wfn.org | CWS at ECUMENICAL ADVOCACY DAYS

["Ann Walle" <awalle@churchworldservice.org>]

MEDIA ADVISORY

CHURCH WORLD SERVICE TO PRESENT ONGOING CRISIS IN WEST AFRICAN COUNTRIES,
NORTH AMERICAN 'JUST TRADE' ISSUES IN DISTRICT'S SECOND ANNUAL ECUMENICAL
ADVOCACY DAYSCONFERENCE

WASHINGTON, DC * 2/19/04* Global humanitarian agency Church World Service
(CWS) will present recent findings concerning the ongoing destabilization in
Liberia and neighboring West African countries and recent faith-based actions
promoting "just trade" during the second annual Ecumenical Advocacy Days for
Global Peace conference, March 5-8, in Washington, DC. 

Representing ecumenical organizations worldwide, several hundred attendees
are expected for the international gathering, this year focused on peace with
justice. 

Titled "I Will Feed Them with Justice," the advocacy conference will feature
Africa, Middle East, Asia, Latin America, Economic Justice and Nuclear
Disarmament tracks.  

Sponsored by a broad range of churches and faith-based coalitions including
Church World Service, the symposium's speakers include the Rev. Dr. Samuel
Kobia, the new General Secretary of the World Council of Churches and former
head of the National Council of Churches of Kenya; the Rev. Syngman Rhee, a
Korean American born in North Korea and a former President of the National
Council of Churches USA and Moderator of the Presbyterian Church (USA); Rev.
Bernice Powell Jackson, Executive Minister of Justice and Witness Ministries
of the United Church of Christ ; and Rev. Jim Winkler, General Secretary of
the United Methodist Church General Board of Church and Society.

Church World Service International Response and Recovery Liaison Ivan DeKam,
recently returned from Sierra Leone, says he and CWS colleague Moses Ole
Sakuda will present to the Advocacy Days attendees indications from the
agency's recent conflict transformation and trauma healing work in the region
during a March 7 workshop, "The Crisis in Liberia and the Mano River
Countries."

"Our work with trauma victims and in training those who are caregivers for
trauma victims in the region is underscoring the necessity to deal with
healing trauma on both a personal and societal level, and," he notes, "the
need to look at restorative justice rather than retributive justice, to look
at mercy, and at multiple truths in each situation* not just a single truth.
All of these," DeKam says, "have to be considered together for people to be
able to move on toward sustainable peace in places like West Africa's Mano
River region."

In the face of ongoing debate in the hemisphere on globalization and FTAA
impacts, CWS Associate Director for Education and Advocacy Rajyashri Waghray
will present outcomes from a January North American consultation held in
Stony Point, New York, as part of a panel on trade justice.  

The March 5-8 Ecumenical Advocacy Days conference will also offer issue
briefings, advocacy training workshops and opportunities for participants to
speak with their Senators and Representatives in the U.S. Congress, or key
foreign policy staff.

Church World Service Washington Representative and Associate Director for
Education and Advocacy Brian Hinman is a member of the event's Planning
Committee. "After attending last year's Advocacy Days, I was very excited
about motivating the grassroots to bring our message of the imperative for
peace with justice to Congress," Hinman says. 

"This year, with more people attending, and more messages being refined, the
grassroots should have a major impact on Capitol Hill during our Advocacy Day
there on March 8."

Church World Service staff members will also participate in workshops on
HIV/AIDS and the Middle East. CWS will also present its new advocacy
resources, including the agency's series of background papers on the
humanitarian crisis in Colombia and a CWS co-authored paper on economic
growth and development in the Middle East.

This conference will also be the venue for the U.S. exhibition entries in the
Ecumenical Advocacy Alliance's Interfaith AIDS Poster Campaign, featuring
posters created by individuals from around the world that speak out against
stigma and discrimination and envision a world without these lethal barriers
to health, healing and wholeness.  

"We're very excited about having the international HIV/AIDS poster
competition display in Washington, DC, as well as an opportunity to select
the finalists for the U.S. participants in this competition," noted CWS'
Hinman.  

The international HIV/AIDS poster collection was previously displayed at the
United Nations Building in New York on World AIDS Day December 1, 2003, and
will be displayed on Capitol Hill (Room 2255 Rayburn House Office Bldg.)
during the Washington Ecumenical Advocacy Days event.  

"We hope the international poster initiative will move our legislators to
fund HIV/AIDS response programs at the highest possible level."  Mr. Hinman
adds.

For more information on Ecumenical Advocacy Days, visit www.advocacydays.org

						###

CONTACTS:	Ann Walle/CWS/New York
		Phone: (212) 870-2654
		e-mail: awalle@churchworldservice.org

		Jan Dragin/New York/Boston
		Phone: (781) 925-1526
		e-mail: jdragin@gis.net

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