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Protecting the Poor Against Land Grab in Africa: An Oblate Sharing Fund Update March 29th, 2016
With support from the Oblate Sharing Fund, our partner organization Africa Faith & Justice Network (AFJN) based in Washington DC, has launched educational awareness programs about Land Grab in Ghana. Other local based awareness programs were launched following conferences on the issue in Kenya (2015) and Cameroon.
Ghana: AFJN’s Land Grabbing Awareness and Prevention Campaign
Land grabbing is a serious problem across Africa and several developing nations. Large investment firms and multinational corporations make deals with local governments to cultivate lands mostly for crop export or to extract minerals. These deals displace thousands of poor small farmers, offer inadequate compensation to land owners, pay low wages to workers, pollute the local water supply, deprive residents of their natural resources and threaten their livelihoods.
Africa Faith & Justice Network Land Grab Awareness
program in Ghana, West Africa
Happy Easter 2016! March 25th, 2016
HAPPY EASTER 2016!
Happy World Water Day 2016! March 22nd, 2016
Happy World Water Day 2016!: Better Water, Better Jobs
2016 Theme: Better Water, Better Jobs
In 1993 the UN General Assembly designated March 22 as World Water Day. Water is a critical global resource for human development. Yet not all populations, even within the same country, have equal access. In the U.S. Flint, Michigan is one recent example. The theme for this year’s observance is: “Better Water, Better Jobs.” It is a call for us to “recognize and support people and jobs whose work with water helps us all.”
Here are some alarming facts about water from Water.org:
- 1.8 billion people around the world lack access to safe water.
- The incidence of children suffering from stunting and chronic malnutrition — at least 160 million — is linked to water and sanitation.
- More than 840,000 people die from a water-related disease each year, including diarrhea caused by bad drinking water, hygiene and sanitation.
- Eighty-two percent of people who don’t have access to “improved” water live in rural areas.
- More than one-third of people worldwide lack access to a toilet, more than the number of people who have a mobile phone.
- Every 90 seconds a child dies from a water-related disease.
- The amount of safe water could drop by 40 percent in 15 years if people do not change the way they use water.
Read more about World Water Day 2016 and articles on Flint, MI from the Interfaith Council For Corporate Responsibility: http://www.iccr.org/world-water-day-2016
Visit the United Nation’s website to read more about events marking this observance: http://www.un.org/en/events/waterday/
JPIC Lenten Mission Workshops held at Immaculate Conception Cathedral in Brownsville, Texas March 21st, 2016
Fr. Antonio Ponce, OMI, Oblate JPIC Director led a Lenten Mission event from Sunday, March 13 to Saturday, March 19 at the Immaculate Conception Cathedral in Brownsville, TX with the theme: Lent, an opportunity to learn, reflect and live the year of Year of Mercy. The events included days of reflection, preaching at several masses on Sunday, and concluding on Saturday with a procession carrying the statue of patron Saint, Joseph the worker.
Thanks to the bishop of Brownsville, the director of the Immaculate Conception Cathedral and parishioners for their hospitality. This event is part of an ongoing JPIC office initiative to conduct outreach and animation at Oblate parishes.
Saturday procession along Main Street.
![Bishop of Brownsville[2]](http://omiusajpic.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/Bishop-of-Brownsville2.jpg)
The Bishop of Brownsville, Daniel Flores
Banner of Patron Saint Joseph, Protector of Families
Group picture with Fr. Antonio Ponce, OMI
![Fr. Michael omi[2]](http://omiusajpic.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/Fr.-Michael-omi2.jpg)
Director of the Cathedral, Fr. Michael Amesse, OMI
Marchers along Main Street
Missionary Oblates join faith groups to take action to end long-standing embargo on Cuba March 16th, 2016
Missionary Oblates joined diverse faith organizations in issuing a joint statement urging Congress to take action to bring an end to the Cuba embargo.
The faith leaders statement reads;
“We have listened to the call of our partner faith communities in Cuba, with whom we have worked for many years on humanitarian issues, on disaster response, and in sister church relationships. Uniformly and consistently, they have told us that the embargo brings no benefits to the faith community in Cuba. In fact, it makes life more difficult for church members and the Cuban people more broadly. They would like a full normal relationship, in which they can visit and learn from us, and we can visit and learn from them. They recognize that our two governments have differences, and issues that must be resolved; they are eager to see those issues discussed in the context of normal, respectful relations.”
The Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate are present in Cuba and just among a handful of Catholic missionaries allowed to do church work. With improved relations between the United States and Cuba, Oblates are hopeful that pastoral ministry to the Cuban people will increase in the near future.
