disqualifiedOpen your eyes to the injusticesfaced by women in Pakistan

a sea changein malawiAn update on our anti child-trafficking work in Malawi and the change we have seen in recent years

cementingchangeMeet Kakwesi and see how a load of concrete will help her access clean water

INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT NEWSLETTER

spring/summer

2013

www.salvationarmy.org.uk/id

travels to tawa

contents

cover storydisqualified

cementingchange

fresh fromthe field

a sea changein malawi

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the power of if

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projectsOur VisionLife with dignity, equality for all people and a world without poverty and injustice.

Our MissionOur mission is to resource, empower and support developing communities to defeat poverty and injustice and enable them to build a better life and future.

We engage people to comprehend injustice and take action to restore our world as a place where justice, dignity and equality are a reality for all people.

The Salvation Army is at work in 126 countries worldwide.

Want to know more?If you would like to find out more about our work, have further information about one of our projects, or would like to inquire about booking one of our team members for an event, simply contact us and we will be happy to help resource you. Similarly, if you are interested in ordering resources or have a story to tell us about how you are helping to make a difference then please get in touch:

The Salvation Army International Development UK101 Newington CausewayLondon SE1 6BNUnited Kingdom

TEL +44 (0)20 7367 4777EMAIL id@salvationarmy.org.ukWEB www.salvationarmy.org.uk/id

Like us on Facebook – facebook.com/SAIDUKFollow us on Twitter – twitter.com/SAIDUKWatch us on YouTube – youtube.com/salvationarmyid

Design: Snap Designs (www.snapdesigns.co.uk)

editorial

When my teenage daughter first introduced me to

the song by Mary Mary called ‘Shackles’ it fired my imagination and my spirit. The music doesn’t allow you to stand still and the words are inspiring.

A few years on, I’m reminded that so many people are still chained, bound and shackled, feeling hopeless and helpless. But we have a God who challenges us to rise up and break the chains. He has tasked us to reconcile this broken world:

‘Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke?’

(Isaiah 58:6 New International Version)

The articles in this edition of DEVELOP tell us of people and of lives that are in chains – sometimes literally, and sometimes metaphorically. It would be easy to give way to a sense of despair as the needs appear to be overwhelming. The temptation is to give up, or at least sit back and feel there is little or nothing that can be done. But as you’ll see in the following pages, we are helping to bring freedom to the oppressed and showing that captivity is not inevitable and the problems of poverty and injustice are not insurmountable. The secret of progress is in empowering one individual at a time. This, as you will see in the following articles, is by no means insurmountable. Despair increasingly gives way to hope if we focus on the individual – one person set free can lead to a community set free. Thanks to the on-going efforts of our colleagues around the world, hope remains a reality.

Faith combined with determined practical action is a formidable force capable of introducing freedom to captives. A determination to change things one life at a time is a powerful opponent of all that seeks to enslave. While one person remains captive to political injustice, social stigma or physical deprivation, we are not entitled to stand still. While people around the world have no choice but to stand still because of the conditions imposed upon them, we are obliged to do all we can to set them free.

Don’t let yourself be shackled – break free from those chains and move yourself into action. Hopefully the following pages will help inspire you with some of the ways in which you can do that.

Major Heather PoxonDirector, The Salvation Army International Development (UK)

DANcINg ShAckLE fREE

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The Salvation Army has joined together with over 150 organisations as part of the Enough Food For Everyone IF campaign to highlight the fact that although we live in a world where there is enough food for everyone, one in eight people still go hungry every day.

But we know we can change this. All of this is preventable IF we can persuade governments to act.

This year, the world’s most powerful leaders will meet in the UK. They could change the future for millions of people who live with the day-to-day struggle of hunger, but only IF we work together to force them to fix it.

2013 can be the beginning of the end of global hunger, IF we can make our leaders tackle these four big IFs:

we give enough aid to stop children dying from hunger and help the poorest families have enough food to live.

we stop poor farmers being forced off their land, and we grow crops to feed people, not fuel cars.

governments stop big companies dodging tax in poor countries, so that millions of people can free themselves from hunger.

we force governments and investors to be open and honest about the actions that prevent people getting enough food.

These are big IFs, but they are achievable IF enough of us stand up to take action and compel our leaders to listen and respond. The UK will host the G8 meetings in June, and David Cameron has already put tax and transparency on the agenda. The UK government has also finally fulfilled the 43-year-old commitment to spend 0.7% of GDP on overseas aid, a campaign success from Make Poverty History in 2005, the last time the G8 was in the UK.

