UMCOR Advance Story of the Month, July 2001

Global Peacebuilding and Reconciliation

Fourteen-year-old Sino lives outside Dushanbe, Tajikistan. He dreams of going to school, but he and his mother depend on his income to survive. Sino walks an hour every morning to the city market where he sells cigarettes, cookies, and gum.

When Sino and his mother learned about the UMCOR youth house they hurried to get him registered. Now he works in the market in the morning and attends classes in the afternoon. He's learning to read and write, is studying English and computer science, and dreaming of the day when he can stop going to the market and get a "decent" job. The youth house Sino attends is part of UMCOR's Global Peacebuilding and Reconciliation ministry-- projects implemented in countries recovering from war, or still in the midst of ethnic conflict, like Tajikistan.

UMCOR's War Recovery Projects

When civil conflict erupts, people are driven from their homes. They become displaced persons, forced to relocate to another area within their home country, or refugees, forced to flee to another country. They live in camps or crowd in with relatives or friends. Often they live in poverty, in crowded conditions, and struggle to maintain adequate shelter, feed and clothe their families, and find employment. They live with a bare minimum, and struggle not only to meet physical needs, but emotional needs as well. Children are unable to go to school, farmers are uprooted from their land, people have to leave jobs, communities and families are torn apart– their entire lives are thrown into turmoil. When, and if, they are able to return home, they often have completely rebuild their homes and lives.

Over the last decade, UMCOR has developed extensive war recovery programs. War recovery has elements of the three emphases of UMCOR– it is an emergency or critical situation, people often need food and new ways of generating income, and many people may have become refugees– but it is a unique situation requiring a specific response.

UMCOR field office staff oversee war-recovery projects in various parts of the world. This unit of UMCOR uses funds given by United Methodists to carry out recovery programs. Because United Methodists and other individuals give so generously, UMCOR is able to leverage substantial grants from other non-governmental agencies, like the United Nations High Commission for Refugees, European Union countries, and governmental agencies, like USAID.

Whom Do These Projects Serve?

• Displaced children and youth who are able to go to local youth houses to learn languages, computer skills, and peace-building skills; play sports and games; dance, draw, write, sing, act, and do crafts.
• Women whose husbands may have been killed in the conflict, taken prisoner, or who may be off fighting in the war. They learn new skills to generate income, or receive sewing, cooking or agricultural supplies so that they can establish small businesses using skills they already possess.
• Small communities who have no accessible health care. Medicines are distributed; clinics are opened; and people learn valuable preventive measures to ward off disease and illness.
• Farmers who have to begin again– not only to reestablish crops and livestock, but to market their products in an area disrupted by war.
• Children who have been orphaned, or whose parents can no longer care for them because the war has stripped them of all resources. UMCOR programs provide food and medicines for orphanages, and training for older children to gain skills they will need when they are adults.
• Families who must repair or rebuild homes that were damaged or destroyed in the war. UMCOR provides building materials, and skilled persons to help oversee the rebuilding.

How to Participate in This Ministry

UMCOR has established a special Advance to support these war-recovery ministries, "Global Peacebuilding and Reconciliation," Advance #982353. UMCOR encourages you to give through your local United Methodist Church. Gifts may also be sent to: UMCOR, 475 Riverside Dr., Room 330, New York, NY 10115. To make a credit card donation, call (800) 554-8583. United Methodists' generous giving to the One Great Hour of Sharing, part of their ongoing contribution to mission around the world, supplements the cost of Advance gifts.

The photos on this page were taken by Galen R. Frysinger in Tajikistan and are used by permission. If you click on a smaller photo by Frysinger, you will see a larger version.