I come to you filled with enthusiasm about the latest members of our URI family. Three wonderful new groups - two from Africa and one from Europe – have joined the URI community. The groups from Africa bring a large membership. We hope that this work will help URI Africa to continue its steady growth and social impact.
The two new African CCs are both developing their work in Kenya.
1. Bloodlife Initiative Kenya: Our Cooperation Circle organizes blood donations, trains young people to become community blood mobilizers and develops "virtual" community blood banks and donor clubs. We supported the national blood transfusion service which collected over 135,000 units of blood in 2011. We also created a database, a virtual blood bank with over 10,000 members.
2. Centre for Partnership and Civic Engagement (CEPACET): Our group was established and registered at the height of the post-election violence period in Kenya. We contributed to the restoration of peace, tolerance and interdependence through using an inter-faith approach. After the calmness that followed, we undertook a needs assessment exercise at various levels in the conflict prone regions. It was established that the basis for conflict in Kenya is historical and goes back to the unequal distribution of national resources by the regimes that have been in existence since independence. Against this background, we establish other thematic programs such as Human Rights, Social Justice, Women, Economic Empowerment and Children’s Development.
The third new Cooperation Circle is in Germany, and comes under the URI European Region. Their commitment to interfaith work is evident: they have met every month since 2008.
3. Multicultural Discussion Group – Multikulturelle Gesprächsgruppe Merzig :We organize monthly meetings where people from different faiths can come together to talk, listen to lectures, watch films, cook, and visit places of worship. We welcome new members who would like to join us for an evening. We are open to discussing different topics about culture and religion. We want to build bridges, and in doing so, reach out from one heart to another. Our local press recognizes and respects the work of our group, so we can post articles that invite mindful reflection.
May members of the Bloodlife Initiative Kenya fulfill their aspirations and live in Peace!
May members of the Centre for Partnership and Civic Engagement fulfill their aspirations and live in Peace!
May members of the Multicultural Discussion Group fulfill their aspirations and live in Peace!
May Peace prevail on Earth!