Despite this, we are only going to see the strong and clear action necessary IF we rise up and show those that have the power that we mean business, that we are not going to just accept hunger on this scale as a reality that will always be there, that one person going hungry is unacceptable, so close to one billion going hungry is nothing less than a global emergency that needs to be addressed.

IF our leaders take these steps, it will change the future for millions of people who live with the day-to-day struggle of hunger. This year could be the beginning of the end for global hunger, IF we act.

You can add your name to the campaign at www.salvationarmy.org.uk/if or by filling in and returning the campaign postcard. Postcards and paper sign-up forms and additional resources are also available online or by contacting us on 020 7367 4777 or id@salvationarmy.org.uk.

news

Bill Nighy at the campaign launch in London

The amazing 3D projection on SomersetHouse that launched the campaign

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ALL YOu cAN EAT fOR £1

Your favourite super scrimping challenge is back for 2013, and we want you to make the simple commitment to live off £1 a day for five days for all your food and drink, to stand beside those living below the extreme poverty line every day.

Over the past two years we have raised over £50,000 to help combat poverty thanks to the commitment of people like you. This is a fantastic effort and has made a huge difference to those we are working with in developing communities around the world (see page 10 for a couple of examples of how money raised from last year’s challenge is being used to tackle hunger in the Democratic Republic of the Congo).

We know that there are loads of different ways to use your £5 budget to stretch over your 15 meals for the week. Some things are naturally off the menu, but it is very interesting to put this limitation on yourself and see just how far you can make your money go. It’s also amazing to hear stories of what people manage to

squeeze into their basket – the people who can’t live without their coffee, tea, chocolate or meat, and what they have to give up to make room for it.

The Live Below the Line website is full of ideas to help you too, with lots of different and tasty meal suggestions within the budget. There’s also a brand new Facebook recipe app where you can find 33p recipes from famous chefs as well as upload your own.

This is a challenge that will make you think – about the amount and variety of food and drink that you are used to, about the limitations that living off £1 a day means for those in extreme poverty, and about what we can each do to take action to work towards a day when no one has to live below the line.

Show your friends and family how much you care about fighting poverty and join us in this challenge – sign up now at www.livebelowtheline.com/uk-salvationarmy.

Let’s Live Below the Line for five days to help others rise above it.

WE ARE PRIcELESSWorking with young people in the UK, we have been raising awareness of child trafficking and enabling them to respond creatively to the issue. In collaboration with the organisation Community Albums we arranged a music and media workshop with a Salvation Army youth group in Cumbernauld, north Lanarkshire.

The group was given information about the nature of child trafficking in Malawi and shown a video interview with Victor (see page 12) who talked about his experience of being ‘sold’ by his parents and herding cattle all day without proper food or shelter.

The young people were then asked to value various objects and concluded that we are all ‘priceless’. This then became the central theme of a short film and song that they produced in response – including four volunteers posing in the shop window of the local Salvation Army charity shop in Cumbernauld, with their hands tied and bearing price tags.

The young people managed to storyboard and film the video and write and record the song across just two sessions. Through these sessions the young people also

began to understand that although traffickers see children and vulnerable adults as cheap labour to be exploited for profit, we as humans are indeed ‘priceless’.

You can watch the video by visiting: www.communityalbums.com/video/were-priceless.

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Last June I visited Kenya for the first time. I spent a week visiting different communities in two regions

of the country to gather film, photos and stories. I was only there a very short time, but during that week my definition of words like ‘drought’ and ‘rivers’ were expanded (as well as the phrase ‘not far’, but that’s another story!).

I met and interviewed a number of people during that week, but no one made as much of a mark on me as Kakwesi did. I first came into contact with Kakwesi as part of a group of women from the village of Tawa

who had ventured down to the river bed to collect water. This was the second time during the week that I had walked across a river bed, something that I couldn’t recall ever having done before, at least not on something that you could still classify as a river. But water is scarce in Kenya, much of the country is classified as semi-arid and rivers only flow at certain times of the year. The rest of the time the water is much more elusive, hiding away in the river bed. All over the country, women like Kakwesi dig down into

the river beds in search of water buried beneath the sand. These shallow wells are the water coolers of the community, where women gather as they collect the

water for their families. After visiting the river bed, we followed Kakwesi up the hill to her home, about two kilometres away, the late morning sun bearing down on us as we walked. We weren’t carrying water, but our backpacks of cameras and other equipment at least went some way towards reflecting what the trek must be like with a 20-litre container of water on your head.

