BAPTIST WORLD AID

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aptist World Aid assisted Colombia’s Baptist University of Cali (BUC) to implement peacebuilding and devel- opment initiatives in two neighborhoods in the city of Buenaventura, on the Pacific coast.

Buenaventura is Colombia’s main Pacific coast port but

the city is plagued by extreme economic and social problems. “Buenaventura is economically highly dependent on the port but also has very high unemployment rates and is plagued by drug trafficking as it is one of the major export routes for the drug trade,” said a report to the Baptist World Alliance from Pablo Moreno, president of the BUC. Peacebuilding initiatives were undertaken in the New Dawn

and Glory neighborhoods of Buenaventura. Rival gangs operate in the two areas and often engage in violent clashes. BUC, through its Peacebuilding and Human Rights program, offered support to the Alfa and Omega Baptist Church that had developed a project for youth and children in these neighborhoods.

Buenaventura has very high unemployment rates and is plagued by drug trafficking as it is one of the major export routes for the drug trade.

implement, monitor and evaluate the program. The three-year project, funded by the BWA, involves local personnel as well as teachers and students from the university. “These two neighborhoods suffer difficult economic

The university helps to

conditions and are essentially slums because they have not legalized their ownership rights to housing,” said Moreno, who is a member of the BWA Commission on Theological Education

95 Years of Baptist Aid and Development Continued

BWAid collaborates with BWA members to oversee the implementation of development

projects that it funds. For

example, in responding to the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami, BWA partnered with BMS World Mission, International Ministries (ABCUSA) and CBF to build 72 housing units in Sri Lanka. BWAid funded a Lott Carey Baptist Foreign Mission Convention project providing equipment and supplies for a fishing community in Somalia after this catastrophe. After the January 2010 earthquake in Haiti, BWAid collaborated

with Virginia Baptists, Hungarian Baptist Aid and the Haiti Baptist Convention in a program to construct Source of Light, a building housing 200 students at the preschool, kindergarten and primary levels, and an orphanage for 50 children. Also in response to the

6 BAPTIST WORLD MAGAZINE

2010 Haiti earthquake, BWAid collaborated with Baylor Hospital to facilitate a shipment of medical supplies to the Haiti Baptist Convention for use in their hospital. BWAid collaborated with Canadian Baptist Ministries

(CBM), CBF and the Ethiopian Addis Kidan Baptist Church in implementing its response to the 2011-12 Horn of Africa drought. Funds were channeled through CBM and CBF for this project. The goal was to assist the people to attain sustainable food security through increased agricultural production, income diversification, skills training, and peace and reconciliation. In one project in Garissa District, Kenya, CBM identified

the vulnerable communities and the project beneficiaries and implemented the program. BWAid channeled its funding through

One of the organization’s strategic priorities: to collaborate with Baptists