When all is said and done

Asian Consultation on 'Stirring the Waters' ended

The Asian Consultation on 'Stirring the Waters', attended by over 30 participants representing the major regions of Asia, has come to an end.

The three Asian youth participants of the Lutheran World Federation (LWF) Office for Communication Services (OCS) and the Department for Mission and Development (DMD) Training Program 'Towards a Communicating Communion – A Youth Vision’, together with two resource persons, have successfully provided coverage of the weeks events through this web log.

The aims of this program have been to educate, equip and invite women to take up leadership in calling for and participating in a Global Campaign for water for the healing of the world. Water issues have been well addressed by several international aid agencies through a rights-based approach. This consultation explored a faith-based approach. Unique to this program three participants were drawn from other faith traditions (Hinduism and Islam), representing the LWF Department for World Service field offices.

The Lutheran World Information (LWI) published the following news story about the "Stirring the Waters" Asia Regional Consultation:
Water: The Challenge of the 21st Century - LWF Discusses "Stirring the Waters" in Phnom Penh. More…

The full text of the closing statement of the Phnom Penh meeting can be found as a pdf document on the LWF Web site. (Adobe Acrobat Reader is required to access this link.)

An ending to start the future...

Closing worship

Bringing the consultation to a close today, participants gathered together for a worship time. Prepared and led by several participants, the service was rich in symbolism and songs on the theme of water.


Upon entry to the worship space, participants washed each other's hands, a symbol of Jesus washing the disciples’ feet. Later, through marking the sign of the cross on their foreheads, water was used as a reminder of baptism.



Following the Lord’s Supper worshippers were invited to drink a cup of water mixed with juice, which the leader explained symbolized 'the bitterness and the sweetness of what we have heard and shared'.

Presentation: Tsunami & the Church’s response

Afternoon presentation from the tsunami affected countries

Participants from India, Thailand and Indonesia presented reports on the church’s action and challenges in response to the tsunami devastation of December 2004. For more information please click the appropriate links below.

India – Vidhya Rani
Actions include supplying clothing, rations, stoves, storage, boats, nets, motors and other fishing equipment to local fishing communities.

A free medical store and a medical camp were provided to attend to victims. Children were counseled and supplied with books, bags, stationery, uniforms and health checks in order to get them back to school.

Self-help groups and Entrepreneurial Development Programs (EDP) were started for the men and the women, and villages were reconstructed.

To prepare for future disasters, training in first aid was provided and youth response teams were formed. Networks in the community and church were established, as well as an information system including pre-warning documentation.

Challenges include acceptance/inclusion of others, interfaith and gender issues, social/caste dynamics, needs versus expectations, conflict resolution.

To read this report please click here.

Thailand – Saiphan Jakleang
Actions include provision of food, blankets, drinking water, medicine and fishing equipment. Houses, schools and centers for the local people have been built, and volunteers have been sharing the gospel with them in order to encourage them.

Counseling has been provided to help affected people overcome the grief of their losses, and re-training has been provided for many of the local men, who were fishermen, to provide more career options.

Indonesia – Nelly Maria Msi Hutahaean
Actions include general care for victims. One church reported adopting 100 children, both orphans and those whose families had economic difficulties. They supplied money and clothes, and provided education.

A major challenge is the lack of money given to the churches for church development/re-development.

Profile: In search of awareness

Emi Okada
Accountant, Lutheran Church of Japan, Tokyo.

Emi realizes that Japan is in a unique situation; the isolation of being surrounded by ocean means they have no neighboring countries vying for their water. 'Japan has plenty of water,' she explains, 'and although the public is advised not to use water from wells for drinking, other water sources are very clean and drinkable.'

As far as water problems go she says that 'some rivers in Tokyo have had to be cleaned up and are now back to an acceptable quality, however Japan’s main water related problems are natural disasters such as floods in the typhoon season and tsunamis which are caused by earthquakes.'

Before arriving in Phnom Penh, Emi was a little apprehensive about how she would be received. She shared with me that traveling in Asia is very uncomfortable for the Japanese; she was concerned about the way that Japan had treated its Asian neighbors in the past and was afraid of possible animosity because of this. She has been relieved and happy to see that participants at the consultation have received her graciously and with open arms.

