wfn.org | LWI 2008-038 FEATURE: "There Is a Tomorrow"

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FEATURE: "There Is a Tomorrow" 

LWF World Service Provides Assistance in Post-Conflict
Situations

GENEVA, 20 June 2008  (LWI) - Although the work of the Lutheran
World Federation (LWF) Department for World Service (DWS)
includes specific challenges in "post-conflict areas" such as
Liberia and Haiti, providing a framework within which people can
secure their future after the scars of war or instability remains
crucial. 

It is important for people not to lose sight of one thing:
"There is a tomorrow!" said Ms Sylvia Raulo, LWF/DWS
representative in the Caribbean and Haiti. She noted that Haiti
is described as "a failed state" as it has experienced several
decades of dictatorships and chronic instability. It is
considered as a "post-conflict area" since 2004, the same year
the United Nations established the UN Stabilization Mission in
Haiti (MINUSTAH) as the situation continued to constitute a
threat to international peace and security in the region. The
Latin American country is located on the Caribbean island of
Hispaniola, which it shares with the Dominican Republic, where
the LWF program is also working. 

Reconstruction of infrastructure and political structures in
Haiti is being carried out with the help of United Nations troops
and non-governmental organizations (NGOs), Raulo explained in a
presentation titled "Peace Building and Reconciliation in a
Post-Conflict Context" at the April 2008 DWS annual forum in
Montreux, Switzerland. 

She defined the conditions in Haiti as "post-post-conflict"
where old tensions were again coming to the fore. In recent
years, the country had experienced a wave of violence triggered
by food shortages for a population already suffering the impact
of a dysfunctional government, and the inevitable negative
consequences of the international market and trade on the
national economy. Initiatives aimed at stabilizing the situation,
such as intervention by UN troops' assistance and aid projects
soon found themselves up against organized crime. The LWF program
provides both practical and psychological assistance through the
building up of infrastructure and the education system, trying to
create some degree of stability and support trauma management
projects for war victims and development workers.

Since 2003, the DWS Caribbean/Haiti program has concentrated on
organizing rural community structures, strengthening
participation in municipal decision-making processes and the
creation of jobs especially in rural areas as an essential
element in the fight against poverty. Its strategic priorities
target the strengthening of institutions at community level
through professional associations and women’s groups;
integrating a participatory approach in community development;
promoting coordinated networking with its partner organizations;
and human rights advocacy aimed at promoting core values such as
justice, equal treatment and human dignity.

>Liberia: Civil War 

Liberia in West Africa is confronted with similar challenges,
according to Ms Elke Leidel, coordinator of the LWF/DWS regional
program there. It had been classified as a "post-conflict
country" since the end of the 1999-2003 civil war, and was
receiving UN support to safeguard peace. Liberians are struggling
to survive against high rates of infant mortality, unemployment,
unhygienic conditions and an inadequate transport system, which
largely resulted from the five-year conflict. However, there are
positive developments with the growing number of investors and
job creation.

After more than a decade of hostilities and civil conflicts in
West Africa, the main emphasis of DWS work is on peace building
and reconciliation. In Liberia and Sierra Leone, the LWF program
collaborates closely with other partners in psychosocial care and
trauma healing. In past years, when DWS was also present in
Guinea, the emphasis was on emergency aid, reconstruction and the
return of refugees and internally displaced persons.

DWS is LWF's relief and development agency working with
marginalized and disadvantaged populations. It works globally in
networks and partnerships involving ecumenical, governmental and
non-governmental organizations in 37 countries in Africa, Asia,
Latin and Central America and in Europe. DWS response targets all
people in need irrespective of their ethnicity, gender, religion,
nationality or political conviction. Emergency aid response is
coordinated through Action by Churches Together (ACT)
International, the Geneva-based alliance of churches and their
related agencies, of which the LWF is a founding member. (667
words)

(A contribution by Ms Judith Straub, trainee in the LWF Office
for Communication Services.)

More information about DWS work at: www.lutheranworld.org 

You can support the work of LWF/DWS by donating online at:
http://donations.lutheranworld.org 

>*       *       *

(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 over 68.3 million. The LWF acts
on behalf of its member churches in areas of common interest such
as ecumenical and interfaith 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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