BC Baling Days – Mission Accomplished!

Volunteers from BC Lutheran congregations gathered at the warehouse to help get the CLWR aid shipment to Tanzania ready.

On behalf of Canadian Lutheran World Relief I would like to express my sincere thanks and appreciation to the many people and churches that made BC Baling Days 2013 a profound success. Thank you to the quilters, the kit assemblers, the drivers, the warehouse volunteers, those that generously made a financial contribution towards shipping costs, and the Mennonite Central Committee for once again being excellent hosts and partners at their facility.

In all, 13,017 lbs of humanitarian aid was loaded into our container, which will reach Tanzania later this summer. Included were:

2,007   Quilts & Blankets

696    Baby Bundles

712    Assorted Kits

A special thanks to our new friends at the Compassionate Resource Warehouse (Victoria) for donating an amazing assortment of tools, clothes, toys and other supplies. We hope that they will be a big part of the We Care program’s future.

Patrick Stewart

CLWR We Care Program Coordinator

Care and dignity for elders and the chronically ill a priority at Augusta Victoria Hospital

Badiah Bajali (left) and Amira Juha (right) of East Jerusalem’s Augusta Victoria Hospital join CLWR executive director Robert Granke at our Winnipeg office earlier this week. CLWR/J.Clark

“We want to give patients a place to die with dignity,” says Amira Juha, director of development projects and deputy chief finance officer at Augusta Victoria Hospital (AVH) in East Jerusalem.

There is a huge need for elder and end-of-life care for Palestinians, but almost no facilities that offer it. A recent survey of Palestinians showed a growing senior population and 47 per cent of households reported that at least one person in their family suffered from a chronic illness or disability.

AVH and CLWR have been helping to address the need for long-term care in the region for several years now. In 2008, CLWR received a $610,000 grant from the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) that was used to create a Skilled Nursing and Long-Term Care Center at AVH, opening up 25 beds for use by elderly and chronically ill patients. The center is called the Canadian Wing in honour of that gift.

The plaque at AVH commemorating the support of CLWR and CIDA in the creation of the “Canadian Wing.” CLWR

The facility is a godsend for patients and their families.

It is stressful for families to care for chronically ill family members at home, says Amira. Their health care needs are usually beyond what can be practically provided by family members. Many Palestinian families struggle to earn enough money to support themselves and often cannot afford to have someone stay at home to provide constant care.

“Families are really happy with the service provided at AVH,” says Amira.

The Skilled Nursing and Long Term Care Center at AVH provides a caring
environment for patients. M. Brown/LWF

They feel they can “connect better” with the staff here, says Badiah Bajali, head of the accounting department and deputy director of development projects at AVH.

Patients, families and staff all speak the same language. Some family members report feeling more comfortable having their relatives stay at AVH instead of an Israeli hospital.

But AVH isn’t stopping at 25 beds. The hospital is working to provide support to more patients.

They are planning the construction of an Elder Care and Palliative Medicine Pavilion that will open up 120 beds for patients requiring major, long-term care that can’t be provided in their homes. The patients would include stroke and cancer victims, those suffering from complications of diabetes and those requiring pain management. Twenty of the beds will be used as a nursing home for the elderly.

“We want the pavilion to be a healing, therapeutic environment,” says Amira.

All patients will have a private room where they can spend quality time with their families. The building will be environmentally friendly and will meet the needs of elderly patients with amenities like wheelchair accessible patios and gardens. A team of specialists will work together to provide medical and emotional support to patients through services including drug therapy, physical therapy and counseling.

Now just a grassy field on the side of a hill, this view shows the site on the LWF property where the Elder Care Pavilion will
be built to house 120 patients for elder and palliative care. M. Brown/LWF

The pavilion will also be able to expand their reach to people from the West Bank. Currently, due to the travel restrictions Palestinians face, as well as available beds, the hospital’s Long Term Care Center only accepts Palestinian patients living in East Jerusalem.

“We’re thankful for the continued support that CLWR gives to the hospital,” says Amira. “We think of CLWR as one of our best partners.”

Partnering together to support refugees

Senait, Elizabeth and Jenn from CLWR’s refugee program team are attending meetings this week to learn about changes to refugee sponsorship and how to better support refugees. Please pray for them in their journey for knowledge and partnership!

CLWR’s refugee program team are busier than usual this week!

From May 27-29, Jenn Ardon from our Eastern Regional Office, and Fikre Tsehai, Senait Biadgilign and Elizabeth Galvez from our Western Regional Office are attending a meeting organized by the Refugee Sponsorship Training Program (RSTP). This is an annual event in which Citizenship and Immigration Canada and Sponsorship Agreement Holders (SAHs) will meet to discuss policy and regulatory changes in the Private Sponsorship of Refugees Program (PSRP).

