MAY/JUNE 2007

May 1st, 2007

Editorial New Covenant with the Poor.. Zoe’s Place.. Mary Thompson Fund.. News from Albania.. Baghdad Central Training Hospital for Children.. Wolisso hospital Etiopia.. Cluster weapons.. Fr Tony Storey.

Editorial Our May meeting celebrates the tenth anniversary of the New Covenant with the Poor signed by Bishop John on 18 May 1997. This pledged the diocese to seek justice and to campaign for a more equitable distribution of wealth and resources and promised to set aside 1% of diocesan investment income to promote this. The Annual National Justice & Peace Conference Called to be Peacemakers is to be held at Swanwick 20-22 July. Pax Christi and the Fellowship of Reconciliation are joining with NJPN for this. Speakers will include Fr John Dear SJ from the US. He writes, acts and supports peace-work in the US and beyond, focusing particularly on Jesus. Zoughbi Zoughbi is a Palestinian Christian from Bethlehem and founder of the Palestinian Centre for Conflict Resolution and he will join in sharing scriptural and political insights into work for peace and non- violence. We will also hear from Maya Evans, the first person to be arrested under the new security laws for reading out the names of the Iraqi dead in Downing Street, Ihtisham Hibatullah, of the Muslim Association of Britain, and Roula Marrouf, a third generation Palestinian from Lebanon, currently studying in London. This is always an excellent conference. Why not come and see for yourself? Apply to NJPN 39 Eccleston Square. London SW1V 1BX Tel: 020 7901 4864 John Blatchford has rejigged our website and now includes a blog site – this allows readers to comment on issues raised in the newsletters. We wait to see how well this is used. Perhaps our more youthful readers may find this of particular value. Just hours before this newsletter went to press we heard of the death of Fr Tony Storey. He has been a great supporter of the Commission since it was started and has become a dear friend to so many of us. The next issue will include a longer tribute to him. Chris Dove New Covenant with the Poor In this Covenant, signed on 18 May 1997 by Bishop John, we promised to recognise our common responsibility to people in poverty both in the Developing World and in the United Kingdom. Under the first category, the promise was to support the work of CAFOD, raise awareness about conditions in the developing world, the causes of poverty and ways of bringing about positive change, to campaign for the cancellation of Third World Debt and reflect on our lifestyles, examining barriers to fair trade and just working conditions. The second category included giving a voice to people living in poverty here, identifying the causes of poverty and campaigning for political changes to improve the situation, challenging our own prejudices so that we can stand alongside those in need, and cooperating with other churches and organisations in initiating practical action. To keep all these issues in mind, the Covenant required that our prayers and liturgy would reflect these concerns.

What has been achieved in these ten years? As a Commission we printed and framed copies of the Covenant and delivered them to every church in the diocese. We also compiled and printed a booklet of Prayers for the Covenant with the Poor, and again copies were sent to all parishes. There were prayers for each Sunday of the year for Years A, B, &C. [I have never heard of these prayers being used; in many churches the Covenant is not on display]

What about the 1% of dividend income? It had been agreed that the diocese will send the money overseas one year and use it locally the next. The sums disbursed over the years have been: 2001 £1407 to CAFOD 2002 £1853 to CAFOD 2003 £1255 to Zoe’s Place 2004 £1312 to Corpus Christi Carmelites for their Liberia Mission 2005 £1120 to The Mary Thompson Fund

2006 £1100 Baghdad Hospital and £1100 to the Albania Appeal for Sr Imelda’s work.

Here are some accounts of how the money has been used.

“Every bud deserves a chance to bloom” Zöe’s Place, Middlesbrough is situated in Normanby High Street. It is set in beautiful grounds, in a tranquil setting and is designed to care for infants who have life limiting illnesses, special and complex needs to varying degrees. The first children were welcomed by our Nurses in January 2004. Zöe means ‘Gift of Life’ in Greek and here at Zöe’s we believe that life is precious no matter how long we may live for. Our aim is to provide holistic family care in a safe, consistent, home from home environment. Our infants come to Zöe’s for 1-1 nursing, respite and palliative care and to maintain their lifestyles as if at home through play, touch and stimulation making everything they do as much fun as possible.