We only had to do this walk once. Kakwesi, at 68 years old, does this trip to the river and back four times a day to fetch enough water for her and her family. She described to me the challenges of collecting the water: ‘When I am carrying the water I have to stop and rest. I can’t get enough water because it is too far to carry it all in one go.’ After joining her on just one of these eight daily trips, I could understand why.

Kakwesi spends so much of her day collecting water because it is so vital. ‘The water that I get from the river is used for cooking, drinking, washing clothes and washing utensils. Sometimes I grow plants like mangos but I have to take extra trips to the river to water them.’

A few months after my visit, in October last year, The Salvation Army and the community worked together to construct a sand dam across the bed of the river. This simple, yet innovative wall of concrete uses the natural flow of the river during the rainy seasons to build up the level of sand as it packs in against the wall. A small amount of the water from the flowing river is then stored in this natural reservoir of sand, which also acts as a filter to remove impurities. This means that

cementing changeCarl Jobson, Information and Resources Officer, shares an example of how we are responding in an innovative way to the issue of clean water.

my hope is that i can plant trees for shadeand food and that my children will be ableto have farms in order to earn a living.

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the community no longer have to watch as this precious water disappears downstream out of reach, nor does the dam prevent more than an insignificant percentage of water from flowing to those downstream. Rather, the people in Tawa now have a better storage facility for water to sustain them during the dry months. This extra water stored by the sand also increases the amount of water in the soil surrounding the dam, which improves the health and yield of the community’s crops.

We were really excited back in the office in the UK as, thanks to the connectivity of Facebook, we saw photos of the whole community coming together to contribute to the construction of the dam. It took the best part of four weeks to construct, but everyone who helped can feel proud of the part they played in making that happen, something they wouldn’t have been able to achieve if they hadn’t come together in this way.

I couldn’t pick out Kakwesi in any of the photographs. I’d have forgiven her for sitting it out – after all, she’s kept more than busy simply providing for and looking after her family. But I wouldn’t have been surprised to see her mucking in and lending a hand for her children and grandchildren. She spoke to me of the benefits the dam would provide:

‘After the dam has been constructed there will be enough water. In the dry season we have to queue for

projects

water, but the dam will make the water closer and we may be able to pump it. I will be able to get water faster and I will use the time I save in my home. It will be very useful.’

If anyone deserves to have their load eased, Kakwesi would certainly be up there. She’s a simple, everyday hero who quietly and uncomplainingly does what she needs to do to look after those she loves and give them a better chance in the future. Because, despite the daily challenges of her life, she has hope: ‘My hope is that I can plant trees for shade and food and that my children will be able to have farms in order to earn a living.’

Is there any clearer example of the fact that giving water can give life to communities? For people like Kakwesi, collecting enough water is the number one priority for the day. By helping to bring it more easily into her grasp, it opens up more possibilities of a better and healthier life.

• It costs, on average, £10 to give a person access to clean water. Give £10 a month to WATERSHED with the form at the back of this newsletter and you can help transform the lives of others like Kakwesi.

• You can also order a copy of our new WATERSHED ACTION PACK which will give you everything you need to take action on water in your church, school or workplace. Contact us on 020 7367 4777 or id@salvationarmy.org.uk now to order yours.

• All of the resources and videos are also available on the website at www.salvationarmy.org.uk/watershed.

giVewater

andgiVe liFe

giVewater

andgiVe liFe

Watch the video of our trip to Tawa and hear more from Kakwesi at www.youtube.com/salvationarmyid or by ordering your WATERSHED ACTION PACK DvD.

watch the

Video

watch the

Video

5

Gender-based violence is abuse that is perpetrated against women and girls because of their

subordinate status in society. More girls were killed in the last 50 years because they were girls, than men killed in all the wars in the 20th century. There are very few places on earth where this type of abuse is more prevalent than in Pakistan. Posited by gender experts as the third most dangerous country for women, Pakistan endures prolific incidents of ‘honour’ killings, acid attacks, child marriages and domestic violence. Nearly two thirds of women in Pakistan suffer from gender-based violence. Rarely are they afforded justice. It penetrates the ‘public’ and ‘private’ spheres, the lower and upper classes. Few are untouched. The continuum of violence begins from birth, in a society where sons are preferred, and can end in death for those who bring ‘dishonour’.

Shobna (see box, right) is just one person who has experienced the inequality, abuse and exploitation faced by women in Pakistan. I met hundreds of women during my time in Pakistan, but I spent intimate time with just a handful, some of whom had the courage to share their hurts and their hopes with me, a stranger, yet a sister. For many, being a woman is a dangerous status. Their vulnerability is confounded further by their poverty and, for some, their minority faith.

