Communication belongs at the heart of being on a Pilgrimage of Justice and Peace. We cannot give account of the reality around us or articulate our hope if we are not communicating this to one another and to the world. To share is to inform, but also to bring a challenge and a motivation into different contexts.

As the WCC has chosen Latin America as its focused region for 2018 within its programmatic framework of Pilgrimage of Justice and Peace, the WCC’s Ecumenical Water Network is showcasing an exhibition at the Ecumenical Center, in Geneva, on WATER, FOOD and CLIMATE CHANGE.

Each photograph tells a story of water justice from the Latin American region.

Photographer Sean Hawkey* went to Latin America in search of water justice stories, with an assignment from the World Council of Churches (WCC).

Latin America, one of the water rich continents is also facing a huge challenge of impact of climate change. As a result, the peasants and subsistence farming communities are facing prolonged drought, erratic rainfall and loss of crops, floods, soil erosion, etc.

The rampant mining – both legal and illegal, is making lives of these communities even more difficult.  To silence the critics and opposition, the mining mafia has disappeared several leaders of these communities. Aptly described by Sean, in these regions, “The blood flows and the rivers run dry”.

The exhibition is dedicated to the Earth Day, observed on 22 April.

*Photographer Sean Hawkey has worked extensively in Latin America and with the ecumenical movement, his work has been widely published.

To know more about WCC’s EWN please visit: http://water.oikoumene.org