Zöe’s Place staff deliver specialist nursing care and support for infants from birth to 5 years old, who have a wide range of physical disabilities and life limiting illnesses/special needs, but do not require care in an acute setting. This may be respite or extended stays which are tailored to meet the individual needs of the infant and their family.

Zöe’s Place Baby Hospices are unique, apart from Liverpool and Normanby, there are no other baby hospices in the country. Zoe’s Place is a registered charity. No charge is made to families accessing our services. We need to raise funds to ensure we can provide this care each and every day. The Mary Thompson Fund (Charity No 1112610) continues to raise and administer a hardship fund for those seeking asylum across the Tees Valley Area. In the main, the fund is used to prevent destitution and starvation for those whose appeals have been refused and whose support has therefore been withdrawn. Often support is withdrawn even though it is not safe to return people to their country of origin. The fund provides £5.00 and a bag of food each week to around 100 people. Just to provide this basic facility the fund needs to raise £2,000 per month. Trustees of the fund meet weekly to consider many other requests for support from the fund. Recent examples have been essential clothing, underwear and footwear and replacement of broken spectacle frames. The fund has also met travel costs for people to attend appointments with solicitors where there is a real chance that legal representation will help to achieve success in a further appeal. It has also met travel costs for a local representative who is seeking asylum, to attend essential national meetings – to gain both knowledge and experience to help their cause and to help others. To quote one recent recipient of funds; “The Mary Thompson Fund has been my lifeline. To know that I can at least get some food each week. I could not have managed otherwise.” NEWS FROM ALBANIA! During January I visited 15 health posts situated all over the country as the Coordinator of the Health Sector for Caritas Albania. The major sicknesses suffered by the people in this area are from ‘Parasites’ due to poor hygiene, lack of clean water and poor sanitation.

Health Education, focusing on hygiene, is high on the agenda for 2007. Other major problems are as a result of the climate which is very humid and damp. Many suffer from rheumatism and arthritis, particularly the women, who do all the work to produce vegetables on the mountain side.

A big issue in this area is the future of the children who receive no education after thirteen years of age. Migration from the mountain is their only hope.

Funding is now in place to launch a new project with the Roma community who live in dire poverty. A partnership has been made with an organisation founded by the Salesians with ten years experience working with the Roma. CAFOD Albania are also advising. The first step will be to ask the CAFOD Law project to help every person in this community to get registered and therefore become legalized and eligible for all citizens rights including education. There are up to fifty children in this community none of whom have ever had any education.

Another major aspect of the work is against the trafficking of human beings from Albania. We are engaged in awareness raising programs throughout the country. Caritas also has a house of safety for the victims of trafficking. The People of the N.E. have supported all the work in Albania. Groups from different parishes, individuals, and the Bishop’s Diocesan fund, have all contributed to the work here. Without this help much of these new developments would not have materialized. For this I am so grateful. Please pray with us for all of these ventures. Imelda Poole IBVM

Baghdad Central Training Hospital for Children

Back in 2004, responding to a feature on BBC News, we contacted Orla Guerin about the plight of children suffering from leukaemia in Baghdad Central Hospital. We then established contact with Professor Ibrahim Al-nassir and Dr Jaffar Al-ghaban and received a list of their most urgent requirements, especially paediatric oncology drugs. Over £52,000 of vital supplies were airlifted to Baghdad last summer. The British Embassy handed the supplies over on behalf of the Diocese and the project team. These are some of the recent messages received from the Hospital: On behalf of our Oncology Staff in the Central Teaching Hospital for Children we want to thank Bishop John Crowley and the Catholic Community, and everyone else, for their great help to our unit specifically and our hospital in general. We are looking forward to more inter-relations for the sake of humanity. God will bless you all. Best Regards, Jaffar Dr Jaffar Al-Ghaban

“Hello Everybody

In October, Jaffar sent our project team another detailed list of urgent requirements. Several days later Jaffar emailed with some additional requests to this list:

“Dear John and Friends We are appreciating your help too much and I am sometimes ashamed to embarrass you by our frequent needs which are a real emergency to us… Best Regards Jaffar”

On the 29th December we received the following poignant message from Baghdad, several weeks after the bomb attack on the hospital: “Dear John and Friends, Happy New Year for all of you I wish God to protect you and wish you all your days happy and safe from terrorists and terrorism. Please pray for my country, Best regards, Jaffar”

On the 22nd April we received the following message from the Hospital: “Dear John We are at zero point. We urgently need the next consignment. I have spoken to Roua in the Ministry of Health. We can speed up the formalities to make it easier for you to get your supplies to us.”