One Sunday evening in Lahore, I was privileged to have tea with a young lawyer named Mary. As we talked about the legal challenges she faces as a women’s rights advocate, Mary was explicit about the status of women in society: ‘If you’re a woman, that is your first disqualification to being human.’ Disqualified,

from the moment of conception, and destined for inequality. From that point on, her subordination manifests itself in multiple forms of psychological and physical ill-treatment: restricted access to education, early and forced marriages, domestic violence. Is there a human rights violation more entrenched, more pervasive, than violence against women and girls?

The Salvation Army is starting to try and address this through a new programme to educate around 3,000 women and girls about their legal rights, means of enforcement, and access to justice. Colonel Marguerite Ward, Territorial President of Women’s Ministries in Pakistan, will be providing oversight to this new programme and is convinced that The Salvation Army must be proactive in this area: ‘The daily plight of women in Pakistan is painful to hear, see and read. However, the women we work with are constantly expressing their new-found ability to speak out about their situations and exploring ways to address them. This gives us hope that other women can join us in reaching this same place that allows them to gain strength.’

Amongst the hurting, I also saw the hope that The Salvation Army is bringing to marginalised and disenfranchised communities: hope for change, hope for dignity, hope for their futures. Romans 8:31,37 (New International Version) tells us:

‘If God is for us, who can be against us?… [For] we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.’

May Shobna and the thousands like her know what it is to conquer in love!

According to the gender experts, Pakistan is the third worst country to live in if you are a woman. Samantha Godec, our Programme Adviser on Anti-Trafficking and Gender-Based Violence, highlights why this is and how we are working to tackle this injustice.

disqualified

‘if you’re a woman, that is your firstdisqualification to being human.’

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shobna’s storyIn the slums surrounding Islamabad, being poor, of a minority faith, and a woman is a particularly dangerous status, the three identities intersecting to create a web of oppression. Against a backdrop of rats and refuse, Shobna stood in sharp contrast: a beautiful, dainty figure, draped in a white headscarf that shaped her soft features. At 22 years old, she has an MBA in Finance from the Open University; she is bright as well as beautiful. In March, a professor teaching at her university made the decision to take Shobna as his wife. A powerful man, superior in his status, he wielded his influence with little trouble. Although she initially refused, he made threats that frightened her into submission. Shobna was taken to court for the necessary marriage arrangements to be made. In four months’ time, following her graduation, she was to become his wife. Shobna did not fully understand what happened that day; she knew she had been bequeathed without true consent, but felt powerless to protest and too frightened to tell her family. On 12 July, the professor arrived at her home with an entourage of police to enforce the ‘marriage’. Shobna locked herself in the bathroom. Her mother, Esther, and grandmother were beaten as they pleaded for her daughter, but refused to hand her over that night.

In fear for her daughter’s future, Esther turned to The Salvation Army, which intervened to provide protection and guidance. The Army re-housed the family, solicited the assistance of the Minister for Minorities, instructed a lawyer and initiated court proceedings to file for a nullity of the marriage. Shobna didn’t attend court for fear she would be kidnapped and taken away. Instead, the Divisional Commander, Captain Nighat, went as her representative. Thankfully the court found in her favour and the marriage was nullified.

In theory Shobna is free, but the repercussions of her experience are enslaving. She no longer leaves the house for fear of being captured. In her community she is shamed and unmarriageable, such is the power of so-called ‘dishonour’. When I sat with her in her home and asked what her dreams were for the future, she responded that she no longer had any. She said she is too sad to think of such things, struggling to see a future for herself.

a photo-journey through paKistanSamantha travelled to Pakistan with her photographer husband Tom. Turn over to see some of the photos from the trip, which have been used as part of an exhibition at The Salvation Army’s International Headquarters in London between 11 March and 11 April.

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order your DISQUALIFIED photobooK

order your DISQUALIFIED photobooK

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The photographs and stories featured in the exhibition are also available as part of a book which is available to purchase from us for £5 – order yours now via the donation form at the back of this newsletter or on 020 7367 4777 or id@salvationarmy.org.uk. You can also get in touch if you are interested in hosting the exhibition in your area.

Find out more at www.salvationarmy.org.uk/disqualified.

