(Photo taken in Kurigram District of northern Bangladesh)
Written by Tony Chan (Senior Partnership Development Officer)
Friends asked me, “Your organisation (CEDAR Fund) is for poverty alleviation. Why does it actively promote environment protection?”
This is closely related to CEDAR’s understanding of poverty. We believe that poverty is resulted from an impaired relationship. In the beginning of creation, relationships between man and God, man and man, and man and nature were good. However, man sinned and disobeyed God, and even exploited others and the nature for their own benefits. Those who were exploited became the poor.
(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.
“When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is mankind that you are mindful of them, human beings that you care for them? You have made them a little lower than the angels and crowned them with glory and honor. You made them rulers over the works of your hands; you put everything under their feet: all flocks and herds, and the animals of the wild, the birds in the sky, and the fish in the sea, all that swim the paths of the seas.” (Psalm 8:3-8)
Dear God, you are our creator and the owner of all things. You tasked us to manage your creation according to your rules and laws, tending to and mending the earth and all living things.
[ ‘SHARE’ Jan-Feb 2014 – Who Is Willing to Be Their Neighbour? ] FOCUS ~ SOCIAL CONCERN
Interviewed and written by> Jojo & Tiffany
In September 2013 the HKSAR Government has set the poverty line for Hong Kong to be 50% of median monthly household income, and the Policy Address in January 2014 has announced a series of poverty amelioration measures. A poverty line may help the Government set appropriate poverty alleviation policies, but data and a line cannot define or reflect the real situation of poverty and the voices and expectations of marginalised groups.
The three interviewees below are from different origins and backgrounds. You may see from their sharing how the personal experiences and life expectations of different social groups among them display the uniqueness in life value that is beyond numbers and a line.
[ePrayer – Pray for progress on global climate action]
The United Nations Climate Change Conference opened on 11 November in Warsaw, Poland, with a call to reach a new agreement to cut climate-altering greenhouse gas emissions. According to the UN Official, there is a groundswell of climate action for environment, security, energy, economic and governance reasons and the world is ready for a climate change deal. Clarifying finance that enables the entire world to move towards low-carbon development and launching the construction of a mechanism that helps vulnerable populations to respond to the unanticipated effects of climate change are the main areas that delegates should work hard on in order to hammer out a universal UN-backed treaty on climate change by 2015 which would enter force by 2020.
The conference takes place against a backdrop of devastation caused by Typhoon Haiyan. The Philippines’ lead negotiator, Yeb Sano, called the climate crisis “madness” and urged the international community to act.“We can stop this madness. Right here in Warsaw,” Mr. Sano said. “Typhoons such as Haiyan and its impacts represent a sobering reminder to the international community that we cannot afford to procrastinate on climate action.” He also added that this Typhoon is not natural when people continue to struggle to eradicate poverty and pursue development and get battered by the onslaught of a monster storm. [UN News (1), UN News (2)]
Pray for progress on global climate action:
Pray that all nations will work together to deal with the problem of climate change by breaking through the bondage of economic and political considerations;
May the voices and wishes of those people who are vulnerable to or being suffered by climate change, such as small farmers, rural poor and those people living in disaster prone areas, be heard.
