On the weekend of July 7-9th
TEAR held a conference here in Hobart in conjunction with
Forge called Re.imagine06: Developing a spirituality of mission + justice.
We were fortunate to have 2 international speakers who had just spoken at TEAR's national conference in NSW. Hellen Yego (pictured) is from Kenya and has worked for 15 years with the
Christian Community Services (CCS) of the Anglican Church in Kenya - one of TEAR Australia's partner organisations. She now works on advocacy campaigns with Kenyan farmers. Hellen is a farmer herself. Hellen spoke about her previous work and that of the CCS - especially the impact of improving access to water for rural households (building appropriate wells). This reduces disease, dramatically reduces time needed to collect water (and therefore can use the time more productively) and enables irrigation which increases production of crops and gardens.
Farmers are affected by international forces seemingly beyond their control. For example maize and dairy are significant sources of income for many Kenyans, however Kenya is the victim of "dumping" - for example they receive cheaper imported milk powder from New Zealand - cheaper because New Zealand farmers receive subsidies whereas the Kenya government does not provide assistance to small scale farmers.
At the last election Hellen was involved in a campaign to get more people to participate in voting (voting is not compulsory in Kenya). 80% of the population in Kenya live in rural areas. If more rural people and farmers vote then the government will have to be more accountable to this group of people. The voter turn-out was 15% greater than at previous elections. This is fantastic work - if more Kenyans vote, have access to information about candidates and make informed decisions then it is a powerful way for them to keep the government accountable and serve the interests of the people.
On a personal note, I was able to spend most of Mon & Tues after the conference with Hellen showing her around before she flew back to Melbourne and then on to Kenya. It was great to be able to ask her many questions and since she has been back in Kenya i've already received some text messages from her. I would like to keep in some sort of contact with her. I've decided that it will be very beneficial for me to keep in contact with friends in developing countries - especially in communities in which TEAR partner organisations work. I have one contact in Bangladesh who i've been in touch with via snail mail since my visit there (although it took me ages to write back the last time). This sort of real connection is an ideal antidote to apathy, because whilst we struggle to help our neighbours and love our enemies, it's very easy to love friends!
