Church Women United PRESS RELEASE
January 14, 2008
Church Women United Launches
2008 National Action Project
“A World Fit for Children”
"Art with Our Children" Flyer - front / back
Church Women United announces the launching of “Building a World Fit for Children”, its innovative 2008 National Action Project to be carried out among its 1,200 local units across the country. The Action Project urges all CWU units to sponsor the 2008 CWU Human Rights Celebration and to present awards to 1,000 persons throughout the U.S. who work locally for the rights of children. The National Action Project will also continue the CWU advocacy for U.S. ratification of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child through petitions and intergenerational art projects. It also urges participation in hands-on projects that benefit children.
The Board of Directors of Church Women United, Inc. at their meeting in November 26-28, 2007, enthusiastically affirmed this 2008 National Action Project, the first in its 66 year history. Action/Global Concerns Chair, Anne Griffis of Washington, D.C. will spearhead the project. Team members include: Marilyn Lariviere, Celebration Chair, Cape Cod, MA; Malinda Waltz, East Central Regional Coordinator, Willis, MI; Vivian Love Jones, Northeast Regional Coordinator, Newburgh, New York.
CWU sponsors through local units three major celebrations annually, one of which is the Human Rights Celebration, in order to educate about the United Nation’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The theme for the 2008 Human Rights Celebration, God’s Wisdom Honors Children, urges local units to honor persons who work for children and to hear the voices of children. The CWU goal is to honor 1,000 women and men, roughly 20 per state, in 2008.
The National Action Project will also support and accelerate its two year old educational effort and petition campaign urging the While House to present and the Senate to ratify the 1989 Convention on the Rights of the Child. More than 2,700 petition signatures from CWU units already have been sent to the White House.
Connecting the campaign for the Convention on the Rights of the Child to the 2008 National Action Project, is the new intergenerational art project to illustrate and witness to children’s rights. CWU sisters and children will visualize how the world would look if the CRC were implemented
in the US and globally. Art work will be sent to the White House and displayed at the CWU National Ecumenical Gathering and Common Council in Independence, Missouri, in June 2008 and on other occasions.
From its beginnings 66 years ago, CWU has vigorously supported human rights, stating in 1968, “As Christians we affirm that all persons have inherent worth and dignity and that basic human rights should be equally available to every person regardless of race, religion or ethnic background.” In 1985, the CWU Policy Statement on Rights of Children and Youth states: “The issue of caring for the future generation is a global concern. Their future lies in how we nurture them, protect their rights and maintain a safe world for them.” The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child is a comprehensive treaty designed to protect the rights of children by addressing issues of child trafficking, slavery, prostitution, soldiering and matters of nutrition, education and health. (Find information at www.un.org, www.childrightscampaign.org, www.unicef.org. and www.churchwomen.org.)
The National Action Project also encourages local units to continue their long-standing support of their local and international development projects and urges them to make special efforts to support projects that affect children, such as Church World Service health and school kits and water projects, UNICEF’s mosquito net anti-malaria efforts, and Heifer International’s animal, bee and tree projects.
Founded in 1941, Church Women United continues to be a racially, culturally, theologically and inclusive ecumenical Christian women’s movement, celebrating unity in diversity and working for a world of peace and justice.
For more information, contact:
Anne Griffis, Chair, Action/Global Concerns Committee
3227 D Sutton Place N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20016
202-686-8618
argriffis2@aol.com
Patricia Burkhardt, Legislative Officer
CWU Legislative Office
100 Maryland Avenue N.E., Room 100
Washington, D.C. 20002
202-544-8747
1-800-298-5551
cwu-dc@churchwomen.org