Presbyterian Church (U.S.A) Blogs

Together for Justice

International Development and Advocacy

Abandoned Mining Pits Pose Risks to Families in Cameroon

The Joining Hands network in Cameroon RELUFA has produced a short documentary on the issue of abandoned mining pits in Eastern Cameroon. RELUFA is working to ensure that the mining code is being enforced and that mining companies are following through on their contractual obligations to safely close mining operations and reclaim lands that have… Read more »

U.S. trade policy threatens sovereignty, climate, and health

U.S. must ban investor-state dispute provisions in trade and investment agreements By Eileen Schuhmann | Presbyterian Hunger Program Staff Back in November, more than 200 labor, environment and other civil society organizations urged President Biden to “pursue an effective path to exit Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) by the U.S. and our partners in existing bilateral… Read more »

PHP joins about 150 people praying for Oak Flat in Arizona

‘It may be that we are the ones in need of saving’ By Eileen Schuhmann | Presbyterian Hunger Program Staff OAK FLAT, Arizona — On Nov. 4, about 150 people gathered in prayer at Chi’chil Biłdagoteel (Oak Flat) in the Tonto National Forest of Arizona, sacred land of the San Carlos Apache and other Indigenous… Read more »

Witnessing the horrors of war

PHP partners flee violence in Gaza By Valery Nodem | Associate for International Hunger Concerns, Presbyterian Hunger Program “If we get killed, tell your communities that Palestinians are peaceful humans struggling only for peace…” These are the words of our partner Rajeh Abbas, founder and Director of the Palestinian nonprofit Improvement and Development for Communities… Read more »

Scars of nuclear colonialism in the Marshall Islands

By Bedi Racule | Ecological and Climate Justice Program with the Pacific Conference of Churches A remote group of tiny islands that are isolated and sparsely populated… This is how U.S. officials viewed the Marshall Islands when they chose them as testing sites for their nuclear weapons testing programs. This perspective vastly differs from the… Read more »

New Guide Supports the Self Determination of Indigenous Peoples

On Indigenous People’s Day, we celebrate the publication of a new guide that will assist Indigenous Peoples all over the world to develop their Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC) priorities and secure their right to self-determination. Cultural Survival and First Peoples Worldwide have published Securing Indigenous Peoples’ Right to Self-Determination: A Guide on Free,… Read more »

Standing with Atahualpa

Addressing the Roots of the Climate Crisis By Jed Koball | Joining Hands Catalyst for Extractive industries, Human Rights, and the Environment Get gold, humanely if possible, but at all costs get gold! – King Ferdinand of Spain, 1511 First, they came for the gold. In 1532, Francisco Pizarro, the Spanish conquistador, stood face to face… Read more »

Conflict harms livelihoods in Cameroon

The Anglophone crisis and Russian invasion of Ukraine continue to negatively impact food security and subsistence By Jaff Bamenjo and Enjema Esunge | RELUFA Nkah Ngu Loveline, a 42-year-old petti food stuff trader, originally from Bali-Nyonga in the Northwest Region of Cameroon, sells her goods in Obili, a popular neighborhood in Yaounde, the capital of… Read more »

Doctrine granted Europeans right to indigenous nations

Cruel land thefts continue 500 years later, taking livelihoods and lives By Cindy Corell | Mission Co-worker Haiti Five rooms of the house had been laid out. Cinder blocks outlined the home; some walls were as high as an adult. Room-by-room, block-by-block, Rita Lucas and her family were building a new house. It had taken… Read more »