wfn.org | LWI News in Brief No.05 & 06/2004

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

News in Brief No.05 & 06/2004

+ State Corporation Launches Stamps Celebrating LWF/DWS Work in Tanzania
+ Israel's Separation Wall Will Isolate Crucial Training Center in Jerusalem
+ Namibian Churches Call for Peaceful Land Reform Process

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State Corporation Launches Stamps Celebrating LWF/DWS Work in Tanzania

The Tanzanian Posts and Telecommunication Corporation (TPTC) has issued a
commemorative stamp series highlighting the humanitarian relief and
development work of the Tanganyika Christian Refugee Service (TCRS). The
TCRS, the country program of the Lutheran World Federation (LWF) Department
for World Service (DWS) is celebrating its 40th year of work in the East
African country. Since May 1964, TCRS has focused on the needs of the many
refugees who have sought asylum in the country, as well as vulnerable and
marginalized local communities in many rural districts.

The TPTC four-stamp series highlights the TCRS partnership in four areas.
These include collaboration with the government and United Nations High
Commissioner for Refugees titled "40 Years Service to Refugees." Under "Water
for All," the corporation pays tribute to LWF's facilitating role in
providing over 250,000 Tanzanians with clean and sufficient water supplies,
while "Primary Education for All" marks involvement in the construction or
rehabilitation of more than 1,500 primary school classrooms. Sustainable
management and local community control of forest resources has been a
constant theme of the DWS program, and is represented under "Afforestation
Campaign."

The future holds exciting prospects for DWS Tanzania, according to TCRS
director Duane Poppe. The program is in a transition process from an
international non-governmental organization to a national NGO, with Tanzanian
governance appointed by the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Tanzania. As a
national relief and development agency, TCRS will gain legitimacy and local
direction, enabling it to better face the challenges of the next 40 years,
Poppe concludes. (261 words)

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Israel's Separation Wall Will Isolate Crucial Training Center in Jerusalem

Israel's building of its separation wall near a vocational training center in
Jerusalem will prevent young people from the West Bank from receiving
training there.

"The separation wall will isolate the Lutheran World Federation (LWF)
Vocational Training Center (VTC) from the West Bank," says the center's
director, Randa Hilal.

On June 6, the Israeli army blocked the three side roads leading to the
center, and started building the separation wall near the center on the main
road from Al-Ram to Bait-Hanina Blockade. The wall is made up of more than
140 km of concrete barriers and fences built around several Palestinian areas
in Jerusalem to separate them from the city and to separate Jerusalem from
the West Bank.

Through the LWF Department for World Service (DWS) Jerusalem program, youth
from across the West Bank and Palestinian areas around Jerusalem come to the
VTC to learn skills in electronics, plumbing, automobile maintenance and
other trades. Following two years of training, trainees are assisted in
finding employment. 

Hilal says that when the wall is completed near the center, only 24 percent
of the trainees and 18 percent of the trainers will have access to the
institution. She points out that "quality training opportunities for youth
are minimal in the West Bank and have not increased, although the number of
youth is increasing." 

(From a News Update of Action by Churches International.)

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Namibian Churches Call for Peaceful Land Reform Process

Churches in Namibia are calling for a peaceful land reform process and urging
the government to take responsibility for both the landless and those who
possess farms in the Southern African country. The three Lutheran World
Federation (LWF) member churches there have requested the Ministry of Land
and Resettlement for transparency in the exercise. 

In a May 25 statement, the churches that jointly constitute the LWF National
Committee in Namibia pointed out that "while being aware of the fact that the
sensitive issue of land reform must be accelerated * it was in their view of
utmost importance that the government give clear and transparent reasons,
especially to the farmers concerned, why their land should be expropriated.
If this is not done, fears and uncertainties will grow, not only of the farm
owners but also of the farm workers, about their future." The bishops
representing the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Namibia, Evangelical Lutheran
Church in the Republic of Namibia (ELCRN) and the German Evangelical Lutheran
Church in Namibia (DELK) were reacting to a written notice that the Minister
of Land and Resettlement, Mr. H.L. Pohamba, had given to 12 farm owners
expected to sell their property to the state. 

The ecumenical Council of Churches in Namibia (CCN), had, in an earlier press
release, called on the government and Namibian landowners to ensure that the
controversial land reform process was "guided by the spirit of social
justice, peace and the fear of God, who is the sole owner of the land."

When Namibia became independent in 1990 after more than 100 years of colonial
rule, the land question was central to the struggle for national liberation
and has been one of the most burning issues facing the young nation.
Post-independence, all programs for acquiring commercial farmland and
distributing it to formerly disadvantaged, landless citizens have been based
on the "willing buyer, willing seller" principle. In recent times it had,
however, become clear that this process was very slow. 

Around 43 percent of Namibia's land is commercial, while 40 percent comprises
communal land. Until 1990, the country's estimated 4,000 commercial farms
were owned by white farmers, representing 5 percent of the population. (367
words)

(By Windhoek-based LWI correspondent Erika von Wietersheim.)

(The LWF is a global communion of Christian churches in the Lutheran
tradition. Founded in 1947 in Lund (Sweden), the LWF now has 136 member
churches in 76 countries representing 62.3 million of the almost 66 million
Lutherans worldwide. 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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