A UUSC partner since 2015, the Hungarian Helsinki Committee (HHC) is the largest, oldest, and currently, the only non-governmental organization in Hungary aiding asylum seekers and refugees. Zsolt Szekeres, the legal coordinator of HHC’s Refugee Program, says that the invasion of Ukraine transformed their work almost overnight as Hungary became...
For decades, the people of Burma (Myanmar) have experienced discrimination, persecution and violent oppression by the military junta directed against ethnic and religious minorities. In February 2021 the military attempted to wrest control from the duly elected civilian government. In the face of public protests, the military has killed more...
“When was the last time you saw a butterfly?” This is the question that climate advocate Ineza Umuhoza Grace asks children in Rwanda. And their answer? “I saw it on television.” Memories of the destruction of her childhood home by rain and wind and images on the tv news of...
Over the next few weeks, the stories of some of the partners of the UUSC, the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee, will put a human face on the work the Service Committee is doing with its partners here at home and around the world. One of those partners is Ian Zdanowicz....
It is time to wrap GAYT up for 2021, but it is only a soft wrap. Why? Because the year around need for work to be done on human rights, civil rights, and social justice never goes away. We can wish that such work is not needed, but we know...
Women in rural Nicaragua face many challenges: the damaging farming practices of multinational companies, gender inequity and violence against women, severe hurricanes and severe drought tied to climate change, political violence, and, of course, Covid-19. Faced with these obstacles, Unitarian Universalist Service Committee (UUSC) partner Fundacion Entre Mujeres (FEM) is...
The beautiful island of Kioa is located just across Buca Bay from mainland Fiji. In 1947 it was purchased by residents of Vaitupu, one of the eight coral reef islands of the nation of Tuvalu. Maina Talia, the co-director of Kioa Island Community Organization (KICO), explains that the people of...
Myra Dahgaypaw, is a member of the Karen (ke-REN) ethnic group, one of many groups in Burma (also known as Myanmar) who have suffered at the hands of the Burmese military. Forced labor, sexual assault, torture, land confiscation, and injuries from unexploded land mines are some of the atrocities experienced...