Water-Related Activities for Youth

Anna Smith

ELCA Walk for Water

Do-it-Yourself Track Experience ELCA World Hunger

This guide features all the information necessary to recreate the interaction Walk for Water track in your own community or congregation.

Local/ Personal Context:

Community Mapping Pg. 6. Produced by Polaris Institute.

A lesson that gives youth the chance to explore water in the place they call home and create a local context by mapping out the water resources in their surrounding area.

Lesson Plan: ‘Thirst‘ Written by Terri Carta. Produced by PBS.

This is a discussion guide to supplement the hour long documentary Thirst. Although the full video is currently unavailable online, this guide is an important learning and activity resource. It touches on themes of water privatization and The Commons. The guide features a mock town hall meeting activity surrounding the city council, citizens and water supplier’s role in privatization issues.

Water Bingo Pg. 7. Produced by Polaris Institute.

This game allows youth to interact with each other by filling out spaces with information like “has heard of or been to a protest to protect water,” or “has had to boil or filter their water for it to be safe enough to drink.”

Water Footprint Calculator Made by National Geographic.

An online, interactive resource that allows people to calculate much water they consume based on a variety of factors such as their home, diet and energy consumption.

Global Context:

Lesson: Village Voices Pg. 24. Produced by The Water Project.

This is a simulation which gives youth an insight into solutions to water crises from various perspectives: Geologist, Climatologist, Public Health Officer or Village Elder.

Race to Development Water & Hunger Toolkit. ELCA World Hunger.

This activity is a simulation which informs youth about the difficulty to obtain water daily faced specifically by women. They will go through a variety of tasks listed on situation cards.

Tragedy of the Water Commons Produced by Water.org.

A lesson guide that introduces youth to The Tragedy of the Commons by using an interactive, visual representation. This resource also helps youth connect The Tragedy of the Commons to the global water crisis.

Creating and Building:

Build Your Own Watershed Produced by U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

This activity allows youth to learn about the importance and creation of watersheds while also discussing the pollution issue watersheds are facing.

Mock Muck Produced by Water.org.

In this activity, youth will attempt to purify dirty water using various techniques.

Way to Flow – Water Irrigation Written by Jaimie Schock. Produced by TryEngineering.

Irrigation is a very crucial component of water issues around the world as it helps farmers sustain their livelihood. This activity gives youth the opportunity to learn about irrigation systems by designing and creating their own.

Discussion and Advocacy:

Water and Society: Day Two Pg. 5. Produced by The Water Project.

This guide includes a game to introduce youth to what a commodity is and leads into a discussion/ debate about if water is a human right or a commodity.

Waters of the United States: Enforcing the Clean Water Act Produced by ELCA Advocacy. Coupled with the resource-Writing to Public Officials

These resources can be used to encourage youth to get involved with water-related advocacy.

Final Reflection Resources:

Becoming Changemakers Made by Polaris Institute.

This is a great resource to help youth generate ideas and examples of action that they can take with water crises.

Closing and Action section of Water Toolkit.

This can be a really helpful reference to give ideas for future involvement with water issues.

Water, Holy Water (Must fill out information before downloading). Produced by Creation Justice Ministries.

This resource has information about various topics surrounding water, but also gives ideas for creating a water themed worship service.

Anna Smith is an ELCA World Hunger intern working with Hunger Education this summer. She is currently a student at Concordia College in Moorhead, Minn.

Reflections on the ELCA Youth Gathering

Ryan Cumming, Elysssa Salinas & Anna Smith

MIVES in the D

Ryan P. Cumming

I went to Detroit with 360 pool noodles, a three-seater latrine, a bag of tools, and a debriefing script, all to help make ELCA World Hunger’s Walk for Water a meaningful experience for the youth and adults who passed through our space. The other items got used, but several times, the script was tossed aside as I listened to fellow Lutherans’ stories of their own water challenges, especially from California – dry wells, dangerously low lakes, disappearing streams. I was happy to share with them the story of ELCA World Hunger. But in hearing their stories and learning about their concerns, I learned as much about the connections between faith, water and hunger as I had to offer them. Sometimes, we speak and sometimes, we listen.

Our work as a church is rooted in accompaniment, walking together with one another. The values which inform accompaniment are mutuality, inclusivity, vulnerability, empowerment and sustainability. We see ourselves as mutual partners creating inclusive tables where everyone involved feels safe enough to be vulnerable and guided in their own empowerment so we can shape long-lasting, sustainable relationships. This is not just a method but an expression of who we are in relationship to each other and to God. And it starts with listening.

In another series of conversations last week, this time with youth from Grace in Action in Southwest Detroit, I discovered that no matter how full our team packed boxes for the Gathering (and trust me, they were FULL), we could never bring enough to Detroit to match what the city and its people had to offer us. Listening to these young people, you can get a sense of what it means to be in the midst of crucifixion and resurrection. They have no illusions about the challenges their city faces. If they ever forget, the national media will remind them. But they also have a rich understanding of their own role in the renewal of Detroit. Much has been said of Detroit’s recovery after the bankruptcy and leadership of their state-appointed emergency financial manager, but listening to young Detroiters, I found a clear sense that this resurrection did not begin top-down. It began on the streets and sidewalks, in alleys and garages with individuals and families refusing to believe that Detroit would remain always in its own Good Friday.

I was also reminded last week what it means to be church together. Sometimes, church looks like people standing and singing. Sometimes it looks like people praying together. Sometimes, church looks like a community working together to install a well for clean water. Sometimes, church looks like 30,000 young people painting, cleaning, and building. And sometimes church looks like young people from Southwest Detroit selling shirts they have designed with symbols of pride in their city, on a street corner near Cobo Center.

Those of us who traveled to Detroit – staff, partner organizations, volunteers, youth, leaders and so on – brought much to the city, and the media coverage of this massive event lifted up the hard work ELCA youth were part of in various neighborhoods. But in Cobo Center and in a cramped hotel room with young people from Southwest, I was reminded the importance of accompaniment, the importance of listening and looking not for the gospel we think we bring but for the gospel that is being lived out already, for the presence of God in communities. We brought a word of grace and hope – a “gospel” – to the city of Detroit, but not because the city was lacking in either. There is a gospel being lived in the Motor City, as sure as there is a gospel being lived in California, Cameroon, Indonesia, or wherever we find people expressing resurrection hope in the midst of crucifixion. We did not serve or teach or give or provide. We accompanied and were given the chance not to bring God to Detroit, or to bring the good news to those who hunger and thirst, but to bear witness to what God is already doing, to be part of the good news already at work among our God’s chosen. It was clear – from the dynamic speakers, the structure of the event itself and more – that “Rise Up Together” was not a command we obeyed, nor a directive the ELCA proposed. It was an invitation to which we responded, to be part of what God is doing in Detroit. And we came away with more than we had to offer.

Ryan P. Cumming, Ph.D., is program director of hunger education for ELCA World Hunger. He can be reached at Ryan.Cumming@ELCA.org.