She enters this consultation hoping to learn more about water issues which the Asia region and the world are facing in the hope of returning home to inform and educate the Lutheran church in Japan.

Presentation: LWF field office experiences

Afternoon presentation from LWF/DWS field offices

Reports on water use and experiences were received from the offices in India, Nepal, Bangladesh and Cambodia. Brief run-downs the reports follow; for more details please click the appropriate links.

India – report by Anjana Biswas
Lutheran World Service India (LWSI) is assisting communities to increase their access to water when and where they need it. LWSI has been operational since 1974, implementing relief, rehabilitation, disaster preparedness and integrated development programs in several states of India.

There are a total 38 projects in 69 villages with 12,472 households. Projects include creation of drinking water resources (tube wells, hand pumps etc), waste-water management, training for people to disinfect water sources and the Million Wells scheme.

Please click here for more details.

Please click here for more information on the LWF/DWS India Program on the LWF Web site.

Nepal – report by Mina Parajuli
Nepal is the second richest country in water in the world, yet still has the following water problems: increased pollution, water quality problems from arsenic, coli form, iron, lime etc, technology problems, source disputes, geographical situations, rapid urbanization, and lack of government commitment and good governance.

The LWF activities include installation of drinking water and irrigation infrastructure, gravity flow systems, hand pumps, drip irrigation, treadle pumps and overhead tanks.

Please click here for more details.

Web site of the LWF/DWS Nepal program.

Please click here for more information on the LWF/DWS Nepal Program on the LWF Web site.

Bangladesh – report by Sabina Yasmein
Bangladesh is a very small country, yet it has many rivers. However the land is becoming dryer and agriculture is being affected, people are losing jobs and becoming poor as a result. Flooding has had devastating effects and access to fresh drinking water is a problem in large cities, with arsenic contamination in many water supplies.

LWF has been active in ensuring that flood victims have access to clean drinking water. As many wells were contaminated by flood waters, LWF is running a well de-siltation program.

Web site of the LWF/DWS Rangpur Dinajpur Rural Service (RDRS) in Bangladesh.

Please click here for more information on RDRS on the LWF Web site.

Cambodia – report by David Mueller
The LWF Cambodia program has the mission to empower poor and vulnerable individuals, groups and communities in rural areas in order to claim their universal rights to life with dignity.

LWF water projects in Cambodia include water and sanitation awareness, deep drilled wells and hand-pumps, shallow open wells, water catchments, family ponds, communal ponds, small-scale irrigation systems and water-pump user groups.

Please click here for more details.

Web site of the LWF/DWS Cambodia program.

Please click here for more information on the LWF/DWS Cambodia Program on the LWF Web site.

Presentation: Ethical concerns and implications on Water: some Perspectives

Afternoon presentation by Rev. Dr Chandran Paul Martin
Executive Secretary, United Evangelical Lutheran Church in India (UELCI)
presented by Ms Vidhya Rani

I never knew that parts of rivers could be or were being privatized, but according to Dr Martin it has happened! His paper primarily discussed the privatization of water in India by large corporations, and the implications of privatization on poverty not only in India but also globally. He presented some troubling statistics about water, including:

• about 1.1 billion people lack access to clean drinking water
• about 2.4 billion people lack access to sanitation (mostly in Africa and Asia)
• more than 90 per cent of the people in west Asia live under severe water stress
• by 2020, water use is expected to increase globally by 40 per cent.

He named multinational companies that use massive amounts of water, often to the detriment of local producers and small industries. The Coca-Cola company, for example, uses an average of 350,000-650,000 litres of water per day. Together with other large manufacturing plants, the Coca-Cola plant in Palakkad, India, is sucking the region dry; thousands of acres of prime agricultural land are turning into desert and villagers are facing an acute drinking-water shortage.

His paper encouraged churches to consider the ethical issues of privatization and to speak up about privatization of water resources, since access to clean and fresh water is the right of every person, not only those who can afford to pay for it.

To read the presentation, please click here.

Welcome!

Hi all,

Welcome to the blog for the LWF 'Stirring the Waters': Women in Church and Society (WICAS) Asian Regional Consultation, held in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, April 2006.

This is where you can come to find out what we are doing and to keep up to date on what is happening at the consultation in Cambodia.