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MIRACLE MORINGAOn the first day, my host Major Tsilulu and I travelled to Bakidi Health Centre. Bakidi is a Salvation Army health centre and maternity ward that serves some of the poorest neighbourhoods in Kinshasa where malnutrition is widespread. These neighbourhoods are vastly overpopulated due to the 1998 war in the Bas-Congo Province which caused the displacement of people into the Kinshasa Province.

The Salvation Army has been working with a group of young agricultural experts to try to tackle these problems. Together they came up with a proposal to distribute moringa seedlings and train community members how to grow the trees, harvest seeds and leaves, prepare moringa leaf powder, and use moringa products to fight malnutrition. Moringa is considered to be one of the world’s ‘miracle trees’, as almost every part can be used for food or has some other beneficial property. The leaves are dried, crushed, and then added to food or water since they contain all essential amino acids and are rich in protein, Vitamin A, Vitamin B, Vitamin C, and minerals. The seeds, after being dried and crushed, can also be used to purify water.

During my visit to the project I was able to see moringa seedlings being planted as well as a group of community volunteers being trained on the uses of moringa. I also met with some mothers and their malnourished children. In the past my experiences have

Faith Kroeker Maus, Project Co-ordinator for Sustainable Livelihood Development, recently returned from a visit to the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Here Faith describes the progress of two of the projects that she visited while she was there.

fresh from the field

One of the great privileges of my role is getting to travel back to Africa to monitor our projects. This

was my maiden voyage to Francophone Africa and I spent a week in Kinshasa, the capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Yes, this is the Congo that you have heard about in the news, famous for a violent past and for current unrest, violence, and rape perpetrated by rebel group M23. Even my knowledge of the Congo was often limited to alarming headlines

prior to this trip. To my delight, I found Kinshasa to hold no more than average Africa-big-city-craziness and the Congolese to be incredibly warm and welcoming. As someone who has previously lived in Africa, it did feel strange for me to jet in from London on a short-term monitoring assignment, but seeing the projects in person was invaluable and will hopefully set a strong foundation for a long partnership between us and our colleagues in DRC.

climate change to themwas not a political orabstract issue – it was aharsh reality

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projects

included seeing malnutrition testing in clinics in Uganda and among the Pokot in Kenya, but these children in Congo were definitely in the worst state that I have witnessed. Their frail bodies highlighted to me the absolute necessity of such an intervention.

The project will plant a demonstration plot of 200 trees at the health centre and will distribute 10,000 trees to mothers in an effort to reduce by 50 per cent the number of children and mothers who have come to the health centre because of malnutrition. It’s a lofty goal, but one that I think we might manage to pull off.

Bateke agroforestryThe next day Major Tsilulu and I headed to Menkao, around 100 kilometres outside Kinshasa city. Our mission was to meet with farmers’ associations who are part of a new Salvation Army project that teaches sustainable farming techniques to combat the problems of deforestation and soil devoid of nutrients. The project will work with 15 different farmers’ associations, each with 10 members, teaching them to grow acacia trees mixed with cassava and maize crops. The densely matted root system of the acacia trees stabilise the soil and prevent erosion, and as the leaves

fall they fertilise the crops below.Each farmers’ association has a plot of land donated

by one of their group members which serves as a demonstration plot for the farming techniques. Our project staff meet with the associations once a week at the demonstration plots where they work together to care for their crops using the new techniques. Each association member also farms his or her own plot of land in which the new techniques are employed. In total, the project will plant 35,000 acacia seedlings and 1,000 avocado tree seedlings over three years, benefiting 150 households.

As I interviewed members of the farmers’ association, each and every member told me how climate change had made farming very difficult since the rainy seasons were no longer predictable. They mourned the loss of their forests and the dire condition of their soil. Climate change to them was not a political or abstract issue – it was a harsh reality.

Members were excited to continue implementing the new farming techniques they had learned. One even told me that he had let his land lie fallow when crop production became so low, but with the coming of the project he was once again convinced to plant his fields.

• You can support our efforts to tackle hunger and malnutrition through our FARM programme. FARM helps give people the tools and training that they need to make the best use of their land and grow enough food to support their families. Find out more at www.salvationarmy.org.uk/farm

• Another great way to tackle hunger is by adding your name to the Enough Food For Everyone IF campaign. Find out more at www.salvationarmy.org.uk/if or fill in and return the campaign postcard.

taKeaction

taKeaction

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I met Victor at the Mchinji Centre after he had spent a month working on a farm. He explained his ordeal to

me, telling me:‘I spent the whole day in the field on my own, herding

cattle, and I didn’t even have time to have a bath. I was given just one bowl of maize a day, but not always. It was hard work - there were too many cattle for me.’

