Profile • St Joseph of Nazareth

ST JOSEPH OR THE ANTI-CINDERELLA EFFECT

The statistics for violence carried out by stepfather figures against stepchildren are not well collated. A number of academic studies have been carried out in several countries, always with a cohort of around 300 interviewees. Evidence gathered from these studies do suggest that men who have a history of violence in the home can direct that violence towards children who are not biologically theirs. They may also spend less—in terms of time, emotion and money—on those children than they do on children who are biologically theirs.

BY MARIAN PALLISTER | AUTHOR AND CHAIR OF PAX CHRISTI SCOTLAND, uk

THE CINDERELLA EFFECT

However, little academic research may have been done—there has still emerged a term for this: the Cinderella effect. Cinderella, of course, was the stepdaughter in the fairy tale who was confined to kitchen chores while her stepsisters, the baron’s daughters, wore the best, ate the best, and partied with royalty.

The story of Cinderella was first published in Italy by Giambattista Basile in his Pentamerone in 1634; the version most widely known today in the English-speaking world was published in French by Charles Perrault in Histoires ou contes du temps passé (Stories of times past) in 1697.

Being less than kind to stepchildren undoubtedly goes back a long way, and it could be suggested that it might stretch back to a man who in effect had the most famous stepfather role in history. A man named Joseph, who found himself looking after a child named Jesus, biological son of a woman who said she conceived the boy after a visitation from the Holy Spirit.

This could surely have been written as a case study for trainee social workers, staff of women’s refuge homes, and possibly seminarians in forward-thinking colleges that value the pastoral element offered by their curricula.

CHOSEN BY GOD

Of course, we are talking about St Joseph: chosen by God to raise His only begotten Son, to care for the woman who was also so very carefully chosen to be the mother of that child.

His credentials would be listed as impeccable, tracing back to Abraham in Matthew’s Gospel and to Adam and God Himself in Luke’s account, although with some discrepancies in names and numbers. The choice was good: the Son he raised was clearly given the very best example in every aspect of life.

There is, however, little written in the accounts of the life of Christ to tell us what this man was really like, other than that he was a ‘just man’. Indeed, despite the hugely important role he played in the life of Our Lord, it was not until 1847 that Pope Pius IX extended the Solemnity of St Joseph as a feast for the Universal Church. Then Pope St John XXIII inserted his name into the Canon of the Mass on the eve of the Second Vatican Council, in the middle of the 20th century. Pope Francis proclaimed a Year of Saint Joseph from 8 December 2020 to 8 December 2021.

From a woman’s perspective, and given the customs of the day, Joseph shows much promise as a husband right from the start in the kindness and gentleness he shows towards Mary—even before he has the dream in which God explains what he must do to make things right for this woman to whom he is espoused, with whom he has not had a sexual relationship, and yet who now tells him she is expecting a child.

SPOUSES

Scholars have still not agreed on whether the Greek description of the relationship of Mary and Joseph as ‘espoused’ meant they were—to use a modern term—engaged to be married, or if they were actually married but not yet living together. Whatever the legalities, Joseph and Mary were certain that the child she was expecting could not be his. Joseph considered quietly severing the knot that bound them and letting the issue unobtrusively resolve itself. He was certainly not going to publicly accuse Mary of being unfaithful— there was not to be stone-throwing as was threatened against the woman, Mary Magdalene, ‘taken in adultery’ during Jesus’ ministry.

Then, of course, Joseph is taken into God’s confidence and given the task and the pathway. The angel tells him not to be afraid to take Mary as his wife, that he must call the child Jesus, and that Jesus will save people from their sins (Mt 1: 20, 21). Joseph did all that he was told in the dream, and as Pope Francis points out in his apostolic letter, Patris Corde, written on the 150th anniversary of the proclamation of St Joseph as Patron of the Universal Church and ahead of this Year of St Joseph, “Obedience made it possible for him to surmount his difficulties and spare Mary.”

A FATHER’S HEART

In that same apostolic letter, Pope Francis says that Joseph loved Jesus “with a father’s heart”. Not as if he were looking after someone else’s child; not with the slightest suggestion of a Cinderella effect creeping in.

A FAMILY OF REFUGEES

This baby was precious enough in his heart for Joseph to leave his business behind and flee as a refugee to Egypt when Herod threatened to slaughter all infants under the age of two, and to stay there until he learned (again in a dream) that the patriarch was dead and the danger was ostensibly over. These were violent times. We are shocked by Herod’s cruel edict, a man who needed by whatever means to hang onto what little power he was allowed by the Roman regime. Mary and Joseph lived in occupied territory. There was constant subversive activity by the Jewish population against a Roman presence that didn’t just disrespect their religious beliefs, customs and traditions, but viciously punished subversion with torture and crucifixion.

Traditional Jewish punishments were harsh enough—stoning to death or the threat of stoning is mentioned several times in the New Testament for a range of designated crimes, and sometimes simply because the mob was unhappy with a speech or an action. Little wonder, then, that Joseph readily obeyed the angel’s instruction to leave the country and seek refuge elsewhere.

When the little family returned to their own country, there must have been decisions made as to where they would live. Bethlehem in Judea was Joseph’s home territory and why he and Mary registered there for the census. It seems reasonable to assume, however, as so many scholars do, that he had been living in Galilee—how else did he meet Mary? Certainly she was living there at the time of the Annunciation, because she went to see her relative Elizabeth in the nearby Galilean hill country.

LIFE IN NAZARETH

Nazareth was the small town where the family now settled and we have been taught down the centuries that Joseph—and in his turn, Jesus—was a carpenter. But the translation of the word tekton, Joseph’s given occupation, could mean a master craftsman working in either wood or stone. As wood was scarce in Galilee while stone was plentiful, was Joseph in fact a stonemason? Is that why Jesus grew up to use phrases such as “the stone that the builder rejected has become the corner stone”? Did Joseph and his Son work as stonemasons (or indeed carpenters) in the nearby Sepphoris (Zippori in Hebrew), a new town billed as ‘The Jewel of Galilee’ and the vanity rebuild of Herod Antipas, successor to the Herod who had made the Holy Family become refugees? The city had been burned down by the Romans to quell a Jewish uprising and was now being rebuilt as a provincial capital, complete with an amphitheatre that could hold 4 000 people and a palace for Herod Antipas. It seems doubtful that our skilled craftsman would have settled for the negligible trade Nazareth could provide when a daily hour’s walk would take him to a building site requiring artisans like him.

Tradition also has it that Mary’s parents, Joachim and Anna, lived there, and the man who was proving himself to be a model husband and father would no doubt have been pleased to visit his in-laws—but that is to take us forward to a time when Joseph could teach his stepson those skills.

When Jesus was 40 days old, Joseph made sure he was taken to the temple as required by the Jewish religious ritual of Redemption—an obligatory ceremony for firstborn boys. He was proud of this child and treated Him as his own firstborn. It was also time for Mary to perform her own religious ritual of Purification. For the Redemption ritual, Joseph would have had to pay five shekels, and Joseph also bought two doves as a sacrifice. The doves were specified as the required sacrifice according to Lev 12.1–8 and Joseph was treating this baby as his own—no hint of the Cinderella effect.

