Participatory Wholistic Ministry

Nearly 3 million Bolivians suffering from Severe Hunger

2010-10-16T08:54:00.000-04:00

Bolivia | WFP | United Nations World Food Programme - Fighting Hunger Worldwide

The link will take you to the World Food Programme (FAO) page for Bolivia. Read it and weep. The article is short and indicates exactly what we have seen for years: the most rural parts of the country are where there is more severe hunger.
Also note that among the four "Threats to Food Security" is "Low education levels" Our tiny non-profit is aimed at simply getting texts into the hands of students in very rural northern Potosí Department. Books don't feed anyone, but a gradual increase in educational levels is one component of the solution.

Learning From the Sin of Sodom - NYTimes.com

2010-02-28T15:07:00.000-04:00

Where's Matt. 25:31-46 when others need it?

Here is Nicholas D. Kristof and what is essentially his review of the excellent book “The Hole in Our Gospel” by Richard Stearns, president of World Vision. Stearn came to the realization that normative Christianity has mostly failed "the least important ones" ('Good News for Modern Man' translation of the Bible).

Many question "where is God in the suffering of others?" Our question is more to the point: where is the response of Christianity? This ranges from international denominations, neighborhood congregations, individuals, and so on. Jesus rhetorical question in Matthew 25 does not differentiate between individuals, congregations or entire denominations.

Kristof adds to the scriptural reference by quoting from Ezekiel 16:49 concerning the condemnation of the Sodomites that they were: “arrogant, overfed and unconcerned; they did not help the poor and needy.” Not just their sexual proclivity... So, how about redefining "sodomy" to be failing to help the poor and needy?

What to do? Get involved. The poor and needy are all around us where we live even in rich, developed countries. And don't forget the vast majority of the world, nearly a billion of which subside on $2 per day. Or you could like be like Kristof and decide "to grow up and become a Polish nun" living in a war zone in a developing country.

Service to others in Bolivia

2009-12-31T08:29:00.000-04:00

Son's death leads couple on a mission | tennessean.com | The Tennessean

Here is a parallel to our situation. A couple who drops all (except the books) and heads off to another part of the world to give service. Note that education is probably where their efforts will be placed. Fortunately in their case they have a para-church organization to support them. Too bad that most churches don't have a similar service organization. As Joel says "if you really want to do something, you better get on with it." And echoed back by his wife "don't wait for a committee to figure out how to do the dishes...."

The impulse to service comes from a variety of sources. In this story the shock of losing one's son triggered a process. In others it may be what charismatics call "second baptism" leading to service. In our case it was a bit of both: a) the jolt of losing five fraternity friends in a car accident in the fall of 1971 pushed us to enter the Peace Corps in Ecuador in 1972; b) an undeniable spiritual experience in 1997 pushed us to drop everything (except the books!) including house, careers, cars, friendships, (Tex-Mex food), and eventually even health insurance.

So, dear reader, don't wait to be hit by a 2X4 to knock you out of your comfort zone. Listen to that inner voice and look at how you can make a difference in the world.

AIDS, malaria eclipse the biggest child-killers

2009-11-20T09:42:00.000-04:00

The power of the press: ignoring the biggest child-killers
Hopefully, dear reader, this is NOT news to you. While AIDS and malaria get the big press coverage, the children keep dying of preventable deaths here and there, far from the public eye. Maybe the difference is just that: once infected with AIDS or malaria it is a long, tough battle but a battle that can be won.
On the other hand are pneumonia and diarrhea which kill their victims in short order. These two diseases take advantage of poor infrastructure to kill: no or bad roads, few clinics, limited medical staff and insufficient supplies of medicines. And in the case of death-by-diarrhea simply having instruction on how to prepare a simple solution of salt/sugar/potable water. In this case the missing infrastructure is public information. Of course it would help to have good water but that is another story......
What to do? Make your voice heard. Specifically ask if you donation is going to help with these two plagues. Donate to aid agencies that understand that while AIDS and malaria are press-worthy, they are not the Big Time Killers of millions of children worldwide.
Our tiny non-profit is not directly involved in the prevention of diarrhea and pneumonia deaths. Our approach is to aid in literacy and education. We would like to grow to the point of helping people help themselves with infrastructure projects like roads, public health and clinics.
REMEMBER: millions of children die each year of these diseases that can be treated successfully IF they can get to an adequate clinic in time.

