Ambassadors Circle
Conference Urges, “Stand With Africa Here and Abroad”
By Denise Laugtug, LIRS Ambassadors Circle Director

Africa is attracting unprecedented attention in and around the state of Minnesota. Reasons include the fast-growing population of African immigrants in the Twin Cities and concern for injustices perpetrated in their home countries. On April 13 the Central Lutheran Church in downtown Minneapolis hosted "Stand With Africa Here and Abroad," a conference billed as "a call to the community of faith to share the stories of hope and to address the justice concerns of sub-Saharan Africa and the Minnesotan African immigrant community."

LIRS Ambassador Pastor Cherian Puthiyottil was an organizer, and Ambassador Dorothy Rossing staffed a booth at the event.

"It was a wonderful event. This is what different people of many African backgrounds wanted," said Pastor Cherian. "The refugee experience has been the same for many of them whether they came from Liberia, Sudan or Somalia. Even their experience in coming to the United States is the same: language difficulties, discrimination on the job, family issues with children who want more freedoms, and women who want to be free, too."

Nearly 400 people attended the gathering, many of them having come to the United States as immigrants or refugees from Africa. The Rev. Tony Oliha, a Nigerian immigrant and pastor of New Wine Church in St. Paul, opened the daylong gathering with a powerful message that if the superpower America had justice in its actions and talk, those ideals would reverberate around the world. Afterwards, participants attended workshops on issues such as HIV/AIDS and its devastation of Africa, public policies affecting immigrant concerns in Minnesota, the progress of debt relief programs, landmines and religion.

Susan Anderson and Aaron Van Alstine from Lutheran Social Service of Minnesota refugee services presented workshops on refugee co-sponsorship and the effects of September 11 on refugee resettlement.

"It is just the beginning. If we can bring together African immigrants here in Minnesota, that unity will reflect back in Africa. Here they have the same apartment building or same roof. They will in turn be ambassadors back home showing their kith and kin how to not kill each other but instead respect each other. If they are unified, their voice will be much stronger for the 175,000 African descendents who live here and for those at home in Africa. Today, because of disunity, greedy people are taking advantage of Africa," said Pastor Cherian.

Dorothy Rossing staffed an LIRS exhibit at the event. "Refugees were there looking at my African artifacts. They knew all about LIRS. It was so nice to have Africans there, and not just people who wanted to help them. People were very supportive of the ministry of LIRS and wanted to know more."

Stand With Africa is a three-year campaign of Lutheran World Relief, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America World Hunger Program and LCMS (Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod) World Relief that began during Lent 2001. The goals of the campaign are to mobilize U.S. parishes to support African churches and communities as they battle AIDS and hunger and build peace at the grassroots. This Minneapolis event broadened the campaign's scope to include African immigrants.

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