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aid workers, “the very people who are providing emergency assistance to South Sudanese communities and Sudanese refugees.” The LWF had been providing education support for some 20,000 people in refugee camps in Maban. Hitzler said the LWF is closely monitoring and assessing when it may resume assistance.
Help for homeless Edina [Minn.] Community Lutheran Church is a lead partner in developing housing for homeless youth in Edina, a Minneapolis suburb long charac- terized by wealth. Approximately 150 supporters attended the Sept. 2 Edina City Council meeting where Minneapolis Area Synod Bishop Ann Svennungsen was one of the speakers. After a lengthy city planning process, the council approved the housing project called 66 West. Located in a building zoned commercial-medical, it will include 39 apartments.
Christians attacked After the Boko Haram Islamic mili- tant group abducted more than 200 schoolgirls last April (still captive at presstime in September) in Nige- ria’s Borno state, it began occupying churches in the country’s northeast- ern region. Church officials there said Boko Haram is beheading men and forcing Christian women to con- vert to Islam and be their wives. John Bakeni, secretary of the Maiduguri Roman Catholic Diocese, said the church compound and rectory of St. Denis Parish in Magagali was taken Aug. 23 as a base for the militants, and “a good number of our parishes in Pulka and Madagali areas have been overrun.”
More woes in camp Heavy rains in the Gambella region of Ethiopia have caused severe flooding in the Lutheran World Federation’s Leitchor refugee camp where South
Sudanese have been living since the beginning of 2014. As much as 95 percent of the camp is under water. Many refugees have abandoned their tents and relocated to roads and other areas leading to the camp. Lutheran Disaster Response will continue to work in partnership with LWF to adapt plans for assistance. To help, visit
https://community.elca.org/ southsudanconflict.
Special envoy created As the Islamic State sent religious minorities fleeing for their lives in Iraq and Syria, Congress created the job of “special envoy to promote reli- gious freedom of religious minorities in the Near East and South Central Asia” in the State Department. Advo- cates for global religious freedom have lobbied for the position for years, and some say it’s possible that the White House will combine the envoy’s duties with those of the larger portfolio of the ambassador-at-large for international religious freedom. The head of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom said the jobs could be combined, but the lead sponsor of the bill for the special envoy said there is an urgent need for a person solely focused on the Mid- dle East.
LWF/STÉPHANE GALLAY
Interfaith agreement Mohamed Ashmawey, CEO of Islamic Relief Worldwide (left), and Eberhard Hitzler, director of the Lutheran World Federation Department for World Service, sign the fi rst cooperative agree- ment between a global Christian and global Islamic humanitarian organization on Aug. 25. “Our common vision to empower and support vulnerable communities and people affected by disas- ter, [unites] us across our religious differences,” Hitzler said. The groups are already working in Dadaab, Kenya, to help people with disabilities, who are often overlooked in humanitarian crises.
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www.thelutheran.org
Concern for suicides A sociology professor from Rutgers University, New Brunswick, N.J., says baby boomer men are 60 per- cent more likely to take their own lives than their fathers’ generation. Comedian Robin Williams’ death by suicide brought such numbers into the news in August. The trend is par- ticularly alarming because middle age is typically when suicide rates decline before rising again in old age. Among the reasons are more men living alone after divorce, middle-aged men who are less religious, and the double-
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