Features
Forgiving the Unforgivable
The gash across the face of Emmanuel Mahuro, a 17-year-old Rwandan native, is no longer an open wound. Today, like a jagged boundary line on a map, a scar juts down the plateau of his forehead, across the bridge of his nose, and up the slope of his right cheek. It is impossible to look into Emmanuel’s eyes without seeing this deep cut, a mark of division etched across his face—and the face of Rwanda—15 years after the genocide. Read more...
Keywords
Once They Come Home
Every year on the 11th of November, the United States celebrates Veterans Day, a day we memorialize those who served our country in the Armed Forces. CBS did a study in 2007 which found that in 2005, an average of 17 veterans killed themselves every single day. As for active duty service members, in 2009 and 2010, there were more suicides than there were combat fatalities in Iraq and Afghanistan combined (the data for 2011 is not yet released). In the midst of the most prolonged conflict our nation has ever undertaken, it would seem that care and concern for our veterans would be absolutely central to our public discourse, in both the political realm and the ecumenical realm. Read more...
Keywords
North Korea’s Robin Hood
You already know about the daily injustices being carried out in Somalia. You already know about the destruction of life and property in Japan. You already know about those who live as refugees in Haiti—veritable prisoners in the place they call home. Natural disasters, civil wars, political uprisings, unemployment, prostitution—the list goes on and the prayers go up and nothing gets better. Read more...
Keywords
Caring for the Exiled
After the fighting started, Sarah* tried to keep up a strong front. She continued going to English class (she was my student a couple of times) and did her homework to the best of her ability. But then she began to hear stories about her family—stories about a handicapped cousin who was captured and tortured by Gadhafi’s forces, stories of gunfights just outside her family’s home, stories of loved ones who died in the civil war that erupted in Libya. Read more...
Keywords
Stuck Between There and Nowhere
While news from Tripoli seems to evolve every minute, many Libyan refugees wish something, anything, would change for them. Read more...
Keywords
What Happened in Uganda
Maya Kimberley Prabhu, a journalist with The Independent magazine in Uganda, was down the street from the bombing that took place during a World Cup viewing party last weekend. More than 70 people were killed and many were injured. One of those killed was 25-year-old Nate Henn, an American who worked for Invisible Children. Here, Prabhu describes what she heard and initial thoughts on what occurred. Read more...
Keywords
Food Crisis in the Congo
Every parent I talk to here in eastern Congo is struggling to feed their family. Many children are malnourished. Babies have bleached hair caused by malnutrition. A large family of seven is surviving on a handful of sweet potatoes and assistance provided by aid agencies. A young girl has the skin of an old woman. Read more...
Keywords
The Anatomy of a Rescue
While no two rescues are exactly alike, this particular trip into the bush has a lot in common with previous operations. I got word of an LRA attack on a village along the road to Pageri about twenty miles away, an hour's drive along the rutted dirt road through the bush from Nimule. After so many years of fighting, large numbers of people who used to live in the countryside have moved closer to Nimule for protection or they've picked up stakes and left the area entirely. As you drive east and north along the road, you can see the population gradually thinning out. Close to town there are plenty of people on the road walking or riding bicycles. The farther from town you drive, the fewer people there are. Read more...
Most Commented