MU makes £40,000 grant to South Sudanese

THE Mothers’ Union has offered about £40,000 in grants to the 20,000 men, women and children in Unity State, South Sudan, who are suffering from a lack of food because of the ongoing civil war, poor infrastructure, and fail­ing harvests. More than 2500 families who have been identified by the dio­cese of Bentiu as being most need — many of whom are surviving on wild tree leaves and roots — are to be provided with food, tools, and seeds, which will be distributed by MU partners, including the Sudanese Development and Relief Agency, Christian Aid, and CMS Ireland. The head of global de­­velopment and policy at the MU, Nicola Lawrence, said: “Through our long-standing presence in grass-roots communities throughout the country, Mothers’ Union is well placed to respond practically and quickly by providing essential supplies to these families.”

Poverty calls for action, not just goals, says Pope

POPE FRANCIS has told the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organ­ization (FAO) that the international community must recognise that “pro­gress and goals” are not enough to eliminate global hunger and malnutri­tion. In a speech delivered by the Vatican Secretary of State, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, in Rome, on Monday, the Pope warned: “What those goals demand is a constant acknowledgement that the right of every person to be free of poverty and hunger depends on the duty of the entire human family to pro­vide practical assistance to those in need.” The FAO must intervene to en­­sure that no country is indifferent or inactive in the 2030 Development Ag­­enda, he said. “Yet only an effort inspired by authentic solidarity will be capable of eliminating the great number of persons who are undernourished and deprived of the necessities of life.”

Church addresses gender-based violence in Mauritius

THE Mothers’ Union of Holy Trinity, Rose Hill, in Mauritius, has launched “The Silent Epidemic”, an initiative to tackle gender-based violence. It is sup­ported by the Bishop, who is the Archbishop of the Indian Ocean, the Most Revd Ian Ernest. A video on how abuse can begin and how it should be tackled was shown during the first seminar, this week. It included ses­sions on the history of gender-based violence; biblical guidance; govern­ment assist­ance in Mauritius; and psychological insights into abusive rela­tionships. An MU spokesperson in Mauritius said that the Church could not stay out of the issue, and must encourage discussion.

Terrorism by non-Muslims ‘gets less US coverage’

TERROR attacks carried out by Muslims are given more than five times more media coverage in the United States than those carried out by non-Muslims, a report from Georgia State University suggests. Its research of coverage of all terrorist attacks in the US between 2011 and 2015 found a 449-per-cent increase in media attention when the perpetrator was Muslim. But Muslims committed only 12.4 per cent of attacks during that period, and yet received 41.4 per cent of news coverage, it says. The researchers wrote: “When Presid­ent Trump asserted that the media does not cover some terror­ist attacks enough, it turns out that he was correct. However, his assertion that attacks by Muslim perpetrators received less coverage is unsubstantiated.”