CLWR has been an SAH with the Canadian government since 1979, allowing us to manage sponsorship of refugees together with congregations and other groups.

On May 27, Fikre was elected to serve on the NGO/Government committee of the PSRP. Congrats, Fikre!

Next, the CLWR refugee team will be among 300 delegates attending a consultation organized by the Canadian Council for Refugees (CCR) in Burnaby, BC, from May 30 to June 1.

During the last two years, the federal government has made major changes to the process for inland refugee claims and the resettlement program in which Canada takes in refugees escaping civil war and other dangers overseas. The main objective of the CCR meeting is to discuss the implications of these changes and develop strategies on how to advocate on behalf of refugees who have made claims on Canadian soil as well as refugees from abroad. Fikre will moderate a meeting on security in refugee camps overseas, and Lennart Hernander from the Lutheran World Federation (LWF) will be coming from Kenya to participate.

Lennart is involved in managing refugee camps in Kenya, including Kakuma camp and Dadaab, which is the largest refugee camp in the world. CLWR provides support to these camps, and to the Za’atari camp in Jordan, through our partnership with LWF.

There are tens of thousands of refugees in the world today who are displaced by war and persecution. For these refugees, the only hope they have is to be resettled in a third country. The United States, Australia and Canada are the major resettlement countries, but the gap between the need for resettlement and the spaces offered by resettlement countries is widening. These meetings are important venues for collaboration as we adapt to changes  in refugee-related policies and respond to the need many refugees have for a safe, new home.

 

Charting a new course for mission

Our Spring 2013 Partnership newsletter addresses changes in Canada’s international development priorities and covers some of our projects in Ethiopia, Palestine and Nicaragua.

You can read it online here: http://www.clwr.org/Get-Involved/Partnership.htm 

We’re accepting donations for the tornado response in the U.S.

On May 20, a two-mile-wide tornado ripped through Moore, Oklahoma, claiming many lives and leaving behind a devastating trail of destruction. Plaza Towers Elementary School stood right in the path of the storm’s 320 km/h winds.

Hundreds of homes are damaged or destroyed as tornadoes ripped through Oklahoma, Kansas, Texas, Illinois and Iowa.

CLWR’s partners are already on the ground, assessing the immediate and long-term needs of those affected by the tornadoes. Your gifts are needed to begin coordinating volunteers, rebuilding homes and offering spiritual and emotional care to those in need. Support will be provided through our partnership with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) and their disaster response efforts.

Join us and help provide the type of immediate and long-lasting support that is already underway in the affected regions.

You can also donate by phone (1.800.661.2597), online, by mail (send cheque to CLWR, 600-177 Lombard Avenue, Winnipeg, MB R3B 0W5), or by making a designated offering at a Lutheran church in Canada. Please indicate you wish to donate to the “Tornado Response in the US.”

Your May news briefs from CLWR

Your May update from CLWR is now available!

• Ask your Member of Parliament to keep aid focused on helping those in need
• New photos from the Vocational Training Program in Jerusalem and Ramallah
• Stories and photos from the Young Adult Global Encounter to Peru
• Visit the Holy Land with CLWR

Ask your Member of Parliament to keep aid focused on those in need

In March, the federal government announced that it was merging the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) with the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade.

Bill C-60, which was tabled in Parliament on April 30, 2013, provides guidelines on what will become the new Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development.

The House of Commons will be voting on Bill C-60 in June. Before that happens, we need you to reach out to your Member of Parliament and urge them to ensure that ending poverty and promoting human rights are at the heart of our international development efforts.

You can find your MP’s email address on this page: http://www.parl.gc.ca/MembersOfParliament/MainMPsCompleteList.aspx?TimePeriod=current

The Canadian Council for International Cooperation (CCIC) provides background information on the merger and an example of a letter to send MPs here:

http://www.ccic.ca/what_we_do/call_to_action_e.php?utm_source=Email+Created+2013%2F05%2F16%2C+10%3A29+AM&utm_campaign=CIDA-DFAIT+call+to+action+May+2013&utm_medium=email

 

New photos from the Vocational Training Program in Jerusalem and Ramallah

Earlier this month, CLWR’s Jenn Ardon joined the Waterloo Lutheran Seminary on a study tour of the Holy Land. While there, they visited our partners in the region, including the Vocational Training Program run by Lutheran World Federation-Jerusalem.