JESUS, THE ADOLESCENT

Fast forward to Jesus at the age of twelve, and we find the Holy Family in Jerusalem, where they went every year for the Feast of the Passover (Luke 2: 41–52). This was a three-day walk and would no doubt have been undertaken in groups of family or neighbours. In the global north we have forgotten that it takes a village to raise a child and so we feel that Joseph and Mary were a little cavalier in their parenting when we read that Jesus went missing. But there will be those reading this for whom such a situation would be perfectly normal—“If he’s not with us he must be with his aunt, his cousins, the neighbours down the street. We’re all travelling home together, what’s the worry?”

After a day, alarm bells started to ring and Joseph, the responsible and loving father, turned around and with Mary went back to Jerusalem—a whole day’s journey, which would have to be repeated in reverse, no doubt with ramifications on his work back home. Joseph was anxious, especially as it took three days to find Jesus, sitting in the temple courts among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions. He had already amazed those present. Now His parents were astonished but it was Mary who gave Him the ticking off: “Son, why have you treated us like this? Your father and I have been anxiously searching for you.” Joseph doesn’t sound off at Him for wasting all this precious time, doesn’t haul Jesus off in disgrace, doesn’t belittle Him for asking all those questions. The Boy was loved. Joseph was the Dad we’d all like in those circumstances.

Was it hurtful for Joseph to hear Jesus say “Didn’t you know I had to be in my Father’s house?” Certainly neither parent quite understood what was going on, but the arrival of this Child in their lives had brought nothing but surprises and anxieties for all of His twelve years—and would go on doing so.

HUMBLE PRESENCE

Joseph doesn’t make many appearances in the Bible. There is no evidence of a previous wife and family, as sometimes suggested. It can be assumed that by the time of Jesus’ ministry, he had died. Otherwise, it is certain that he would have been there at His side, would have supported Him, been the one to provide a tomb—not the other generous Joseph from Arimathea, the rich follower of the Christ. Mary would not have had to be entrusted to the care of John and vice versa.

As Pope Francis says in Patris Corde, we can know that this was a man of courage, a man who in the words of St John Chrysostom, put himself “at the service of the entire plan of salvation”. Pope Francis reminds us what Pope St Paul VI said of him: “He turned his human vocation to domestic love into a superhuman oblation of himself, his heart and all his abilities, a love placed at the service of the Messiah who was growing to maturity in his home”.

St Joseph may now be Patron of the Universal Church—but we would best offer him to boys growing up in this troubled world as the definitive example of husband and father.

Frontiers • South Sudan

MISSION TOWARDS RECONCILIATION IN SOUTH SUDAN

BY gregor schmidt mccj | Comboni Missionary in South Sudan

FATHER GREGOR Schmidt (born in Berlin in 1973) has been working among the pastoralists of South Sudan for the past 12 years. Born of a German father and a Korean mother, he met the Comboni Missionaries in Peru, during a volunteering service. After his theological formation, he was sent among the Mundari group with whom he stayed for three years and for the last nine he has been with the Nuer.

During this period in South Sudan, Fr Gregor has witnessed the different phases of state-building and the disintegration of the country: the interim period, that started in 2005 with its Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA), the first free elections in 2010, the referendum on independence, won with 99% of approval, the declaration of independence in 2011, and the beginning of the civil war at the end of 2013.

THE ARRIVAL OF THE GOSPEL

The prophet Isaiah mentions the peoples of Sudan: “Offerings will be brought to Yahweh on behalf of the tall and bronzed nation, a people feared near and far, a nation mighty and conquering, whose land the rivers divide” (Is 18: 7). The “rivers” are the Nile with its numerous tributaries that cut through the territory. Isaiah foresaw the time when these peoples would bring gifts to the Lord in Zion. It did not happen in his lifetime, but rather in New Testament times. The African, in Acts 8, baptized by Deacon Philip, was the first Sudanese Christian from the Meroe Empire of Queen Candace. The man himself, whose conversion happened even before the Gospel reached Europe, left no historical traces.

From the third century, contacts were documented between Egyptian monks and Christians of Sudan (Nubians) and, from the sixth century, all their royal dynasties were Christian. There was a long period in which Christianity flourished in Sudan until the 15th century.

CHRISTIANITY AND ISLAM

However, the memory of the Christian faith disappeared completely under the influence of Islam and was only made known—for the second time—by St Daniel Comboni almost 400 years later. Only at the end of the 20th century, the Nuer, the Nilotic people with whom I live, became Christians in large numbers. In colonial times, there were only sporadic conversions.

During the second half of the 20th century, the Nuer were displaced due to the Sudanese Civil War. Expelled from their homeland, some became Christians as refugees when they met Catholic and Protestant missionaries in Khartoum and Ethiopia. During the liberation struggle against their Islamic government—which discriminated against black people and enslaved and killed countless non-Muslims— they discovered God as the Holy One who hears the cry of His suffering people, just as He heard the enslaved Israelites in Egypt.

The Gospel spread among the Nuer like wildfire during the 1980s and 1990s when returning converts shared their new faith with their families in the villages. The vision of Isaiah that the “people tall and bronzed” of the Nile would worship God, became true with them. Today, there are hundreds of thousands of Nuer Christians: mainly Presbyterians, Catholics and Episcopalians (Anglicans). A Catholic catechist reported that he baptized more than 20 000 converts during his time on duty. This shows that the local Church in its beginnings has been essentially a lay movement, without clergy.

MISSION IN FANGAK

The Comboni Missionaries were invited in 1998 by the Bishop of the Diocese of Malakal to accompany Catholics who lived scattered in the villages of the Fangak region in the South, the wetlands and marshes of the Nile.

The young Christian community, whose first generation of believers are still alive, is extremely hospitable and generous. We missionaries visit people regularly in their villages. We walk on foot to distant chapels, up to four days away from the parish centre, since there are no roads. The parish territory is huge, about five times the size of the Greater London area. Paths that are not used disappear within a few weeks in the constantly growing vegetation. During half of the year, the waters of the Nile and the rains flood the region, becoming flat as a disk. There are no hills except termite hills. On our hikes, we cross waters that reach up to our necks. Tropical diseases are part of everyday life and safe drinking water is rare.

The basic food of the Nuer consists of sorghum (millet) with milk or fish. They plant and harvest with hand tools, as the ox plough has not yet been introduced in this region. Furthermore, there is no telephone/mobile phone network, no postal service, no power grid—we depend on solar power—and no local radio station; only shortwave radio works to receive BBC and Vox of America. In recent years, some humanitarian organizations have set up satellite dishes for internet communication. If it makes sense to speak of the “ends of the world” on this planet, I think that the marshes of the Nile are a good contender for it. I am grateful to testify that the Triune God is worshipped in one of the most remote places on earth.

TRAINING OF RELIGIOUS LEADERS

The main task of the missionaries is to train prayer leaders and teachers of faith (catechists) in their chapels. Our parishioners have a strong, sincere faith in Jesus as their Redeemer, but little Christian education. We offer the catechumenate for adults who ask to become Christians. About half of Fangak County’s population is now baptized. There are many followers of traditional religion who are attracted to Jesus Christ. We offer education programmes in Nuer and English since more than 95% of the population in this part of South Sudan are illiterate due to their isolation (nationally, the illiteracy rate is at about 75%). We have been operating a primary school at the parish centre since 2014. So far, around 250 grade eight students have graduated with a certificate. It is a tiny seed, but significant, considering that less than 1% of the county’s population have obtained a primary school certificate, a document as prestigious as a doctorate title in developed countries.

