CHRISTIAN RESPONSES IN TIMES OF CRISES
The theme for this year’s Global Health Council (GHC) meeting is “Global
Health in Times of Crisis.” Indeed, the subject seems timely. Millions of
people live with regular even daily fear, danger, and forced displacement.
Consider these peoples who have come to our consciousness because of complex
political and ethnic conflicts: Afghanis, Angolans, residents of the Balkans
and the Caucasuses, Colombians, Congolese, East Timorese, Rwandans, Ethiopian
and Eritreans, Palestinians, Chechnyan, Sierra Leoneans, Liberians, Somalis,
and Sudanese.
Add to these those people who suffer because of their community’s incapacity
to adequately respond to the forces of nature. In the first five months of
2002, floods have been endured by people in Afghanistan, Ethiopia, Ecuador,
Malawi, Bolivia, Peru, Indonesia, Senegal, and Iran. Earthquakes rocked
parts of Georgia, Afghanistan, China, the Philippines, Iran, Turkey, and
Tajikistan. Tropical storms took lives and property in Bangladesh, Madagascar,
Micronesia, and Mauritius and volcanoes threatened communities in Guatemala,
Mexico, and DR Congo. Add in devastating forest fires in Viet Nam,
a landslide in Papua New Guinea, and toxic pollution in Djibouti and Nigeria.
The health of the individuals and communities who suffer because of political,
natural, or environmental upheaval is often compromised and at risk for long
periods of time.
This volume of the Forum explains and explores Christian and church responses
to the challenges of providing healthcare to people living in broken places
with broken care and support systems. The reader will find personal accounts
of serving in refugee camps, presentations of resettlement activities for
refugees coming to the US, and many things in-between. I have included a
glossary of key terms and a brief list of websites that are good sources
for additional information on that complex system of aid commonly called
“emergency assistance”.
I trust you will be challenged and educated by this Forum on crisis.
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