FEATURE: Moving Toward Autonomy
Lutheran Church Backs Costarican Indigenous Population
SAN JOSÉ, Costa Rica/GENEVA, 8 March 2006 (LWI) * For 54-year-old Luisa Bejarano and her mother, Maria Montezuma, 84, a typical working day starts before sunrise and ends when residents of the southern region of Conte Burica go to bed. "As self-employed women, we have to work up to 17 hours non stop. We milk the cows, feed our pigs, chop firewood, and make handicrafts, which we sell to earn a living," says Bejarano, clad in her da gudu ga [long colorful dress]. She is sitting on her bed in a Lutheran church shelter in the San Cayetano district of Costa Rica's capital, San José.
Like Bejarano and Montezuma, many women of the Indigenous Gnobe (also known as the Guaymies) population, which resides in the interior of the country, grow crops on their small plots of land. A 2000 national census put Costa Rica's Indigenous population at over 70,000 people from various ethnic backgrounds, about two percent of the country's four million people. Although the Indigenous population live in 24 officially reserved territories, they are for the most part disadvantaged and excluded in socioeconomic and cultural terms, making them one of the poorest communities in the country.
Landownership and occupation are just some of the problems they face. Despite a 1977 Indigenous land act that prohibits the sale and transfer of land in the territories reserved exclusively for the Indigenous population, not only have outsiders illegally acquired land there, but now they also occupy large tracts of it.
That is why the Lutheran Costarican Church (Iglesia Luterana Costarricense - ILCO) has been supporting the country's Indigenous population for the past 15 years, working closely with them in the 24 reserved areas to safeguard their culture and ethnic identity, and advocate for their rights, particularly those related to landownership.
God Is Revealed Differently in Every Country and Culture
ILCO's founder and president, Rev. Melvin Jiménez, points out, "The way God reveals [himself] is different in every country and culture." ILCO's involvement, among other, includes strengthening the Lutheran congregations, and providing support to Indigenous, urban and rural populations, including farmers. These communities, including Nicaraguan immigrants and people from the poorer regions, are becoming increasingly involved in the church's congregational life. Founded in 1988, ILCO currently has 1,249 members. It has been a member church of the Lutheran World Federation (LWF) since 2002.
Jiménez sees the most important tasks of the church as cooperation with the Indigenous communities and ensuring respect for their life and identity according to their traditions and faith perspective.
Within the context of interfaith dialogue and the endeavor to understand the Indigenous population's culture, ILCO's social work includes legal counseling for individuals and the community; defending and regaining landownership rights; and promoting programs for the prevention of natural catastrophes. The communities' autonomy has been an important part of ILCO's work, and aims to encourage them to speak out on pertinent issues, claim their rights, and take decisions.
The church's work has been an attempt to seek alternative solutions to the Indigenous population's problems. Examples include preventing non-indigenous people from illegally acquiring land in Indigenous territories; preventing environmental damage; improving access to income-generating opportunities; education and development planning; and creating institutions for the communities.
Rubén Chacon, a legal expert on Indigenous landownership rights in Costa Rica, and a sponsor of the ILCO assistance program explains, "In addition to providing legal counseling, this program offers guidance to the Indigenous population, enabling them to learn about their legal rights and obligations."
He credits the ILCO initiative, backed by the National Commission for Indigenous Affairs (CONAI), for the first-ever report on the current status of the rights of Costa Rica's Indigenous population.
The report, which reflects the living conditions of the Indigenous population in Costa Rica, was submitted to the International Commission on Human Rights in Washington, USA, on 1 March 2005. It reveals how the general application of individual civil rights and liberties hinders the country's Indigenous population. Reference is made to the imposition of relatively unrealistic standards, through the education system and local authority governance. Other social action programs supported by the church include agriculture, public education, and credit schemes for small and large-scale businesses aimed at improving the livelihoods of the communities. (711 words)
(By Mariam Carpio Carpio, ILCO communication department.)
(The LWF is a global communion of Christian churches in the Lutheran tradition. Founded in 1947 in Lund, Sweden, the LWF currently has 140 member churches in 78 countries all over the world, with a total membership of 66.2 million. 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.)
[Lutheran World Information (LWI) is the LWF's information service. Unless specifically noted, material presented does not represent positions or opinions of the LWF or of its various units. Where the dateline of an article contains the notation (LWI), the material may be freely reproduced with acknowledgment.]
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