Colombian Peacemakers To Speak At Muhlenberg College
On September 11, 2004, two women from Colombia, a country where violence has killed thousands and displaced millions, will speak at the Egner Chapel at Muhlenberg College at 4 p.m.Wednesday, September 8, 2004 00:40 PM
On September 11, 2004, two women from Colombia, a country where violence has killed thousands and displaced millions, will speak at the Egner Chapel at Muhlenberg College at 4 p.m.
Mariam del Carmen Martinez and Maria Elena Racines will give their first hand descriptions of the 40-plus year-old Colombian civil war. Their lectures, sponsored by Voices for Peace in Colombia, a program of Lutheran World Relief, aim to address the affect of the Colombian civil war and the ways in which the United States can support peacemakers in Colombia.
Martinez, a community leader, is a board member of the Association of Displaced from the Province of Ocana (ASODEPO) and a local liason to Colombia’s Minister of Health on programs to eradicate malaria. She and her family were violently displaced from their homes twice, in 1995 and in 2001.
Racines has been a Lutheran lay minister for 12 years and an ordained lay minister for seven years. She is the leader of Lutheran mission in two communities and works with internally displaced women and communities, addressing basic needs, helping to implement development projects and sharing her faith.
The appearances by Martinez and Racines are a part of GIVE PEACE A PLACE, a Lutheran World Relief campaign for Colombia. Lutheran World Relief works in Colombia and with U.S. communities so that vulnerable Colombians have a place to live, a place at the negotiating table and a place in U.S. policy.