Due to the recent civil war, reconciliation between various ethnic groups has become an important task, not only for us, but for all the churches in South Sudan.

WORK OF RECONCILIATION

The South Sudanese Catholic Bishops’ Conference has been having difficulty in reaching and gaining influence among warring parties since many bishoprics have been vacant. In addition, ethnic belonging is still a strong aspect of the identity of Catholics and of Christians in general, as is among church leaders. In this difficult tension between cultural and faith identity, the ecumenical South Sudan Council of Churches, of which the Catholic Church is a founding member, prepared a path towards national reconciliation.

In our parish, the war reached only the fringes of Fangak County, with the exception of its capital, New Fangak. Other areas have not been directly affected by battles or displacement. This has been the case, due to the isolation of the area, created by the Nile swamps, and thus lacking road connections. In our diocese, in whose territory much of the fighting and destruction took place, our parish is the only one that has not had to be closed in all these years. In all other parishes of Malakal Diocese, the work was stopped for several years. Still, every Nuer family of our parish has lost relatives in the war. Because the enemy breathes down their necks, but is still reassuringly far away, our work of reconciliation looks different from a parish with mixed hostile groups.

I am working on the side of the ‘losers’. Although the Nuer of my region wish to get rid of the current government, it is a blessing from the point of view of the Gospel to belong to the marginalized (cf. Lk 1: 51–53). In order not to be misunderstood, I add that those South Sudanese controlling the government are not worse people than others, but simply, they have more opportunities because they possess better weapons and can count on Uganda’s military aid. Apart from the first year of fighting, when the opposition had some victories and committed terrible crimes among the Dinka, the war has mainly taken place on territory where people who support the opposition parties traditionally live, and is reaching the Dinka homelands only peripherally. In addition to genocide of minorities and ethnic cleansing in the Greater Equatoria Region, there is also expulsion and confiscation of land by the government, which settles its own loyal people there. Even though this has not yet taken place in our parish area, it is an enormous challenge to preach the love of enemies in such a context.

Some people ask why South Sudanese Christians don’t just follow the word of Jesus and forgive their enemies. That suggestion is easily expressed for those who do not have a real enemy seeking to kill them or destroy their livelihoods. As a foreigner in South Sudan, my own life is not threatened by anybody. I do not superficially demand love of one’s enemy from Christians of my parish, as this would be to ask something that I do not have to implement myself. Instead, I have made the suffering of the Nuer my own suffering and make no demands. We pray for the dead and bless the wounded who are taken to our hospital ward.

RECONCILIATORY SIGNS

On certain occasions, our Nuer Catholics pray at Mass in the language of the Dinka as a sign for national reconciliation. At the local level of clan conflict, traditional reconciliation goes hand in hand with Christian prayer (insofar as the clans are Christian). Our active parishioners are noticeably less violent than the average Nuer. The ecclesial life is like a shelter where a new, peaceful lifestyle is maintained. The Catholic Church is known and loved for the fact that differences of opinion are settled without violence.

In contrast to traditional festivals and gatherings, weapons and alcohol are not allowed on church grounds. Anyone interested in this ‘alternative lifestyle’ can join us. A traditional feast often runs the risk of ending in bloodshed because youth (men) injure or kill each other. Either a previous attack needs to be revenged or a new dispute is started under the influence of alcohol.

Furthermore, in our sermons and conversations, we shape the idea of inviolable human dignity because every person is an image of God. The word dignity cannot be adequately translated into Nuer. As an illustration, we explain that everyone must respect other persons deeply, even if they are women or strangers of another tribe. The stories of Jesus in the Gospels help to underline that message. In South Sudan, there is no secular society. Therefore, international peace programmes, which always appeal to reason and emphasize human rights, have little effect on the ground because they do not understand the dynamics of people’s ethnic and religious identities, or they negate them. As a missionary, I make the Gospel—which presents God as a merciful Father—known to my listeners. A disciple of Jesus is called to imitate the Father and love the neighbour, even the enemy (cf. Eph 5: 1, 2; Lk 6: 27–36). It is about a change of mentality so that it is no longer the ethnicity or the clan which defines whom one can or not trust. The Gospel and the Bible clearly show what constitutes a just, honest person. This should be the benchmark for building a just and peaceful society.

A peaceful and conciliatory attitude is the strength of the Church and the missionaries. We live with ‘our’ people and suffer with them. Jesus Christ changed and converted people by loving concretely and making Himself the servant of all. We missionaries strive to learn language and culture, and walk their paths both literally and figuratively. People honour this, and they are ready to open themselves to the perspective of the Gospel because we have opened ourselves to their perspective. Patience is needed. Jesus explains that the Kingdom of God grows like a tree, slowly but steadily.

BACKGROUND OF SOUTH SUDAN

South Sudan is a multi-ethnic society with more than 60 peoples/languages. About three-quarters of the population are semi-nomadic shepherds (pastoralists). The country is one of the least developed/urbanized regions in Africa and has been suffering the longest war in Africa. Since 1955, the population has been experiencing fighting, with only two longer periods of calm (1972–1983 and 2005–2013), which has traumatized four generations of people. The liberation struggle in former Sudan against the rulers in Khartoum had cost more than two million lives. The current civil war so far has taken approximately 400 000 lives. Since the signing of the last peace agreement in September 2018, the situation has stabilized somewhat. For most of the time during the civil war since 2014, the Fund for Peace has placed South Sudan in first place on its Fragile States Index. Source: wikipedia.org/wiki/Fragile_States_Index.

Youth Voices • Home

FINDING FORGIVENESS IN TRIANGULATED TRAGEDY

BY Jill A. Williams | Masters degree in Landscape Architecture, Pretoria

THE FAMILY is sometimes described as a model of the Godhead; encompassing a lover, a beloved and the love shared between them. These members are situated within a home—heaven, in the case of the Trinity—a place of intimacy where love can be fostered. In an earthly setting this can, however, become a place where pain can be inflicted on another without repercussion, whether in the form of a snarky remark or ignoring a plea for help. When this reaches a certain point, home can become an inescapable torture chamber.

Because of His vast experience of suffering, Jesus is able to identify with our suffering. He can sympathise with the abused person, the witness to abuse and, believe it or not, the abuser. Each character in this tragic-trinity holds a special place in the ‘secret’ plan of salvation (Eph 3: 1–13) that the Holy Trinity had for us all. Each character in this relationship experiences their own form of suffering—attributed to the pain inflicted upon them by another—yet each need to find the very same thing to unlock the shackles that bind them: forgiveness.

THE ABUSED

The house is empty, but it still feels like these walls are closing in on me.

According to the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development (2014) abuse can take the form of physical harm, sexual or other, inflicted on someone, or intimidation in the form of stalking, threats and other non-contact infringements. Sometimes the mind conjures up its own narratives to make sense of a tragic sequence of events. It’s a natural defence mechanism that attempts to mitigate the impact of traumatic experiences on a victim. This could cause victims to feel sorry for their abusers.