Indigenous peoples regaining lost ground

2009-11-01T17:09:00.000-04:00

Indian political awakening stirs Latin America - washingtonpost.com
A balanced view of what is indeed a wide scale native movement. Recommended reading.
We have a few points to add to this article or place emphasis. 1) The article uses the term "Indian" repeatedly. In our wide travels through Latin America and having lived in Ecuador and Bolivia for about 1/3 of our adult lives, we can say that the term "Indian" is not considered to be offensive in most of the Americas. Except for Bolivia. Apparently it was used here by the colonizers in a very negative way. So now the term is not used in Bolivia unless someone is insulting someone else. The preferred terms might be "indigenous person" "native American" "originario" (Spanish for 'original person'). In the later half of the 20th century we've seen less use of "Indian" in the USA, so maybe the USA will catch up with Bolivia some day...... To us when we hear the term "Indian" we think of persons from the sub-continent of India (and we have lots of INDIAN friends from that part of Asia.)
2) Buried in the article is a brief discussion of the state of education of the indigenous peoples. In general it is far behind the rest of the country. The literacy rate for indigenous persons is far less in Bolivia than the "rest" of the country. It is the opinion of many that the ruling elite did their best to keep the indigenous / native person uneducated. So we are of the opinion that somewhere in the last 10-20 years the native persons reached a "tipping point" in education. The result at least here in Bolivia was the election of Evo Morales, the first native Bolivian president.
3) With reference to education, it was left unstated that the problem is much worse in rural areas. I can't tell you much about Guatemala where there is a large native population. But in Ecuador and Bolivia which we know well, once you get off the road, educational possibilities are much lower. And unfortunately one of the big problems is that there are very few roads. So there are large tracts of land with no roads and inadequate schools.
4) Finally remember that our little non-profit "Participatory Wholistic Ministry" is involved in getting school books to students in one part of rural Bolivia. People have asked "how are you doing?" My response "ask me in a generation" as it will be relatively slow process to bring education and its benefits to rural Bolivia. We have put something like 800 books in circulation in two school years. We are looking at expanding the area served and providing books in more subjects than primary school reading & math.

How was your lunch today? (If you are reading this you didn't die of hunger today.....)

2009-10-16T15:35:00.000-04:00

Number of Hungry Rises Above 1000 Million

World Food Day-2009

One thousand million people hungry. Hard to believe. This chart at the referenced URL above will take you to some disturbing statistics. But we can not avoid them. The article breaks out the statistics by continent. Latin America / The Americas don't have that many hungry. With 53 million lacking the food they need and deserve. In Bolivia it is estimated that roughly 1/4 of the rural population suffers from at least "season" hunger (i.e. the crops are not yet in). What is left unsaid is the damaging effects of malnutrition on children.

What to do? Some of us have skipped one or more meals today. Some have responded to rallys. The embedded video here shows that for those of us with financial means that there are other ways to respond as well. Spend some time at the linked site, tune in to the brief video. And remember that some dozens will die today of HUNGER.

PWMin is not directly involved in hunger resolution. This typically falls to organizations who deal in relief. Support them and save lives. Our objectives are longer term. For 2008-09 this has been simply getting books to students in very rural Bolivia. I've been there and seen hunger up close. What is frightening is that my visits have been in June-July-August *after* the annual harvests of corn and potatoes. PWMin's "solution" is self-help, education and helping those who will help themselves.

Please consider a donation to a charity involved in hunger relief. Also, remember our little charity working on longer term solutions. Contributions can be sent to Sharon Miller, 3800 Merriman, Plano TX 75074

Fixing the Climate could kill 4.5 million children (?)

2009-09-16T07:45:00.001-04:00

Rich countries must not raid aid to pay climate debt | Oxfam International
    The above link take you to a web summary of a larger report that you can download. The premise is this, according to Oxfam: the world needs to spend money to fix the problems with climate. Of this there is no doubt except the willingness of the world to do something before we frogs slowly boil in the pot-of-water. Oxfam goes on to rhetorically question "where will climate change funds come from?" And if the world diverts funds from the ongoing Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), we will adversely affect millions of people who have been making steady but slow gains from MDG.
   The web based report and larger pdf report are a summary of how the MDG goals have been progressing. As you might suspect, there is good news and not-so-good news. We are making progress as a planet and the Oxfam report is just one of several summaries. However, there are goals that we as the people of the world are not making as much progress as needed. The world financial crisis has slowed down the investment of the countries that have more to give. And as you might suspect, the crisis has pushed more people in the developing world into their own problems.
   Could diverting funds to climate control kill 4.5 million children? Maybe that is a bit brash to say. But what we know is that millions of people have advanced, even if only a little as the world has implemented the Millennium Development Goals. Cutting back will doom more people to extreme poverty. And we know very well that the children are those who suffer the most in grinding poverty.

