The Jubilee Blog

Debt Detective: A HIV/AIDS Story in Zalinkgalinga, Zambia

By Pat Rumer, Debt Detective, Jubilee USA

In January 2007,  I visited Lusaka as part of a Jubilee USA delegation.

I was so impressed by the compassionate care that Our Lady's Hospice provided to its clients that I returned this week to Kalingalinga, Lusaka, Zambia to visit.  In particular, I remembered Matron Venus Shamoya who is working post-retirement at the hospice.  The Director, Sister Kay O’Neil is from Ireland.

 I asked Venus and Sister Kay what has changed in the past three years regarding HIV-AIDS.  The good news at the hospice is that they have a 70% recovery rate with people living and working with HIV-AIDS.  They have expanded their outreach clinic and prevention program. The clinic serves approximately 1600 patients a month.

The people staying in the hospice are “sicker” and usually come from outside Lusaka but even among the more advanced cases, some of the people have recovered.  The hospice has bed capacity for 30 patients.

Earth Day Reminds Us to Ask Who Owes Whom?

By Hayley Hathaway

Today is Earth Day’s 40th Anniversary. This weekend thousands will rally in Washington DC to push for action. This week our friends are making history in Bolivia at the The World People’s Conference on Climate Change and the Rights of Mother Earth. We have made some gains in combatting the impending climate crisis, but our work is more urgent than ever. Across the world, people are uniting to proclaim a new vision of justice and ecological sustainability. 

Advocacy in Action in San Diego

Members of the local Jubilee San Diego chapter and special guest Wahu Kaara rallied outside of Congressman Brian Bilbray's office to show support for the Jubilee Act (HR 4405). The local newspaper Del Mar Times reported Bilbray's Chief of Staff's negative response to the legislation, saying "You've got people talking about debt relief in Kenya and we're more concerned about what's happening in Carmel Valley." Yet we know that debt boomerangs - that poverty and debt abroad affect our communities here at home. The Jubilee San Diego team brought this message back to Del Mar Times readers last week with an op-ed. Great advocacy in action. Check out the piece below the video. 

To read the original story, click here and see the video below. 

 

VIDEO: Zambian Council of Churches Speaks on Jubilee Movement

By Pat Rumer, Jubilee Debt Detective  

Zambian greetings or Muli Bwanji!  This week I had the opportunity to meet with Suzane Matale, general Secretary of the Zambian Council of Churches.  As you can see from the YouTube interview she is a vibrant person who is passionate about justice. 

The Council of Churches is active on the issue of extractive industries - in particular, copper mining. Prior to the IMF privatization policies the copper mines were owned by the state who provided some support to the workers in terms of health care, education and food subsidies.  The Council of Churches is looking at several issues regarding the mines and other extractive industries:

Jubilee Roots of Global Poverty Tour Launches Today

Renowned Kenyan educator, activist, and campaigner for social justice, Wahu Kaara launches Jubilee USA Network's three state Roots of Global Poverty Tour American tour today. Over the next three weeks, Kaara and Jubilee National Field Organizer Brook Harper will bring the message of debt cancellation and economic justice to communities in to Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and Tennessee.

They start off the tour in Worcester, Massachusetts, speaking to students and community members at Worcester State College.

Wahu is a dynamic woman with a powerful story. She was a parliamentary candidate in Kenya’s tumultuous recent elections, a 2005 Nobel Peace Prize nominee, and a leading advocate for social justice in Kenya and around the world. Kaara has been central in the formation of various organizations promoting debt cancellation, human rights, good governance, democratization, universal education, and gender equality. She served as a delegate for Kenya’s National Constitutional Conference and as a councilmember for the Africa Social Forum and the Africa Women’s Economic Policy Network. Formerly Ecumenical Coordinator for the United Nations Millennium Development Goals, Wahu now serves as the Executive Director of the Kenya Debt Relief Network (KENDREN)),a partner of Jubilee USA Network.

Wahu's close ties to Jubilee San Diego brought her back to California this week, where she helped spread the word about the need for debt cancellation in rallies and Congressional meetings (see picture above).

Stay tuned for more updates and photos from the tour trail! 

For more information, click here.

UK becomes first country to ban Vulture Funds

Check out the great news from Jubilee Debt Campaign in the UK! 

UK becomes first country to ban ‘Third World Debt’ profiteering



A landmark bill to protect the poorest countries in the world from profiteering by so-called vulture funds became law today after passing in the House of Lords during the ‘wash-up’ at the end of the Parliamentary session. 



Jubilee Debt Campaign welcomed the successful passage of the Debt Relief (Developing Countries) Bill, which is the world’s first law to restrict the ability of Vulture Funds to sue some of the world’s poorest countries for full repayment of debts that they have bought up cheaply. 



Last November two Vulture Funds were awarded $20 million in the High Court from Liberia – the second poorest country in the world - for a debt dating back to the 1970s. This law is expected to make that verdict unenforceable.

 There was an outcry last month after the bill was blocked at third reading by an unidentified Conservative MP – thought to be backbencher Christopher Chope. But the Government made time for the Bill in the wash-up, after securing cross-party agreement with a sunset clause which will mean the law has to be reassessed to be made permanent in a year’s time. 

International support for the bill has been expressed by Archbishop Desmond Tutu, President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf of Liberia, and President Bharrat Jagdeo of Guyana. 



Debt Detective at it again in Zambia

By Pat Rumer, Jubilee Debt Detective

“LET’S FINISH THE WORK!”  Is the Jubilee Zambia campaign to focus the government and public attention on implementation of debt cancellation goals.  This is Pat Rumer, Debt Detective reporting from Lusaka, Zambia. I have spent this past week talking with people from churches, women’s organizations, an AIDS hospice and the World Bank.   So what I have learned?

Certainly, the good news is that there have been benefits in education and health and even some in infrastructure (roads, water, etc) – most of these benefits came in the first year after the Multilateral Debt Relief Initiative (2005). But since then there has been a lack of progress to fully implement the promises made by the government at the time of the debt cancellation.  Part of that is due to the death of President Patrick Mwanawasa in died in late 2008.   The United Church of Zambia General Secretary Rev. Chrispin Mbalazi observed that “we were too trusting that the government would deliver on its promises and we did not have a strategy to work with the international community on post-debt cancellation implementation.”