CHRISTIAN AID NEWS

AFGHANISTAN
Less than 13
per cent of
women in
Afghanistan
are literate
SHOCK OVER
MURDERS OF
LAND RIGHTS
ACTIVISTS
BRAZIL
WILL YOUR CHURCH HELP
CHANGE WOMEN’S LIVES?
CHRISTIAN AID IS SEARCHING for
churches to help us improve women’s
lives in some of the poorest areas
of Afghanistan by supporting a new
community partnership.
We’re looking for churches, or groups
of neighbouring churches, to pledge to
raise £5,000 over the next three years
for a new women’s rights and literacy
project in the north-east of Afghanistan.
This amount will be matched by the
European Commission at a ratio of 3:1
– meaning that each £5,000 raised will
effectively be worth an amazing £20,000
towards the project. We will also be
counting on churches’ prayer support.
With three updates a year, churches in
the community partnership will be kept
informed of the project’s progress, as
well as having the opportunity to learn
and pray about some of the key issues
facing Afghanistan today.
Tabitha Ross, communications and
information officer for Afghanistan,
said: ‘It’s difficult to think of a worse
place to be a woman than Afghanistan.
Women there were famously banned
from accessing education or leaving the
house alone under the Taliban rule, and
the position of women and girls in the
country is still far from enviable. While
43 per cent of Afghan men are literate,
less than 13 per cent of women are, and
Afghanistan has the highest maternal
mortality rate in the world. Furthermore,
in many communities women are
excluded from decision-making
processes, meaning that they don’t have
a say in the decisions that affect them or
their children.’
With the support of churches, this
project will enable women in some of the
poorest regions of Afghanistan to have
a say at last in the decisions that affect
them and their communities, to learn to
read and write, and to receive funding to
start small businesses.
Could your church support this
project? To find out more, please visit
christianaid.org.uk/partnerships, email
communitypartnership@christian-aid.org
or contact your local Christian Aid office.
Christian Aid/Sarah Malian
THE MURDERS OF TWO LAND rights
activists in Brazil in the space of under
two weeks has horrified Christian
Aid. Both victims had been involved
with the Landless People’s Movement
(MST), one of our partners in Brazil.
Cicero Guedes, 43, was a leader
within MST. He was shot dead in Rio
de Janeiro state as he cycled home
from a meeting in late January, near
a former sugar plantation where he
had led an occupation of the land by
families with no land of their own.
Less than a fortnight later, the body
of his friend Regina dos Santos Pinho,
56, was found at her home. She too
had been murdered, although at the
time of writing, police investigators
and MST suspected that her killer’s
motive was sexual, rather than being
connected to a land conflict.
Commenting on Mr Guedes’ death,
Christian Aid’s country manager for
Brazil, Mara Luz, said he had worked
tirelessly for people living in poverty
in Brazil. ‘Cicero Guedes is one more
peasant leader murdered in recent
years only because he was defending
a fair and needed distribution of land
and resources in one of the most
unequal countries in the world.
‘MST hopes that peace can become
part of daily life in rural areas of Brazil,
but the reality is that living a full life
continues to be a dream for many.’
There is a shockingly high murder
rate among those who work on land
conflicts in Brazil. Records kept by the
respected Pastoral Land Commission
show that on average between 2007
and 2011, a land conflict-related
murder occurred every 12 days.
• IN COLOMBIA, land rights continue
to be an issue of concern after the
bullet-proof vehicle of Father Alberto
Franco, a key member of our partner
Inter-Church Peace and Justice
Commission, was fired at outside his
home. Father Franco was not in the
car, but Christian Aid has condemned
the attack as an attempt to intimidate
our partner.
Christian Aid News 11