Calvin College
Faith & International Development Conference
Conference
Breakout Session #3Sat, Feb 7: 10.30-11.30am
Ending Poverty Through Relationships
- Bo White, Chief Messaging Officer and Senior Manager of Internships/College Initiatives, Food for the Hungry.
Global Poverty will not end unless we work together. And we will not understand how to work together without a deep understanding of God's grace. This session will address the need for gospel centered collaboration and cooperation with special emphasis given to applying this in the internship program and City Initiatives efforts at Food for the Hungry. You will hear how nearly 80 interns have wrestled with the gospel in the context of relationships while working in 12 countries and 4 North American cities. You will also hear how we are attacking the problem of child sex slavery in the United States through collaborative efforts with church leaders, law enforcement officials, and government leaders. Come prepared to wrestle with issues of forgiveness, cooperation, collaboration, and a vision for ending poverty through healthy relationships.
Advocacy as ONE: Lifting our Voices in the Fight against Extreme Global Poverty
- Adam Phillips, Faith Relations Manager, ONE
ONE is a grassroots campaign and advocacy organization backed by more than 2 million people from around the world and every walk of life who are committed to the fight against extreme poverty and preventable disease, particularly in Africa. In this workshop we will explore the role of faith in advocacy as well as look at ONE's ÒFrom Vision to Action,Ó a briefing on realizing the potential for development in President Obama's administration.
The Unasked Questions in International Development: Promoting Peace through Development Partnerships
- Rev. Joshua Amaezechi,
President, Pax Africana
- Prof. Virginia Beard, Secretary, Pax Africana and Hope College Political Science Professor
Billions of dollars in development aid have been spent on Africa and
there is little on the ground to show for it. Why? Come and explore with
us some of the unasked questions that could provide the needed foundation
for sustainable development in Africa. What challenges do these pose to
the Christian community?
Economic Development in Post-War Liberia
- Renita Reed, West Africa Partnership Manager, Partners Worldwide
Partners Worldwide is engaged in business development work in this post-war setting with Liberians and their partners in Grand Rapids. Liberian Entrepreneurial and Asset Development (L.E.A.D.) offers intensive business training and couples it with access to capital for maximum impact. This work has grown very quickly over the last few years, experiencing great success in economic development, which directly impacts peace, employment, health and education. Learn about the work being done, the challenges, the successes, and what the future holds as the organization grows.
Radical Equality: Best Basis for Authentic Partnership
- Peter VanderMeulen, Director of the Office of Social Justice, Christian Reformed Church
A brief history of partnership in missions and development, observation of where we're at today, and approach to moving from rhetoric to the biblical concept of radical equality in development partnerships.
Careers in International Health and Development [Interactive Discussion]
- Milton Amayun, Board President, CCIH, & Vice-President
of for International Programs, International Aid
- Sharon Franzen, Program Associate, CCIH
- Michelle Fraser, Board Member, CCIH
- Moderator: Evelyn Garland, Student Outreach Coordinator, CCIH
The panel will share with students (and anyone else who is at a crossroads in their professional career and considering a change in course) their experiences from a Christian perspective, both positive and negative, in working in international health. The presenters will also explore with the audience how network organizations like CCIH may help students and new graduates grow both professionally and spiritually. The panel consists of two professionals with extensive field experience in international health and development, as well as a Calvin College student who has just completed work in Niger. This is an informal session and questions are strongly encouraged.
What is Success? Measuring Transformational Impact in Development
- Michael Pucci, International Director of Academic Programs, Food for the Hungry
Christian development has difficulties with numbers. First, there are those who believe no measurement of transformation should be attempted on the grounds that transformation is spiritual and God's work (which implies falsely that the stuff we can and do measure is our own work). In addition, there are pressures to believe (and prove) any measure will do, secular or otherwise, when it comes to the tangible results of development activities. A rising concern with the dubious efficacy of second-hand assessment tools (developed wholly disconnected from vision and mission and Kingdom aims) and a growing discontent with the habit of rewarding activities instead of outcomes is driving a number of Christian development organizations to wrestle with these hard questions and to seek new forms of assessment and new types of indicators. Food for the Hungry describes its own journey and seeks input for greater measurement integrity.
HOPE International's Grow Internship Program
- Chris Horst, Human Resources Specialist, HOPE International
HOPE International has developed a highly-competitive internship program, with an acceptance rate of under 15%. This session will walk through the distinctive aspects of the Grow program and review domestic and international opportunities this upcoming summer. The application process, housing and logistics, and past interns' experiences will also be addressed.