Victor was taken from a farm in Kabiri, not far from Mchinji, by Police and Labour Department officers and then brought to the centre by Salvation Army volunteers. He was given a bed to sleep in, was well fed, enrolled in school and counselled to help him deal with the trauma of his experience.

We have been supporting the anti-trafficking work in Mchinji since 2006. In that time we’ve helped transform the centre from a big patch of land with a house, to a fully equipped and staffed centre that can care for up to 120 trafficked children a year. During their stay the children go to school, live in a caring environment and play with their peers. Some learn tailoring, carpentry and gardening as

they prepare to be re-united with their families. But from the earliest days of the Mchinji Centre, staff were clear that it wasn’t enough just to help with the

rescue and rehabilitation of trafficked children. They wanted to educate communities about the dangers of trafficking so that their children would not be subjected to this in the first place. Families had long thought it was acceptable to allow their children to go off to another part of the country without knowing what they were doing or how they were being cared for. Farmers and bar owners exploited these children in the knowledge that if they were prosecuted they would only face a small fine.

The problem of child trafficking is a complex web of traditional practices, family connections, lack of awareness of rights and responsibilities, inadequate legislation and criminal exploitation. We believe that it is our comprehensive approach to understanding these factors and tackling them holistically which has effectively stopped child trafficking in Mchinji district. We have done this in a number of different ways:

• By raising awareness of children’s rights and adult responsibilities with families, village heads and local officials so that adults take more responsibility for the protection of children in their care.

• Tackling poverty through supporting pig and goat banks for vulnerable families so that poor families are more likely to be able to afford to send their children to school and not give in to the persuasive behaviour of traffickers.

We have been working to combat child trafficking in Malawi since 2006. Our Programme Funding Officer, Alec Leggat, explains the impact this work has had.

a sea change in malawi

We think children have an important part to play in advocating for their peers around the world. This is why we are launching a new campaign with the Salvation Army’s Children’s Ministries Unit called Change 4 Change to encourage kids to collect and use their small change to help change the lives of children around the world. This is currently raising money for our work in Mchinji to support children like victor who have been trafficked.

Find out more at www.salvationarmy.org.uk/change4change

change 4 change

change 4 change

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• Mobilising community volunteers to help raise awareness and help apprehend traffickers.

• Advocating for legislation that deters traffickers and changes their attitudes and behaviours, and puts in place measures so that children are valued and trafficking is no longer tolerated.All this was helping to tackle trafficking in Mchinji

district, but what about other areas of the country? It was this question that led us into a new area of work over the past three years. Thanks to aid from the UK Government, we have been able to extend this awareness raising and advocacy work to the neighbouring Lilongwe and Dedza districts. We believed that the methods we established in our work in Mchinji could help tackle the much wider problem of child trafficking in Malawi. Through this project we were able to empower community volunteers to raise awareness of child trafficking and stop traffickers, as well as liaise with their village heads on measures that could be taken to protect children.

One of the most significant successes was the set of rules that the village heads devised and put in place to ensure that children must be in school on market days when they are more susceptible to labour recruiters. Adults also had to report any visitor to the village and were encouraged to ask them their business. The community volunteers helped link the various activities together – a kind of anti child trafficking glue – ensuring that information about trafficking incidents was recorded, helping to select and support

vulnerable families to receive pigs and goats, telling their fellow villagers about how traffickers work and helping to reinforce knowledge and enforcement of the village rules.

It was remarkable to hear how attitudes to children and trafficking changed over the three years of the project. Villagers knew that they had to take more care of their children. This was also evident through the introduction of village rules to protect children and the reduction in the recorded numbers of children trafficked. We have also seen that more parents are sending their children to school and working in the fields themselves.

Our anti child trafficking work began with a local policeman asking for help to look after children who had been rescued from trafficking but had nowhere to stay before they could go home. Though our work in community awareness has taken important steps to better protect children from trafficking, the Mchinji Centre continues to be a haven of recovery for the children who are still exploited and abused. In our efforts to care for children while they recover from their ordeal, we create a caring, supportive and loving environment where they have all the benefits that we try to give our own children.

You can support our anti human trafficking work in Malawi and around the world by filling in and returning the donation form at the back of this newsletter. Your support will help us continue to challenge the injustice of human trafficking that exists in our world and to support the people, children and adults alike, who have suffered at the hands of traffickers and to protect others from this exploitation.

