Reflect

Justice Sunday 2011: Justice is Aid with Dignity

UUSC's approach to rights in humanitarian crises

UUSC looks at race, class, and gender to understand why certain groups get left out of the relief and recovery process. Who people are impacts how they get help. The higher up you are on the ladder of class and race, the easier it is for you to access aid and to be seen and counted by those with resources, connections, and help. This is true in your daily life and exponentially true in disasters like the earthquake in Haiti. Everyone is affected, but some people will get help much faster than others.

UUSC’s unique niche is to find out who does not get help because of who they are — because of their color, their gender, their class, their religion. In Haiti, this might take the form of a young person, one of more than 9,000 people living in the houses and yards of family members who are part of the Papaye Peasant Movement (MPP). Scattered in the countryside, these earthquake survivors were invisible to the relief organizations working in the capital. The United Nations did not even put them on relief lists or provide food for them. But these survivors had lost everything — they were just as hungry as people who stayed in the capital, but they were unserved by the major relief systems in place. UUSC and the MPP provided food and supplies to these 9,000 survivors in the Central Plateau and then arranged temporary employment for them.

UUSC works to bring the invisible survivors of disasters into the light. Disaster survivors are not treated equally — and that inequality persists unless you apply the lens of justice.

Activities to cultivate reflection

• Plan a worship service.
  • Planning Guide
  • Sample Announcements
  • Mini-Poster [black-and-white, 8.5x11" suitable for personal printers]
  • Steps Toward Justice activity flyer
  • Sample sermon and suggested hymns and readings by Rev. Jan Carlsson-Bull (updated version incorporating events in Japan also available)
  • Order of service cover (letter size)
  • Order of service insert (letter size)
  • Order of service cover (legal size)
  • Order of service insert (legal size)

• Read roleplays that illustrate the challenges faced by the people during humanitarian crises.

• Listen to a discussion with award-winning Haitian author Edwidge Danticat about her book Krik? Krak!. The UUSC Get-Together "Conversation of Hope: Stories for Haiti" connected Danticat, UUSC experts, and listeners nationwide via conference call. Listen to the podcast now.

• Help children understand the challenges facing the children of Haiti. Consider reading together the book Eight Days, by Edwidge Danticat and Alix Delinois. (If you order from Powell's Books via UUSC's online store or the link above, a portion of the sale goes to UUSC to support our work!)

• Plan a workshop with your fellowship or community, drawing on UUSC's abundant resources. To get started, check out our many resources.

• Share your thoughts. Send your questions and ideas to us at volunteerservices@uusc.org, particularly if you've done an activity that we can share for others to consider.