A letter from Bob and Julie Dunsmore in Bolivia
March 6, 2008
Dear Friends,
The Joining Hands network of Bolivia, Joining Hands for Life, or “Uniendo Manos por la Vida” (UMAVIDA), is involved in two causes that are supported by most of Latin America and many countries around the world.
In 2008, UMAVIDA is focusing much of its time and energy on helping the people of Bolivia study and evaluate the new draft for a national constitution, the product of the work of over 200 representatives for more than a year. This draft, which provides better protection of human rights and of Bolivia’s natural resources, will be placed before the citizens for a referendum vote on May 3. We ask your prayers for the Bolivian people and for their leaders, as they consider this important document.
For a people who have experienced 500 years of slavery to decipher how to become involved in the virtual re-founding of a their country (the implication of the new constitution) is a task worthy of your support, prayers, and celebration.
In addition, this year UMAVIDA has chosen to initiate an international campaign with the theme of access to pure water as a God-given right of every living being on the planet. “Clean water—more precious than gold!” is the slogan.
The focus of the campaign is to research and publish information about the contamination and degradation of surface and subsurface sources of fresh water by extractive, industrial, and other activities. UMAVIDA hopes to find ways to prevent further contamination of drinking water by mining and other industry around the world, but especially in Bolivia and in our sister presbyteries.
We are reminded of Ezekiel 34:18, where the prophet admonishes, “Is it not enough for you to feed on the good pasture, that you must trample the rest of your pastures with your feet? When you drink clean water, must you muddy the rest of the water by trampling it with your feet?”
Some Superfund sites identified in the United States are areas where past mining activity deeply contaminated the soil and water. Unfortunately, Bolivia does not have the resources to establish a Superfund. What other creative solutions can be found to resolve this desperate problem?
In January, youth of Bolivia, Canada, Peru, and the United States (from Cascade and San Francisco Presbyteries) attended the first International Youth Congress on the Environment in Potosí, Bolivia, sponsored by UMAVIDA network.
Eight million people died of exhaustion from the forced three-month work shifts inside the mine. Though once the richest and greatest city of the Western Hemisphere, Potosí today suffers from areas of highly contaminated water and is being stripped of its wealth: it has the distinction of being the poorest city in the poorest state in the poorest country of South America.
The Youth Congress was to join hands and hearts internationally to look at the contamination of drinking water and other issues and to find new ways to restore God’s Creation. Many of us were encouraged to learn of efforts by youth in the different countries to address these problems and were very inspired by this opportunity to share together.
For thousands of years, water has been one of the sacred elements of the people of the Andes. For the Aymara and Quechua people, two of the original people groups here, the Earth symbolizes the nurturing, feminine aspect of God, though not God itself, and “uma,” or water, in the Aymara language, is considered the Earth’s blood.
Next year, a second International Youth Congress will be held in Perú to continue this process. It will be hosted by the Joining Hands network in Peru.
We invite all the countries of the Joining Hands network, all presbyteries, all seeking justice for this tormented planet, to join hands with UMAVIDA’s water campaign and next year’s Youth Congress.
Please write us if you would like more information about these initiatives. Keep us in your prayers as we prepare to receive two delegations from our presbyteries and to attend the International Joining Hands Encounter in California this July in conjunction with the Peace and Justice Conference of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).
Awash in the good news,
Bob and Julie Dunsmore
La Paz, Bolivia
The 2008 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 278