Add Justice Advocacy and Stir Briskly
- Larry Hollar, North Central Senior Regional Organizer, Bread for the World
You know-and are-Christians who want to go Òbeyond charity.Ó But many people of faith are wary when the ÒpÓ word-politics-gets talked about in church communities. Let's reflect on why non-partisan, thoughtful legislative advocacy on hunger, poverty, and justice really does matter-Biblically and practically-to complement and strengthen direct service and charitable efforts in the struggle against hunger. Share your ideas about what works and what challenges arise on campus and in your faith community in promoting faith-based advocacy. Through Bread for the World and other groups, design ways to invite more people to make a difference in urging our nation's decision makers to end hunger at home and abroad.
Ideal Ideas: the Potential of Appropriate Technologies
- Beth Doerr, Intern Manager, ECHO
How to purify water, improve a cookstove, make an oil press, build a water pump, and more. Partnering with various organizations, ECHO has both hands-on experience and a large knowledge database of Appropriate Technologies. This talk will discuss choosing and using Appropriate Technologies to help subsistence farmers in developing countries in a sustainable manner.
Rescuing Rape Survivors, Obtaining Land Titles for the Poor, and More: Building a More Just Society in Honduras through Partnership with the Government
- Kurt Ver Beek, Vice President, Association for a More Just Society
NGOs often criticize governments for failing to protect human rights, enforce justice, and provide for the poor. But the Association for a More Just Society (AJS) has found that "slogging in the trenches" alongside government officials makes critiques more credible and produces far more life-changing, concrete results than criticism alone.
Transformational Advocacy: Engaging your Whole Life in your Real Life
- Julie Lunde, Faith and Justice Fellow, World Vision Acting on AIDS
How does advocacy look after college? What can you start now and keep up with after you leave school? What about when your job isn't at a non-profit? Is post-graduate advocacy really just for Òprofessional activistsÓ? Absolutely not! Acting on AIDS strives for advocacy that does more than change social structures. We're reaching for holistic advocacy that will change the advocates themselves, from the inside, out. Come and discuss what transformational advocacy means in your life, engaging the political, social, spiritual, and economic arenasÉ both right now and no matter what you're planning to do after graduation!
Experiences Working in Community Health
- Dr. Moises Moraga Amador, Country Representative of Nicaragua, Diakonia of Sweden
Community health is important to support communities in need in developing countries. Though it often starts from the "assistance perspective" of treating patients with medicine, organizations soon realize that this practice is unsustainable. Therefore the challenge is to discover and address underlying causes such as injustice, social and gender inequalities, unequal distribution of resources, exploitation of natural resources, and lack of access to education and national health services. In the end, community health means empowering communities to address their own problems and giving them the appropriate tools to discover and administer their capacities in the proper way. This is one of the main conclusions of Christian Medical Action after fifteen year of working in communities on the Atlantic Coast of Nicaragua.
Business as Mission and Development: New Grounds for Partnership?
- Prof. David Bronkema, Director of International Development Programs, Eastern University
This session will examine how the Business as Mission movement, while claiming to address social and development issues, is in fact quite weak in this area. It addresses the intriguing possibilities, promises, and pitfalls, that Business as Mission opens up in terms of creating partnerships between social movements that have traditionally regarded business as a barrier, rather than an ally in development and social change.
Supporting Local Capacities for Peace
- Abikok Riak, Director for Grants Acquisition and Management for Asia, the Middle East and Eastern Europe, World Vision, US
In the mid-1990s, the Local Capacities for Peace Project (LCPP)/Do No Harm was launched by the Collaborative for Development Action to investigate the relationship between assistance programs and conflict. In February 1998 World Vision Sudan, in partnership with WV Canada, joined the LCPP to investigate effects of its aid program on conflicts in southern Sudan and to demonstrate how field-based lessons learned through the project could be used to improve design and implementation of WV Sudan aid programs. Along with several other organizations such as CARE, Catholic Relief Services and Oxfam Quebec, World Vision became humanitarian guinea pigs. Overall, the experiment was successful. It's been over 10 years since WV began this journey to support local capacities for peace. This breakout session will explore WV's main lessons learned and provide specific examples of how a humanitarian organization can support local capacities for peace.