Urgent Action on behalf of KAIROS- How can You Help?

Dear Friends.

This Call to Action is being sent to Anglicans across Canada. Please act and keep it circulating. We are asking your support for KAIROS– Canadian Ecumenical Justice Initiatives, a key partner for the development and justice work of the Anglican Church. Both the Anglican Church of Canada and The Primate’s World Relief and Development Fund are member organizations of KAIROS together with nine other denominations and organizations.

On November 30, KAIROS learned - via a phone call - that the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) would no longer fund KAIROS' work.

After more than 35 years of working with the churches to combat human rights violations around the world, CIDA cut its funding to KAIROS in spite of a very positive program evaluation.

Implementing this decision would have devastating consequences for KAIROS’ global partners, as well as for KAIROS’ staff and budget.

We are asking you as Anglicans to add your voice to that of other ecumenical partners and help get this decision reversed. Please know that questions are being asked in the House of Commons, articles are appearing in national newspapers and MPs are being contacted, make your voice heard too!

URGENT CALL TO ACTION

Please contact your MP to discuss this critical matter. A personal meeting has more impact than an e-mail, letter, or phone call, but these are good too. Note that Parliament recesses on December 11 so you must act quickly.

To find out who your MP is by postal code, click here.

Here are some tips for speaking to your MP:
• Be respectful but firm. (Murray MacAdam of the Diocese of Toronto says, “I REALLY hope for a BOLD and CREATIVE response to this outrageous act. .. We really need to act boldly about this, not like a bunch of polite church people. I strongly doubt that that approach will get the government to change its mind. When Jesus threw the moneychangers out of the temple, did he act "politely"?)
• Speak about your own positive involvement with KAIROS.
• Express grave concern about this decision.
• State that as an Anglican you support KAIROS and its development work and you wish to see its long standing relationship with CIDA restored.
• Emphasize the impacts of this decision on KAIROS’ global partners and on KAIROS’ work in Canada.

Things to be prepared for:
• Your MP may echo what was said by a CIDA official: that KAIROS’ programs no longer “fit” with CIDA’S stated priorities of food security, children and youth, and sustainable growth. You can reply that KAIROS’ work clearly reflects these priorities, naming projects in the attached “Briefing notes” and emphasizing that the Overseas Development Assistance Accountability Act (June 2008) calls for CIDA programming to fit with international human rights instruments.
• Your MP may suggest that taxpayers’ money should not go toward the mission work of churches. You can respond that KAIROS’ CIDA projects go towards development work, and that mission is carried out independently by the Anglican Church of Canada.

The attached KAIROS media release and briefing document has more information (see below to download the KAIROS materials).

Specifically, you are asking your MP:
• to find out why Bev Oda, the Minister of International Cooperation, turned down KAIROS’ project proposal against the recommendation of senior staff
• to ask Minister Oda to reverse this decision
• to seek and offer an explanation of this departure from Government policy and practice for overseas development
• to advise you on further actions you can take.

If your MP is on the Government side, ask him or her to apply pressure to the Minister.
If your MP is a member of the Opposition, ask him or her to ask about this decision in question period.

Please also e-mail or write to:
• The Rt. Hon. Stephen Harper, Prime Minister of Canada, pm@pm.gc.ca or harper.s@parl.gc.ca
• The Hon Bev Oda, Minister of International Cooperation, oda.b@parl.gc.ca
• Margaret Biggs, President of CIDA, Margaret.Biggs@acdi-cida.gc.ca

Please copy your letters to KAIROS at info@kairoscanada.org & pwrdf@pwrdf.org

Thank you for taking quick action, and please don't hesitate to contact one of us if you have any questions, or need more information or refer to the KAIROS website www.kairoscanada.org

In solidarity,

Cheryl Curtis Henriette Thompson
Executive Director Director of Partnerships
The Primate’s World Relief and Development Fund The Anglican Church of Canada