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Providing migrants and refugees a platform to share their concerns, challenges, and aspirations not only helps them, but also addresses xenophobia and helps build bridges with host communities, participants at a recent conference found.

The World Association for Christian Communication is creating a rapid response fund to help support grassroots community media outlets that provide accurate, trusted coronavirus-related information to vulnerable people who often cannot access mainstream media. Individuals and organisations are encouraged to contribute to the fund.

L’Association mondiale pour la communication chrétienne met sur pied un fonds de réponse rapide pour venir en aide aux médias communautaires et populaires diffusant des informations exactes et fiables au sujet du COVID-19 aux personnes vulnérables qui, bien souvent, n’ont pas accès aux médias traditionnels. Les individus et les organismes sont encouragés à y contribuer.

Ma’alul, a Palestinian village destroyed in the 1948 Arab-Israeli war, saw a visit by ecumenical accompaniers in mid-March. “I would have liked to invite you to a real home, not just as a refugee,” said Jad Saba Yusef Salem as he received the group of accompaniers to the village. Today, 95-year-old Salem is one of few remaining survivors from the 75 families who used to live in the village back in 1948.

À la mi-mars, les accompagnateurs et accompagnatrices œcuméniques se sont rendu-e-s à Ma’alul, un village palestinien détruit pendant la guerre israélo-arabe de 1948.

In a country now counting 100 million inhabitants, and where 2.5 percent are added annually, it is increasingly hard for the government to keep pace with the needs of its people. “In this challenging environment, the work of non-governmental organisations is critical in order to ease the burden on public service institutions”, explains Dr Maged Moussa Yanny, general director of EpiscoCare.

Dealing with people on the move is crucial to the work of the Church in the 21st century says Greek Metropolitan Gabriel of Nea Ionia and Filadelfia. More than 31,000 irregular migrants arrived in Greece by sea in 2018 and almost 17,000 arrived by land, according to the UN’s International Organization for Migration (IOM).

On 14-16 December, the Conference of European Churches and Cumberland Lodge in the UK will host an Ecumenical Conference on Human Rights with the theme “Towards Peaceful Coexistence in the Middle East: Challenges and Opportunities.”

“I didn’t have any document that says who I am, so I started to look for answers that would help me to understand the real definition of my condition as a stateless person”, said Maha Mamo in a video interview published by World Council of Churches communications.

At a global conference on xenophobia in Rome, a panel of four religious leaders from, respectively, Buddhist, Christian, Hindu and Islamic traditions, spoke candidly about how xenophobia can sometimes be woven deeply into the fabric of these traditions.

À l’occasion d’une conférence mondiale sur la xénophobie organisée à Rome, un panel de quatre responsables religieux respectivement de tradition bouddhiste, chrétienne, hindoue et islamique, se sont exprimés ouvertement sur la manière dont la xénophobie peut parfois être profondément ancrée dans le tissu de ces traditions.

World Council of Churches leaders spoke on the theme “Hospitality: On a Pilgrim’s Way of Justice and Peace" at a symposium on 23 August at the Protestant Theological University Amsterdam.

Les dirigeants du Conseil œcuménique des Églises (COE) ont pris la parole autour du thème «L'hospitalité sur le chemin de la paix et de la justice», et ce, à l'occasion d'un symposium organisé le 23 août par l'Université théologique protestante d'Amsterdam.

Heads of churches in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories have reacted with dismay and concern to the Israeli Knesset’s adoption on 19 July 2018 of a new Basic Law: Israel as the Nation-State of the Jewish People, which specifies that “The right to exercise national self-determination in the State of Israel is unique to the Jewish people.”

Les responsables des Églises d'Israël et des Territoires palestiniens occupés ont réagi avec consternation et préoccupation à l'adoption par la Knesset israélienne, le 19 juillet 2018, d'une nouvelle loi fondamentale: Israël, État-nation du peuple juif. Cette loi stipule que «le droit à l'autodétermination nationale au sein de l'État d'Israël ne concerne que le peuple juif».

On 27 March, a hug between a 7-year-old girl, Majida, and her grandmother reflected the bright light of possibility that the ecumenical Humanitarian Corridors project continues to bring to refugees arriving in Italy. The child was waiting with other family members at the Fiumicino Airport in Rome as her grandmother arrived, safely and legally, in Italy from Lebanon.

To mark the International Day of Sport for Development and Peace, sport demonstrations, cultural activities, and a #whitecard torch relay, with which the WCC and some of its partner organizations are linked, will be held in Za’atari Refugee Camp in Jordan on 6 April.

On 20 March the unique program aiming to empower Syrian-Armenian youth who escaped the ongoing conflict in Syria and settled in Armenia was launched in Yerevan. Through training, capacity building and joint activities, the project aims to deepen the relations between Syrian and local Armenian youth.

Le 20 mars, le programme unique visant à donner des moyens d’action aux jeunes Syro-Arméniens ayant fui le conflit syrien et s’étant installés en Arménie a été lancé à Erevan. Grâce à des formations, à des actions de développement des compétences et à des activités communes, le projet veut renforcer les relations entre les jeunes Syriens et les jeunes Arméniens locaux.

Sitting in a tent at the Souda camp, on the island of Chios in Greece, a Pakistani family of 12 recalls the lives they had in their home country. They had everything except safety. Muhammed and his wife, Asia, along with their 10 children, fled their home country in search of a place where they weren’t constantly fearing for their lives.