Worms, Diarrhea, and Malaria, Oh My!

Elyssa Salinas

The 2015 ELCA Youth Gathering last week has been marked on my calendar since my first week working for the ELCA, but I still could not fathom the scope of this event. I was confused in meetings when we talked about noodle forests and jelly bean medicine; I had never been to a youth gathering, so I was not able to comprehend the scope of this event.
The Walk for Water allowed participants to simulate the experience of many people around the world who do not have ready access to water. My base for the event ended up being in the clinic area of the track itself, which was about three-quarters of the way through the experience. The participants carried five-gallon jerry cans that weighed 41.5 pounds when full. On each of the jerry cans was a symbol telling them if they got a waterborne illness, such as malaria, diarrhea or worms. Then they would need to stop at the clinic to learn about their disease.

I worked in the worms (ascariasis) and diarrhea area where I talked about the causes and effects of these two water-related illnesses. The youth would sit on a latrine, if diagnosed with diarrhea, and try to spot the clean water from four different jars, if diagnosed with intestinal worms.

In the activity related to worms, there were two clear water jars and two that looked contaminated. When the youth or adult would pick the clear water jar as clean one, I would inform them that the water contained bacteria or a parasite that could make them sick. Instead, it was the orange-colored water that was safe to drink because it had been treated with an iodine solution. This demonstration made us all consider the reality of water across the world, and the serious risks contaminated water presents.

When participants saw a square drawn on their jerry cans, I would invite them to sit on the latrine because they had diarrhea! There was a lot of nervous laughing, especially from the youth, because here in the United States diarrhea is an illness associated with embarrassment but not death. The truth is that diarrhea is one of the leading causes of death in children five years and younger.[1] This “laughing matter” kills 760,000 children every year.[2] In order to help the participants gain perspective on this number, I compared it to the population of Detroit, which is fewer than 700,000 people.[3] Mouths would open wide, gawking at the often-deadly reality of diarrheal diseases. Our work through partners and companions is not just about helping people get access to water, but also helping them access education and resources to prevent water-related diseases like worms and diarrhea.

In the middle of our space was a baptismal font fashioned out of wood crates and a metal bucket meant to be a sacred space to remind us of God’s love. Yet after this week I believe that water is sacred, whether it stands in a font or comes home in jerry can. Water is always a sacred space.

Elyssa Salinas is program assistant of hunger education for ELCA World Hunger. She can be reached at Elyssa.Salinas@ELCA.org.

We Must Continue to Rise Up Together

Anna Smith

Growing up in the ELCA, I always wanted to attend the ELCA National Youth Gathering. When the time came in high school for me to attend, my congregation ultimately made the decision to forego the Youth Gathering in place of continuing with our annual mission trip. So you can imagine my excitement when I found out that I was selected to be the ELCA World Hunger Education Intern and that my “duties” included attending the 2015 ELCA Youth Gathering in Detroit. I was set to attend my first Youth Gathering as a twenty-year-old!

I took on the Youth Gathering in full force. I wanted to take it all in and not miss a thing. Although I spent most of my time at ELCA World Hunger’s Walk for Water space, I was still able to attend the events at Ford Field almost every single night. I was also given the opportunity to speak to 500 youth from Northwest Wisconsin at my synod’s “Proclaim Story” day. After much contemplation about what exactly I wanted the youth to take away from my story, I eventually decided to speak about the place where I have felt the closest to God: Bible camp. My whole story centered on a quote from the former program director at the camp I worked at for three summers, Luther Point Bible Camp. Jesse Weiss would always remind the campers, “God doesn’t just live here at camp, God goes out with you.” It is so easy to see God at work each and every day at camp, but that doesn’t mean God isn’t working just as hard outside of the camp world. I shared this sentiment because at an event like the Gathering, many youth experience a similar high point in their relationship with God. I wanted to share with them that it doesn’t end here in Detroit.

I certainly witnessed a lot of moments of God at work in Detroit. While working the Walk for Water I was in awe as I watched incredibly athletic youth be humbled as they struggled to carry the 41.5 pound jerry can and realize that some people’s lives are far more difficult than their own. I also saw some youth finish in tears after they could barely complete one lap, let alone go the full 37 laps to reach the average distance some women and girls must travel to collect water. Those tears and the deep empathy shown for our sisters and brothers around the world were certainly glimpses of God.

Then there was Ford Field. To witness 30,000 youth cheering at the top of their lungs at callsfor change and justice was simply breathtaking. As I heard the roar when my colleague Mikka McCracken said with confidence, “I believe it is possible to end poverty and hunger,” it was then that I knew this church and these youth WILL be a source of change and a beacon of justice.

After the Gathering in Detroit, we can’t just return to life as usual. Those “God sightings” cannot fade to distant memories. The overall theme of the Gathering was Rise Up Together. We did this every day in Detroit by bearing burdens, building bridges, breaking chains and bringing hope. I call my fellow attendees to practice what we learned at the 2015 gathering: that we find the issues that we are passionate about and that we never stop seeking God and continuing to do God’s work. The Gathering’s last day in Detroit was not the end; it was merely the beginning as we were sent to continue to Rise Up Together and never stop.

Anna Smith is an ELCA World Hunger intern working with Hunger Education this summer. She is can be reached at Anna.Smith@ELCA.org

[1] World Health Organization: Diarrhoeal Disease. April 2013. http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs330/en/ (accessed July 23, 2015).

[2] Ibid.

[3] United States Census: Detroit (city), Michigan. May 29, 2015. http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/26/2622000.html (accessed July 23, 2015).

Charleston, SCOTUS and Hunger: What a Week!

Ryan P. Cumming

Whew, what a week! Even for the time, the second week of August 1965 was a whirlwind. On August 6, President Lyndon Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act that protected suffrage for Americans of every race. The Act was the result of months of activism, including the actions in Selma and Montgomery, Alabama. But even the joy of the moment could not mask that trouble was brewing out west. A few days later, on August 11, riots erupted in the Watts neighborhood of Los Angeles. As Selma was celebrating, Watts was burning.

Fresh off success in the South, Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., headed to California and was shocked by what he witnessed. Many folks today are surprised to learn that King’s reception in Watts was less than enthusiastic. When he spoke, he was greeted with jeers: “Get out of here Dr. King! We don’t want you!” As theologian James Cone has pointed out, not even the Jim Crow South could prepare King for the depth of economic and social racism of Watts.

The trip marked a turning point for King. His message shifted; he started talking less about segregation and more about economic opportunity. What did it matter if a lunch counter served both blacks and whites, if blacks couldn’t afford to eat there? When he was assassinated, you might recall, he was in Memphis, Tenn., campaigning with striking sanitation workers for fair pay, the right to organize, and safer job conditions. King lived fighting racial injustice and died fighting economic injustice, learning in 1965, as his counterpart Malcolm X has pointed out before his death, just how closely the two were connected.

