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February 2001
Dear Friends,
I spend a lot of time talking with Peruvians—many of them
quite poor—about their life, their job (or hopes for one),
and their family. And there is a very clear message emerging in
what they are saying to me. But I have felt I didn’t have
the tools of economic analysis to understand what’s happening
here—until I attended a recent meeting in the Peruvian highland
city of Huancayo.
"Joining Hands Against Poverty" Network
of Peru
The gathering was organized by the "Joining Hands Against
Poverty" Network of Peru—a new initiative of 15 Peruvian
evangelical churches, non-profit organizations and community-based
groups, sponsored by the PC(USA)’s Presbyterian Hunger Program.
Folks were talking about the worsening economic situation in Peru
and strategizing about ways we could improve the quality of life
of the women, children and men who live in our communities. During
the last ten years the methods Peru has used to control inflation
have pushed unemployment to extremely high levels and depressed
wages to the point that 20 percent of Peruvian families live on
less than a dollar a day.
The litany of bleak statistics and pessimistic forecasts from
communities across the country had a numbing effect on us all.
Because Peru has a relatively small economy, it cannot influence
the terms of trade that dictate the number of tons of potatoes,
fish, and copper required to purchase a container of imported
medicines, manufactured goods, or wheat flour. Likewise, the people
of Peru are virtually powerless to contest the International Monetary
Fund’s mandates which, in the name of "free" trade,
force open Peruvian markets to the full range of imported goods
from the U.S. and other countries, yet leave intact a number of
U.S. tariffs and quotas against many Peruvian products. The results
are wreaking havoc with Peru’s small industries. "How
‘free’ are today’s trade relations?" asked
many Network members. During the conference, we struggled to find
metaphors and images for what has happened in our communities:
A group of local young people presented a short play, "The
Man Who Became a Dog," in which a young man was desperate
for work and spent his days begging for a job. Finally, he was
informed that a shop owner’s dog had died and was offered
the watchdog’s job. He had no choice but to accept. At least
it would help support his new family. Reluctantly, he learned
to walk on all fours, to bark, and to sleep in the dog house.
In time, he began to be transformed until he could no longer talk
or walk upright like a human being. One day, he bit his wife and
she left him, horrified by the changes she saw in the man she
loved.
We mimicked an escalator where the rich countries rise effortlessly
to the top in the "up-lane" while the poor countries
run endlessly up the "down-lane," trying to improve
their position to no avail. "Running faster simply doesn’t
help," said Esther Hinostroza, the wise and weather-beaten
leader of a women’s group from the mining district of La
Oroya in Peru’s central Andes (and Women’s Circle leader
in the Evangelical Church of Peru). "We have to stop the
escalator and change its direction so that all of our families
can live the abundant life Jesus promised."
After a presentation by a distinguished Peruvian economist showing
how Peru’s monthly interest payments on its massive foreign
debt far outweigh all the foreign aid and loans the country receives,
a man from an indigenous Christian organization of the Aymara
people from near Lake Titicaca told a traditional fable about
a traveling salesman who short-changed all the villages along
the road. Only when the people joined together in common action
did God blessed them with success in their struggle for justice.
The Strength of Our Hope
At first I thought it was desperation that motivated the groups
to form the Network and join with the Presbyterian Hunger Program
to identify specific ways we can fight the dehumanizing effects
of the current wave of economic globalization in their communities.
It’s a motley crew: unemployed miners and fishermen, evangelical
pastors and youth leaders, social activists and community organizers.
"Maybe it’s the only option available to them,"
I thought. But as we learn together in the Network’s training
program, I see that, rather, it is hope that is moving us forward:
the confident belief that God will not hide his face from his
people forever. That the transformation God intends is not from
human beings into dogs but a transformation where "mere justice"
and an "abundant life for all of our families" is the
norm and not the exception. That God does desire a changed "world
escalator" that carries all of God’s people to abundant
life. That the prophet Isaiah’s vision (65:17-25) can be
fulfilled through the people of God.
To be honest, it’s been enough to give me fresh Hope.
As for the Farrell family, we continue to be nourished by Hope,
spoon-fed to us each day, like manna, by the people we live and
work with. Ndaya and Billy (our two 12-year-olds), and Andrew
(soon to be 9) are loving their summer vacation and head back
to a new school year—in the 6th, 6th, and 3rd grade, respectively—on
15 March. Ruth has been advising microenterprise development groups
in La Oroya and Huancavelica and is traveling to different Andean
communities as a result.
We pray your life will abound in Hope, as together we dare to
work for change in the lives of the world’s poor—and
in our own lives, as well.
With you in Hope,
Hunter Farrell, for the five of us Joining Hands Against Poverty
The 2001 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 262
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