Suffer Together, Celebrate Together: How Farmers Fight for Survival in Thailand
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Supporting a persecuted Sri Lankan community through crisis after crisis
The Sri Lankan economic crisis that began in 2019 was so severe that, at one point according to the World Food Programme, over 30% of Sri Lankans were not getting enough to eat. Inflation soared. Sri Lankans faced a shortage of life-saving medical supplies. People waited in long lines for hours to purchase gasoline. The …
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“Our vision is for a more just and equitable society”: Reflections from Guatemala
Lesbia Morales is in her early 30s. She was the first woman president of AJWS grantee Comité Campesino del Altiplano (CCDA), a grassroots organization of small-scale farmers supported by AJWS. The group works in 11 regions throughout Guatemala to confront land rights challenges and meet the needs of rural, predominantly Mayan communities. Now, Lesbia coordinates CCDA’s political education …
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Mayan communities advocate for their land: Reflections from Guatemala
“The Time of Suffering”—what the Q’eqchi’ Mayans call the 30 plus years of conflict that ended in the mid 1990s—hit hard in Alta and Baja Vera Paz, two departments in north-central Guatemala that faced brutal massacres and violence. AJWS grantee Union of Peasant Organizations of Vera Paz (UVOC) works in this region.
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The Movement and the Mine
In 2012, Bernardo was shot and killed. Locals allege that he was assassinated by supporters of the mining project in an attempt to silence the opposition. While his murderers remain at large, the people he left behind have refused to give in to fear and intimidation. With support from Colectivo Oaxaqueño and other AJWS grantees …
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Indigenous communities defend their land and way of life
Indigenous communities work together to defend their land and way of life. In Guatemala, indigenous people whose families have lived and farmed in one place for generations are now facing rapid encroachment on their land and way of life. Many Mayan communities lack official land titles, despite obvious historic and cultural ties to their land. …
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Defending Land for Rural Farmers in Burma
Although the majority of Burma’s people live off the land, few Burmese laws give them any control over it. In most cases, the government owns the land, and it’s not difficult for government officials and agencies to take it back—or let a major corporation step in to develop it for their own profit. It’s particularly …
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Pinchas
As I stood in the magnificent Magen Avot synagogue in Alibag, India, I felt the sweat trickle down the side of my face. Though it was hot, the sweat was born out of nervousness and intense regret, not the sweltering heat. The High Holidays were around the corner and I was at the synagogue teaching …
Read MoreBeha’alotcha
Parashat Beha’alotcha contains one of the many episodes of grumbling during the Israelites’ journey through the desert. Lamenting their limited diet of manna, they nostalgically remember the variety of food they ate in Egypt. A close look at their complaint, and the symbolism of the foods they crave, can shed light on the contemporary issue of global hunger and the current debate over how international food aid from the United States should be delivered.
Read MoreVayikra
Parashat Vayikra catalogues the slicing, pinching, quartering, flaying, scooping, sprinkling and burning that comprised ancient Israel’s practice of korbanot—sacrifices offered in expiation, celebration or thanksgiving to God. Ritual sacrifice was a thoroughly hands-on affair, with both offeror and priest physically participating in the labor. Such gritty involvement in the process must have channeled primal drives …
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