By Rev. Ellie Stock | Joining Hands Peru Partnership, Presbytery of Giddings-Lovejoy It is a long story… It all began with a song…in Girl Scout Camp…many moons ago…when I was seven,”Land of the Silver Birch, Home of the Beaver“, an adapted Native Canadian tune and Canadian folk song where the singer/story-teller extols the beauty of his homeland—the… Read more »
December 12, 2016
A New Song: Joining Hands with La Oroya, Peru and Standing Rock, ND
By Rev. Ellie Stock | Joining Hands Peru Partnership, Presbytery of Giddings-Lovejoy It is a long story… It all began with a song…in Girl Scout Camp…many moons ago…when I was seven,”Land of the Silver Birch, Home of the Beaver“, an adapted Native Canadian tune and Canadian folk song where the singer/story-teller extols the beauty of his homeland—the… Read more »
Presbyterian Hunger Program partner Social Action in Nigeria recently published a report Up in Smoke: Gas Flaring, Communities and Carbon Trading in Nigeria. As nations attempt to address the growing challenge of increasing greenhouse gas emissions, impoverished communities in countries like Nigeria stand to lose out. The Kyoto Protocol of 1997 established an international system for trading carbon… 
Target Democratic House Reps. Himes and DeGette By Jed Koball | Mission Co-Worker Peru Presbyterians are working in collaboration with Joining Hands partners in Peru, Public Citizen´s Global Trade Watch and others from civil society in the U.S. to prevent a lame-duck vote on the Trans-Pacific Partnership free trade agreement that has been a focal point… 
RELUFA, the Joining Hands network in Cameroon, has just released a policy brief on the implementation of the Kimberley Process in Cameroon. The Kimberley Process is a process that is meant to keep “conflict diamonds” (diamonds procured through the financing of violence and war) out of the market. RELUFA’s policy brief “The Kimberley Process: Responding to challenges and Policy… 
By Jed Koball | Mission Co-worker Peru The recently released award-winning documentary ¨When Two Worlds Collide¨ tells the dramatic story of the 2009 massacre in Bagua, Peru that shaped the context of modern day politics and development in Peru and also helped set the course of advocacy for our Joining Hands partners there. 2009 was… 
By Jaff Napoleon Bamenjo | Coordinator Joining Hands Cameroon, RELUFA In 2004, residents of Kishieba village in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) were displaced from their ancestral land to make way for the Frontier Mine, a cobalt and copper mining project currently owned and operated by Eurasian Natural Resources Corporation (ENRC). The residents of… 
By Chenoa Stock | Mission Co-worker, Joining Hands Bolivia As we gathered around the U-shaped tables on this Bolivian winter day, bundled in coats and scarfs – the typical meeting style in Bolivia due to the lack of central heating in any buildings or houses – we were not there to debate or be heard… 
By Jed Koball | Joining Hands Peru In an unexpected turn of events, after five years of closed-door hearings, the arbiters overseeing the case of The Renco Group, Inc. v Peru issued a surprise decision on July 15, 2016 in favor of Peru on grounds of jurisdiction. Early reactions from the Peruvian government and civil… 
Many of you are probably familiar with the tragic case of La Oroya, Peru. La Oroya is one of the ten most polluted places in the world and 99% of children in the immediate area are estimated to suffer from lead poisoning due to the pollution generated from the metal smelter there, formerly owned and…