Whew, what a week! As we close in on the 50^th anniversary of the Voting Rights Act and the Watts uprising, black churches are burning, videos of racial violence are flooding the airwaves, and a Lutheran racist murdered nine African Americans as they studied the bible in church. The more things change, the more they stay the same.

And yet, the times have changed. Supporters of a racially inclusive vision of the country (and that should be all of us, by the way) eagerly anticipate the (official) removal of the Confederate flag from the South Carolina statehouse following the murders in Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston. Supporters of marriage equality celebrated the Supreme Court’s decision to protect the right to marry in every state.

You’ve come a long way, baby. But, man, there’s still a long way to go.

Removing a flag is an important step, but it’s just a step. In another Supreme Court decision this past week, the justices upheld a key part of the Fair Housing Act of 1968 that allows advocates to bring claims of discrimination when the effects of a practice are discriminatory. What this means is that discrimination means much more than intent; when practices and policies disproportionately affect racial groups negatively, they are discriminatory.

This may help to address some of the more complex and challenging aspects of racism in the United States.

Even when they had similar credit scores, people of color are more likely to receive subprime mortgages with prepayment penalties than white borrowers.

Borrowers of color are also more likely to get turned down for mortgages than white borrowers with similar credit scores.

The median net worth of white households is nearly 20 times that of black households, due largely to massive disparities in home ownership. (For a very good explanation of how this came to be the case, see here.)

Young white men with felony convictions are more likely to get called back for job interviews than black men with no criminal history.

In 2013, more than 25% of African American households and 24 percent of Latino households were food insecure. By contrast, only 11 percent of white, non-Hispanic households were food insecure.

Death-dealing racism wears many faces. Sometimes it looks like a white Lutheran (and, yes, we have to admit this) and sometimes it wears the more subtle but no less destructive mask of economic disenfranchisement and poverty.

The Supreme Court decision protecting rights to marriage will have far-reaching economic effects, protecting (for the first time, in many states) the right of spouses to receive much-needed Social Security benefits and protecting their right to shared assets if one spouse passes away. These are significant consequences that should be celebrated. But the decision leaves much work to be done. Gay and lesbian partners can now legally marry in all 50 states. They can alsolegally be fired because of their sexual orientation in 28 states. In more than half the states in the US, you can legally be evicted or denied housing if you are gay or lesbian.

The situation is even worse for transgender persons. Even fewer states offer workplace and housing protections for those who are transgender. An estimated 20% of transgender persons have unstable housing or are at risk for homelessness. When they do seek help from a shelter, they are often discriminated against, even at shelters that are open to diverse sexual orientations. Gender identity is still stigmatized – at home, in workplaces, in churches, in shelters, and on the streets, where many LGBTQ youth find themselves.

Race, sexual orientation and gender identity intersect with policies and practices at critical points, and hunger and poverty can often be the results.

On June 18, 2015, Presiding Bishop Elizabeth Eaton issued a call to a day of repentance and mourning in the wake of the Charleston church murders. After this day, she wrote, “then we need to get to work.” She urged ELCA Lutherans to be involved: “We need to talk and we need to listen, but we also need to act.”

We do all of this with hope in the resurrected God and awareness of the crucified Christ. Lowering a flag does not enliven a dead body. Ensuring the right to marry for all people does not protect the rights to employment, housing or public accommodations for everyone. We live in the tension of the reign of God that is “already” here but “not yet” here fully. Too often, we get an appetizer of the “already” and gorge ourselves on the “not yet.”

This isn’t about building a perfect world. As Lutherans, we know that the fullness of God’s reign is God’s doing. Nor is this about saving ourselves, as if our works can make us or our world righteous apart from God.

It is not works-righteousness to strive for justice and peace in the world. It is works-righteousness to sit back contented and believe we have done enough. Striving for justice and peace in all the world is part of our baptismal calling. Believing we have striven enough, that lowering a flag or protecting one set of rights has cleared us from addressing the deeper, more entrenched symptoms of sin, is works-righteousness and threatens to undermine our baptismal vocation. God invites us into God’s work of building a community of justice and peace here, now. God is already in the process of inaugurating God’s perfect reign. We have been called to be workers in the vineyard.

There is some to celebrate, there is much to mourn and there is much to do. Addressing the root causes of hunger, a commitment our church has made through ELCA World Hunger, demands the kind of honesty Bishop Eaton asks of us. Despite where we land on various spectrums of politics and faith, we are all invited to share in God’s work of crafting a world in which “justice roll[s] down like waters and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream” (Amos 5:24).

Regardless of which way we might answer the latest, greatest CNN/Fox News/NBC/Whatever-you-like-media poll, we can at least unite around this as a confession of faith in the Gracious Creator: no one should go hungry in a world of God’s abundance. As our namesake, Martin Luther, once wrote, “we are bound to each other in such a way that no one may forsake the other in his distress but is obliged to assist and help him as he himself would like to be helped” (Whether One May Flee from a Deadly Plague, 1527).

We do this work not because we can make our world perfect, nor because we are compelled to obey a demanding God. We enter into the hard work of eradicating hunger because we seek God. And when there is suffering – from the direct violence of a shooter or the indirect violence of discriminatory economic practices – I can’t help but recall the response to an execution in Elie Wiesel’s Night: “Where is God? He is there, hanging from the gallows.” We find God on the cross at Calvary, and we find God on the cross today, with those who have been excluded, marginalized and victimized. To fight hunger – authentically, Lutheran-ly – is to feed others and be fed ourselves, by the presence of God among our neighbors.

What Can We Do?

So what do we, as people of God called to anti-hunger ministries do, practically? There will be other suggestions (and I hope they are shared widely), but one step is to listen, as Bishop Eaton urges us. Start a listening campaign in your hunger ministry. If you are unsettled by the racism in Charleston, start listening for subtle and overt signs of racism in your ministry. More than that, listen for ways that your hunger ministry can be anti-racist and part of the broader solution. (For a great article on this, see Rachel Slocum’s article, “Anti-racist Practice and the Work of Community Food Organizations.” If you don’t have a license, the article is still worth the purchase price. Or ask a college student to look it up on a library database.)

Ask the right questions to the right people, too. Many ELCA members are unsupportive of the protection of marriage for all people, yet profess love for LGBTQ neighbors. How is this exemplified in our other ministries? For those who do support marriage equality, what other ways are you allying with the LGBTQ communities to address economic and social inequity?We may be one church under a big tent, but it is a tent in which ALL ought to be fed.

Here are some other questions to ask:

Are our relief ministries welcoming and inclusive?
Do my congregation’s or synod’s hunger education programs include education about the intersections of hunger and racism, sexism and heterosexism?
Are our sustainable development programs – tutoring, job placement and assistance, community gardens, etc. – affirming of persons from diverse backgrounds?
Does my advocacy include demands for protection of rights to employment, housing and public services for all people, regardless of race, gender identity, sexual orientation and ethnicity?
In our community organizing, are we listening to and affirming voices that have been often marginalized and silenced in our communities?
Is our ministry’s leadership diverse? Is there intentional space for a variety of voices to be heard?
Are our communications not only sensitive to but affirming of diverse identities?

