Some aid organisations and policy experts reveal that at least every four out of five Syrians are in poverty, traditional humanitarian aid, while necessary, just isn’t enough.

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