Find out more at www.salvationarmy.org.uk/humantrafficking.giVe nowgiVe now

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The launch of the Enough Food For Everyone IF campaign is exciting for a number of reasons. One

of the things that excites me most about the campaign is the hope that it inspires that we can really see a world without hunger.

Maybe I’m a sucker for getting swept up in the moment. Back in 2005, as a fledgling justice-seeker, it was the MAKE POVERTY HISTORY campaign that kick-started my engagement with fighting global poverty. I wore the wristband, I signed the petition. I stood in Trafalgar Square and listened as Nelson Mandela told us that ‘Sometimes it falls upon a generation to be great’, and I believed him when he said that we could be that great generation.

We didn’t make poverty history then, but what we did do was put it into the spotlight, and people responded in their millions. For me it was never just going to be a year-long thing that would then be forgotten. Even in my youthful naivety I understood

that it would take more than a year of concerts and campaigning to truly eradicate extreme poverty. I even made a pledge to myself to keep wearing my white wristband until we we achieved that goal. Now, I’m not exactly one to keep up with the fashion trends, but I’ll admit that after a while I did stop wearing the wristband. Despite this, I hope that my passion hasn’t waned and that I have been able to continue that fight through the way I use my money and time.

But back to 2013. This year the G8 is back in town for the first time since 2005, and the international development community is rallying together once again to say that 2013 could be the beginning of the end of hunger, IF we act. Fantastic, the 19-year-old activist in me thinks! Thankfully, the 27-year-old activist in me agrees. The reason I do the job that I do is to try and inspire and challenge people to take action to combat global poverty and injustice, whether that’s through giving money, taking a fundraising challenge,

Information and Resources Officer Carl Jobson shares his thoughts on the Enough Food For Everyone IF campaign, and why we should get involved.

The Power of If

You can add your name to the campaign at www.salvationarmy.org.uk/if or by filling in and returning the campaign postcard. Postcards and paper sign-up forms are available from us on 020 7367 4777 or id@salvationarmy.org.uk.

join the moVement

join the moVement

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get inVolVed

campaigning for change or helping to spread the word too. The Enough Food For Everyone IF campaign excites me because I know how fired up I got back in 2005, I know the power of a mass movement of people coming together towards a common goal. I know the ideal of a hunger-free world is possible. I also know it’s not easy, that we can fail and that things won’t change overnight. But I also know that just because it’s difficult doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try.

Bill Nighy, at the London launch of the campaign back in January said this:

‘Sometimes it can seem like the odds against success are just too big: when it’s hard enough to change our own lives, or get things done in our own street, it seems unlikely that we have any hope of changing things for someone else, in another country… [But] we are electing not to forget. We are choosing to care. And we are standing on the shoulders of all those campaigning giants who questioned the status quo – from the people who

Are you someone who doesn’t just see the world as it is, but as it can be – a world restored? A world where people aren’t exploited, trafficked or abused, who do not go hungry in a world of enough food, or die as a result of preventable poverty? A world in which everyone has the chance to live a full and dignified life? Don’t you want to live in a world like that?

We believe that we can change the world. Over the coming months we want to come and speak to you at your corps, church or regional event to explore how we can turn this hope for a better world into reality.

If you’re interested, get in touch with us on 020 7367 4777 or id@salvationarmy.org.uk.

fought to abolish slavery, to the anti-apartheid movement, to the Jubilee 2000 Debt campaign to Make Poverty History – all who have shown that when we fight for what’s right, we can win. Hunger is a complex issue with multiple causes, but complex doesn’t mean unachievable; space travel is also complex. This campaign is asking the G8 governments to take certain actions now, this year, that will help bring hunger to an end once and for all.’

He also quoted the words of Thomas Clarkson, a man who along with William Wilberforce dedicated his life to the abolition of slavery. He said, ‘It is time someone – not someone else but us, all of us – should see these calamities to their end.’

So I’m excited about the power, potential and possibility of ‘IF’ – a word of hope to symbolise a hopeful campaign that looks at hunger not as a reality to merely accept, but as a calamity that we can see to its end – the next step towards our goal of truly seeing an end to extreme poverty in our world.

embrace the power oF iF

embrace the power oF iF

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The members of Worthing Salvation Army have done a great job fundraising for many overseas

projects over the years, but they surpassed themselves with their most recent effort, raising £13,000 towards the building of the biggest sand dam so far in Tawa, Kenya (see p4 for more).

