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European Year To Combat Poverty and Social Exclusion Launch in Madrid
25 January
On Thursday 21 January Heather Roy, Secretary General, joined Ministers, local government representatives, NGOs and activists for the launch of the European Year to Combat Poverty and Social Exclusion, hosted by the Spanish Presidency. European Commission President Barrosso stressed the role of the Europe 2020 process in developing an economic growth paradigm that would create more jobs and assist social cohesion. He also stressed the need for Active Inclusion policies to be adopted by Member States. However, it was commented by others that the current Lisbon Strategy for Growth and Jobs had also created more jobs - yet more people than ever were living in poverty and/or were unemployed. Something is not working with regards to economic growth and it was suggested that the focus should move away from growth and rather look to economic development. Furthermore, leaders were encouraged to consider extreme wealth as well as extreme poverty and it was suggested that issues of distribution of wealth may also warrant study.
The European Year was seen as an opportunity to raise awareness about poverty and exclusion - but as yet there has been no real committment to a political impact of the year nor any long-lasting political legacy. It was announced that there would be a closing conference for the year on the 17 December, in Brussels, and a statement on poverty and social exclusion would be agreed by Member States. We wait to see if this will have any real impact.
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Eurodiaconia Members Launch Appeals for Haiti
14 January
Following the devestating earthquake in Haiti this week, the Fédération de l'Entraide Protestante in France has launched an appeal. Further information can be found here. Appeals have also been launched by Diaconisches Werk der EKD here and by Diakonie Austria here. |
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Let’s Make this a Happier New Year for those living in Poverty and who are Socially Excluded
January 2010
Dear Members and Friends,
Let me wish you a Happy New Year and hope that 2010 will be blessed with much joy and hope. And hope is what we have for the 2010 Year to Combat Poverty and Social Exclusion. Hope that more and more people will be aware of the huge number of people living in Europe today in the most dire poverty, hope that the families who struggle to meet basic needs each week will be empowered to change their situation, that those who have inadequate housing will move to a safe and secure home, that social services will be available to all who need them, regardless of status and financial means, that quality in social services will be a greater motivator than profit and cost and that here in Europe, we will no longer accept that 16% of our neighbours in our continent are living in Poverty. As Christians, we know that this is not what God had planned for the world and we know the words of Christ that command us to meet the needs of those in need. Through the Diaconal work carried out by our members needs are being met – but there is so much more to do. So this, let our collective New Years’ resolution be to tell decision makers and the general public that poverty and social exclusion is no longer acceptable and that everything should be done to eradicate it and make life better for those who are affected. We need better funding and application of rules for social services, we need a greater sense of solidarity with the stranger in our communities and we need investment in preventative services that stop the descent into poverty and exclusion as early as possible.
As Eurodiaconia, we will be holding several events throughout the year to highlight the Christian perspective on poverty and social exclusion and will be working with our Ecumenical partners to do so. We also want to know what our members are doing and share that information as wide as possible. And we will be raising our voice to say enough – and call on those at European level who have influence to commit to eradicating poverty and social exclusion in Europe.
2010 is also an important year for our network. We will be developing and agreeing our Strategic Plan for 2011 – 2013 and it is important that as many members as possible are engaged in this process. We will also be providing more opportunities for members to meet and exchange. Please look at the 2010 Calendar of events and reserve dates now for the meetings that are interesting to you.
I look forward to meeting many of you throughout this important year and wish you many warm regards.
Heather Roy
Secretary General
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Eurodiaconia is a federation of organisations, institutions and churches providing social and health services and education on a Christian value base in over 20 European countries.
