A Victim in Myanmar, but of What?

My morning New York Times (8 May 2008) stunned me into an ultra-alert, awake state. A bloated body floating in a dirty swamp, arms extended to the heavens, as if calling out for mercy. The hard-to-look-at photograph is captioned: “A victim of the cyclone that hit Myanmar (Burma) last week.”

A colleague at LWR and I mused over this grotesque photo and thought about the meaning of “victim.” This unnamed person’s entire history on Earth is reduced to the word “victim.” Does his being a cyclone “victim” give anyone the right to plaster his half-clothed body as page one fare? We wondered aloud about some of the other things of which he was first a victim:

• of inadequate warning systems
• of no escape routes
• of being ruled by a military junta
• of the environmental destruction of mangrove forests that would have buffered the land from the raging sea
• of no resources
• of our indifference?
  

The latest reports fear that there are 100,000 more “victims,” perhaps neighbors, family-members, friends of this man floating in mosquito-infested waters. Malaria, which is also now raging in Myanmar, will turn a mosquito-bite into a death sentence.

My mind goes to the quarter million “victims” of the December 2004 tsunami and the millions more who are rebuilding their lives and their livelihoods. With joy, I've visited some communities where that’s happening: Accompanying Lydia, Hope Crushed, Traditional Architecture.

While hundreds of thousands of “victims” are teetering on the brink of life and death today in Myanmar, Lutheran World Relief is representing the heart of U.S. Lutherans, and your support is desperately needed.

We will accompany women, children and men who are homeless, sick and crying to find a road to recovery. And we will do this in a way that guards their dignity. For we know they are much more than mere “victims,” they are children of God, our sisters and brothers in the human family.

Please support this live-saving work.

A Well-Planted Translation

One of the benefits of Lutheran World Relief’s pattern of working with partners is the miracle of human connectedness it allows. We are not distant from those with whom we work, neither do we bypass those with local expertise. We are neither experimenters nor implementers. We strive to be true partners.

In spite of the need to offer multiple language translation, we connect. Some messages go beyond verbal communication. In one village near the boarder between Burkina Faso and Mali, my English language comments were translated into French by Evariste Karengwa, LWR’s Regional Director for Africa. Nana Touré then translated from French to Bambara — a majority language of Mali. Then, a local community person translated from Bambara to the rare and remote Dogon language, spoken by those who inhabit the Mopti region. Based on the community’s reactions, there are some things that don’t get lost even in multiple translations.

Here’s part of what I said: “There’s an old, old story told about having faith the size of a small, small seed. Such people are divinely empowered to move mountains. Mountains of poverty, mountains of suffering, mountains of injustice. We thank God for giving this community this power, this transformation, this future, through this partnership.”

And the work has a future: The plan calls for increased production, allowing for greater distribution of the profits. Life here, in this remote, but far from Godforsaken place, can become bearable, livable and hope-filled. A key factor is LWR’s accompaniment model (see current LWR newsletter). This helps us to garner respect from those with whom we work. That’s why they wait through multiple translations to hear from us. By working and speaking in this way, we gain “reach” into hard-to-reach communities such as this.

Whether a mustard seed or a sesame seed, if it’s well-planted, it translates, transcends cultures and transforms communities.

Thou Shall Not Kill

According to the United Nations Human Development Index of 177 nations in the world, Mali ranks as 173rd. Burkina Faso is the 176th. Niger is 174th. The poorest of the poor are right here, and most poignantly so, in the rural areas where Lutheran World Relief works. Decades ago, some wise Lutherans decided to focus their resources where human pain cried out the sharpest: the groans of death, even. These Lutherans knew their Catechism: “God rightly calls all persons murderers who do not offer counsel or assistance to those in need and peril of body or life.” I am thankful for their faith-activated decision to keep the Fifth Commandment and to do something, to enact justice.

Confronted with the magnitude of suffering in the world, many people begin to feel numb and powerless. They do nothing. Yet each one of us has a role to play in creating a better world. In the face of such suffering we must stand together, empowered by God’s unconditional love in Jesus Christ, attesting to the power of one mother, one family, one community–their power to change their future, to pull themselves out of poverty. Walk with us, work with us, find your role, and together we can make a difference.

Pen and Paper

As my first post indicated, cell phone signals in rural Mali are sporadic at best. During our travels in West Africa we were frequently without access to this blog, thus the delay between posts. In the absence of technology we resorted to tried and true methods – pen and paper. The next several installments (which will be posted over the coming weeks) were written while traveling in Mali and Burkina Faso and will be posted as written. Though our trip has come to an end, I hope these stories and reflections share some glimpse of the intensely moving human experience which has touched (and continues to shape) my heart and mind.

