During an informal audience at the Vatican on Thursday May 16, Pope Francis received executives from the Caritas Internationalis network. He reminded those gathered that “a Church without charity does not exist,” and underlined the “dual dimension” of the initiative that is Caritas Internationalis, that is, the dimension of social action joined with the spiritual dimension of “giving oneself, going outside oneself and being at the continuous service of people living in extreme situations.
Development and Peace would like to congratulate Most Reverend Daniel Joseph Miehm on his ordination and installation as the Auxiliary Bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Hamilton.
On the day of May 7th 2013, Development and Peace members from the Diocese, as well as myself were honored to be part of this joyous occasion.
When 154 members of the United Nations General Assembly, including Canada, voted in favour of a universal Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) on April 2nd, 2013, it was a historic step towards instilling a culture of peace worldwide.
“The story of Africa has been documented by the hunter, and not by the leopard,” said Portuguese academic, Boaventura de Sousa, who has called for history to be retold from the perspective of the victims of colonialism, genocide and unbridled capitalism.
Our 45th Share Lent campaign has just come to an end!
That means that every year for the past 45 years, members, partners and employees of Development and Peace across Canada have rallied around this moment of sharing. It also means 45 years of solidarity with our partners in the Global South, who are enhancing human dignity in the world more than ever thanks to your support.
This year's campaign was particularly eventful and full of all kinds of activities! For the first time, campaign's launch was broadcast live on the Internet from Edmonton, in the company of Archbishop Smith, President of the CCCB, and Archbishop Pedro Barreto, a solidarity visitor from Peru.
The people of the Siria Valley in Honduras may have breathed a sigh of relief in 2010 with the closure of the Canadian-owned San Martin gold mine that sits in their midst, but now they must brace themselves for further environmental destruction and depletion of their water supply. In mid-January, after two years of negotiations and opposition from civil society, a new mining law was finally approved by the Honduran Congress.
April 17th marked International Day of Peasant Struggles. This day was launched in Eldorado dos Carajas, Brazil, in 1996, after the assassination of 19 peasants who were members of Brazil’s Landless Rural Workers' Movement (MST), a Development and Peace partner. Around the world, peasants are struggling daily against deforestation, land grabbing, the polluting of water and soil, but also to improve their living conditions.
In Honduras’ mountainous southern department of La Paz, mornings are chilly and the altitude is ideal for coffee growing. Here, the dark-skinned indigenous Lenca people make up 80% of the population. Yet, from the poverty and the discrimination they endure, one might think they were a minority.
In this community, four out of ten children die before they reach the age of two from a poverty-related disease. Most of the girls become pregnant while still minors, and in the community of Santa Elena alone, eleven women died last year in childbirth.
Since the earthquake of January 12, 2010, Development and Peace has been supporting a number of reconstruction projects put forward by various Haitian civil society partners. So, after more than three years, where are we in this extremely complex process of rebuilding a society that was already socio-economically vulnerable and whose weakness was exacerbated even further as a result of this natural disaster?
Three years ago, Floribert Chebeya, a Congolese human rights activist and president of the non-governmental organization La Voix des Sans Voix (a voice for the voiceless), was found murdered in his car. The investigation into his death led to the arrest and trial of several police officers believed to be behind the murder.
