2013 Women in our World.

Tradition, culture, political will, education and religious belief, all influence the place afforded women in our societies. Whilst countries in the Western world have seen considerable change for the better in the last century, women in many countries are still significantly disadvantaged. In Burkina Faso the literacy rate for girls is half that of boys. That is not because of ability, but because boys receive preference in schooling. The UN Development Program Report ranks Burkina Faso as the country with the lowest level of literacy in the world. Whilst this has improved in the last decade, female literacy is still around 12%, compared to over 25% for boys. But disadvantage has a more tragic consequence. There is an African saying: ‘A PREGNANT WOMAN HAS A FOOT IN THE GRAVE AND A FOOT ON THE EARTH’ Maternal Mortality is high at 484 deaths per 100,000 lives births in Burkina Faso Every year, more than 2,000 women die there from complications of pregnancy and childbirth. Most of these deaths could have been prevented. Several structural factors continue to prevent women from enjoying their right to health care that is available, accessible, acceptable and of good quality. Availability of care is undermined by a lack of adequate health facilities as well as shortages in medical supplies and personnel. Accessibility is hampered both by geographical and financial barriers and by women’s lack of information and decision-making power. Acceptability of care is compromised by the disrespectful or even cruel attitudes and conduct of some medical personnel. Quality of care is often inadequate, with medical staff not properly monitored or held accountable, and poor pay and conditions for staff. In Nepal a similar picture exists. Nepal is also one of the poorest countries in the world, and although men too face enormous difficulties, particularly those from the so-called ‘lower’ castes, women and girls are doubly disadvantaged because of the added burden of living in a deeply patriarchal society. In Nepal, society, institutions and communities continue to impede local women's ability to enjoy public life and limit their ability to negotiate their position according to their own interests and needs. International Needs in Nepal seeks to educate women and help them to build livelihoods as well as reclaim control over their bodies, their families and the right to choose and exercise their faith. At our vocational training centre in Kathmandu, we provide a safe and secure environment for women to come from all over Nepal and recover from any trauma of their recent lives, receive loving pastoral care and biblical teaching from the staff and local pastors, receive nutritious food (sometimes for the first time in their lives) are giving vocational training, most often in sewing and tailoring, educated in female and maternal health and hygiene, and are given a sewing machine to start their own business upon graduation. Here we meet not only our Gospel mandate but also Millennium Development Goals, namely • Goal 3: Promote gender equality and empower women; • Goal 5: Improve Maternal Health; • and Goal 8: in developing a global partnership for development. We have also made a bold statement in our leadership of our work – we have appointed a woman. In Burkina Faso we are also seeking to achieve these Millenium Development Goals: • Goal 3: Promote gender equality and empower women • Goal 4: Reduce child mortality rates • Goal 5: Improve maternal health • Goal 6: Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other diseases • Goal 8: Develop a global partnership for development We are seeking to do this through the Good News Secondary School we have establishes, which now sees over 400 pupils attending, the majority of them girls. This is all the more remarkable as this is a majority Muslim area where girls have traditionally been kept at home to carry out domestic duties. To compliment and build upon this success we have recently opened a community medical centre next to the school site. Here, as well as providing general primary medical care for the whole community surrounding the school, our medical practitioners are developing a women’s health centre of excellence. The weeks following the opening of the centre we saw hundreds of women queuing for screening. A large proportion of these were again Muslim. We are keen to provide good quality and widely accessible ante-natal and post-natal care to these women, who would otherwise receive very little, if any medical care surrounding pregnancy and child birth. To this end we have just managed to procure an Ultrasound device that our lead medical officer in Bobo had requested. This device will not only help in maternal care but will bring income from patients who can afford to pay for their screening and treatment. This is will help our partners bring sustainability to their work. In the developing world, many women are still disadvantaged. We want to make a world of difference to their life opportunities and this year wish to highlight their plight and provide means of alleviating their suffering, giving them hope and future in a holistic way.

Churches at the heart of mission?

I have a new blog reflecting on mission at: Internationalneeds.blogspot.co.uk Here is a taster: Churches - at the heart of mission? Today we know more about the world than ever before. World issues are presented to us every day. Children do projects on world issues at school, Fair Trade products are in the news and on our supermarket shelves, our televisions, radios and newspapers ‘show and tell’ to a degree that we can know more about far flung places and its people than we do about our neighbours. With this understanding and public interest, why then is world mission support and engagement in decline in our churches in the UK? The reasons are legion and complex. The world is in a time of unprecedented and rapid change and so is the church – which is popularly renowned for its reluctance to accommodate change. What future is there for Christian mission to a staggering array of cultures and subculture in this fast changing world? I would propose that we look to build an understanding, and therefore a platform for action to reverse this trend, based on two foundations: Firstly, the Church needs to relate to the whole world biblically. Our church culture on world mission is linked to a recognition, but little understanding of, the Great Commission: And Jesus came and said to them, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age." Matthew 28:18-20 (NRSV) This is most commonly understood as Jesus’ final command (which it is) but less often in the context of it being a culmination of the whole revelation of a great rescue plan for human beings and our world, based on the character of God. This is God’s world, He made it and cares for it. We are to care for it too as God’s stewards and we need to communicate the message of rescue and restoration to people everywhere. Even Jesus Christ, the Saviour of the world, set his own mission in this context: to proclaim good news to the poor, to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, and to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour. It is the character of the God we love that should motivate us to reach out in love to our world. It is playing our part in His mission to the whole world. Secondly, there is a need for some organisation reordering! This is not, I hope, shuffling deck chairs on the Titanic, but effectively organising ourselves to enable more Christians engage in God’s mission to the world. We have seen a transition from missionary societies to mission agencies over the last twenty years or so. This has facilitated people supporting particular projects rather the all embracing missionary society and has seen mission become task-orientated rather than mission family orientated where you became part of a close spiritual family – for life. This has had its pros and cons but I will not rehearse them here, as we are moving towards a new model for mission, one of world consultancies. Looking ahead to the next twenty years I suspect churches will look for partners to help them develop and deliver their response to a world in need; churches will look for partners to help them fulfil their world mission mandate. This will be a more service-orientated approach.