One such story:

The woman at right is a member of the Guireyaawés Federation, an collection of 130 sesame producing associations belonging to over 6500 sesame farmers in rural Mali, near the town of Koro.

Lutheran World Relief has worked with the farmers to help them grow, process and export organic sesame. In this part of the world harsh weather and market conditions conspire to make farming a constant challenge. Yet through access to credit, literacy training, new farming equipment and a host of other investments, these farmers are not only growing, but thriving.

Literally translated, Guireyaawés Federation means "those who want to move ahead." And the people of Koro truly are moving ahead, trusting in themselves and the investment required to grow organic sesame. After two years of work with LWR they are seeing the fruits of their labor with a selling price for their crop 50% higher than typical sesame sales.

For today, we move ahead to another community and soon another country, remembering the farmers of the Guireyaawés Federation and thankful for the genuine engagement this work with them produces.

For more about the Guireyaawés Federation, check out LWR's newsletter from August 2007, pages eight and nine.

A One-Legged Dancer

Today I saw a man with one leg, no shoes, and no shame. What’s more, this man I saw today danced, jumped with joy, bounced up and down undaunted by his supposed limitation. I can’t imagine the amazing reservoir of spiritual strength and physical balance it must take to move like that. He was part of a music group from a school supported by Lutheran World Relief. All the band members of this group called Benso, meaning “house of understanding,” possess various levels of physical disabilities and receive quilts and health kits through one of LWR's partner in Mali, National Solidarity Fund (FSN).

I wonder if these West Africans might view Westerners as peculiar or unthankful or even handicapped. Nearly all of us have shoes, most of us have two legs, and yet we’re straitjacketed by hyper-rationality, or over-seriousness or stress or something. The “house of understanding” U.S. Christians need to build should include a livelier dance-floor.

Diminishing Signals, Flourishing Connections

Our airplane wheels touched Bamako tarmac late last evening. By 8 am today, LWR’s Country Program Manager in Mali, Nana Touré, had equipped us for what promises to be several inspiring days in her country.

Lutheran World Relief has worked in Mali since 1988, building the types of relationships with local people and organizations that make work in this part of the world—or any part for that matter—substantive, responsive, and responsible.

As we move north and west over the next few days, Nana has warned us that cell phone and internet access—already limited in the capital—will continue to diminish. Yet amidst that diminishing, I have already perceived different forms of human connectedness flourishing.

Many more connections to come

Accompanying Lydia

The freedom of women in the west contributes significantly to the flourishing of economic life here. I’m not sure whether or not this notion has been statistically verified, but it is my hunch; namely, that even though women in North America and western Europe are far from being fully or fairly empowered, I suspect that they experience relatively fewer encumbrances toward the pursuit of their vocational and life aspirations than they once did, and fewer than others in many places around the world. It therefore follows that if developing countries and communities desire to grow their economies, they will need to find increasingly more venues for and avenues toward female participation.

I’m proud of the way Lutheran World Relief works in emerging lands to gather the hopes and the dreams of all, to give space especially for women, like Lydia, that she might render the sort of leadership I witnessed in Indonesia. Rather than being invidious toward family structures, or invasive toward local cultural contexts, the accompaniment model suggests that we work with and walk with those communities to help them give birth themselves to the miracle of their new way of living; very much like the way the Word became enfleshed in John 1:14.

Lydia Siahaan is the enfleshment of a transformative leader of a Lutheran World Relief partner agency, YSSI (Yayasan Solidaritas Sesama Insani). Her life patterns the biblical prototype of her name’s sake in Acts 16, that mercantilist, church-founder. Though separated by millennia, these women of faith are much alike: well-networked, entrepreneurial, compassionate, and passionately invested in their communities. The loan business of YSSI is like a mission. It’s directed toward those who lost everything that fateful tsunami-Sunday.

Cheng King Long and her husband, Kiulung are two beneficiaries—two heroes, really, who welcomed us into their humble home. Their walls and ceiling are corrugated sheet-iron and plywood. Their living spaces are divided by old shirt-sheet partitions. But because of a micro-loan from LWR/YSSI, they were able to build back what they lost in the tsunami, their tofu business. Additional income has come from the initiative of their daughter, Alehim, who provides tutoring to younger students. Because of Lydia and YSSI and our partnership with them, they have enough money now to move into a new home… much sturdier and safer.

Even more ironically, and perhaps strangely because of the tsunami, Alehim’s dreams may be realized in ways that they were not for generations of millions prior to that dreaded event. You could tell this by the way she took command—her intensity, her pride—as she permitted me to look over their loan repayment schedule. They haven’t missed a payment and are now half way toward full repayment. But I’d say they’ve already traveled the longest journey, the road toward the restoration of their family strength and the acquisition of a new domicile for refuge.

“God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.” Psalm 46