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P. Sotutu: Faith-Based Action and the Millennium Development Goals
Written by Dr. Paula Sotutu, Oceania Director, Habitat for Humanity
Monday, December 17, 2007
Oceania is a group of small islands nations scattered over the great Pacific Ocean with the biggest of the islands, Papua New Guinea, to the northwest, the Marianas to the north, Hawaii to the north, and French Polynesia to the east. Bordering it to the west is Australia and New Zealand to the south.
Our combined land area is less than one fiftieth of the total area of Australia, and yet our combined sea area is many times bigger than the continent of North America.Our size and our known visible natural resources of today are very small. We are small and scattered in a large ocean but one thing we do have and been our main source of strength is our faith in God.
Four centuries ago, very little was known about us. When European explorers came to the Pacific, they saw different types of people than one sees today. The people of Tonga, Samoa, Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, and so on, were different in their attitude about life and about foreigners.The Fijians were regarded as fierce and cruel to their enemies. They were practicing all sorts of “non-humanitarian” acts, and they were not at all friendly. All this changed when Christianity came to the Pacific region, Oceania, a little over 150 years ago. The cruel and unfriendly practices and the worship of cruel and jealous spirits were replaced by the spirit of kindness, goodness, faithfulness, respect, love, forgiveness, and peace. Tribal wars were completely gone in practically all island nations.
The hunger for spreading the good news of a loving and forgiving God was taken to their neighbors in the early 1800s. Christians from Tahiti and Tonga went around with the European Christians who had given them the good news to Fiji and Samoa. A few years later, missionaries from Samoa, Tonga, and Fiji went across to Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, and so on. Throughout the Pacific, schools are owned and operated by Christian churches. The churches carry out sharing of wealth, food, and other necessities of life. Schools and health centers were set up. Literacy in the Pacific is very high, consequently.
The poverty that we see in other countries in the world is not seen in Oceania. Despite the fact that our homes do not all have iron roofing, good timber, concrete walls, and piped water, and although not everyone has a good, steady income, the kind of poverty that leads to death because of lack of shelter, food, and love is practically absent. Today one begins to see beggars in some urban centers in Oceania, but they are usually individuals who have rejected family discipline and have severed intentionally the bond between themselves and their family as well as the community. There are those who have rejected their responsibilities to their relatives through worshipping comfort and money instead of God, who supplies the things they worship.
Because of time limits, I cannot speak in any detail about what is happening in other countries in Oceania, but I can say quite a bit in as far as Fiji is concerned.
Many efforts are being made by the various NGOs to eradicate poverty. Food is never too scarce, it has never been any trouble to build housing using local materials, and sharing of food has always been observed.
The majority of poverty eradication work is done by faith organizations run by Christians of various denominations, Hindus, and Muslims. Many of them deliver food and medical supplies to the poor and also take their children to formal schools for education. One of the most important organizations that directly address the issue of poverty and illiteracy is HART, the House Assistance Relief Trust, which is owned by Fiji’s Council of Churches. Its members are Methodist, Catholic, Church of England, Congregational, Presbyterian, Salvation Army, Church of Christ, and certain Baptist and Potter’s House churches.
HART houses and helps families whose principal breadwinner, the man, has either died or simply left the family to tend for themselves. HART houses and takes care of the family until one or two of the children are working and able to support the rest of the family. There are orphanages and homes for handicapped and unmarried young mothers who not only look after the children but also the others who need help.All these caring NGOs are working out of the love and compassion which are faith-based and certainly not money-based. The work they are doing is not dependent on cash but on God’s spirit working through them. Many are now supported financially by the government. Over ninety-five percent of the schools in Fiji are NGO-owned. Of these schools, the big majority are owned by religious organizations, principally the Methodist and Catholic churches and Hindus.
It is, therefore, not at all surprising that the literacy rates in the Pacific islands are very high: most countries record a literacy rate of over ninety percent.Similarly, the effort being made to promote good health has borne fruit in the high rate life expectancy and low infant mortality rate of our people in Oceania.
The faith of the people in Oceania has played a very important role in the outlook of their leaders and the ardent way the UN Millennium Development Goals are being addressed.The small island nations are externally rather vulnerable due to their size and constant facing of strong winds, isolation from well-resourced big nations, few known resources and high cost of trade, imports, and development.We are, however, rich in our faith in God, and we can ensure environmental sustainability and global partnership for development. If our brothers and sisters from the bigger, richer countries could come to us with whatever the Almighty has given them and work with us as real partners in executing our God’s will in our region.