The continuous reported cases of savage rape in India were a shock to the international society recently. The violence, discrimination and inequality faced by women in India are also common in other South Asia nations, such as Nepal, Bangladesh and Pakistan. Being restrained by the traditional caste system, religious culture, poverty and gender inequality, South Asia women usually find it very difficult to recognise and live out one’s self value and dignity.
How can churches and Christians respond to the distress of women in South Asia? In light of the ministries and services of our local Christian partners among poor women and communities in India, we will try to explore how Christianity is related to Caring for the disadvantaged communities and how HK Christians can walk with them together.
Date> 28 March 2013 (Thursday) Time> 7:30pm to 9:00pm Venue> Room 501, Rightful Centre, 12 Tak Hing Street, Kowloon Registration>Online registration. Free of charge. (Deadline: 21 March) Enquiry> Please call Mr. Wu at 2381 9627, or send email to sharing@cedarfund.org Remark> You are welcome to make an appointment with us to share this topic in your churches or cell groups.
[Annual Report 2011-2012] Mobilising Churches and Christians
Review of 2011 to 2012
‘Network the force of Christians and provide a platform for communication and action’ is a main direction of CEDAR’s work on mobilising Christians in Hong Kong. We have reformed ‘CEDAR Club’ since last July by pro-actively gathering and mobilising the concerned Christians to help the poor more systematically. We also re-organised the monthly activities of the Club with regular sharing meetings, visiting programmes, and fellowship activities, to provide an in-depth experience for members to work at the issues of poverty, share experiences and practise serving the poor.
10 CEDAR Club’s gathering
2 exposure trip to Myanmar and Nepal
Learning and Prospect
‘Walk in Love – Low-Income Families Visit Programme’ and ‘Street-Sleepers Visit Project’ are two main long-term visiting programmes for club members to practise what they learnt at the course on poverty relief. Two programmes have been running for two to three years. We are exploring ways to help participants to move forward in their understanding and care on the HK society and the world, with the hope that their will engage locally and think globally. Furthermore, we hope more churches and Christian communities will involve as we mobilize and encourage different Christian groups to be ‘good neighbours’.
Shan’s Sharing
‘The achievement in past ministry year once again shows me how first hand experience is very significant in helping Christians to deepen their conscience and concern for poverty. It also confirms how effective organisation and a platform to practice is important to mobilizing Christians. In coming year, I hope that we can enhance the participation, initiation and decision making of core CEDAR Club members in programme and activity planning and development .’
After the exposure monitoring trips and discussions in the past two years, we have finally chosen Ethiopia, Zimbabwe, India, Nepal, Myanmar and China to be the focus countries for our projects. We have since strengthened our partnership in these focus countries through cooperation and communication to promote our mutual capability on project operation and management to provide more appropriate and effective assistance to impoverished communities.
In recent years, the Chinese and Nepalese governments have loosened official restrictions on local Christian churches. In addition to reforms in the political process in Myanmar, there is a new turning point for the growth of Christian relief and development work in these countries. CEDAR hopes to seize this opportunity to seek furthering the cooperation of Hong Kong churches with overseas churches and Christian organisations. Project sites in the above six focus countries will become important platforms for Hong Kong churches to participate in appropriate response to global ministry in the practice of integral mission. Hong Kong churches can provide strong support in human and financial resources to these overseas partners engaged in frontline ministries. This way we can develop the partnership between different nations, regions, churches and organisations in better synergy.
As a member organisation of the Hong Kong Church Network for the Poor (the HKCNP), CEDAR will endeavor to mobilise local churches to work with frontline organisations, social enterprises and government, facilitating the development of district network for social concern among churches. We look forward to churches becoming the real neighbour to the poor, giving them timely, suitable and holistic care and assistance.
CEDAR Barefoot Walk 2012 has completed successfully on 10 November (Saturday). Nearly 400 participants walked barefoot in Central to experience the hardship of the poor and disadvantaged and to raise fund to support impoverished communities in South Asia’s nations, including India, Nepal and Bangladesh, to be self-reliant. After an opening ceremony led by Dr. CHAN Nim Chung, Chief Executive of CEDAR Fund, participants set out in 15 groups barefooted. They passed through Des Voeux Road Central, Cotton Tree Drive and Ice House Street and other main streets in Central and left their footprints on several famous places like the Hong KongPark and St. John’s Cathedral.
Since 2001 CEDAR Fund has raised fund through Barefoot Walk. This year we held the event in Central, the glamorous, prosperous commercial centre of Hong Kong, letting participants to feel the struggle and deprivation of the poor and disadvantaged people living in urban cities by leaving their footprints of concern for the poor to express their determination to walk with billions of underprivileged people around the world.