ELCA World Hunger – from the team at the Churchwide organization to the local pantry in a congregation – can be part of the work God is inviting us into by listening and being open to what we hear. The challenges can seem so large, the issues so complex, but anti-hunger ministry is already an entrypoint to doing our part in God’s work of reconciliation and renewal. I hope that we, as a Church “gathered and shaped by the Holy Spirit to be a serving and liberating presence in the world,”take advantage of the opportunity we have to be the community we are called to be.

Maybe this is where we begin as ELCA World Hunger, with a season of listening for ways our Church’s hunger ministries can be enriched by addressing discriminatory practices and policies not as “race problems” or “sex problems” but as what they are – root causes of hunger that create scarcity when there is abundance and exclusion when there is more than enough room at the table.

“Each of us and all of us need to examine ourselves, our church and our communities. We

need to be honest about the reality of racism within us and around us. We need to talk and we

need to listen, but we also need to act. No stereotype or racial slur is justified. Speak out against

inequity. Look with newly opened eyes at the many subtle and overt ways that we and our

communities see people of color as being of less worth. Above all pray – for insight, for

forgiveness, for courage. Kyrie Eleison.” – Presiding Bishop Elizabeth Eaton

Ryan P. Cumming, Ph.D., is program director of hunger education for ELCA World Hunger. He can be reached at Ryan.Cumming@ELCA.org.

Humanity and hunger

Anna Smith

If you see some brother or sister in need and have the means to do something about it but turn a cold shoulder and do nothing, what happens to God’s love? It disappears. And you made it disappear. – 1 John 3:17 (The Message)

This past week, I was able to head to Wrigleyville, a Chicago neighborhood, to witness the Chicago Blackhawks’ Stanley Cup victory celebration. Throughout the night I observed a great number of unsettling scenes unfolding. One in particular that deserves reflection occurred on the way home via public transit. I was transferring trains and walked through a tunnel among the sea of boisterous fans. Up ahead, someone caught my eye. There was a man sitting on the side of the tunnel. As I moved closer, I noticed he had signs made of cardboard. The two I remember said: “$1.00 for my daughter to eat,” and “$1.00 for the Blackhawks.” The man was sitting there, holding a cup and staring at the wall across from him. My attention was quickly drawn away from him by the several fans shouting, “GO HAWKS!” I saw that every one of these people were walking straight by this man without sparing a dollar or even acknowledging that he was there. In particular what resonated with me about witnessing this occurrence is that most of us had probably spent dozens of dollars already that night on food, drinks and victory merchandise. Admittedly, I, too, fell victim to the pressure of my surroundings and continued to walk by this man just like everyone else. I spent the rest of my train ride home attempting to process what I saw and how I am called to respond as a Christian.

As I reflect on this, what first comes to mind is a late-night discussion I had while studying abroad in India last fall. We were discussing the practice of untouchability, an attitude based on the belief that certain people are “impure” that translates into a variety of behaviors, norms and physical acts. People in the Dalit community, with whom I spent my time, are most often considered “untouchable.”

During that discussion someone posed the question, “Does untouchability happen in the United States?” After a brief moment, we listed several examples, such as avoiding the “bad part” of town and sidestepping people who appear to be homeless.

What I witnessed that night – and, frankly, more often than not when I see people facing hunger on the street – looks a lot like untouchability. There is a sense that the person on the side of the road is unclean, unsafe or unworthy of our attention.

The Bible proclaims that we are ALL created in God’s own image. As Paul writes in his letter to the Romans, “So in Christ, we, though many, form one body, and each member belongs to all the others.” As Christ commands, “Love your neighbor as yourself.” As Martin Luther wrote in “Freedom of a Christian,” “Therefore, we should be guided in all our works by this one thought alone – that we may serve and benefit others in everything that is done, having nothing before our eyes except the need and advantage of the neighbor.” And we as Lutherans speak of the model of accompaniment, or walking in solidarity with and among our brothers and sisters of all walks of life. How do we practice this outside of our church walls or away from planned mission trips or service events? What does it mean for us to recognize each person – every person – as the very image of God?

Reflecting on that experience on my way home, I wish I wouldn’t have followed the crowd. This wasn’t a matter of not giving a dollar, but rather the inner feeling that I, too, had ignored the humanity of the man with the signs. What would it look like for us to go from ignoring the person, to offhand giving and finally, beyond this, to really seeing the image of God in our brothers and sisters? How does our choice to give or not to give reflect our belief that God has created us in God’s image and marked us as God’s own? Maybe that means giving a dollar, or maybe it means asking a person his name or listening to her story. Maybe it means recognizing even those whom society deems “untouchable” as people worth knowing, worth listening to and worth seeing.

Anna Smith is an ELCA World Hunger intern working with Hunger Education this summer. She is currently a student at Concordia College in Moorhead, Minn.

Exploring: Community Organizing

Raymond Pickett

In this series of posts, we will take a closer look at some of the areas of work ELCA World Hunger supports domestically and internationally. Previously, we looked at relief, education and advocacy. This week, we take a look at community organizing, and we welcome guest blogger and New Testament expert Dr. Raymond Pickett. Dr. Pickett is an ordained Lutheran pastor and Professor of New Testament at the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago. In addition to several articles and book reviews, he is the author of The Cross in Corinth: The Social Significance of the Death of Jesus and is a contributor to the multi-volume Fortress series entitled A Peoples’ History of Christianity, published in November of 2005. He also did the new SELECT DVD New Testament Introduction course with two other ELCA seminary professors.
What Is Community Organizing?

Building relational power to transform communities!

Community organizing is a strategy and set of practices to build relational power with a view to bringing about social change that improves the quality of community life. The primary goal of community organizing is to connect with people around their values and passions in ways that engender collective public action. In community organizing, issues follow relationships. The foundation of community organizing is the relational meeting, which is a one-to-one conversation focused on learning the gifts, interests, energy, and vision of the person you are talking with. The aim of one-to-one conversations is to build relationships that motivate people to participate in public life.

As individuals, the social and economic issues that diminish the quality of our common life can be overwhelming and lead to a sense of futility and powerlessness that prompts people to withdraw into private life. Community organizing brings people together around their shared interests to form bonds of mutuality and accountability that empower them to take action to improve their communities.

Historically community organizing has worked with existing communities, especially faith communities, to effect social and political change by focusing on specific issues of concern. The ELCA has a longstanding involvement in congregation-based community organizing. One way to think about community organizing is as a practical strategy for enacting the church’s mission “to bear witness to God’s creative, redeeming, and sanctifying activity in the world” (ELCA Constitution, Chapter 4.01). Some congregations use the practices of community organizing to get know their neighbors and become more involved in their communities.

Congregations that are involved with community organizing also frequently discover that it is an effective way to identify and train leaders, and also a process for developing a relational culture within the congregation. Working with community organizing networks and partnering with others for the sake of God’s justice in the world is also a way of becoming a more public church empowered by the Spirit to effect transformation in the world.

