What's up with Social Justice at UUCS? We hosted a quartet of college students on a unique summer mission. LiNK is a west-coast based grassroots NPO that helps rescue and resettle North Korean refugees, those desperate people who have managed to escape from North Korea and are hiding in China. Several teams of volunteers, mostly college students, tour the country for a semester or a summer, speaking to university audiences, church groups, or other community groups. Our quartet was Rene, Chelsea, Elyssa, and Bridget; only one of them had a Korean background, Rene, whose mother is South Korean. This work is truly a humanitarian effort, from their hearts. The only money the group receives from LiNK is for gas-- they all raised money from family, friends, etc., before they began their summer tour. Our church helped with their expenses while they were here and gave them dinner at Wonderful Wednesday, featuring not one, but TWO vegetarian lasagnas!
They spoke at the church July 21st to a good group of members and friends. This was a joint LFD-SJ hosting, and very exciting. The students presented a stirring documentary about North Korea and led the group discussion. You may see us sporting our fundraiser LiNK T-shirts, etc. Several people signed up to sponsor the LiNK rescue and resettlement work, at an affordable $9/month-- this will be about $500 /year coming from our church members. For more info on LiNK, go to www.linkglobal.org If you, too, sign up for a monthly sponsorship, please let me know at socialconcerns@uucs.org so we can have a church total.
The LiNK group hopes to return to Spartanburg when colleges are in session. Would you enjoy hosting them for a night or two? This was a great experience for us, but we want to share the fun, so email or let me (Alice) know if you'd like to have them. We look forward to seeing them or another LiNK team! This project may be presented to the church next spring as a choice for global social justice issue for 2011-2012.
More News: Did you know that the UU is listed as a "Meal-Sponsoring Church" on the SPIHN website? We have assisted Fernwood Baptist Church with their quarterly week-long hosting of SPIHN for years. SPIHN works to help homeless families re-group, resolve problems, and get back on their feet and into a permanent home. You'll see information on their fall benefit concert listed in the Happenings. We will offer our church covenant groups the opportunity to help SPIHN this year. For more info, go to www.spihn.org/
Green Sanctuary Program: We are preparing an application for a free environmental assessment this summer. It is great to see everyone being more conscientious about using the recycling containers in the church-- hope you are all doing this at home, too!
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
What's Up with Social Justice in July?
Trail of Dreams July Update
What’s going on with the four Dreamwalkers who came through Spartanburg? Since they completed their 1,500 mile walk from Miami to DC and participated in the immigration rights rally May 1st, they’ve been busy! Felipe Matos and Carlos Roa are in Arizona, advocating against the new state anti-immigrant law there. They will begin a new walk through Arizona, talking at community events. You can keep up with them at http://trail2010.org/
June 28th, Juan Rodriguez met with President Obama to relay the stories of the undocumented people they met on the trail. CNN recognized him as “one of the most intriguing people today.” The week before, Gaby Pacheco met with senators. Here is her post: "I was given the opportunity to participate at a meeting last week with key Senators. The purpose of this meeting was to talk about how to move immigration reform forward. Invitations to this meeting went out to every sector of the movement. Some of the people present at the meeting were Farm Workers Alliances, NCLR, SEIU, RI4A, and about 20 other national organizations."
The DREAM act (written, but not passed, or even voted on) would stop detentions and deportations of students brought to this nation as minors and would give them a pathway to citizenship through education or military service, as well as include some other moves toward comprehensive immigration reform.