A halfway station of the Walk was set at Li Hall of St. John’s Cathedral. Participants could sense and learn about the cultures and daily lives of South Asian people through images (photo exhibition), smell (fragrance of South Asian nations), taste (Indian milk tea) and hearing (Indian music), in order to inspire their interest and concern for the South Asian countries.
Many participants were first time comers of CEDAR Barefoot Walk. Not only do they get a sense of difficulties faced by the poor within a one hour walk, they demonstrated their collective power by helping impoverished communities in South Asia to walk out of poverty. Some participants took photos with their barefoot at the finish stop and some hold prayers for the impoverished communities in South Asia.
Sincere gratitude to the following organisations/groups which support and join the Walk (in no particular order)
Red Cross Hospital School
Hong Kong St. John Ambulance
St. John’s Cathedral
Kinbroad Limited
Arthome
Mr. Kenneth Chau
Hong Kong Police Force
United Christian College (Kowloon East)
Heep Yunn School
Baptist Lui Ming Choi Secondary School
Shatin Baptist Church – Unity Chapel
Hong Kong Baptist Church
Assembly of God Harland Park Memorial Church
Western District Evangelical Church
Hong Kong Foochow Dialect Evangelistic Fellowship – Tsuen Wan Church
Hong Kong West Point Baptist Church
Hung Hom Christian Church – Joshua Fellowship
Christian Central Church (Jordan)
Hong Kong Sheng Kung Hui Church of the Good Shepherd
Sheng Kung Hui St. Thomas’ Church
All Saints’ Cathedral – Esther Fellowship)
Chung Sing Church – Andrews Group
The Church of Christ in China Mongkok Church – Daniel Fellowship
ELCHK Salvation Lutheran Church
Min-nam Chinese Christian Trinity Church
Remembrance of Grace Church (Fanling Church)
Better Together Group
Paul
Rebels
3。Ding’s family
Micah family
Kwong’s family
Introduction of CEDAR Fund CEDAR Fund is an independent Christian relief and development organisation found in Hong Kong in 1991. We work ‘From Church, Through Church’ and serve the impoverished communities in Asia and Africa in partnership with churches and Christian organisations worldwide, together to build a just and compassionate world in Christ.
[ “SHARE” Sept-Oct 2012 – An Eye-Opening Experience of Poverty ] FOCUS: An EXPOSURE TRIP
Author> POON Man Yan, Education and Promotion Officer
I took the exposure trip in April, seven years since my last one. To make the most of the trip, I decided to forget about the camera and use my eyes to study each scene and face, and use my ears to listen to every life transforming story.
Namaste! Greetings, Nepal!
It was already dark when we landed in Kathmandu so the view was not very clear. The streets reeked of petrol and filled with the hoots of car horns, like China’s rural roads of over a decade ago. Nepal ranks second-last amongst Asian countries on the human development index. Compared with neighbouring China and India, its development road ahead is still very long.
They meet any situation with a smile.
As the home of Mt. Everest, Nepal is indeed a mountainous nation with hills and highlands all over the country. The best route to the mountain villages during the dry season would be to drive across dried-up riverbeds. The twelve of us transformed into contestants of some adventure game show, flying across bumpy riverbeds in jeeps heading towards our destination in the mountains.
During our eight-day trip we went to the central districts of Lalitpur, Makawanpur and Dhading, and visited the Dalit (the oppressed) community and the indigenous groups of Chepang and Tamang. Amidst harsh condition of village life, the people there were cheery and appeared to be happier than those of us who were visiting.
Silent cries of the girls
The day after arrival we visited eight girls around 15 or 16 in Lalitpur. They are members of adolescent groups in the Women Empowerment Programme organized by CEDAR’s partner Share and Care Nepal.
When asked about their dreams for the future, the girls shyly told us that they would love to become teachers or social workers. Yet they knew that soon they would have to obey their parents be married off and then play the traditional female role in their husband’s household. Their own future is no longer theirs to hold and their dreams are thus unreachable. Two illiterate girls among them even remained silent. As I watched and listened, I felt cut to the hearts: do Nepalese girls have no right to pursue their dreams? After all, God sees everyone as unique and precious!
Smart and sweet girls
On hearing that two girls had stopped schooling, trippers already guessed the reason – it is either to give way to a son, the future head of the family, to go to school, or give the family an extra pair of hands for chores and farming. When a society fails to examine the rationale for customs and traditions, and regard belittlement or neglect of women as a natural practice, gender inequality thus becomes one of the causes of Nepal’s poverty, especially amongst women.
What is poverty? The Nepalese women made us see that poverty is not merely about a lack in material necessities but also the injustice behind a social system and traditional culture, turning the poor into those in society who are oppressed and ‘sinned against.’ Exploitation and discrimination not only hurt people, but abuse God’s righteous nature also.
