JPIC Office Blog

January 9, 2007

Happy New Year! May you be able to take whatever life presents, returning only blessing that you can be an instrument of peace, hope, transformation and healing in 2007!

Dear Friends,

This year has started out to be very exciting for the JPIC Office. I will be traveling to Nairobi and Navisha Kenya. In addition 110the Congress is very busy with a new legislative agenda.

Kenya January 9 - February 10, 2007: For the first two weeks I will be participating with fifty(50) Franciscans in a world solidarity experience (January 11-26). I will be taking small gifts to let the other Franciscans know something about the Unites States and the Wheaton Franciscans; (Quilt and DVD). To view pictures of the Sisters responsible for such gifts, please click here. During this time together we will be learning about each others needs, challenges, culture and opportunities. The Catholic Information Service in Africa is so enthused about our coming that we are listed on the newsletter email service. For further information on this please go to, http://www.cisanewsafrica.org/.

Our Solidarity and reflection time will continue even as we will be participating in the World Social Forum in Nairobi (January 20-25). This gathering of an expected 150,000 participants from around the globe will respond to the theme Another World is possible as we purse the agendas of social justice, HIV/AIDS, international solidarity, gender exquality, debt cancellation, peace and defense of the environment. For more information please go to, http://www.wsf2007.org.

The Third week, I will be in Naivasha, Kenya with Sr. Florence Muia, ASN and the people of Upendo Village (January 26 to February 2). It will be great to visit everyone and to see all of the changes. My last visit there was 2½ years ago.

The final week (February 3-10), I will be one of the facilitators at our Franciscans International English Training session for leaders in HIV/AIDS programs and advocates for social change.

During my time in Africa, I plan to email the JPIC Office pictures and commentaries on the experience. Suzie Broomes, Advocacy Animator, will be posting this information.

Legislative Advocacy and Events. Suzie will continue following legislation and events in the United States. She will regularly update the web and we request your prayers and support for our advocacy efforts. We will urge bi-partisan support for the passage of minimum wage, HIV/AIDS funding, the elimination of torture and peaceful resolutions to conflicts in Darfur, Iraq and the Holy Land.

Martin Luther King Jr’s Birthday (January 15) will commemorate the legacy of a great man who fought not only for the freedom and equality of African Americans but the betterment of all humankind. Jubilee Sunday (January 21) will call to mind the desperate need for debt cancellation for many of the developing countries. Actions are planned so that both events will promote our Solidarity with one another.

On another fulfilling note, our work on opposing Human Trafficking with the Franciscan Federation was recognized in the recent St. Anthony Messenger’s publications. The article read: The Franciscan Federation of North America, meeting in New York last July, passed an anti-trafficking resolution that calls on U.S. authorities to track down traffickers, networks and give better protection on victims of trafficking both in the United States and beyond. Spearheading the effort was S. Sheila Kinsey, OSF., who participated in an FI training workshop in New York that year before. The Federation, made up of most of the third Order Regular Franciscan women and men religious, has declared April 22 National Human Trafficking Awareness Day in the United States.
Nothing that human trafficking “is against our Franciscan values,” the group urged prayer or some “outward action’ as part of the Franciscan call to address and heal the wounds of the poor. An estimated 16,000 persons, mostly children, are trafficked in the United States each year. Most are forced into prostitution or labor. Those recognized as victims of trafficking by the U. S. government are entitled to refugee status.

Thanks for all that you are and do to make this world a better place.

Sr. Sheila Kinsey, OSF
JPIC Coordinator
Wheaton Franciscans

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