wfn.org | LWF Delegation in Mauritania to Mark 30 Years of Department

["Frank Imhoff" <Frank.Imhoff@elca.org>]

LWF Delegation in Mauritania to Mark 30 Years of Department for World
Service Involvement
Lush Belt of Forest around Nouakchott Most Visible Sign of LWF/DWS Work

GENEVA, 24 February 2005 (LWI) * A Lutheran World Federation (LWF)
delegation led by General Secretary Rev. Dr Ishmael Noko is visiting the
Islamic Republic of Mauritania February 22-26 to mark 30 years of the LWF
Department for World Service (DWS) work in this northwest African country.
Among those accompanying the general secretary is DWS Director, Mr Robert
Granke.

During the visit, Noko will meet with Mauritanian government representatives, and officials of national and international non-governmental organizations (NGOs).

In the early 1970s Mauritania faced serious consequences of a long
drought. When the LWF program established itself in the country in 1974,
its first focus was emergency relief. Today, it provides assistance toward
several rural community development activities, supports local NGOs, and
engages in HIV/AIDS awareness raising. Other work areas include environmental protection, advocacy and human rights, and gender issues, targeting
mainly poor and vulnerable socio-economic groups.

>From the beginning, DWS Mauritania has sustained its commitment to the
struggle against desertification, in a country whose surface area is 90
percent desert. The southern part, near the Senegal River, receives about
400 mm of rainfall annually, other regions get half that amount. Agriculture is possible only in the south, representing less than five per cent of
the country, and arable land is continually shrinking.

A visible sign of DWS work is a lush green belt of forest encircling the
capital, Nouakchott and several villages. Each year, the LWF program
carries out environmental and reforestation projects in some 25 villages,
in order to protect roads, wells and other infrastructure from desertification.

All DWS Mauritania activities are implemented in close collaboration with
the local communities, national NGOs and government. For example, DWS
Mauritania works closely with the United Nations Development Program and
the government to help implement the national human rights action plan,
adopted as part of the government's good governance program.

But there are challenges, says Dr Colette Bouka Coula, LWF/DWS Mauritania
representative since September 2004. These include the HIV/AIDS pandemic
and human rights work, and cooperation within the national good governance
program. The DWS program, though not among the largest compared to others,
operates in difficult areas, where communities have to face hardships like
desertification, lack of potable water, food security and illiteracy.

Around 99 percent of the country's 2.8 million people are Muslim. The
Islamic Republic of Mauritania gained independence from France in 1960.
(418 words)

(The LWF is a global communion of Christian churches in the Lutheran
tradition. Founded in 1947 in Lund, Sweden, the LWF currently has 138
member churches in 77 countries all over the world, with a membership of
nearly 66 million Christians. The LWF acts on behalf of its member
churches in areas of common interest such as ecumenical and inter-faith
relations, theology, humanitarian assistance, human rights, communication,
and the various aspects of mission and development work. Its secretariat
is located in Geneva, Switzerland.)

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