Roots of Community Organizing

Throughout Scripture God is depicted as the One who creates, and first and foremost what God creates is a people, a community, that embodies in their life together the divine reality. Scripture in all of its diversity presupposes the existence of a covenant community that God calls into being and liberates from slavery. It is a community of people defined by relationship with a God who is experienced as loving, merciful and just. The Torah provides a vision for how to structure the life of the community, and the prophets hold those in power accountable to this vision that is predisposed to its most vulnerable members.

From the beginning to the end of Scripture God raises up leaders who faithfully embody God’s purposes for the covenant community. In the Gospels Jesus is anointed by the Spirit and empowered to “to bring good news to the poor … proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free” (Luke 4:18). In his Galilean ministry Jesus was leading a social movement to renew community life. In addition to restoring to community people on the margins of Israelite society such as “sinners and tax collectors”, Jesus also addressed the physical and material needs of colonized people who were disenfranchised by imperial policies and practices.

A good example of community organizing in the Gospels are the meals and feeding stories which presuppose hunger as a constant reality in peoples’ lives. The sharing of meals was part of Jesus’ program to restore, from the bottom up, a society fractured by urbanization and commercialization. In Mark 6:30-44 and 8:1-10 the appetites of five thousand and four thousand people respectively are satisfied by the multiplication of the loaves and fishes. While these stories serve to declare God’s abundant provision in the midst of what looks like scarcity, they also highlight underlying structural issues of unjust distribution of resources.

Jesus goes to Jerusalem as a prophet to address issues of poverty and exploitation in Galilee by performing what community organizers call an action in the Temple where he cites Jeremiah’s Temple sermon as he confronts the Jerusalem aristocracy: “‘My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations’? But you have made it a den of robbers.” Power brokers in Jerusalem attempted to stop the movement Jesus started by crucifying him, but the movement continued when his followers encountered the risen Jesus.

The earliest documents in the New Testament are the letters of Paul written in the 40s and 50s of the first century. Paul’s letters portray someone who is establishing counter-cultural communities by building relationships in the public square with people from varied backgrounds. In other words, he was a community organizer.

A thread which ties the story of God’s people together in the First Testament with its continuation in the Gospels and Paul is the command to love God and to “love your neighbor as yourself” (Lev 19:18; Mark 12:28-31; Romans 13:8-10). One way to imagine community organizing is as a practical approach for getting to know and loving our neighbors.

Examples of Community Organizing

The Organizing for Mission Cohort is a national network of pastors and leaders in the ELCA who are using the arts of community organizing in creative ways to develop and re-develop communities of faith by building relationships with people from diverse backgrounds who may be reluctant to go to a traditional church but who yearn for a connection with God and others and want to make a difference in their communities.

In the last 10 years, hunger has increased 40% in Missoula, Montana. The Missoula Interfaith Collaborative Hunger Initiativeis building a network of 15 congregations to coordinate 15 food drives, producing 45,000 pounds of food. This network is also working together to raise community awareness about the root causes of hunger. Lastly, organizing people who utilize the food bank and people in congregations, MIC will build an advocacy network in preparation for the 2015 Montana State Legislature. The MIC Hunger Initiative is supported in part by ELCA World Hunger.

Transportation is a critical foundation to preventing hunger and food insecurity in Jefferson City, Missouri. A lack of evening and weekend services creates major obstacles to people getting to work and to other important services, including community education programs. The congregations involved in Jefferson City Congregations Uniting want to help improve access to transportation for Jefferson City residents who are transit-dependent, especially those who are elderly, disabled or poor. By working with the City Council to create a task force of community stakeholders, including transit riders, they will help develop creative solutions to expand public transportation in Jefferson City. This project is supported in part by ELCA World Hunger.
The ELCA World Hunger blog is edited by Ryan P. Cumming, program director for hunger education. He can be reached at Ryan.Cumming@ELCA.org.

Welcome to ELCA World Hunger’s 2015 Summer Interns!

This summer, ELCA World Hunger welcomes three new interns to our team at the churchwide office!

Anna Smith- Hunger Education
Hello! My name is Anna Smith. I come from the town of Osceola, Wisc. I am will be a senior this fall at Concordia College. I am studying Global Studies-Development and Psychology. This upcoming year will be busy for me as I serve as the Social Justice Coordinator for Campus Ministry Commission and the Co-Service Lead for Better Together Interfaith Alliance. A fun fact about me is that I actually spent my first year of college in San Antonio, Texas, at Trinity University.

I have always been passionate about social justice issues but that really came to the forefront of my life after I spent the fall of my junior year on the Social Justice, Peace, and Development Program in India. We intensively studied class inequality, food insecurity, and the implications of war, among other things. It was during my time in India I saw the world’s great need for justice and I committed my life to working towards that in every way I can. That commitment along with my deep Lutheran faith is what led me here this summer.

I have spent the past three summers of my life working at Luther Point Bible Camp in Grantsburg, Wisc. I am looking forward to this summer and finding new ways to live out my faith in a different environment. I love the big cities and I foresee enjoying living in the Windy City very much so. Although I haven’t been to Chicago since I was in Elementary school –way back when Willis Tower was still the Sears Tower. I can already tell my time here will be one filled with adventure, learning and spiritual growth!

Jennifer (Jenny) Sharrick- Constituent Engagement

Hi everyone, I’m Jenny! I am so absolutely thrilled to be the newest constituent engagement intern. In my life outside of Chicago, I am a master’s in public health student at the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha, Nebraska. My concentration is focused generally around Maternal and Child Health, but my specific passion areas are domestic rural food insecurity and hunger, as well as reproductive health and comprehensive sexuality education. My undergraduate education focused on biopsychology and religion. Then I took a quick detour to medical school, before landing in the amazing field of public health.

My call is somewhere in the intersection of medicine, ministry, and justice. And while I am still discerning exactly what that means for the future, continuing my work with ELCA World Hunger seemed an appropriate fit.

My work within the Church has been varied, but bountiful. I have served as an intern in a parish for youth and young adult ministry and Campus Ministry Associate for Nebraska Lutheran Campus Ministry at Hastings College. I have also been on my synod’s hunger team for several years now. Additionally, I am a member of the ELCA Young Adult Cohort which went to the United Nation’s Commission on the Status of Women this past March.

Service learning and volunteering have been integral to my background (my Dad is so proud to say that my very first meeting with a service organization was within a week of my birth). This has taken on various forms over the years. One organization I am especially proud to be associated, offers free chlamydia and gonorrhea testing and treatment as well as reproductive health education to inmates in the county jail (unfortunately the county where I currently reside has an epidemic associated with both of these STIs). While that likely doesn’t sound all that appealing to many of you, the men and women I have met have had a profound impact on my life and have taught me much more about life than what I’ve learned in the classrooms of medical school and public health. Empowering and educating people to make the best health decisions for themselves has truly become a passion of mine because of this.