The ‘untouchables’ are never cheap and lowly
Hinduism was once Nepal’s state religion and the country remains heavily influenced by the caste system. The low-castes are restricted in many ways, both in the workplace and daily life. However, the Dalit in Dhading are living with self-confidence, self-respect and self-love despite all kinds of discrimination and oppression.
During a visit to the project run by our partner Shanti Nepal in Dhading’s Gajuri district, we went to a small community hall where a dozen children were singing and playing. It is also where the office of the residents’ self-help group is located. The group’s treasurer related the changes the community had gone through in the past years.
Low-castes form self-help groups to assist each other
In the past, a derogatory name was given to this place because local residents were mainly of the low-caste. Even the government paid little attention to the needs of these inhabitants. After the self-help group was set up, villagers slowly warmed to the importance of unity. They got together and successfully had the place name changed and the insulting words deleted; they began to encourage savings and pooled funds to give small loans to villagers in need. Further, group members actively help care for sick or elderly neighbours, including those who had hurled insults at them before.
What is development? Some suggest ‘growing towards urbanisation’, others ‘building of infrastructure’ or ‘developing the economy’. Yet, from the experience of the oppressed in Gajuri, we realise that what the exploited and discriminated Nepalese marginalised communities want most is to be free from discrimination, to be self-reliant, to build a society with equality where they may appreciate the value and dignity of one’s own life.
What we as visitors found most admirable was the way local Christian organisations facilitated the community’s empowerment and development. Frontline workers transcend the boundaries of the caste system and promote trust among different castes. They also encourage villagers to actively participate in expressing their needs and concerns. Self-help groups are set up to build a close-knit support network. All these stem from the conviction that all humans are born equal and the affirmation of the personal value of even the poorest.
A concrete interpretation of the Gospel
Some may ask how our efforts are linked to the Gospel if we only work on development programmes without evangelism.
One trip member spoke for all of us, ‘If the Gospel is only to redeem my soul, then I should have been taken to heaven immediately upon conversion. I am still here, so I believe there is still work to do.’ The Good News or Gospel is not only about getting people to believe in Jesus now for the hope of eternal life later. It also points to transformation of our life right now whilst we practise the Word of God in both private and public lives.
As vessels of the Gospel, Christians are themselves interpretation of the Gospel. One trip member, a minister who was once a frontline worker, said, ‘The ministry of local organisations is what Jesus talked about in Luke 4:18 – proclaim to the poor, freedom for the prisoners, recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free.’ I say ‘Amen’ to that as I think of the villagers we met, their positive attitude, courage and self-confidence.
In remote mountains, villagers experience the truth of God’s love
Dhanyabaad! Thank you, Nepal!
After returning to Hong Kong, a young trip member told us, ‘One day, while enjoying the comfort of an air-conditioned room and eating my favourite salmon sushi, guilt of extravagance suddenly came upon me.’ Many others have experienced similar struggles which challenge our ingrained way of living. Her father who also went on the trip encouraged her to live conscientiously, not be restricted by an established lifestyle but bravely open our heart to explore and broaden our horizon.
Thank you, Nepal! You expanded our horizon to see the richness in God’s Word and works.
Extended Action
Are you ready for a breakthrough and to open your heart to see God’s manifold and wonderful works? Visit http://bit.ly/cedar_nepal2012 for more photos of the Nepal trip. We also invite you to join our exposure trip to Ethiopia scheduled for January 2013, where we expect to witness God’s boundless work among the poor.
FOCUS explores different topics, integrates theory with practice, and broadens our horizon and thinking.
[ “SHARE” Sept-Oct 2012 – An Eye-Opening Experience of Poverty ] STEP INTO THE WORLD
Ram Maya lives in the mountainous area in Dhading, Nepal. She suffered from discrimination and poverty because she is Dalit. Since installing an Eco toilet set up to collect urine for organic farming, she has been enjoying very good harvests and earning good income.
With no official assistance to provide proper roads, water supply and medical care, the marginalised communities in Dhading’s mountainous areas live a desperate existence, and are often vulnerable to skin diseases, diarrhoea and fever.
CEDAR’s partner Shanti Nepal helps raise villagers’ awareness of health and hygiene, improve health care and basic medical facilities, generate income for better food security and build up support networks through community health and education programme.
With your support:
HK$250 will subsidise a household to build a toilet;
HK$500 will provide two basic health sessions for mothers’ groups;
HK$1,000 will provide four training sessions on livelihood skills to community groups
Please help support our partner’s community health and education programme to improve the lives of these marginalised communities.
[1] CEDAR is an approved charitable institutions and trusts of a public character under section 88 of the Inland Revenue Ordinance. Please click Inland Revenue Department website to check for details. [2] Donations over $100 are tax deductible in Hong Kong with our receipts. [3] Please DO NOT fax any donation information.
