Best Practice, June 2010: SEKEM in Egypt
As Best Practice, we present the Egyptian organization SEKEM. SEKEM aims to contribute to the comprehensive development of the individual, society and environment. A holistic concept encompassing integrated economic, social and cultural development forms the key SEKEM vision.
The organization Sekem is established to create a sustainable and biodynamic agro-business model that contributes to a comprehensive development of individuals, society and the environment. This three-fold vision allows a development of community building, humanity, and the Earth, and is worked out in the different small organizations Sekem entails.
The three different points of emphasis together create a possibility for individuals to develop in a positive, sustainable way. When connected to the Sekem networks, the members are offered education, jobs with good working conditions, a chance to develop creativity, and more. In other words, Sekem provides better living conditions for the earth and for the people living on it. In underscoring the need for change at household level, all the areas involved in Sekem have the opportunity to develop in a way that is exemplary for the rest of Egypt.
Since this fits perfectly in our Light Development concept, SEKEM is added to the Light Development WIKI of the Knowledge Centre. The official website of SEKEM is: www.sekem.com.
Best Practice, August 2009: Muslim action on Climate Change
Some 200 key Muslim leaders, scholars, civil society members and government ministries from Islamic civil society, made the unprecedented step of joining together to endorse a long term plan for action on climate change. The leaders, who gathered in Istanbul for a historic meeting from 5-7 July 2009, have agreed to spend the next seven years making and planning serious commitments to protecting the natural environment, and combating climate change.
Read more on the website of the ARC, the Alliance of Religion and Conservation.
Best Practie, June 2009: JKMA in Aceh, Indonesia
JKMA (Jaringan Kommunitas Masyarakat Adat Aceh) in the province of Aceh at the Northern tip of Sumatra, Indonesia, is a non-governmental organisation that strives for community development based on the social, cultural, religious, legal, economic and political capital of age-old regional customs, the so-called adat. It supports local communities to take their adat as a basis for community development. Reinforcing local traditions is particularly important in the current post-conflict transitionary phase. Rebuilding the social, cultural and legal infrastructure is also essential in tsunami-hit areas where sometimes only 50% of the population survived.
JKMA has projects in 14 districts of Aceh province, focusing on education, economic development, advocay and research. More information (in Indonesian) can be found on their website.
Best Practice, April 2009: Saahasee, India
Society for Community Empowerment and Urban Transformation, see www.saahasee.org
Saahasee combines material and immaterial values in their development programs. Not only do they improve the economic situation of women and their families, but they also effectively support women’s empowerment and their abilities to plan, share, and take responsible risks offering each other microcredit loans. The importance of values like these was stressed at our international conference Transforming Development in 2007.
Quote from their website:
"Saahasee works towards the empowerment of the urban poor whose sense of dignity and justice is not necessarily governed by only economic factors but factors such as equality of all human beings and equal opportunity for all. The focal point on which we leveraged all our interventions is the empowerment of women through thrift and credit groups wherein participation, inter-dependance, knowledge enhancement, sharing of knowledge and sustainability are key tenets.
The Rationale of our focus on women and self-help groups is primarily to converge three key elements of sustainable development. The first is socio-economic empowerment of poor communities, the second is leadership development, the third is knowledge enhancement & management. In other words, while we work in general communities offering a variety of services, our success is determined by the communities, managing, governing and carrying this development process through a structured mechanism into poor communities."
Best Practice, January 2009
BLESS Egypt
The Bishopric of Public, Ecumenical and Social Services (BLESS) of the Coptic Orthodox Church was established in 1962 in Egypt. As a bishopric established for the specific purpose of social ministry, rather than to serve the general needs of a single diocese, BLESS changed the structures of authority in the church. In particular, BLESS created conditions for the design and implementation of centralised programs to assist the needy. Thus, in addition to the services provided by local priests and bishops, the church developed the capacity for nation-wide interventions to deal with social problems. Currently, BLESS focuses on implementing Comprehensive Integrated Development in 29 poor and marginalized communities. Comprehensive Integrated Development is a way of working with the whole community (both Muslims & Christians) for an abundant life for all.
For more information, see the second part of: Religious Social Services in Lebanon and Egypt. Paper prepared for the World Bank by Boris Nikolov Boris in 2002. and: Orthodox Diakonia& Development Witness in a Multi-Faith ContextBy His Grace Bishop Youannes, 2004
Best Practices, April 2008
A. ARHAP, South Africa
Professor James R. Cochrane held an interesting speech at the conference Transforming Development, where he shared with us his experiences of ARHAP, the African Religious Health Assets Programme. He was so generous to send us a speech from 2006, in which he deliberates the role of religion in Health services. He says: [....] Religions, or religious traditions or worldviews, most often issue in a diversity of functions and structures that can readily be identified—through the way in which they organize sacred spaces, construct ritual performances, identify leadership, or create institutions, and so on. Where such functions and structures are turned directly to the promotion of health or the healing of illness and disease, it is relatively easy to identify what we have called religious health assets (although this is far from saying that the actual identification of such things in Africa is known in any systematic way, or at all, in itself a challenge to be met).
