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November 21, 2008
PC(USA)-backed Peru ministry to be featured on CNN
Dec. 11 documentary to focus on contamination in La Oroya
LOUISVILLE — For 10 years, Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) mission workers in Peru have worked to empower the residents of La Oroya, a town high in the Andes that has been devastated by mining-related environmental degradation.
That decade of educating and organizing Peruvians, Presbyterians and various governments and environmental and health organizations around the world will pay off in a dramatic way Dec. 11 when CNN televises a documentary, “Planet in Peril: Battlelines.”
The program is hosted by award-winning television journalist and CNN anchor Anderson Cooper.
The Rev. Hunter and Ruth Farrell took up the cause of the people of La Oroya, where an estimated 97 percent of the children have dangerously high levels of lead poisoning, shortly after arriving in Peru as PC(USA) mission co-workers in 1998.
Partnering with fledgling community groups in La Oroya, the Joining Hands Program of the Presbyterian Hunger Program and Giddings-Lovejoy Presbytery, the case was slowly built that the myriad health and environmental problems afflicting La Oroya was a direct result of the mining practices of the U.S.-based Doe Run Company.
Doe Run is based in Missouri, within the bounds of Giddings-Lovejoy Presbytery.
In addition to lead exposure, researchers have found high levels of cyanide and arsenic in the water and sulfur dioxide in the air of La Oroya. The consequences — early death, cancer, and neurological, cardiac respiratory and gastrointestinal disease — have by now been thoroughly documented and the Peruvian government has begun to take action to force Doe Run to clean up its operations.
When the Farrells returned to the U.S. in 2007 — Hunter is director of World Mission for the PC(USA)’s General Assembly Council and Ruth is coordinator of the Presbyterian Hunger Program — support for the efforts of the people of La Oroya was picked up by PC(USA) Young Adult Volunteer Jacob Goad.
Goad accompanied the CNN crew during much of its filming assignment in La Oroya for “Planet in Peril” in March and April of this year.
In an interview with El Comercio newspaper, CNN reporter Sanjay Gupta described the dilemma facing La Oroya’s residents: “People have tried to lift their voices and have been threatened and harassed, but at the same time the people say that if the company leaves, they will be left without work. This case needs the attention of the international community.”
Check CNN listings in your area for information about “Planet in Peril.”
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