In February, members of the corps (church) Alan Slator and Eric Bull went out to Kenya not only to visit the community where the sand dam was built but also to officially open it. Here Alan describes the experience:

Early in the morning we set off from Nairobi on our journey to Tawa. We were met at the Salvation Army hall by the Sergeant in Charge and members of the self-help group that organised the project.

We then proceeded down to the river and the sand dam. The people from the area around were waiting to greet us. As we arrived, the villagers were busy digging terraces above the river to prevent soil washing into the dam during the rainy season. After walking around the dam and actually standing on it, we sat down to the official speeches from the Local Chief and the contractor responsible for the building of the dam. After the opening of the dam we were presented with gifts of fruit from the local people.

It was a tremendous privilege to journey to Tawa and meet the people and listen to the ways in which they would benefit. The availability of water would change their lives and the lives of generations to come, giving them a ready water supply, improving agriculture and providing sand for building projects.

Thanks to everyone at Worthing Corps who got involved in their fundraising. If you think your group could do something similar, get in touch with us on 020 7367 4777 or id@salvationarmy.org.uk.

Travels To Tawa

getinVolVed

getinVolVed

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Are you considering taking a trip to a developing country as an individual or with a group? Maybe

it’s something you’ve been thinking about but you don’t quite know how to go about it. Well, The Salvation Army International Development (UK) is launching a new service for people just like you.

As part of our new revamped JOURNEY programme, we can help give you essential pre-trip advice (including how to get there, cultural awareness, health and safety and kit-lists) and support you by arranging post-trip debriefs. We can also provide a host for your trip if you don’t feel you’re quite ready to lead a trip on your own.

All this will help you make sure your trip has the best impact possible, both for those of you going and for the people in the places you will be visiting.

Keep an eye on www.salvationarmy.org.uk/journey over the coming months for more information, or call us on 020 7367 4777 if you would like to find out more about the service.

MaKe YoUr JoUrNeY CoUNT

changing details?let us knowAs you know we only mail out a couple of times a year – so it’s vital that we know when you move house so we can keep you up to date with the work we’re doing and the difference that your support is making.

To change any of your details just call us on 020 7367 4777 or email id@salvationarmy.org.uk with your name, old postcode and new address so that we can update our database.

subscribe to our email newsletter We also send out updates by email – to make sure you receive them visit www.salvationarmy.org.uk/uki/idsubscribe and fill in the sign up form.

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Our YouTube channel has videos on all areas of our work. Go to www.youtube.com/salvationarmyid today to make sure there aren’t any you haven’t seen! You can also subscribe to be the first to hear when new videos have been uploaded.

If Twitter’s more your thing then you’re in luck – to follow us visit http://twitter.com/SAIDUK and keep up to date with all the latest news, campaigning information, messages from around the world and anything else you can fit into 140 characters!

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The Salvation Army is a Christian Church and registered Charity Central Trust: Registered Charity No. 214779, and in Scotland SC009359 Social Trust: Registered Charity No. 215174, and in Scotland SC037961 Republic of Ireland: Registered Charity No. 6399CHY

support us regularlyWe rely on your donations to make our work possible. Thank you for all that you give - we really do appreciate your commitment and sacrifice.

The easiest and most helpful way you can support us is by signing up to a direct debit or, if you already do give in this way, increasing your monthly donation by a small amount.

hOW YOu cAN hELP Please tear off, fill out and return the form on the reverse and we’ll do the rest. A small monthly commitment from you can make a huge difference to:

• Communities who currently don’t have access to clean water, through WATERSHED

• People needing to earn a decent living to support their families, through GENERATION

• Farmers who cannot grow enough food to live, through FARM

• Men, women and children all around the world who have been, or are at risk of being, trafficked through ANTI-TRAFFICKING

• Women vulnerable to abuse and exploitation due to GENDER-BASED VIOLENCE

• Vulnerable children in need of love, care and support, through EMBRACE

You can choose to give to one of these areas or make a general donation so that we can use your money wherever it is most needed in our development work.

You can also make one-off donations through the post, over the phone or online — call us on 020 7367 4777 (Mon-Fri, 9am-5pm) or visit www.salvationarmy.org.uk/id to find out how.

You can make your gift worth 25% more by making a Gift Aid declaration. Please sign in the box below. I am a UK taxpayer and I want The Salvation Army to claim back the tax on all donations I have made in the last four years and all future donations.

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The Salvation Army is a Christian Church and registered Charity Central Trust: Registered Charity No. 214779, and in Scotland SC009359 Social Trust: Registered Charity No. 215174, and in Scotland SC037961 Republic of Ireland: Registered Charity No. 6399CHY

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