Lausanne World Pulse – World Pulse Archives – World Pulse Archives

AIDS: For the first time women made up 50 percent of those living with AIDS at the end of 2002. In sub-Saharan Africa the figure is 58 percent. A UN study in Zimbabwe found that girls made up two-thirds of the children withdrawn from school because of HIV/AIDS in their household. These girls are caring for family members or working in the fields, roles that women traditionally hold in Africa.

BRAZIL: Youth are learning the payoff of recycling through a vocational training program developed by World Vision and a local church near Recife, a city on Brazil’s northeast coast. A plastic recycling center will sort, clean and grind empty plastic containers into pellets that will garner four to five times more money from recycling companies than the original items.

GHANA: Church and lay leaders from the Twi and Kasena language groups are writing Bible commentaries in their mother tongue. A series of workshops helps leaders study the Word in their own language (rather than translating English commentaries), interact with biblical languages, consult resources, and think, write and reflect in the mother tongue.

INDIA: Rainwater harvesting, or RWH, in the city of Chennai (southern India) is helping to stop the country from going thirsty during non-monsoon months. In the past, 90 percent of the rain has been wasted, finding its way into the sea or running off into drains. An old idea adapted for urban use, rainwater falling on rooves can be gathered for household use in the kitchen and bathroom, and the rest can be channeled into wells. A harvesting system costs about $60 a house or $600 for a block of apartments. A slum dwelling can be set up for $4. On a typical Indian house, the technique can yield more than 700 liters per day in one year, enough for a five-member family. Several politicians have publicized RWH by installing it in their homes, and the government has made it mandatory for all new buildings. Chennai has 70,000 RWH structures so far, and Delhi is following suit.

INDONESIA: Parliament passed a controversial education bill on June 11 that has divided the nation. In the proposed law, a Christian school with 10 or more Muslim students must provide Islamic worship facilities and two hours of Islamic instruction per week for those students. The same rule will apply to Muslim and Hindu schools with 10 or more students from other religions. If the bill takes effect, thousands of Islamic religious teachers will have to be recruited for Christian schools nationwide. Many Muslims support the bill and minority Christian groups and secular Muslim organizations oppose it.

PAKISTAN: The provincial government of North West Frontier Province (NWFP) voted unanimously in early June to adopt Islamic law (sharia) in the region, which borders Afghanistan. This is the first time the strict code has been in force in the country. The bill gives sharia precedence over secular provincial law and stipulates that every Muslim will be bound by it. It proposes restricting the rights of women, and calls for education and financial systems to be brought into line with the teachings of the Koran. Following NWFP, Baluchistan’s provincial assembly is preparing to vote on a similar sharia bill. If Baluchistan’s bill passes, then half of Pakistan’s four provinces will be governed according to sharia. Critics fear a re-run of life under the Taliban in Afghanistan.

PARAGUAY: Contraband is a booming business, but the national economy is hurting. About one-fifth of the economy has been driven by illicit cross-border trafficking of everything from cigarettes and pirated Nintendo games to submachine guns. One of the poorest countries in Latin America and getting poorer, income per person has fallen by half in the last six years and more than one-third of Paraguayans live in abject poverty. Nearly one-fifth of the work force is jobless. With government revenues continuing a downward spiral, the new president-elect, Mr. Duarte Frutos, has promised to crack down on counterfeiting and contraband.

SIGN LANGUAGE: The number of known sign languages used in the world continues to grow, fueling increased interest in Bible translation for the deaf. SIL’s database of the world’s languages (www.ethnologue. com/ethno_docs/special.asp) currently lists 114 sign languages, compared to 77 on the list about 10 years ago.

SPAIN: While much of Europe debates how to limit immigration, in parts of rural Spain where village populations are dwindling, attracting immigrants is a solution. Until recently in Aguaviva, a village of Teruel, one of Spain’s poorest provinces, the young fled to the cities to work and only the old remained. The village decided to boost its population by advertising in Argentinian newspapers, offering free flights and a job for families with children willing to live and work there. Now the village school is thriving—less than half of the preschoolers in one class are Spanish—the rest are immigrants from South America and Eastern Europe.

UGANDA: Despite a Ugandan military offensive and peace-brokering efforts by church leaders, the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) continues to ravage northern Uganda. Recently several commanders deserted the LRA during peace talks with church officials. On radio equipment stolen from Catholic missions, LRA leader Joseph Kony was heard ordering his soldiers to destroy Catholic missions, and kill priests and missionaries. In May LRA militiamen broke into a Catholic seminary and abducted 44 young seminarians. Three escaped, but four are confirmed dead, and the remaining 37 are still missing. Nearly one million Ugandans have been forced into refugee camps by the LRA rebellion.

UNITED STATES: For the first time, Hispanics have outnumbered Black Americans to become the largest minority in the US, according to the Census Bureau. In the last two years they accounted for more than 50 percent of the total US population growth. Around one in three Hispanics are younger than 18, and one in five are in poverty, double the rate of the US population at large. Although lacking national political influence, Hispanics are influencing US culture through a burgeoning number of Spanish language TV stations, Web sites, magazines and music groups. Nearly one-third of the US population is now non-white.