News from the Field

We're excited to welcome Laurel Luke as a new Do Justice columnist, focusing on criminal justice!

Four years ago, I knew very little about criminal justice reform or prisons. I didn’t know anyone who had been to prison, have any knowledge around what a prison was like or how long people stayed, and I didn’t have a clue what legislation or stories got people locked up. All I knew was that prisoners did something bad, were serving a sentence, and most would be released.

About 700 women die each year in the U.S. as a result of pregnancy or delivery complications.¹ This rate of pregnancy-related death is higher in the United States than the rates in other industrialized nations.

The following story is a real account of what happened, although for the safety of those involved we have chosen not to use their names. The story can also be found in Spanish below the English version, since the stories were first shared with us in Spanish by the Costa Rican man mentioned in them.

“Earth’s climate is now changing faster than at any point in the history of modern civilization, primarily as a result of human activities,” 13 U.S. federal agencies declared in the Fourth National Climate Assessment. It was issued on Black Friday, November 23. You can read it at https://nca2018.globalchange.gov.

Melissa is the newest member of the Office of Social Justice team. She joins our team this week as the Justice Mobilization Specialist, and will work to network and encourage justice seekers as they take next steps on their justice journeys. Melissa was a Legislative Assistant to Representative Luis Gutierrez where she wrote sign-on letters, internal memoranda, and various materials for the Congressman's work in the Congressional Hispanic Caucus. She has a Bachelor of Social Work from Calvin College and a Master of Social Work from the University of Michigan.  

Andrew is the newest member of the Office of Social Justice team. He joins our team this week as the Justice Mobilization Specialist, and will work to network and encourage justice as they take next steps on their justice journeys. Andrew was the Student Body President at Calvin College and also worked on campus with the Campus Involvement and Leadership Office where he oversaw the recruitment and training of orientation interns. He has his B.A.

For the last two years we’ve been working in Northern Uganda to respond to the influx of South Sudanese refugees that fled here due to war. We responded through the WASH program—we constructed  770 communal pit latrines along with hand washing stations. PSNs (People with Special Needs) are people who are not able to build the latrines themselves– the elderly, disabled, child headed households, and single female headed households. 

The morality of any society can be judged by how it cares for people and how it cares for God’s gift of creation.

The Clean Water Rule, put forward by  the Environmental Protection Agency in 2015, provided long-sought clarity about the application of the Federal Clean Water Act. As noted recently by Pope Francis, clean water is a basic human necessity and a gift God has given to humanity to safeguard.

Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It’s not.

                    -Dr. Seuss, The Lorax

Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha, the doctor who brought attention to the impact that Flint’s water was having on children, opens her book with these lines from Dr. Seuss.

In January 2018, the Trump administration held back $65 million of a planned contribution of $125 million to the United Nations agency charged with caring for Palestinian refugees, known as UNRWA (United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East).