The Pontifical Catholic University of Paraná in Brazil was accredited as a “Blue University” in a ceremony during the Peoples’ Water Forum in Colombia on 26 September.
The Pontifical Catholic University of Paraná in Brazil is looking at how to transform into a “Blue University.” Brother Rogério Renato Mateucci, rector, confirmed the university’s commitment to become part of the global Blue Community network.
The World Council of Churches (WCC) joined Caritas Internationalis, ACT Alliance, World Evangelical Alliance, and Lutheran World Federation in signing a joint letter to USAID administrator Samantha Power expressing concern over the suspension of food aid in Ethiopia.
After a years-long battle against proposed water-related legislation in Nigeria that had high potential for privatizing water, the World Council of Churches (WCC) Ecumenical Water Network in Nigeria celebrated the defeat of the proposed law, and pledged to continue to protect water as a human right.
Following three years of severe drought, in 2018 the City of Cape Town faced an unprecedented water crisis, known as “Day Zero.” Severe water restrictions were introduced to avoid Day Zero, the day in which the city would run out of water.
We mark 4 March as World Obesity Day. Overweight and obesity are defined as abnormal or excessive fat accumulation that presents a health risk. Obesity has more than tripled since 1975, and more than 1 billion people are obese in the world today.
On World Food Safety Day, clerics and farmers in Kenya reflected about aflatoxin—a group of poisons found in maize and peanuts—that continue to cause deaths and related diseases in the East African country.
In drought-stricken regions in eastern Africa, churches and church congregations continue to pray for rain, as the weather conditions leave millions of people without food, water and pasture for their animals.
As the war in Ukraine triggers an unexpected rise in food and commodity prices in African markets, church leaders are reaching out to communities struggling with food insecurity and shortages.
At the recently concluded World Social Forum in Mexico City, a delegation from the World Council of Churches (WCC) reflected on ecological justice by addressing the nexus between water, food and climate change.
As many communities worldwide battle to get food to the table, a World Council of Churches (WCC) webinar titled ‘Racism, Land and Food' highlighted the intersections of food, land, and racial injustices on food sovereignty over generations of dispossessed groups.
In many parts of Ethiopia, the forests surrounding churches and monasteries are among the last remaining in the country. They are severely threatened as people cut trees to obtain firewood. The church fights for the preservation of the forests by making local communities more aware of the link between the forests and water availability and by helping them to find alternative livelihoods for themselves and their families.
An online event held on 22 July marked the launch of the Ecumenical Water Network Brazil, an initiative that intends to articulate several ecumenical organizations and interfaith voices with the purpose of raising awareness about the life cycle of water.
As tension grows in the long-running regional dispute over a giant dam built by Ethiopia on the Blue Nile, one of the Nile River’s main tributaries, World Council of Churches (WCC) acting general secretary, Rev. Prof. Dr. Ioan Sauca appealed to all WCC member churches in Ethiopia, Egypt, Sudan and around the world to pray for a peaceful solution to the problem.
Areas around the River Pardo in northeastern Brazil are home to more than one million people. Included in them are traditional communities such as the quilombolas (descendants of runaway African slaves), the geraizeiros and others. Each year they see less water in their river. “This is not solely due to the reduction in rainfall.
The Brazilian municipality of Juiz de Fora has approved a cooperation agreement with Swiss Church Aid (HEKS/EPER), a member of the WCC’s Ecumenical Water Network (WCC-EWN), thus becoming part of an international working group that wants to contribute to good water management and management practices using a water flow diagram. The project also encompasses the city of Bern, Switzerland; Cape Town, in South Africa, and Rio Pardo de Minas, in Brazil.
The Institute for Church and Society in Nigeria is raising awareness of the 2.2 billion people living without access to safe water globally by participating in the World Council of Churches' Seven Weeks for Water Lenten campaign.
Anglican bishops across the world have signed a petition calling for an immediate halt to oil drilling in the Kavango Basin, Namibia, by Canadian Company ReConAfrica.
The World Council of Churches Ecumenical Water Network sent a letter of appreciation on 31 October to Prof. Leo Heller as he completed his term as the UN special rapporteur for the human right to safe drinking water and sanitation.
African Church leaders are highlighting the need to tame the continent’s persistent post-harvest losses, as organizations point at rising food insecurity due to the coronavirus pandemic.
