Cruel land thefts continue 500 years later, taking livelihoods and lives By Cindy Corell | Mission Co-worker Haiti Five rooms of the house had been laid out. Cinder blocks outlined the home; some walls were as high as an adult. Room-by-room, block-by-block, Rita Lucas and her family were building a new house. It had taken… Read more »
June 30, 2023
Doctrine granted Europeans right to indigenous nations
Cruel land thefts continue 500 years later, taking livelihoods and lives By Cindy Corell | Mission Co-worker Haiti Five rooms of the house had been laid out. Cinder blocks outlined the home; some walls were as high as an adult. Room-by-room, block-by-block, Rita Lucas and her family were building a new house. It had taken… Read more »
By Herman Kumara | Chairperson, Praja Abhilasha, Sri Lanka The Sri Lankan Civil War ended in 2009 and by 2010 country rulers declared that Sri Lanka was on its way to becoming a middle-income country with the scaling back of military spending. However, by the end of the 2019, Sri Lanka’s budget deficit had ballooned… 
By Rev. Eduardo Arboccó | Reformed Evangelical Church of Peru Para la versión en español In 1993, the United Nations proclaimed a resolution promoting the celebration every August 9 of “International Day of Indigenous Peoples.¨ So, who are indigenous peoples? And how do we celebrate their day? One definition of indigenous peoples states that: “they… 
By Rev. Ellie Stock I Once upon a time there be . . . There be a Doctrine of Discovery, Dum Diversas, Romanus Pontifex, and Inter Caetera, three decrees, Papal bulls of the 15th century (lead bulla sealing with the heads of Peter and Paul, two saints they be), Promised Land conquest, Christendom, and Crusading… 
FONDAMA is committed to the long road to justice By Fabienne Jean | FONDAMA, Joining Hands Haiti In my country, Haiti, hunger, poverty and deprivation destroy the dignity of more than 70% of the population. People are reduced to spending all their lives in one and only quest – the quest for survival. Coming from… 
The Presbyterian Hunger Program has been a long time advocate of efforts to defend the land rights of communities. Much of our work through the Joining Hands initiative is to support communities in their efforts to prevent forced evictions, displacements, destruction of the environment, and loss of livelihoods due to land grabbing. Too often we… 
Joining Hands Sri Lanka continues to make gains in the fight for land rights as tourism grows By Herman Kumara | Praja Abhilasha “Building Back Better” continues to be the World Bank’s motto for “rebuilding stronger, faster, and more inclusively” after natural disasters. The motto was first introduced during the post 2004 tsunami development process…. 
Praja Abhilasha network has been fighting alongside communities to regain lands taken during wartime and after the tsunami By Raajan Francis | Praja Abhilasha On December 26, 2004, a powerful tsunami waves devastated the Sri Lankan coastal areas around the country destroying fishing villages, flooding rice fields and plantations and sowing grief among rural and… 
Palm oil industry fuels land grab, deforestation and climate change By Eileen Schuhmann | Presbyterian Hunger Program Imagine looking straight ahead and seeing a perfectly straight line of oil palm trees. Everywhere you look, to the left, to the right, at every angle, a perfectly straight line. This is what it is like in an…