Lutheran World Relief as Matchmaker: Introducing North to South

By Jeff Rasmussen, communication manager, LWR

Baltimore, May 23, 2003 — For 57 years Lutheran World Relief has defined itself by doing what it believes is best for all involved. After World War II, LWR persuaded the U. S. government to allow LWR to assist people in Germany regardless of religious or political affiliation. In the 1970s and 80s, LWR pioneered the practice of working with local non-governmental organizations and community-based organizations overseas. Today, LWR continues to evolve its "To Others, Through Others" approach, building relationships between project participants in the 'global south' and its church member constituents in the 'global north.'

"As we see it," explains Cherri Waters, LWR Vice-President for International Programs and Learning, "educating U.S. constituents about the underlying conditions that necessitate NGO assistance in the first place is key to creating lasting solutions. It also is an excellent framework on which to build relationships between U.S. constituents and those participating in the projects on the ground."

A case in point is LWR's work on behalf of some of the millions of people in Colombia affected by violence.

Last year LWR sponsored Voices for Peace in Colombia, a traveling delegation of people affected by Colombia's chronic civil war. Their tour helped define for many Midwesterners the contributing factors to the ongoing bloodshed in Colombia and the impact U.S. policy continues to have on it. The delegation's witness about heroic and hope-filled work amidst threats and violence, loss and suffering, made an indelible impression on many who attended the events. These Midwestern voters, now seeing clearly the part they could play in the process to stop the violence and build peace, identified with the community leaders from Colombia and began voicing their opinions to their congressional representatives — some of whom also were visited by the delegation.

One member of Congress, in response to the vocal reaction of so many people in his district, actually changed his vote and supported an amendment to stop expansion of military aid to Colombia.

"This advocacy work," says Kim Krasevac-Szekely, LWR Program Director for Latin America, "must be intertwined with our work in the field. How can we do development and humanitarian work in Colombia without addressing one of the key contributing factors to the current violence there: our nation's foreign policy?" LWR's efforts in Colombia and in the U.S. seek to address social and economic root causes of the conflict in order to contribute to an enduring, just peace. As such efforts increase, our government will begin taking notice of the relationship voters here develop with citizens in Colombia, and of the solutions both parties prefer.

Another relationship-driven model that LWR has proven effective is its work with fair trade, including the LWR Coffee Project. By educating people in this country about the plight of small coffee farmers worldwide, who often lose money on each crop, LWR helps put a face, a story, with the cup of coffee so many of us take for granted each morning. By establishing this knowledge, and the resulting relationship, LWR also helps people in the U.S. find the role they can play in the solution to this crisis. And it's working. Other faith groups are emulating LWR's successful fair trade project, one that has helped many farming families and their communities overseas survive.

LWR is learning and demonstrating how to effectively combine development and humanitarian work in Latin America with advocacy and education efforts in the U.S. An organization that began to define itself by partnerships early in its history is harnessing the resulting synergies to implement lasting solutions to long-standing problems. As a result LWR relationship-building role is more and more a role of catalyst that causes relationships to bear good fruit.