The Women’s Crusade - NYTimes.com

2009-08-23T07:10:00.000-04:00

The Women’s Crusade - NYTimes.com
There are several newspapers in the USA that are our link back to the land of our birth. The New York Times tends to be at the top of the list, mainly for its excellent coverage of international issues.

Take the time to read this longish story. While we don't live in Pakistan or the middle East, we do live in Bolivia where we hear stories of the marginalization of women. The important point here is that women indeed "hold up the sky" in many many ways.

Op-Ed Columnist - Defecting to Faith - NYTimes.com

2009-05-05T20:28:00.000-04:00

Op-Ed Columnist - Defecting to Faith - NYTimes.com

Here we see that indeed that many are "not looking for a dogma or a doctrine, but for transcendence from the everyday." Dogma and "church history as religion" (the Community of Christ is not the only guilty party....) are not what appeals. Nor do they lead to the transcendent. The massive Pentecostal / charismatic movement, now just starting its second century should be instructive to us all. Dig deeper and read the Pew report.

Op-Ed Columnist - Bill Gates’s Next Big Thing - NYTimes.com

2009-01-25T11:05:00.000-04:00

Op-Ed Columnist - Bill Gates’s Next Big Thing - NYTimes.com
This is about the Gates Foundation, mainly oriented towards finding solutions to health problems. There have been some amazing benefits to the developing world, and this is only the beginning. Not as well known is the Foundation's work in education. This of course is where we are orienting our billions of micro-dollars (one billion micro-dollars is a thousand dollars). It isn't much so far, but we are trying to make a difference in rural education in Bolivia. In our first year we were able to get over 500 books to nearly 600 kids for $2400 worth of books and $1600 for our employee and his expenses, including mule to haul books hours and hours away from the end of not-so-wonderful roads.
Remember that our focus is not just "books" or "rural education". Rather it is the idea that people can make a difference in human development by participating in the effort. Hand outs don't last much longer than the last sack of flour or bottle of water. It is when people are actively involved in the process that it makes a difference. In general this is why education is so powerful. One can not become educated by sitting passively. It takes involvement of the student and, we would say, the parents.

Foreign Policy: The Poor Man’s Burden

2009-01-05T07:02:00.001-04:00

Foreign Policy: The Poor Man’s Burden
Here is an EXCELLENT article that discusses how the economic crisis that started in 2008 is affecting the world-in-development. As Jeffrey Sachs was quoted “The US could find $700 billion for a bailout of its corrupt and errant banks but couldn’t find a small fraction of that for the world’s poor and dying,” he wrote in September. “The laggards in the struggle for the [goals] are not the poor countries ... the laggards are the rich world.” Matthew chapter 25, second half, is quite specific about what the priority is when it is time to give a helping hand. It is also quite clear what the consequences will be for those that don't follow Jesus' guidance. [One of the few cases where he mentions the flames of hell....]

Welcome to 2009

2009-01-01T11:16:00.002-04:00

Welcome to 2009. In alignment with the notion "out with the old, in with the new" I've erased the past entries in this blog, some of which dated to 2007. Whew some of those were getting rather moldy, time for a new start.....

In a few days we hope to post the review of PWMin's 2008 activities. Largely 2008 was a pilot project to prove a) feasibility of delivery of books to areas without roads and b) an understanding of the underlying "demand". In short it was a success. Our hunch that there is a lot of demand for books in the very rural area of northern Potosí Departmento was probably an underestimate. Alberto Copatiti has been receiving requests for the new school year which starts in February 2009. At first glance there is roughly double the requests over what we were able to deliver in 2008.

Please check out the updates to www.ipwmin.org I am no ace at web design, but slowly with a lot of time and lots of hard knocks I've been able to make some modest improvements.