Jesus, however, was fully conscious of what people were saying and doing to Him, to the point of death. Omnipotent divinity encased in perishable flesh, He always had an awareness of the greater reality of immediate situations and an honesty with Himself and His own situation added even greater weight to the prayer He prayed on the Cross: “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do” (Luke 23: 34).

THE WITNESS

Home is where the heart is; the heart left bleeding on the ground in eternal shame. No one must know.

Jesus was stripped of His garments. Innocence is stripped from a child, every time they witness a loved one being harmed. The home—the place that should be a safe, secure dwelling place—becomes a volatile setting where hope is shattered and pain is a daily encounter.

Many children who witnessed abuse attest to feeling a sense of guilt for what they see: whether it be from not helping the victim enough, or for ‘causing’ the onslaught (Mullender et al. 2003). This can further result in self-harm due to self-loathing or even retaliation in the form of bullying other children (Australian Institute of Family Studies 2014). The scenes of terror they have seen never stops replaying in their minds. The chances of witnessing such events again are very probable and re-victimisation stands at about 72%, particularly for women who experienced abuse, as discussed in the Australian Institute of Family Studies (2014).

THE ABUSER

What happens in this house stays in this house, concealed and filtered. No one will know.

Jesus died for everyone, but did He really die for the abuser? The human trafficker? The serial killer? The answer is a resounding “yes.” Is someone who has committed such crimes even worthy of God’s love? Our society certainly does not think so. In a ‘perfect’ world, the wrongdoer must be punished and the victim be justified and compensated for any loss incurred to them; but this doesn’t always happen.

It was found that about a third of children who experienced abuse and neglect in their upbringing, go on to raise their children in a similar manner (Australian Institute of Family Studies 2014). They probably had never been given justice for what had been done to them. That is a hurt that cannot be washed away by societal expectations.

THE HIDDEN SECRET

The passion, death and resurrection of Jesus is the ultimate gift of love and hope that God has given to humanity. This great ‘secret’ (Eph 3: 3), was hidden from humanity from the time of creation, till such time that God had ordained—the appointed time. The secret of abuse, too, cannot remain hidden forever, when these experiences are shared, given light and made known to the right people.

Forgiveness is such a precious gift that God chose to conceal it within that experience, just as it was in the shedding of Jesus’ blood. Painful it will be, re-living those hurts, yet, as the wrapping comes undone, so does the weight of the hurt. It is in opening this long-awaited gift, that the hollowness of one’s heart becomes filled with renewed hope.

REFERENCES

Australian Institute of Family Studies. 2014. Effects of child abuse and neglect for adult survivors. https://aifs.gov.au/cfca/publications/effects-child-abuse-and-neglect-adult-survivors. Accessed 15 April 2021.
Department of Justice and Constitutional Development. 2014. Are you a victim to domestic violence? https://www.justice.gov.za/vg/dv.html. Accessed 14 April 2021.
Mullender, A., Hague, G., Imam, U.F., Kelly, L., Malos, E., & Regan, L. 2003. Children’s perspectives on domestic violence: 208–211. SAGE Publications, London. Available from: ProQuest Ebook Central. Accessed 15 April 2021.

Challenges • Domestic Violence and Human Trafficking

TRAPS OF POVERTY

The harsh conditions experienced by trafficked immigrants in South Africa

BY Charles Ephraim Luhanga & Claudius Zindoga
Edited by Fr Rafael Armada

THE REALITIES of human trafficking and domestic violence are intertwined. There are thousands of migrants who arrive to South Africa, mostly from neighbouring countries, victims at their homes of domestic violence and poverty, who try to escape from the direness they are living in. In their attempt to flee from it, they look for better pastures in dream lands. They are given false hopes and promises of decent jobs before departing only to find disillusionment on their arrival

On their journey to South Africa, they often fall prey to unscrupulous transporters and smugglers who abuse them physically and, above all, sexually. Thoroughly cheated, they have to endure traumatic situations on their trip which does not stop on arrival, but rather becomes more distressing. Most of them with their unfulfilled dreams end up in forced prostitution or in the hands of all kinds of abusers.

PIRILANI’S TRUE STORY

Pirilani’s husband’s stay in South Africa was shortened abruptly since he died in a car accident. The funds dried up and Pirilani had to find ways to sustain her six children and attend to the financial obligations that her husband had contracted towards the support of his relatives. She had no other way to meet all these demands but to follow her husband’s destination. “I did not have a passport, but my sister was supportive enough to lend me hers”. Her sister also knew a transporter who agreed to take Pirilani to South Africa and find a job for her in Pretoria, as a helper in the house of a Zimbabwean family. The couple of that family were at the brink of divorcing when Pirilani arrived. Once the wife moved out of the house, the husband, an alcohol and sex addict, started insinuating her sexually, abusing and raping Pirilani as well as threatening to kill her should she report the abuse to anyone. The man would ensure her financial needs at the price of maintaining her subjugated, a victim of untold physical and emotional torture and as his hostage, because of her illegal residence in South Africa.

DAYS OF HELL

“I was living in a house of a monster. I was dealing with a man with issues that were certainly manifesting in my abuse; a man who required serious professional help or simply prison. My days in the household were hell. With nowhere to go, no one to tell and nothing I could possibly do to stop the man, I was mercilessly and relentlessly sexually assaulted”, Pirilani recalls. Finally, she got the courage to share her situation with a fellow countryman living in her neighbourhood, though she felt that any possibility of escape from the house or denouncing her abuser would leave her helpless and her children unassisted back at home. Once, she managed to leave the house and expose publicly in her neighbourhood, the atrocities of the man with whom she was living. However, she finally decided to return to her employer and abuser, for the sake of providing education for her children back in Malawi. As she relates, “my employer had stripped me of my dignity. He carved out all my humanity. I did not feel like a woman anymore. He had taken away all my confidence. He had succeeded in destroying all my dreams and ambitions. Fortunately, a single power remained that he seemed to have failed to take away from me; a power that no man or even any person could take away from me: the power of being a mother. That power was a gift that urged me on”. She decided to put the abuse that she went through behind her and to fight any further abuse. Eventually she managed to return to Malawi where she currently lives and works.

Pirilani’s is one of the many real stories of migrants in South Africa, uncountable victims of the hideous scourge of traffickers and abusers. Her struggles and of many others are narrated in the book, Wamama Chronicles, by Zindonga & Luhanga (2017).

The authors of this book are also the founders of Fula Africa, a non-profitable organization, created in 2017 as a response to the cries, challenges and concerns experienced by large sections of the migrant population in South Africa. Specifically, they look at cases and incidences of trafficking in persons (TIP) and smuggling of migrants (SOM). Most of the victims, particularly women and children, relate gross physical and emotional violence and rights abuses at the hands of traffickers and smugglers.

FULA AFRICA AGAINST TIP AND GBV

Fula Africa recognises that comprehensive efforts to reduce human trafficking must include the prevention and response to gender-based violence (GBV) due to the intertwined relationship of the two crimes. In fact, TIP and GBV share common ground. GBV is both an important driver of human trafficking and a tool to manipulate and control women, children, and even men, into sex work and forced labour across all forms of trafficking. There is a deeply imbedded culture of violence (physical and emotional) within our society that, unfortunately, is enabled and perpetuated by our silence and inaction. Fear, emotional and physical abuse are inherent in both GBV and TIP. Methods of control used in TIP mirror all forms of GBV prevalent in our society. Details of human trafficking and smuggling of persons are exceptionally opaque the world over, as are those of GBV.

