 | Fergus Drake Formerly a programme director for Tearfund | |||
THE CHURCH AND DON CORLEONE are not natural bedfellows but you might be surprised to learn of their impact when the chips are down. Back in 1994 I was sent to Japan to help with emergency relief work after an earthquake in Kobe which killed more than 6,000 people and left 250,000 homeless. Unfortunately the national government was very slow to respond in the first few days of the tragedy, as were the rest of the International Community. “The people who came to their immediate aid was the Yakuza - the Japanese Mafia”Speaking to people on the street, the people who did come to their immediate aid were the Yakuza, the Japanese Mafia. They had the resources and the infrastructure to hand out food, money and blankets to those people most in need. Perhaps in a country were the concept of "respect" is held very sacred they knew that in the long term they were winning a huge public relations victory over the state. Five years later when I worked in Liberia and Sudan with Christian relief and development charity Tearfund I found time and again that the only institution which continued to function effectively amidst widescale human catastrophe was… the church. “The practice of only giving assistance if someone converts to Christianity is now history.”The church has a long-term presence in every village at the end of every dusty track across whole swathes of Africa. A legacy of the colonial past, perhaps, but who better to get aid to the poorest in the community and to be accountable to the same community that they serve long after the LandCruisers and satellite phones of the international community have moved on to the next incident? While the church has historically earned a deservedly bad reputation for "rice Christians", the practice of only giving assistance if someone converts is now history. All the reputable Christian charities are now signed up to international criteria such as the Sphere project or the Red Cross Code of Conduct that state that aid will not be given on the basis of creed, colour, disability, sexuality or religious affiliation. So when the next big tragedy strikes, it may be worth having a Christian charity in your portfolio as they can be the most effective in getting aid where it is needed most. And then there’s always the Mafia... > Keeping quiet for Africa [0] > More Expert opinions [0] > More Features [0] > Our religious charity listings [0] |