Prime Minister challenged over disabled people and development; Scots charity film in the running for Oscar success; Launch of Rachel Mann’s ‘Dazzling Darkness’
Prime Minister challenged over disabled people and development
Ekklesia reports that UK-based disability charities have called on Prime Minister David Cameron to put disabled people at the heart of international development plans.
Currently, the one billion disabled people worldwide are not effectively included within the United Nation’s Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
The PM, who is under fire for heading a government which is slashing welfare benefits for disabled people domestically, chaired an international summit on poverty in London on Thursday 1 November 2012.
A ‘High Level Panel of Eminent Persons’ is developing recommendations about what should replace the current Millennium Development Goals, a set of targets to reduce global poverty and improve living standards which run until 2015.
Many disabled people across the world are currently excluded from society and at a far greater risk of being trapped in extreme poverty.
Half of disabled people are out of work and of the 61 million children now out of school worldwide, one third have disabilities.
Head of Programmes Co-ordination at Christian charity The Leprosy Mission, Sian Arulanantham, commented: “We are lobbying for disability to be specifically included in the new post-2015 framework. This will oblige national governments to improve access to education, employment, healthcare and social support for disabled people.”
The Leprosy Mission is a member of the Bond Disability and Development Group (DDG) which brings together UK-based international development and disability organisations to ensure that disabled people’s concerns are addressed at the highest level.
Tim Wainwright, Chief Executive of ADD International and co-chair of the DDG, said: “There is currently not a clear enough focus on disabled people within international efforts to tackle poverty. This means that they miss out on having an education, a job, and an equal chance for full participation in society – things that most of us take for granted.”
He continued: “Disabled people must be included in the post-2015 framework targets so they have the same opportunities in life. Ultimately, extreme poverty cannot be eradicated without including people with disabilities in international development policies.”
Scots charity film in the running for Oscar success
A powerful new documentary film about the work of international charity Mary’s Meals is being launched at over 300 locations around the world on six continents, from living rooms to the big screen.
‘Child 31’, which had its British public premiere last Sunday, (4 November 2012), has already been endorsed by high profile figures including Gordon Brown, former Prime Minister and the newly appointed United Nations Special Envoy for Global Education, and popular singer Annie Lennox.
The film is the latest project for award-winning Brooklyn-based production company, Grassroots Films, who visited the charity’s projects in Malawi, India and Kenya to see the life-changing work of Mary’s Meals in action.
Mary’s Meals feeds over 700,000 children a meal every school day in some of the world’s most impoverished regions where hunger and poverty can prevent them from getting an education.
Featuring stories about the work of the charity, Child 31 is a captivating watch that focuses on the difference just one meal every school day can make to children living in extreme poverty.
The film was unveiled to the UK public by Gordon Brown at the 10th anniversary celebration of Mary’s Meals held at Glasgow Royal Concert Hall in Glasgow, Scotland.
http://www.ekklesia.co.uk/node/17302
Launch of Rachel Mann’s ‘Dazzling Darkness’
Rachel Mann’s passionate and thoughtful new book Dazzling Darkness: gender, sexuality and God, published by the Iona Community’s Wild Goose imprint, was launched at Manchester Cathedral, in the Nave, this week.
Dazzling Darkness is a true story about searching for one’s authentic self in the company of the living God. Rachel Mann has died many ‘deaths’ in the process, not the least of which was a change of sex, as well as coming to terms with chronic illness and disability.
Through these experiences she has discovered that darkness is as much a positive place as a negative one, inhabited by the Living God – the Dark God, the Hidden God. This is the God many of us, because we try to make our lives safe and comfortable, are too afraid to meet. This is the God who is most alive in those things we commonly associate with the Dark – failure, loss and brokenness.
The Christian church has legitimated certain ways of talking about God – male, fatherly, monarchical and so on. Many believe these descriptors tell the exhaustive truth about God.
In accepting the complexity of her sexuality and identity, Rachel Mann has been able to explore with a greater freedom what God might look like to an ‘unconventional creature’ like her.
This passionate and nuanced book brings together poetry, feminist theology, and philosophy and explores them through one person’s hunger for wholeness, self-knowledge and God.
Rachel Mann is an Anglican parish priest and writer. She is Resident Poet at Manchester Cathedral and her work has been widely published in magazines, anthologies and newsprint.
* Rachel Mann’s website resources: http://www.rachelmann.co.uk/
* Buy the book at Wild Goose Publications, and read an excerpt in PDF form: http://www.ionabooks.com/2427-9781849522410-Dazzling-Darkness.html