The next consignment is to be delivered in May. It is likely that the supplies will be delivered to the ‘Green Zone’ for safety and then transferred to the Hospital. Every item is of vital importance for the children and the medical team. John Hinman

Apart from these projects funded through the New Covenant with the Poor, some of our parishes have become involved with overseas projects. As an example, St Francis of Assisi, Acklam, has been supporting Wolisso Hospital in Ethiopia.

Wolisso Hospital, Ethiopia The links between Wolisso hospital and the people of the North East of England go back over 20 years. It started after Dr John O’Neill, then working as a general practitioner in Middlesbrough, was asked for help in the establishing a new hospital in a deprived and remote area of Ethiopia. He already had links with the country, as he and his wife Veronica, a biology teacher, had been visiting regularly over a number of years.

The construction of the hospital with the nursing school was completed in 2001. The building belongs to the Ethiopian Catholic Church. The aim of the hospital is to provide a high quality health service which is accessible to everyone, particularly the most needy: women and children. The hospital has 120 beds and, became fully operational during 2003. A specialist orthopaedic ward has been operational since October 2002 and since February 2004 an ophthalmologic service has been available.

In 2003 the nursing school, an annex of the hospital, graduated 23 professional nurses and enrolled 23 new students in the first year. Since then, the numbers trained each year has risen to nearly a hundred, massively increasing the workforce for a country that needs every nurse it can get.

Alongside the hospital and school projects, an area-wide project runs in conjunction with government services. There is support for mother-and-child activities, three dispensaries, as well as a public hygiene centre. There is a very successful water sanitation project, bringing clean water to surrounding villages.

The generosity of all those who help fund this work is greatly appreciated. Paddy O’Neill

Cluster weapons –some good news The case for banning the use of cluster weapons has been argued here for some years. At a meeting called by the Cluster Munition Coalition in Oslo 22-23 February, the UK delegation agreed at the last moment “to join a fast track process to negotiate a ban on cluster bombs.” Prior to this the UK argued that the only way forward was within the Geneva disarmament conference. We would have to wait until everyone agreed on definitions etc. etc.

The new situation is not entirely satisfactory as the UK have only agreed to ban the use of two weapons systems and will continue to use the Israeli made M85 artillery rocket delivered cluster munitions which caused such devastation in Lebanon. The argument is that these will self-destruct and so not remain as an ongoing menace. The evidence does not support this belief. We will need to carry on the campaign to ban them all.

At Oslo 46 nations agreed to commit to a cluster weapon ban in 2008. Those refusing to sign up to the declaration include: Australia, India, Pakistan, China, Japan, Romania, Poland, the United States, Israel, Iraq, and Saudi Arabia. Source: LandmineAction

Commission contacts Barbara Hungin Chair 01642 784398 Sr Mary Walmsley CJ Secretary 01904 464919 Nan Saeki Treasurer 01904 783621 Chris Dove Editor 01947 825043 email: dove.whitby@phonecoop.coop or 22 Blackburns Yard Whitby YO22 4DS website:www.ayton.info/middlesbroughjp May 19 10th Anniversary of Diocesan New Covenant with the Poor July 14 “Honouring Creation” Prayer walk in the Wolds Sept 15 Prisons and Prison Justice St Francis M’bro Nov 17 Youth Forum Middlesbrough A church that doesn’t provoke any crises, a gospel that doesn’t unsettle, a word of God that doesn’t get under anyone’s skin, a word of God that doesn’t touch the real sin of the society in which it is being proclaimed – what gospel is that? Very nice, pious considerations that don’t bother anyone, that’s the way many would like preaching to be. Those preachers who avoid every thorny matter so as not to be harassed, so as not to have conflicts and difficulties, do not light up the world they live in. Oscar Romero. The Violence of Love.

Postscript

Fr. Tony Storey. It is with great sadness that we report the death of Fr. Tony Storey. Tony had undergone heart surgery in Hull at the end of February. He was a founder member of the Middlesbrough Diocese J & P Commission; an inspiration and support to us all over many years and a man steeped in the gospel values of peace and justice. He was much loved by so many. Barbara.