In my spare time, I love spontaneous dance parties and going on adventures whilst wearing my sequined fanny pack. My seven-year-old goddaughter likes to tell everyone that my favorite color is “glitter” and I have a special affection for beautiful shoes.

Ben Brown- Fundraising

Hi my name is Ben Brown, and I am the ELCA World Hunger Fundraising Intern and I will also be working some with the ELCA Malaria Campaign. I am a rising senior year at Wittenberg University in Springfield, Ohio in the fall studying
Religion and Political Science. I come to Chicago after spending the spring semester studying in Washington, DC with students from other Lutheran colleges where I interned with the Lutheran Volunteer Corps (LVC) as the Public Policy and Fundraising Intern. When not at Wittenberg, I call Indianapolis home.

I am passionate about issues of social justice, specifically hunger and food justice and the ways in which faith can play a role in that work. At Wittenberg I spend my time in Weaver Chapel with Campus Ministries and in the community through my work in our community service office. Through my experiences in Springfield’s community gardens and Promise Neighborhood and with Wittenberg’s CROP Walk I have come to learn a lot about the realities of hunger and the ways communities come together to end it. In the future I hope to pursue a career in advocacy, but first hopefully a year with one of the many service-year programs, like LVC!

For fun I have recently discovered a love for the Indy 11, Indianapolis’ soccer team. I also really love eating and look forward to exploring Chicago by way of its food.

I am really excited to be with ELCA World Hunger this summer and hope to learn a lot and grow while I’m here!

Exploring: Advocacy

Ryan P. Cumming

May 21, 2015

In this series of posts, we will take a closer look at some of the areas of work ELCA World Hunger supports domestically and internationally. Previously, we looked at relief and education. This week, our focus is on “advocacy.”

The Work We Do: Advocacy

What Is Advocacy?

Speak up!

Advocacy is a public witness to the gospel of Christ where the church speaks with and on behalf of others in need. It is the work the church does when it speaks up and out, lending its voice to support, to vindicate, and to challenge. One of the most visible forms of advocacy is public policy advocacy. This includes listening to the experiences of community members, lifting up these experiences during conversations with policymakers, and educating Lutherans about current priorities in government. It also includes working for change in public policy based on priorities drawn from ELCA social statements, Lutheran ministries, programs and projects around the world. Our public policy advocacy colleagues at the state, national and international levels are often in deep conversation with Lutherans in the ELCA and with our ecumenical partners about the impact of policies on hunger.

Advocacy doesn’t just happen in the halls of government, though. Any time we bring our voices to bear on issues of justice, we are advocating in the spirit of the church’s calling to be advocates of justice and mercy (ELCA, “Church in Society,” [1991], p. 6.) This can be something as seemingly small as writing a letter to the editor of a local newspaper to inform readers of the realities of hunger and poverty. Or, it can be correcting colleagues at work or friends at school whose prejudices disparage people facing hunger. Speaking up, being advocates, is central to the work we do together.

Many Lutherans do this often. When misinformation and xenophobia galvanized opposition to unaccompanied children crossing the border from Mexico this summer, Bishop Michael Rinehart (Gulf Coast Synod) used his blog to speak the truth and give voice to the realities many of these children face. In September 2014, hundreds of ELCA members joined others in the People’s Climate March in New York to bring attention to issues related to climate change. There are countless other examples.

ELCA World Hunger supports staff dedicated to public policy advocacy. The Lutheran Office for World Community (LOWC) in New York City is an office of the ELCA, but it also represents the Lutheran World Federation. The staff of LOWC advocate for peace, human rights, justice and better standards of living for all people. It monitors the United Nations on behalf of the ELCA and on behalf of the 72 million Christians represented by the LWF. Our ELCA Advocacy staff in Washington, DC, advocates with US policymakers on issues ranging from the Farm Bill to the Child Nutrition and WIC Reauthorization Act. And our eleven State Public Policy Offices (SPPOs) across the country are voices for change on issues like minimum wage, school breakfasts, and access to clean water.

Roots of Advocacy

Biblically, many people trace the roots of public policy advocacy to the Prophets. When Amos cries out for “justice in the gate” (5:15), he’s demanding just and fair court practices. And even modern-day political rhetoric hardly approaches the vitriol expressed by the prophet Isaiah: “How the faithful city has become a whore! She that was full of justice, righteousness lodged in her – but now murderers!…Your princes are rebels and companions of thieves!” (1:21-23a).

There are some limits to applying the prophets to public policy in the here-and-now, most notably the fact that we in the US don’t live in a theocracy, so purely religious arguments have little traction in the public square. But this is precisely where Lutheran theology steps in, providing a path for bringing faith to bear on public life in a way that doesn’t demand that a government be Christian in order to be good.

We have a name for this theology: two kingdoms. (I know, I know. Commence groaning.) The common name might not be the best to describe what is going on in this theology. A better phrase might be “God’s two ways of governing.” On the one hand, God “governs” the world through the gospel. This is the foundation of God’s reign in the perfect kingdom. Here, mercy, love and forgiveness are the guiding principles.

Of course, with sin, this doesn’t always work in the “real world.” Here, today, people suffer. People cheat. Greed runs rampant. Is there no grace to be found in our daily lives? Is our faith merely a matter of waiting for Heaven? No! Sin hasn’t left us to our own devices apart from God. Indeed, God graciously provides for us in another way as we await the fullness of God’s perfect reign. Here, God has established other structures and principles to help us live meaningful lives now: justice, peace, equity.

Human communities may not be perfect communities of love and mercy. But they can be communities of justice and peace, and this can give us a taste of what perfect justice and perfect peace might be like in God’s full reign. They can be communities in which the dignity of each person is protected and in which every person has an equal shot at a life lived without fear, without hunger, without oppression.

In baptism, Lutherans are called to build this kind of community – “to strive for justice and peace in all the earth.” Doing so is so central to who we are as the people of God that, according to the bible, we cannot be an authentic worshipping community without being a justice-seeking community:

In Isaiah’s words:

Yet day after day they seek me

and delight to know my ways,

as if they were a nation that practiced righteousness

and did not forsake the ordinance of their God;

they ask of me righteous judgments,

they delight to draw near to God.

‘Why do we fast, but you do not see?

Why humble ourselves, but you do not notice?’

Look, you serve your own interest on your fast-day,

and oppress all your workers.

Look, you fast only to quarrel and to fight

and to strike with a wicked fist.

Such fasting as you do today

will not make your voice heard on high.

Is such the fast that I choose,

a day to humble oneself?

Is it to bow down the head like a bulrush,

and to lie in sackcloth and ashes?

Will you call this a fast,

a day acceptable to the Lord?