Accounts of shocking levels, intensity and forms of abuse and violence meted out to innocent victims include: sale (in routine transactions or to old depraved men of various degeneracies); sexual abuse—with its consequences (HIV/AIDS and unwanted pregnancies); mutilation (butchered for punishment or muti) and other unimaginable forms of physical abuse. The litany of psychological and physical abuse is endless. All of them, acts that reflect a total disregard for the sanctity of life, dignity and rights of others. The harsh realities of silent victims of TIP and SOM allowed us to observe with clarity, a sad and cruel world that punishes one for being a woman, for being poor, for being in an uncompromising predicament or for wishing and aspiring for more.

POVERTY AND VIOLENCE

The South African Development Community (SADC) grapples with a myriad of social, political and economic issues that appear to become more clearly manifest in situations of poverty. In fact, poverty as seen in the case of Pirilani, is a cause denominator in GBV and TIP. It is often the main factor of violence at homes and the fertile soil for TIP and SOM as well. The majority of young trafficked women come from poor backgrounds, often from dysfunctional families and with high levels of domestic violence and substance abuse

There are also social and cultural pressures; the perceived societal subservient role of women in society (conversely, the paternal status of men), the fear of forced marriage, the stigmatisation after a sexual assault and a lack of knowledge of human rights are, among others, some of the factors involved. Poverty has pushed many young girls to escape from their homes only to fall prey to traffickers and to end up in exploitative situations. As in the case of GBV, poverty enables and perpetuates the crime.

Gross violations of GBV and TIP are taking place in plain sight, yet continue to go unnoticed. In the case of GBV, abuses occur in the surrounding neighbourhoods. In TIP, the victims cross provincial, national and regional boundaries. The Covid pandemic has also exacerbated poverty which has fuelled both GBV and the vulnerability to TIP.

SILENCED VIOLATIONS

Fula Africa has over the years borne testimony towards a society that wants to move away from perceiving some of its members as a species being born with a fatal predisposition to withstand any form of mistreatment, manipulation, exploitation and abuse. It is our collective morals and values as well as our natural responsibility and obligation to uphold the dignity and humanity of fellow human beings.

Fula Africa questions the society in which we live: is the eccentric, peculiar and inexplicable, the violence against women and children become the new norm? have we come to accept it as it is and allow to let it go unnoticed? According to the organization’s views, it is embarrassing to belong to this kind of society; a society that appears to be nonchalant in the face of anarchy, an apathetic society in the face of adversity and seemingly deliberate ignorance of the evil in full view. Fula Africa affirms that society’s blindness and unnerving quiet to gross violations of women’s rights is a shame for humanity. This kind of society, in Fula Africa’s perception, is complicit to the crimes with its silence and inaction; this silence has perpetuated heinous crimes and atrocities. The South African law stipulates that an individual is guilty of crime if one does not report an action of TIP or related information. However, the same does not apply to GBV. It remains as a silent crime despite the millions of Rands that the society spends on advertising this deplorable behaviour and the need for its change. However, the reality on the ground is quite diverse and the dawn of a new mentality and a better law enforcement in society remain quite substandard and a challenge so far.

Fula Africa manifests its conviction that upholding and respecting other people’s rights, dignity and humanity (regardless of gender, ethnicity, or nationality) is not only an ideal—rather it is an obligation. Fula Africa explores partnerships through various strategies to fight the causes of GBV, TIP and SOM; fights the associated violence; seeks to protect victims and the vulnerable as well as pursue the perpetrators of the heinous crimes. In this game, we all have a part to play.

Radar

Combating Femicide Through Integral Education Based On The Dignity Of Women, Protection Of Life And Gender Equality

BY SL | Buenos Aires, Argentina

Each new case of murder linked to the sex of the victim shakes Argentinian society. In fact, 82% of these murders take place in the context of domestic violence and 60% occur in the victim’s home. In addition, in 20% of cases, the victim had previously reported the aggressor, while 66% of the aggressors are partners or former partners of the victims. In 2019, the 252 murders linked to the sex of the victim, left 222 children and adolescents without mothers. “What to do in the face of this scourge?” asks the National Commission for Justice and Peace, in a statement on femicides in the country, which was sent to Fides.

In Argentina, at the legislative, administrative and judicial level, work is underway to eradicate the phenomenon, underlines the note. However, “each new femicide tells us that there is still a long way to go. Interdisciplinary and co-ordinated intervention by the various bodies is essential, as is the end of indifference and the effective use in all cases of all the instruments made available by the State. No sign of violence can be taken lightly when reported to the authorities”.

The note highlights that this violence also has innumerable economic and social causes which must be addressed and cannot be absolutely used as mitigating circumstances or as justifications.

Many women live in the midst of economic violence, which is silenced, denied or ignored, influenced by economic, social or cultural factors that make it difficult for victims to protect themselves from violence. “This must change radically. It is essential to address the need for equal treatment of women’s working conditions, be it domestic, professional, social or cultural work”.

Such cultural change, concludes the note, will only be possible by promoting an integral education, which has as its theme the dignity of women and the protection and care of life, based on gender equality, at all levels of training and covering all the social sectors. “It is also fundamental to work to recover families destroyed by situations of high psychosocial vulnerability, a source of extreme violence. This is why it is necessary to deepen public policies with a view to increased social sensitivity to put an end to this culture of waste, as Pope Francis reminds us”.
Source: fides.org/en/news/69746

World Report • Human Uniqueness

WE HUMANS HAVE A SPECIAL DESTINY

BY Prof. Dr Thomas V. Jacobs | St John Vianney Seminary, Pretoria

EVOLUTIONARY BIOLOGISTS point out that there is only a 2% difference in the DNA between humans and their closest cousins, the chimpanzees. In other words, man and the chimpanzee have 98% of the DNA in common. Does it mean that a 2% difference in the DNA accounts for all the advances man has made over the chimpanzee? It doesn’t stand to reason. The real reason for all the advances man has made over the chimpanzee is because of the breath of life God breathed into man’s nostrils (Gen 2: 7). The story-myth expression of the breath of life of God is to be understood as the faculty of consciousness and a spiritual entity called soul. These two entities only can account for all human achievements such as the ability of speech, ability to learn mathematics, philosophy, music, art, architecture and mysticism, just to mention a few. Since the human person is endowed with consciousness and an immortal soul, humans have a special destiny, a life beyond the grave. A special destiny for man is the culmination of the Divine Intelligent Design.

THE DESIGNER

What scientists call the Designer, Super Intelligence, Mathematician Extraordinaire, the Mind etc. is not an abstract entity, but a real living Entity. He is the God of religion, just and loving. This God is deeply interested in His creation. As such, He does not expect His creation to dance according to His divine tune alone. He allows His creation to make itself to a large degree. That is why in the evolution of the cosmos and life forms on planet earth, there is flexibility and rigidity. If there is no flexibility in the evolutionary process, there would not have been anything new evolving in nature. A ‘hands-on Creator’ who works in and with His creation continuously is more pleasing to humans than one who did His job aeons ago and rested.

