AFSC Program Highlights
Tamejavi Festival dancers
Immigration
Forecast for Tamejavi: Clear skies
This past September, a week before the much anticipated Tamejavi Festival in Fresno, California, AFSC’s Pan Valley Institute staff and organizers gazed anxiously at the sky—foul weather was reportedly on the way.
But on the day of festival, soon after a blessing ceremony led by Native American groups, the clouds parted. By noon, hundreds of people had gathered to enjoy the festivities, which included a cultural mall of arts and crafts, artistic performances, a film series, and a wide range of ethnic foods.
The festival’s goals include building culturally diverse, active, and cooperative networks of immigrants in California’s Central Valley. Since the first Tamejavi Festival in 2002, there has been a steady increase in the diversity of communities who participate: Filipinos became involved in the third festival, and Armenians, Persians, and African-Americans had strong representation at the most recent Fresno festival.
For more information, please go to www.tamejavi.org.
Peace
Toward a sustainable peace, one nation at a time
The UN’s 2005 World Summit noted that the UN system was not doing enough to help countries make the transition from violent conflict to sustainable peace. To address this gap, the UN established the Peacebuilding Commission (PBC), which is getting valuable support from the Quaker United Nations Offices (QUNO) in New York City and Geneva.
Burundi is one of the first countries on the PBC agenda. It offers a good example of how QUNO is connecting Quakers and Quaker service agencies—including AFSC and the Canadian Friends Service Committee (CFSC)—to the UN. Drawing on the expertise and contacts of the AFSC office in Burundi and the Burundi Friends Church, QUNO provided the PBC with documentation regarding local experiences, concerns, and peacebuilding efforts. With CFSC support, QUNO also offered a two-day workshop about the PBC for Burundi Friends Church members. Participants were excited to learn that their work and commitment at the local level supported larger goals to consolidate peace in Burundi.
To learn more about QUNO’s work on the PBC, please see www.quno.org. For information about the PBC, please see www.pbcupdate.org and www.unpbf.org.
Economic Justice
Striking taxi worker
Chicago taxi drivers speak truth to power
Khalid al Hag is just one of the approximately 11,000 cab drivers in Chicago feeling trapped between the highest gas prices in the country and trying to pay his bills. Despite working 12-to-14 hours a day, seven days a week, he still must periodically dip into his savings to stay afloat.
“They are spending $45 to $50 on gas a day when they used to spend thirty bucks,” says Prateek Sampat, director of AFSC-Chicago’s Taxi Worker Organizing Project. The project is a joint effort with the Council of Islamic Organizations of Greater Chicago to unite drivers so they can effectively advocate for their rights.
Topping the project’s immediate goals are getting approval for a fare increase and gas surcharge to offset the high gasoline prices, and dealing with unfair ticketing that substantially diminishes drivers’ profits. Meanwhile, in the Chicago suburb of Skokie, Illinois, the project worked with local activists to address a ban on taxi parking. In a partial victory, Skokie’s board of trustees voted to allow taxi parking in certain areas.
More information is available online at taxiworker.org.
Humanitarian assistance
Drying bricks for permanent homes
in Zimbabwe.In Zimbabwe, resilience in the face of adversity
Zimbabwe is caught in a difficult political, social, and economic crisis manifested in low agricultural production, high prevalence of HIV/AIDS, and hyperinflation that has priced basic necessities out of reach for many people. This reality is felt immediately in the community of Hatcliffe Extension, an urban settlement of 3,500 households on the northern outskirts of Harare.
Most families of Hatcliffe Extension are living in temporary shelters made from plastic sheeting, scrap wood, cardboard, and other salvaged materials. There is no running water, electricity, or infrastructure for sewage disposal. At the same time, people’s resiliency and resourcefulness are apparent in the small vegetable gardens and fruit trees that dot the landscape, the make-shift schools, and the small-scale trading that takes place.
In 2006, AFSC supported the construction of 40 temporary shelters, and this past year, AFSC provided resources so residents could start building permanent homes.
In the next three years, AFSC will help the people of Hatcliffe Extension restore their livelihoods through vocational trainings, income producing projects, and building community capacity for advocacy. The work has already begun with trainings in brick making and metal work, which enables community members to help build their homes and find jobs.
Go to www.afsc.org/africa for updates.
Take action
Join the struggle for African debt cancellation
Thanks to actions taken by people like you, the fight for African debt cancellation has made significant progress. Now we need your help to ensure that poorer countries can use their resources for their own development.
This past summer, AFSC’s Life Over Debt team launched an online campaign and grassroots mobilization that led to 93 U.S. House of Representatives members signing on as co-sponsors of the Jubilee Act (HR2634), a bill calling for expanded debt cancellation and responsible lending for 67 low-income countries. We need your help to get more co-sponsors in the House, along with additional co-sponsors and a hearing in the Senate—a key step toward making the bill law.
To find out how you can help, please go to www.afsc.org/lifeoverdebt and click on “Take Action (MLK).”
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