Is not this the fast that I choose:

to loose the bonds of injustice,

to undo the thongs of the yoke,

to let the oppressed go free,

and to break every yoke? (Isaiah 58:2-6)

Or again, from Micah:

“With what shall I come before the Lord, and bow myself before God on high? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old? Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousands of rivers of oil? Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?” He has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God? (Micah 6:8)

Advocacy – being voices of justice in an unjust world, voices of peace in the midst of conflict, and voices of solidarity amid marginalization – is central to who we are as church and central to our work to end hunger. As Lutherans, we believe God has ordained that we have governments, churches, families, and communities not so that some profit while others hunger but so that all may be fed. Our work as policy advocates and public advocates in other areas of our life is a key part of our role in God’s establishment of a world worth living in and, if the health outcomes of hunger are any indication, a world that is possible to live in.

Examples of Advocacy

In December 2014, ELCA Advocacy urged followers to support the ABLE Act, which passed in the US House of Representatives by a 404-17 vote. The ABLE Act would allow people with disabilities to set up savings accounts for housing, transportation, educational opportunities, and other expenses without jeopardizing their eligibility for Medicaid and Social Security benefits. The act was signed into law by President Barack Obama in January 2015.

Also in December 2014, the Secure Choice Savings Program Act was approved by the General Assembly of Illinois, with support from Lutheran Advocacy-Illinois. This act will give millions of private sector workers in Illinois the opportunity to save their own money for retirement by expanding access to employment-based retirement savings accounts, a benefit more than 2.5 million workers do not have. With food insecurity affecting nearly 15% of seniors in Illinois, this act could be a significant step in reducing hunger among retirees.

The Lutheran Office of Governmental Ministry in New Jersey is currently in the midst of working toward passage of a state-wide earned sick days bill in the Assembly. The bill has passed the Assembly Labor and Budget committees and is awaiting a full floor vote. It is a model earned-sick-days law that covers nearly all 1.2 million workers in the state who lack earned sick days. The majority of those who will benefit are low-wage workers earning less than $10 an hour. The bill allows workers to use earned sick days to care for themselves as well as all immediate family members when sick and to use earned sick days to deal with, relocate or find safe accommodations due to circumstances resulting from being a victim of domestic or sexual violence.

Learn more about ELCA Advocacy at the ELCA Advocacy blog: http://www.elca.org/blogs/advocacy

Ryan P. Cumming, PH.D., is program director of hunger education for ELCA World Hunger. You can reach him at Ryan.Cumming@ELCA.org.

Exploring: Education

Ryan P. Cumming

In this series of posts, we will take a closer look at some of the areas of work ELCA World Hunger supports domestically and internationally. Previously, we looked at relief. This week, our focus is on “education.”

What Is Education?

Well, the short answer here is “learning stuff.” But, of course, education is much more than that.

There’s two ways ELCA World Hunger supports education. First, we provide programming for individuals, congregations, and other groups to learn more about the root causes of hunger and what the church can do to address hunger and poverty. Second, we also support education toward sustainable development, as in programs in communities that provide basic education and job training. In this post, we are looking at the first kind of education.

What causes hunger? What is the difference between hunger and food insecurity? How can communities respond to hunger together? How does our faith call us to respond to all needs, including hunger? These are just a few of the questions Hunger Education explores – and at least attempts to answer. On the one hand, this means keeping up with current research. For example, did you know that the once-popular term “food deserts” might not be the best way to describe the relationship between food availability and obesity? Based on a USDA report, many people are turning to the term “food swamps” instead. Keeping up with changes like this can be time-consuming. But if we are going to respond to hunger effectively, we have to know what factors are involved.

Education is about more than facts, though. Paraphrasing Paolo Friere, good education is “the means by which men and women deal critically and creatively with reality and discover how to participate in the transformation of their world.” Ultimately, the goal of Hunger Education is to equip and inspire Lutherans to respond to need – their own need and the needs of neighbors – in their communities and around the world. As Lutherans, we know that this is God’s world, that God is active in it, and that all people are invited to participate in this transformative work. Discerning the kind of people God calls us to be is part of the work of Hunger Education.

On a practical level, the Hunger Education team produces resources and programs for ELCA Lutherans and other people of goodwill to help with this. In addition, ELCA World Hunger Education grants are available for congregations, synods, and ELCA-related organizations to lead their own education projects in their areas.

Roots of Education

Lutheran theology is very practical. The grace by which we are saved isn’t merely about waiting around for an afterlife with God. It frees us to live here and now, to love and to serve each other. Love is not just sentimental, though. Loving well, for Lutherans, means loving wisely. Wisdom – whether it appears as scientific knowledge, economic knowledge, or some other form – is a gift from God. It helps us better understand the world God has created and the most faithful ways we can live in it. By learning what hunger is, why it is present in so many communities, and what can be done to end it, we can more faithfully and effectively be part of the “salt and light” Christ calls our church to be.

Hunger education is also part of the formation the ELCA provides for people of faith. By exploring questions of faith and service together, we can help each other better discern what God is doing in the world and how we are called to be part of it. By being “formed” to see the world through Lutheran eyes – to see it as a place filled with wonder and tragedy – we can be ready to respond to need without ignoring it and to find the grace that exists in every community.

Examples of Education

ELCA World Hunger’s education resources are free and easy-to-use. On the ELCA World Hunger resources page, you can find everything from Lenten meals with stories of ELCA-supported ministries around the world to Act 2Day 4 Tomorrow, an overnight program for youth. There are toolkits with fun activities for all ages, our Road Map to Food Drives, VBS programs, and much more!

Hunger Education supports congregations, synods, and other organizations in their efforts to help Lutherans learn more about hunger through our Hunger Education grants. In 2014, the Western States Youth Gathering invited ELCA World Hunger to be part of their massive event in Thousand Oaks, California, where youth and adults were trained in service learning and learned more about hunger in the US and around the world. The attendees spent a day immersed in ministries in the Los Angeles area, getting a deeper experience of the ways communities in California are responding to hunger.

Also in 2014, members of First English Lutheran Church (Columbus, Ohio), with the support of a Hunger Education grant, conducted all-day anti-hunger and anti-poverty trainings in ten congregations in the Central Ohio area. They also made presentations in classes at Capital University and Columbus State University. The presentation at Capital led to a service-learning course there in which students studied housing access in the Columbus area.

In 2015, youth from St. John’s Lutheran Church in Little Suamico, Wisconsin, put the ELCA World Hunger resource Road Map to Food Drives in action! The youth coordinated the drive, promoted it around town, and led each other in activities to learn more about hunger. Together, they collected more than 800 pounds of food for a local pantry while using their leadership skills to build relationships and serve their community.

Ryan P. Cumming, Ph.D., is the program director of Hunger Education for ELCA World Hunger. He can be reached atRyan.Cumming@ELCA.org.

An Earth Day Reflection

Gina Tonn

April 22, 2015

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How do you honor God’s creation? Part of my spiritual practice is being a morning person, to honor the light by greeting it early, allowing the new dawn to fill me with the spirit. Each new day is an opportunity to continue the work we are called to do, refreshed and renewed through sleep and new light. I sense hopefulness of morning; I am filled with hope for the world, in our ability to create positive change, for there to be more people fed and nourished each day. I have confidence in the abundance of God’s creation; I see the divine in everything the sun touches.