At the same time, we humans are endowed with a special faculty called free will, by which each person is enabled to choose and make decisions for oneself. The relationship between God and man is not that of a master and a slave, but a love affair between the human soul and a loving and caring Father. In that relationship there is no coercion. It is a free choice of the individual. This is the way the God of religion acts. There is a degree of independence granted to creation to make itself. Such independence is also granted to the human person, who is a body-soul continuum, the soul being the image of the divine. God’s love towards every person is like an eternal sunshine and each person can choose to stay in the sunshine or move away into the shade and darkness. It is up to each person to make that choice.

HUMAN BEING IN THE COSMOS

After Charles Darwin’s publication of his book, The origin of species through natural selection (1859), a number of critics claimed that man had lost his pride of place in the world. Man was nothing more than any other animal; to claim some sort of pride of place in nature was sheer arrogance. Do these deductions stand to reason? Many enlightened evolutionary biologists do not think so. Man still holds the pride of place in the world. The faculty of consciousness and a distinct level of intelligence set him apart from his pre-human ancestors. Let us reflect on the following imagined scenario: Leonardo Da Vinci’s acclaimed painting, the Mona Lisa, happened to have been lost in transit in the Amazon forests. Many a passing animal would have been fascinated by that curious object, stared at it and carried on with their routine activities of feeding and breeding. They would have been totally incapable of perceiving the enigmatic smile and all-seeing eyes on the face of Mona Lisa. The situation doesn’t change when it comes to the world around us and the cosmos itself. The mysteries of the cosmos would have remained mysteries, until intelligent man began to understand them and appreciate them. Hence, we can reasonably assume that the appearance of intelligent beings was an essential and ultimate component in the evolution of the cosmos; without them the cosmos would have remained an intellectually barren wasteland. So, man definitely has a unique place in the cosmos.

When Homo erectus evolved into Homo sapiens, a special faculty called consciousness was added to Homo sapiens, by which humans were enabled to reflect upon their thoughts. From a religious point of view, a soul was infused into the human person. How and when this infusion of the soul occurred is a matter of debate. The truth of the matter is that we humans have become a body-soul continuum; not a body harbouring a soul. The soul existed before a human person came into being and the soul will continue to exist even after a human person departs from the earth. The soul that departs from a person has a life of its own. It does not get absorbed into a divine flame, like a spark that falls back into a burning furnace. The soul has its own identity and individuality for all eternity. The loving and merciful God of religion, who created the human soul, wants every soul to spend eternity with Him in bliss. This is the culmination of the intelligent design of the Divine Designer.

A WEAK HUMANITY

However, in the dealings of the Supreme Being with humans, one notices a certain trait which is clearly written in the Scriptures. While we accept the notion that the God of religion is not a tyrant, but a loving Father who grants independence to His creation to make itself to a certain extent, we also accept the fact that we humans are endowed with free wills to choose for ourselves. However, when the misuse of the free will was leading humans astray, egocentrism and selfishness, inherited from pre-human ancestors, rendered them perverts. In the letter to the Romans, St Paul quotes from the Psalms and prophets to illustrate the general human condition:.

“There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God. All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one. Their throats are open graves; their tongues practise deceit. The poison of vipers is on their lips. Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood; ruin and misery mark their ways, and the way of peace they do not know. There is no fear of God before their eyes.” (Rom 3: 10–18).

A loving Father could not have just sat down and watched unconcerned. If nothing had been done about it, the whole of humanity would have been doomed to perish and God’s grand design would have been thwarted. A loving and just God could not have allowed that. Hence at decisive moments, God intervened in human history.

Altruism and concern for one’s neighbour had to be inculcated in the minds and hearts of human beings. In order to achieve this goal, the God of religion, the loving and benevolent Father decided to prepare a people for Himself and God Almighty intervened in human history. He chose a man called Abram and asked him to leave his land and people and live in a new place. God Almighty made a covenant with Abram and named him Abraham, who eventually became the father of all believers (Gen 12–18).

GOD INTERVENED once again in human history. A young man named Moses, expelled from the Egyptian Pharaoh’s court, was chosen by the Lord God to liberate His people from slavery in Egypt. Moses felt himself inadequate for the overwhelming job, but God gave him strength and eloquence to face Pharaoh and demanded the liberation of his people from bondage. Moses, in the face of insurmountable hardships, led a motley crowd through the Sinai deserts for 40 (many, indefinite) years towards the promised land (Ex 1–40).

CLIMAX OF GOD’S INTERVENTIONS

However, an amazing intervention by God in the history of humanity was in the life of a simple peasant girl from Nazareth in Galilee, prepared from all eternity to be the mother of His Son, Jesus. God’s messenger, Angel Gabriel revealed to Mary her role in God’s plan. Though Mary was petrified and perplexed, she told the Angel, “I am the Lord’s servant. May it be to me as you have said” (Lk 1: 38). Upon this ‘fiat’ rested the redemption of the human race and the fulfilment of God’s grand design.

All the above interventions were preparations for the greatest one, the birth, life and death of Jesus. In this intelligent design, the role of Jesus of Nazareth was paramount and unique. Jesus, the Son of God, was a unique personality in human history. In world religions we read about gods taking on human forms to sort out some specific problems on earth. Such avathars were mere shadows of the real Divine Son becoming incarnate to establish a spiritual kingdom to lead all humans to a life with the loving Father.

OLD TESTAMENT

However, when we peruse the initial books of the Old Testament, we are introduced to the Lord who was in close contact with His people and yet, rather aloof and distant, abiding on high mountains, whose very name was forbidden to be pronounced. He appeared to have been easily provoked to anger and He readily meted out punishment to miscreants.

However, the nature of the Supreme Being YHWH cannot be so, if one understands the fullness of the Intelligent Design God had in mind. When human beings succumbed to selfishness and abandoned altruism, they drifted away from God and forfeited their intended destiny of living in eternity with God. God was deeply distressed and designed a plan to lead humankind to eternal bliss. The method used by the Lord was something which human imagination can hardly fathom.

God sent His only Son into the world, denuded of all heavenly glory, to live among humans and to establish a heavenly kingdom in the hearts and minds of His followers. The sum and substance of that heavenly kingdom is in direct opposition to the values and aspirations of mundane kingdoms. It requires a total paradigm shift in the mindset of His followers. First of all, God should take pride of place in the minds and hearts of human beings. Love God with all your heart; equally important is the need to have care and concern for one’s fellow humans, particularly the less fortunate ones. Apart from establishing a heavenly kingdom in the hearts and minds of his followers, God wanted His Son to offer Himself to redeem humans from the bondage of sin through sufferings and death on a cross. Now one can begin to understand the depth and immensity of God’s compassion and love for human beings.

JESUS, THE REDEEMER

Jesus taught His disciples to address God YHWH, Abba, Father. This was a novel and revolutionary idea for the average Jew and Jewish religious authorities. It is to be kept in mind that the Jews of the time could never pronounce the name YHWH when reading the Torah, but substituted it with Adonai, meaning the Great Lord. Apart from addressing God as Father, Jesus insisted upon inculcating fellow feeling in His followers. Over and over again, Jesus emphasized the sum and substance of the kingdom of God as ‘love God with all your heart and love your neighbour as you love yourself’.