But many religious health assets have to do not with visible institutions, structures or organizations—say, religious hospitals, clinics, dispensaries, hospices, care groups, and so on—but with invisible or intangible realities that nevertheless make a big difference in the way health is perceived, pursued and maintained.
One initial way of capturing this complex reality that we have provisionally adopted is by viewing different kinds of religious realities in relation to their health impact within a heuristic matrix of religious health assets, an array of tangible organizational assets as well as intangible assets with both direct and indirect health affects. [.....]
You can read the entire document
here.
B. CASM Honduras
We received a report from Nelson Garcia Lobo, director of CASM (Commission of Menonite Social Action) Honduras, titled: The participation of Church Leaders in local development. An experience of the Church Association of Bajos de Choloma, March 2007. Mr. Garica Lobo was a participant of our conference Transforming Development, October 2007, Soesterberg, Netherlands. Website: www.casm.hn (in Spanish).
In the Choloma region in the North West of Honduras, social problems aggravated after the Mitch Hurricane in 1998. There was an amount of drugs and acohol abuse, unemployment, machismo, corruption and violence. Other social problems were: lack of respect for elder people, lack of education, and problems with values and virtues within families. CASM realised that churches are, in theory, social organisations that influence the behaviour of human beings and stimulate local development.
In the Choloma region, many people attend the Catholic church or the (neo) Pentecostal churches. At the same time, CASM noticed that the church was not well enough equipped for this job. Many church leaders focused on spiritual aspects and personal belief rather than on social action. They seldomly looked behind the walls of the church community. Therefore, there were no structures present for interchurch communication and for an integral approach to solve the social problems in the region. The churches lacked a general vision on the social problems. Especially in the Pentecostal movements, theological formation was not well developed. And last but not least, church leadership was not well developed.
Since the year 2000, two interchurch initiatives started in the Choloma region: ECOPA and ASIBAH. CASM helps church leaders in these two initiatives to work on:
- leadership
- theological knowledge
- organisational skills
- establishing a communication system
- awareness for social problems
- stress the values of the Christian faith and family values
This project has been highly succesful. Seven years ago most part of the churches were absent in the field of community development. Now there is full scale participation in this field. Important changes have been realized in the society. Alliances have started between churches itself but also between churches and other local organisations. Church leadership has grown stronger, church leaders now influence local government. Peoples faith in church leaders has grown as well. Many social problems have been solved and communities are developing in the right way.
Best Practice, December 2007 : PHREB
Promoting Human Rights and Education in Bangladesh
PHREB
One of the participants in the international conference on Transforming Development was Farid Alam, an engaged and ever-enthusiastic 30-year old man from Bangladesh. Farid had been in the Netherlands several times before, where he paid visits to protection shelters for abused women (‘Blijf-van-mijn-lijf huizen’) and Dutch lobby groups of prostitutes. In 2005 he attended as an Expert in an international conference about Domestic Violence in Holland. In Bangladesh, Farid is managing director of “Promoting Human Rights and Education in Bangladesh” (PHREB) and founder of BKAF (Adolescent Girls' Rights Forum) a Girls Movement for Human Rights). From BKAF, 18 girls have committed suicide in last three years who, after being raped, harassed or gang raped did not get justice from law and family or community. PHREB fights to make human rights a Bangladeshi reality, with a focus on the rights of women and girls.
During the conference Transforming Development, Farid’s stories of terrible violence against Bangladeshi women made a deep impression on the other participants. Farid also shared his thoughts about ways to fight against these violations of the rights of girls and women. One of the ways to do this is through the PHREB program “Imams Movement for Women Rights and Ending Violence against Women and Children Campaign”. In situations of injustice, this program seeks to re-establish justice through the intervention of religious leaders.
Farid gave the example of a Bangladeshi man, who divorced his wife and forced her to leave the house. He even burned her face. The woman went to an imam to seek justice and exercise her rights. This imam reversed the fatwa and decided that the man had to leave the house. The good news in this story is that this woman dared to stand up for herself and find justice, even though the attack of her husband was irreversible and she looked like a war victim.
Farid emphasized that the issue of women’s abuse goes beyond Islam. One must also look at cultural values. In the Imams Movement program, imams begin to read the Qur’an with different eyes, learning that In Islam women and children are much more respected than they tend to be in Bangladeshi culture.
For more information, you can visit PHREB’s website: www.phreb.org