Not in our remit
At the end of 1990 the Tamil Tigers expelled all of the Muslim residents from Sri Lanka’s Northern Province. Many of those who were now internally displaced went to the Puttalam area on the west coast where Oxfam, a secular…
Faith, relief and development: the UMCOR-Muslim Aid model seven years on
On 26 June 2007, a ground-breaking partnership was formalised at the Houses of Parliament in London between the UK Islamic NGO Muslim Aid (MA)[1] and the US Christian NGO the United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR)[2]. The long-term vision for…
Church asylum
Giving refuge, or more specifically, giving sanctuary or church asylum, is a specific form of benevolence that has a centuries-long tradition. What is known in Germany as ‘church asylum’ has mostly been inspired by the American Sanctuary Movement and by…
Offering sanctuary to failed refugee claimants in Canada
The term sanctuary connotes the medieval practice where fugitives from justice could take refuge in a church to avoid prosecution. The abolition of this practice in the sixteenth century was largely celebrated as a sign of progress and a triumph…
Interfaith humanitarian cooperation: a Lutheran perspective
In parallel with enthusiastically participating in UNHCR’s Dialogue on Faith and Protection in 2012, the Lutheran World Federation (LWF) began linking with other faith-based organisations (FBOs) to more deliberately address the divisions and suspicions between religious communities through fostering interfaith…
The clash and clout of faith: refugee aid in Ghana and Kenya
Faith-based organisations (FBOs) have been fundamental to Ghana’s response to the Liberian refugee crisis. Evangelical Christian and Pentecostal churches, run by refugees and Ghanaians, were first responders and later offered a buffer when official aid had been drastically reduced. When…
An inter-religious humanitarian response in the Central African Republic
CAFOD and Islamic Relief have a long history of working together to respond to humanitarian crises when, for reasons of security, conflict sensitivity or other risk factors, either organisation would have been unable to respond without this partnership. Prior to…
Respecting faiths, avoiding harm: psychosocial assistance in Jordan and the United States
Faith-based organisations (FBOs) have historically provided a variety of services to refugees and asylum seekers, regardless of individuals’ religious or spiritual affiliation, and this assistance may be indistinguishable from that provided by secular counterparts. However, FBOs are guided by their…
Religious space, humanitarian space
The official Protestant church in Morocco, the Église Évangélique au Maroc, EEAM, has churches in several cities in Morocco. After a post-independence decline, in the 1990s the EEAM churches experienced an enormous increase in membership from the arrival of students…
Faith-based humanitarianism in northern Myanmar
The resumption of armed conflict in 2011 in the north of Myanmar led to tens of thousands of people being displaced; three years on, over 99,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs) remain. In this predominately Christian area of Myanmar, Baptist and…