Apart from teaching his followers the basics of the kingdom of God, Jesus offered Himself willingly shedding His blood and giving up His life on the altar of the Cross. By doing so, Jesus became the only Redeemer. As a sacrificial victim, He opened up the gates of Heaven to those who follow Him. This is the economy of salvation, envisaged by the Father in the intelligent design of the cosmos and mankind.

Focus • Call

WORK, A MATTER OF CHOICE, A MATTER OF PASSION

BY Fr Oskar Wermter SJ | Harare, Zimbabwe

THERE ARE two important decisions in young people’s lives: finding the right partner and deciding the right vocation or trade. At present, the latter is a big struggle. In former times you often followed in your father’s footsteps and trade. If your father was a farmer, you might inherit the family farm and end up growing crops and breeding cattle. A daughter of medical people tended to follow in similar footsteps.

When I was living on a mine, we had a different situation. The parents, mostly engaged in manual work in a copper mine, wanted their sons to be promoted to a job in administration (office work). Being a manual worker, the father wanted his sons to be office clerks; he did not want them to get their hands dirty with shovels and pick axes in dangerous underground jobs.

Speaking once to a mother, she was appalled when her boy was offered apprenticeship to qualify as a miner. A miner with a blackened face was not her idea of an educated man. She wanted her son to sit in an office, in a white shirt and tie. I told her that her son would get a substantial wage as a qualified miner (this was before 1980!), several times as much as he could get as a mabharani (clerk), or pushing a wheelbarrow. With that pay a young man would have little trouble paying for his lobola. Nowadays, one cannot be choosy; accept anything to put sadza (staple diet) on the table.

CHOOSING SKILLS

Is a white-collar job necessarily paying better than manual work? What is offered on the labour market? What qualifications are needed? A householder may run around looking for a plumber, but the children of his more educated neighbour have degrees in political science. Electricians may be hard to come by, but there are plenty of young women with qualifications in financial administration. Are you choosing to train for a job for which there is a market?

Are you seeking work or employment? Maybe you could make a living by self-employment rather than looking for employers. The young ones have no work, but I see plenty of work to be done when I go around town. Sewerage is not working. Old people are not cared for, but who cares?

It is not only during a pandemic that children have no teachers and remain uneducated. They are neglected, live in cardboard boxes and sniff glue. The chronically ill have no medical care. Accident victims have no one in outpatients to give them first aid.

Parents have spent lots of money on school fees to teach their children reading and writing, but can they read, can they write, except with their smartphones? Who gives them an interest in books, how will they gain useful knowledge and become self-supporting handymen? Elder brothers and sisters could learn a lot by teaching the young ones in the family. Would that not help build a self-help culture? In such a culture nobody has a right to be idle with the excuse: “This we did not learn in school”.

We need a new self-help culture and a technical civilization based on family and community co-operation. Priests and pastors know that their many calls for bigger collections are not popular. We all live in the same bankrupt economy. A robust self-help mentality is needed. The church roof is leaking, the pastor himself must be the first to climb up on the roof and sort out the sound from the rotten roof tiles. If the entire congregation had this self-help spirit, collaborating in mending the roof would do them a lot of good. They would become a self-supporting, proud assembly of do-it-yourself Christians, full of self-confidence, “because we can do it”.

Are we looking for work or for employment? Work is there, plenty of it. Our roads are strips of potholes, no longer suitable for transport. The only problem would be: who pays the workers? Employment is more critical. Are we looking for an occupation that keeps us busy and gives us an income? Do we look out for an income or for a chance to use our talents, our inventiveness or creativity?

I know a young man who is an artist. He carves statues and paints pictures. He is creative. He is never bored. Just making money is not good enough for him; for him work is participation in the creation of the world.

INCLINATIONS

The question is often: what are you inclined to do? Work with material objects primarily or with people? My eldest sister became an industrial fashion designer. After some years of very strenuous work, she changed to adult education, but even in her old age she was still able to sew her ow n clothes. She was happiest to pass on her skills as a creator of beautiful clothes. She also was an artist and her artwork depicted most of the old city where we lived. There should be an education enabling children to make the right choice.

My best friend was an enthusiastic teacher. He could not have done anything but teach, he had a passion for children and their progress. Teaching for him was a vocation, a calling. A few years later, I started training as a priest and pastor. Then I began to understand what a calling was. I was only a teenager when I first started writing and editing. I became a writer with a love for communication which went well with being a teacher and a preacher.

It may take some time to discover our real passion and abilities. Happy the man or woman who is allowed to follow his/her real inclination and talent, becoming truly creative.

Young people should ask themselves more than what is the pay like? Will I like it and enjoy it? Will I make this earth a more beautiful place?
We all seek happiness. Maybe using our hands and brains for quite unique and enjoyable work that also others can enjoy is a better way of achieving this than most. The Creator of the “Earth, our common home” is still looking for co-workers.

Radar

SO, WHAT HAS SOUTH AFRICA PROMISED TO DO ABOUT CLIMATE CHANGE?

Countries around the globe have made plans called Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) to reduce carbon emissions.

BY Jason Burke | Johannesburg, South Africa

SOUTH AFRICA published a draft updated NDC in March, with ambitious targets to limit its annual greenhouse gas emissions to 398–440 million tonnes of CO2 equivalent (MtCO2e) by 2030, but many campaigners and analysts raised significant concerns about its continuing commitment to coal, which supplies 85% of South Africa’s power.

A combination of the Covid-19 pandemic and a long-term economic shift away from extractive industries and manufacturing has already helped South Africa move towards meeting some of its emission goals, but further progress will depend on massive investment in the country’s power sector, improvements in energy efficiency, a green transport strategy and a carbon tax.

Gwede Mantashe, Minister of Mineral Resources and Energy, last month announced plans for a £2 billion Rands investment in renewables to accelerate a shift from coal power generation, but again there are concerns that few of the measures outlined in the updated draft NDC are likely to be implemented in a timely fashion, if at all.

“South Africa’s target is far too weak … Our government’s answer is basically that they are going to continue polluting a lot for decades to come, but a little less more than they were going to do before,” said Dr Alex Lenferna, secretary of South Africa’s Climate Justice Coalition.

South Africa has suffered rolling power cuts over recent years, which have dealt a crippling blow to an already struggling economy, and are forecast to continue for at least five years. But money is short. South Africa has already accessed about $2bn a year in 2018 and 2019 to meet adaptation and mitigation needs but will need four times more annually by 2030 to meet the targets laid out in the NDC.

Source: theguardian.com

Radar

MAKING THE STREETS SAFER FOR WOMEN AND GIRLS IN MEXICO

GIRLS AND women have the right to feel safe everywhere yet all too often, cities and public spaces are not designed with women’s safety in mind.

Insufficient lighting, narrow streets, overgrown vegetation and limited visibility are some of the environmental factors that can leave women vulnerable to aggression, sexual harassment, intimidation or even physical attacks.

In Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, the Senderos de San Isidro neighbourhood was one such place. “Here, women no longer felt safe,” said local resident Betzaida Acosta.

