WORLD NEWS & PERSPECTIVES

BY GREG YOUNG, country directory for ADRA/Thailand

he Adventist Development and Relief Agency (ADRA), which reaches out to countries throughout the world to accomplish its stated mission of "reflecting the character of God through humanitarian and developmental activities," is targeting one of today's most horrific human-rights challenges-human trafficking.

In Thailand alone, estimates indicate that there are 800,000 prostitutes below the age of 18, and 200,000 of these are age 12 or under. In spite of Article 27 of the International Convention on the Rights of the Child (under the auspices of the U. N. Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights), which recognizes the right of every child to a standard of living adequate for the child's physical, mental, spiritual, moral, and social development, these girls and young women are exploited by human traffickers and forced into prostitution. Poverty is said to be the main cause of this appalling situation.

The goal of ADRA/Thailand's program called Keep Girls Safe is to help prevent underage girls from being recruited into prostitution.

In Thailand alone, estimates indicate that there are 800,000 prostitutes below the age of 18, and 200,000 of these are age 12 or under.

ADRA/Thailand is currently implementing a program called Keep Girls Safe to address this problem. The project activities attempt to empower both the girls and the community as the key implementation strategy. The success of a donor-sponsored educational support program conducted during the last six years through which ADRA/Thailand has aimed to prevent under-age girls from being recruited into prostitution, has encouraged ADRA workers, and the program has also laid the groundwork for Keep Girls Safe.

ADRA is continuing with its educational support program for at-risk girls in communities by supplying uniforms, textbooks, stationery, transportation to school, and, in certain cases, living expenses.

Many girls, however, have no safe place to live. To address this need, project plans include establishing an operations center and shelter to reduce the vulnerability of at-risk young girls and women by encouraging their education, providing practical and vocational-skills training, developing small-business activities, and furnishing short-term housing for those who do not have a safe living environment. Objectives of these two interventions include helping girls gain decision-making powers, enhanced spiritual growth, control over their own lives, and status and confidence in social and business activities. Developing a more healthful lifestyle should also result.

Project leaders are endeavoring to raise community awareness of commercial sexual exploitation of children. This will ensure that the young women, their families, and the general community understand the dangers of human trafficking, and thus enable them to make positive choices that will reduce commercial sexual exploitation of children in Thailand.

To help fund this project or for more information about ADRA/Thailand, contact Greg Young at greg@adra.or.th, or go to www.adra.or.th. Also see "Adventist Church Joins Coalition Against Worldwide Human Trafficking"in Adventist Review, December 16, 2004, or go to www.adventistreview.org/2004-1548/story5.html.

South Central Conference Elects New President

On February 20, delegates to the special South Central Conference constituency member elected Benjamin Browne as conference president.

Browne, who is president of the Ethiopia Union Mission, had served in South Central for many years and was conference secretary before going to Ethiopia in 2001.

Browne replaces Joseph W. McCoy who was recently appointed as executive director of the Regional Conference Retirement Plan. In his new position, McCoy will be responsible for the day-to-day administration plan. McCoy served as conference president for nearly 12 years.

The delegates also voted a change in the conference constitution that calls for 13 of the 23 members of the conference executive committee to be members not employed by the South Central Conference.

First MPH Degree in Russia
Hosted by Adventist University
Russia's first master of public health (MPH) degree program, which will begin in August 2005, will be hosted by Zaoksky Adventist University (ZAU) in collaboration with Loma Linda University School of Public Health. Funding is available to financially support 70 students from countries of the former U.S.S.R. to come to ZAU, located 70 miles south of Moscow in the Tula Region.

"The demographic and epidemiological challenges in Russia are so great that our church must do something to help the society," says Eugene Zaitsev, president of the Christian College of Art and Science at ZAU. "The MPH program will put emphasis on the importance of preventive measures, which will assist many medical workers and other professionals in Russia to mould a new attitude toward public health."

The start of the MPH program will be preceded by a one-week health education seminar. Available funding will enable 250 health professionals, pastors, and interested laypeople to attend.

Allan Handysides, M.D., director of the General Conference Health Ministries Department, and Patricia Johnston, DrPH, former dean of ZAU's School of Public Health, initiated the program.

GREECE: Small-Group Ministry Grows the Church
Eight years after a small-group ministry was started by Apostolos Maglis, president of the Adventist Church in Greece, and Peter Roennfeldt, Trans-European Division (TED) ministerial director, remarkable results are being seen. Membership and tithe have grown significantly, and church leaders in that division attribute 90 percent of this growth to small-group ministries.

"In this modern age, friendship evangelism and small-group ministries are the way forward," says TED personal ministries director Paul Clee. "They make more friends and contacts for the Lord than most other methods. As a small group meets and fellowships together, then opens the Bible for study, a deeper spirituality grows among the members of that group, and from them to the 'mother' church."

"We have fostered a system where a small group becomes the basis of a new church plant," says Roennfeldt. "Some are heavily involved in social work in their communities-health seminars, marriage enrichment programs, support for friends and neighbors-as well as Bible studies. A number of the new small groups have now grown into churches."

MEXICO: Union Leader Receives National Award
Baruc Lagos, communication director for the Inter-Oceanic Mexican Union Mission, was among 19 people awarded the "Microfono de Oro" (Golden Mircrophone Award) by Mexico's National Association of Announcers at the Center of Performing Arts Polanco, in Mexico City, Mexico, on January 25. This award was in recognition of his contribution to organizing the first International Summit of Leaders and Communicators, which took place in November 2003. The summit drew more than 800 church leaders-journalists, professionals, and students-from different denominations to attend workshops that promote spiritual and moral values in communication. More than 2,000 people attended the nationally televised awards ceremony, which honored contributors to the nation's development in areas such as health, sports, government, art, and communication.                          --Inter-American Division/AR.

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