The VTP makes a big difference in the lives of Palestinian youth and young adults, by providing them with training in jobs including auto-mechanics, plumbing and central heating repair, catering and office administration. Ninety per cent of graduates find work at least six months after graduating.

In a region where poverty and unemployment are all too common, the VTP brings success to its students. We’re pleased to support it.

View new photos from the VTP:

Vocational Training Centre – Ramallah

Vocational Training Centre – Beit Hanina

Read Jenn’s reflections on her visit: http://clwr.wordpress.com/2013/05/06/lutherans-in-the-holy-land-part-2-2/

 

Stories and photos from the Young Adult Global Encounter

A group of young Lutheran Canadians have just wrapped up a visit to Peru with CLWR! If you would like to see photos and read about the trip, please click on the link below. There, you will find links to CLWR’s youth Facebook page and three blogs written by trip participants.  http://www.clwr.org/News/news-brief.cfm?news_id=300

 

 

Visit the Holy Land with us

CLWR will be hosting a Global Encounter to Palestine and Israel, from February 19 – March 3, 2014.

The encounter will provide an opportunity for participants to meet with CLWR project partners in Palestine and experience some of the religious heritage sights and rich culture of the region. We will see the quality care provided by the Augusta Victoria Hospital in East Jerusalem, as well as the training offered to students at the Lutheran World Federation’s Vocational Training program in Beit Hanina and Ramallah. We will also engage with the Dar al-Kalima high school and college in Bethlehem and see the results of CLWR support.

There will be opportunities to spend time in the old city of Jerusalem and participate in a religious pilgrimage to other parts of the West Bank.

Come and join us for what will be a rich experience that will make a permanent impression on all who participate! A deposit of $1000 is required by June 30, 2013 to secure your position on the tour. Final costs for all accommodation, travel from your local airport and all meals is expected to not exceed $6000 in total. The final budget and itinerary are pending.

Please register by June 30, 2013 by contacting Tom Brook, CLWR Community Relations Director, at tbrook@clwr.mb.ca or 1.800.661.2597.

Visit our website for more information, including a poster - http://www.clwr.org/Get-Involved/visit-our-program-communities.cfm#geholyland

Subscribe to receive these updates by email by emailing jennifer@clwr.mb.ca. Please provide your name, address and email. 

Lutherans in the Lower Mainland volunteer to send aid to Tanzanians

BC Baling Days volunteers prepare a shipment. Photo: Cathy Schreirer

Abbotsford, B.C. – Volunteers from Lutheran congregations in Abbotsford and other communities in the Lower Mainland will gather together on May 13 and 14 to send aid to people halfway around the world.

They are working with Canadian Lutheran World Relief (CLWR) to ship donated clothing, blankets, hygiene supplies, medical supplies and other needed items to Tanzania. A 40-foot shipping container is being loaded at 31414 Marshall Road, at the Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) warehouse, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. on both days.

This annual event, called B.C. Baling Days, has been happening for over 20 years. Volunteers will sort the items, pack them into bales and load them into the shipping container.

Long-time volunteer Ed Jacob, of Our Saviour Lutheran Church in Richmond, B.C., has been helping with Baling Days since the mid-‘90s, and in recent years, he has acted as the project’s coordinator. He has seen the project evolve as more donations come in.

“In the last few years, we have found that there was too much to be baled in a day, so we recruited a number of people to start baling the day before,” says Jacob. “It has now developed into a two-day affair.”

“We appreciate the use of MCC’s warehouse to bale and pack the shipment.”

Even though almost 90 per cent of people living in Tanzania live on less than $2 a day, the eastern African country is generous in providing refuge to people fleeing wars in neighbouring countries. The items in the shipment will go to help refugees and Tanzanians who are in need.

The goods are donated by Canadian Lutherans who participate in CLWR’s We Care program, and by local and national partner organizations. A new partner, Compassionate Resource Warehouse in Victoria, B.C., donated hand tools and work boots.

“It is only through the outstanding generosity of our supporters that we can send items to those in need,” says Patrick Stewart, coordinator of CLWR’s We Care program. “This is one way that Canadian Lutherans make a difference in the lives of those far away from them.”

CLWR’s We Care program sends about four relief shipments a year to countries around the world.

PHOTO/VIDEO OPPORTUNITY: The 40-foot shipping container will be loaded at the Mennonite Central Committee’s warehouse (31414 Marshall Road, Abbotsford) from May 13-14, 2013, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.

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Canadian Lutheran World Relief carries out international relief, development, and refugee resettlement on behalf of Lutherans in Canada. Our vision is a world where people live in justice, peace and dignity, united in diversity, and empowered to achieve their universal rights to basic needs and quality of life. www.clwr.org