Even as I honor God’s creation in my rising, I often take the earth and God’s gifts for granted in my living. I confess to being a lesser steward of the earth than I am called to be. I confess to my crimes against the environment – both things done and left undone out of laziness, convenience and self-centeredness. I confess to ignorance about where my food comes from and how it’s grown. I confess to ignoring future degradation for the sake of present quality of life.

My actions contribute to climate change. Climate change disproportionately affects people who live in vulnerable conditions, who experience poverty and hunger. As we observe Earth Day this week, let’s not only recommit to changing our attitudes and actions toward the earth and resources, but also to changing our attitudes and actions about food security, production and access around the world.

This year, the Earth Day Sunday Resource [1] produced by Creation Justice Ministries, formerly the National Council of Churches Eco-Justice Program, asks “How does food production and consumption impact the climate? How does climate change affect growing and accessing food? How are we sharing communion with God, one another, and all creation?”

In the ELCA Social Statement Caring for Creation: Vision, Hope and Justice, our church corporately confesses that we arenot in communion with all creation because of our alienation from God and creation, through captivity to sin. We proclaim God as creator of the earth. We live and work within a scientific world. Divinity and science need not be at odds. As Caring for Creation suggests, “In our time, science and technology can help us to discover how to live according to God’s creative wisdom.” In the United States today, use of science and technology to protect and honor creation is often controlled and dictated by our government. One way we can encourage and participate in ways our government takes action on climate change is through ELCA Advocacy. Other ways to get your congregation involved in caring for creation can be found through Lutherans Restoring Creation, an organization supported in part by grants from ELCA World Hunger.

But caring for creation cannot only be scientific and political; care for the earth is a profoundly spiritual matter.[2] So I will continue to honor God’s creation by rising with the sun and by looking for the divine in the beauty of the earth. I will also work to love God’s creation by mitigating my environmental footprint, better stewarding resources, and accompanying my neighbors near and far who are most susceptible to climate change because of food insecurity. Earth Day is not only an opportunity to celebrate and renew our commitment to environmental sustainability, but also to renew our love for neighbor, as we too were made of earth.

Gina Tonn serves as Program Assistant for Education and Constituent Engagement with ELCA World Hunger through a placement in the Lutheran Volunteer Corps.

[1] Have you anything here to eat? includes resources and ideas for worship and congregational life such as liturgy, prayers, discussion questions, and action steps.

[2] Paraphrase from Caring for Creation, “Even as we join the political, economic and scientific discussion, we know care for the earth to be a profoundly spiritual matter.”

Mahdi’s Story – Kakuma Refugee Camp, Kenya

Gina Tonn

The Kakuma Refugee Camp in northwest Kenya is host to 180,000 individuals,[1] more than 100,000 of whom are children. Since its establishment in 1992, the camp has become home to refugees from South Sudan, Sudan, Burundi, Ethiopia, Somalia and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Grants from ELCA World Hunger, in partnership with the Lutheran World Federation Department for World Service (LWF-DWS) Kenya-Djibouti Program, help to support programming for children in the camp.

A March 2015 update from the Kenya-Djibouti Program states that the core of its work in Kakuma for the coming year will focus on education, child protection and community services. ELCA World Hunger is directly supporting the Anti-Child Labor Campaign project for 2015. The Anti-Child Labor Campaign will focus on increasing advocacy capacity through trainings for community-based organizing within the Kenyan host community and working to improve school environments with in the Kakuma Refugee Camp. The campaign seeks to offer children protection and support by increasing access to education for children who have been subject to child-labor violations throughout Turkana West District and within Kakuma Refugee Camp. According to the LWF DWS Kenya-Djibouti Program website, the organization is committed to protecting the rights to life, survival and development of children who call the Kakuma Refugee camp home.

Mahdi Riek Khor is a South Sudanese refugee, Kakuma resident, elected community leader, Child Protection Community Development Worker, aspiring politician, and only 23 years old. Thanks to the LWF Kenya-Djibouti Program, we are able to share his story with you:

Mahdi says, “Me, one day, if God is willing, I want to be a politician. As a politician I will maintain peace. I will be transparent, I will consider different cultures and I will accept being corrected. As a politician, I will consider any human being as a somebody.”

In December 2013, Mahdi became the first secondary school graduate in his family and was returning home to Bentiu to see his mother after 13 years apart, when violent hostilities disrupted his journey. ‘Fighting reached Unity State on the 19^th of December. I remember it. There was a lot of destruction – guns, killings, arbitrary arrests, rape of women and girls. I had to come to Kakuma for safety.’

Mahdi is one of more than 45,000 people to reach Kakuma Refugee Camp, in north western Kenya, since December 2013 – among almost 2 million South Sudanese people to have become displaced inside or outside the country in the same period: ‘Life is a struggle in Kakuma. I can’t meet my basic needs. I am providing for 9 nieces and nephews. I don’t have good shelter, I’m not comfortable in the environment, there are no televisions to watch the news and learn about the world. Now the only world I know is inside Kakuma.’

Despite this, Mahdi is among 90 refugees who work with LWF as Child Protection Community Development Workers, working to prevent and respond to child protection issues across the camp’s population of 101,000 children. In Kakuma IV, the camp’s newest area, the team is supporting children with various protection concerns: children separated from their parents and family, children who have experienced or witnessed notable violence, children vulnerable to sexual exploitation and abuse – most of whom have lost everything and need much more than agencies can provide. ‘Child Protection work is very, very hard,’ Mahdi says. ‘It’s the working environment, going door to door, walking very far when the condition is too hot. We have a problem with promises. We want to help but we can’t always fulfil [needs], so some people see us as an enemy. They think we are lying.’

Refugees working to protect children in their own camp communities show courage and commitment. The work is challenging, resources are limited and cultural practices often conflict with the rights that workers are trying to promote. Mahdi considered the question of why he continues with the work. ‘I want to encourage children… Life has many challenges… it is my responsibility to help protect people. These cases, when you can resolve a situation, reunite a child with their family. I reunited two children with their parents and the children were most happy. They were so, so happy. That’s why we do the work.’

It is easy to imagine Mahdi as a very successful leader in the future. ‘Here in Kakuma, we hope that opportunity will come. Kakuma teaches us to live in a hard situation but I see now that I have met people here I would not have met outside. You can learn from different nationalities – their culture, their attitudes, we can learn from them.’ And in the meantime, Mahdi is working hard to support children in Kakuma – considering every child as a somebody.

ELCA World Hunger is proud to be a part of LWF Department of World Service’s ongoing commitment to education and development for children, and protection of rights and wellbeing for all children at Kakuma and around the world.

Madhi’s profile written and provided courtesy of the LWF Kenya-Djibouti Program.

Gina Tonn is a Program Assistant for Education and Constituent Engagement with ELCA World Hunger through a placement in the Lutheran Volunteer Corps.

[1] UNHCR, February 2015