In the framework of the Spotlight Initiative, the Executive Director of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), Ms Ghada Waly, became one of ten heads of UN agencies who called for men’s attention to raise their voices and support actions to fight and prevent the incidence of gender-based violence (GBV) in all parts of the world. As part of this initiative, UNODC is leading efforts to improve the quality of victim services, enhance data collection and analysis by local governments and strengthening infrastructure.

Ciudad Juarez has one of Mexico’s highest rates of GBV—quite significant in a country where more than ten women are murdered every day. In an effort to make the streets safer for women, the Spotlight Initiative in Mexico worked with the Municipal Institute of Women and the Juárez City Council Secretariat of Public Security on plans to improve the city’s public spaces.

IMPROVING SAFETY

First, a mapping exercise determined the highest risk areas. Colonia Senderos de San Isidro was selected as a priority and local residents were invited to share their suggestions and experiences.

Daisy Paloma, a local 10-year-old, pointed out that there were few spaces in the neighbourhood where children could play, while adults highlighted the local park as unsafe. Residents of all ages took part in multiple participatory assemblies, awareness workshops on GBV and interviews to ensure that the public security needs of women and girls were incorporated into plans.

Based on these consultations, a safe path was built to connect the public park with the local elementary school. The route also connects to several public transport stops, ensuring residents can get to and from work in safety. Lights were installed on the homes that line the safe path to improve visibility, pedestrian crossings were put in place, traffic signs rehabilitated, and disability access points marked, in collaboration with the General Co-ordination of Road Safety. “We already feel safer,” said Ms Acosta.

More than 90 women, men, adolescents, children, and business people who live or work in the community also helped bring Daisy’s vision of a safe play space to life. The 6 000 m2 park was upgraded with solar powered lamps, new play equipment, benches and park furniture, and general upkeep. “Previously, the park was dilapidated, forgotten, dark and unsafe,” said one resident. “With the lighting, it will be safer for everyone.”

“In a few days, this effort has totally changed the perspective of the locals,” said Leticia Herrera, who lives next to the park. “There has been a change not just in the people, but in the culture. Women need support, but when we come together, we can achieve a lot.”

DAISY PARK

The conclusion of the San Isidro project was celebrated with the unveiling of an 80 m2 mural painted by a team of artists who wanted to celebrate with it the migrant and working identity of Juarez women. Their chosen subject: Daisy, whose vision contributed so much to the project. Today, neighbours have dubbed the space ‘Daisy Park’.

The improvements will benefit more than 7 000 inhabitants, 49% of them women, and more than 2 000 households.

The Spotlight Initiative is an inter-agency effort implemented by the UN and financed by the European Union, aimed at eliminating all forms of violence against women and girls around the world. Depending on the local dynamics, the efforts are directed to approach issues and challenges limiting the full realization of women and girls’ human rights, such as domestic violence, human trafficking, genital mutilation, sexual or economic exploitation and also femicide, understood as the ultimate expression of GBV
(unodc.org)

Radar

The Bishops of Mozambique on The Events Occurred in Cabo Delgado and The Rest of The Country

BY D. Lúcio Andrice Muandula* | Maputo, Mozambique.

GATHERED IN our first Plenary Session of 2021, we, the Catholic Bishops of Mozambique, with saddened hearts, like all Mozambican citizens who identify themselves with the good of the country, deplore the tragic situation that the population of Cabo Delgado is experiencing. We regret the prevailing insecurity of the population in the centre of the country and the food insecurity and hunger that affect the people, as well as various forms of violence spreading in the country; all this is happening in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic.

We deplore and condemn all acts of barbarism committed. In Cabo Delgado, defenceless people are being killed, injured and abused. They see their property looted, their privacy violated, their homes destroyed and the bodies of their relatives desecrated. They are forced to abandon their land where they were born and where their ancestors are buried. These fellow citizens of ours, mostly women and children, are pushed towards the precipice of insecurity and fear. 

LOOTING RESOURCES

We deplore the prevalence of this state of affairs, with no clear indication that the causes of this conflict will soon be overcome. This state of affairs increases and consolidates the perception that behind this conflict there are interests of various kinds and origins, namely those of certain groups, to take over the nation and its resources. Instead of being put at the service of local communities and becoming a source of sustenance and development, with the construction of infrastructure, basic services and job opportunities, these resources are taken away with a total lack of transparency, fuelling revolt and resentment, particularly in the hearts of the young, and becoming a source of discontent, division and grief.

We recognise that one of the strong motivations for our young people to be drawn into various forms of insurgency, from criminality to terrorism, or the no less harmful political or religious extremism, is their experience of hopelessness for a favourable future. There are no opportunities to build a dignified life for most of them. They feel that society and its decision-makers ignore their suffering and do not listen to their voices. It is easy to lure people—full of life and dreams, but without prospects, who feel wronged and victims of a culture of corruption—into adhering to proposals for a new social order imposed through violence or to follow illusions of easy enrichment that lead to ruin. How can young people have prospects if the country seems to have no direction, without a common project in which they are invited to be active collaborators and that nourishes their hope? 

PEACE BUILDING

It is our position that nothing justifies violence; neither the difficult situation of lack of a collective perspective, shared as a nation, nor resentment, intolerance or partisan interests of a religious, political or economic nature, should direct us, as a people, towards the path of insurgency of any kind.

Once again, we express our total solidarity with the weakest and the youth who yearn for a dignified life. Religions have a great contribution to make, in the resilience of their communities and in the pursuing of an ideal of a united society in solidarity; limiting their action does not favour the search for solutions.

The mission of the Catholic Church has always been a commitment to collaborate for the good of the nation, pointing out the dangers and always expecting that those who have responsibilities seek due solutions. We have always given our concrete collaboration for the wellbeing of our people in the fields of education, health and human development. All in all, we want to collaborate in the reconstruction of the social fabric wounded by old and recent traumas.

We will continue to redouble our efforts to help the destitute and to welcome the displaced, offering them our listening and consolation, as well as means of support shared by believers. We would like to be able to offer our children and young people educational paths which open them to the values of tolerance, respect and friendship and enable them to see the dream of a better future fulfilled. We reiterate our willingness to collaborate with the living forces of our country for a social order where selfishness leaves room for solidarity, and together with the authorities, to draw up a project for a country that includes every citizen, favouring the most marginalized and disadvantaged.

We exhort the national political forces, the organisations present in the country and the international community to unite their efforts and, leaving aside their own interests, to come to the aid of displaced people, those living with serious food insecurity, exposed to endemic diseases and without access to basic services. It is also urgent to create more opportunities for work and development for all, particularly for young people. Finally, we appeal to all to contribute towards promoting peace, protecting the population, closing off war-financing channels, isolating and stopping individuals or groups who take advantage of the tragedy in Cabo Delgado.

Despite the difficult times we are living in, let no one lose hope. As Pope Francis’s encyclical, Fratelli Tutti states, “hope is bold; it can look beyond personal convenience, the petty securities and compensations which limit our horizon, and it can open us up to grand ideals that make life more beautiful and worthwhile. Let us continue, then, to advance along the paths of hope” (FT 55).

*(President of Episcopal Conference of Mozambique (CEM, in Portuguese) 
www.comboni.org/contenuti/113020)