Last night, our assembled members had the opportunity to hear another testimonial from one of our partners from the Palestinian Territories. Raffoul Rofa is executive director of the Saint-Yves Society of the Latin Patriarchate, a human rights organization and legal resource centre in Jerusalem.
He spoke at length about the difficult challenges faced by families, women, youths and individuals living in the Palestinian Territories, whose rights are often ignored.
He left off with a special message for D&P and its members. Here is an extract:
" Through its involvement in Human Rights work and through its partnership with different human rights Organizations including the Society of Saint Yves, Development and Peace is empowering the poor and the oppressed of the world to attain at least some of their rights.
In the context in which the Society of Saint Yves works, the partnership with Development and Peace is enabling the Society to hire people, lawyers and paralegals in this case to provide essential legal assistance and aid to many people both Christian, Muslim, immigrants and even Jews on a couple of occasions who otherwise would not have been able to get such assistance and aid should they were left to their own devices.
Development and Peace's partnership with the Society of Saint Yves allows the Society to provide vital services to the poor, the oppressed and the marginalized of the Holy land through resorting to peaceful means of resolving these problems thus leading by example and proving to people that it is possible to resolve problems peacefully without the need to resort to violence which nearly always results in adverse results even if the person who reverted to violence was the victim or the oppressed side. "
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Thank you for sharing and for reminding us of the importance of this work. Thank you for what you do in your country.
ReplyDeleteThis is the first I have heard of the Society of Saint Yves, but, it certainly is worth its highest value. It is comforting to know that there can be support and negotiations through peaceful means that lead to successful services to the poor, the oppressed and the marginalized. It is so heartbreaking to hear of the damaging political invasions of people's hopes and dreams...To make such a positive impact in this country for those less fortunate is not only commendable but very encouraging to our causes in Dev and Peace.
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