Politicians need to hear that we care and that we will hold them to account. They cannot push

aside the Millennium Development Goals agreed in 2000 as “too hard” and we cannot let the promise fail because of apathy or corruption.

Read more about this initiative here.

Twenty-three-year-old Judith Wanga grew up in London and is proud to be British. But Judith was born thousands of miles away in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Twenty years ago, with the country in turmoil and fearing for their daughter’s safety, her parents sent her to live with relatives in Britain.

Now Judith is going back to Congo for the first time. She wants to understand the childhood she missed and find the missing piece in the jigsaw puzzle of her life.

Judith quickly discovers two things: despite the fact the civil war in Congo has officially ended, in the east of the country a bitter conflict between Congolese troops and rebels continues. She also discovers that women across Congo have a very different status to women in Western countries.

After the reunion with her parents, Judith visits eastern Congo, an area that has been devastated by conflict. There she learns that rape is an epidemic. Judith meets a radio journalist who conducts a one person campaign to expose the extent of the violence directed at women. She hears the stories of those who have been attacked and meets the children who are born as a result of the rapes.

As well as meeting the victims of this conflict, Judith also talks to some of the perpetrators. She meets a young woman who was forced to join the military to survive. The woman reveals how she was forced to kill and how she fled the armed forces only to find herself without money to support her child. Now she supports herself by working as a prostitute.

Amidst all the horror, Judith also glimpses a few signs of hope. She visits a centre that has been built to provide a sanctuary for women who have been assaulted, called ‘City of Joy’. In another part of Congo she meets the young men and women who carry out dramatic performances exposing the brutality they have seen and experienced.

On discovering the harsh realities of her homeland, Judith begins to understand why her parents sent her away as a child. Her experience also makes her determined to return home to Britain and encourage awareness of the plight of her country, and the women forced to endure unimaginable suffering.

If you live in Australia you can watch it now on iView following this link.

If you want to support change in the Congo may I recommend following this link and reading about the work of HEAL Africa.

Please pray for the weekend, all the meetings that will take place with politicians (there’s over 100) and for those that they are advocating on behalf of. There is also a great petition that will be rolled out on the floor of Parliament House.

If you’d like to add your name for the list of Jesus followers who are deeply concerned about the plight of the World’s poor, you can go to http://www.micahchallenge.org.au/micah-call

Please pass on the petition to friends.

During the afternoon Love in Action raised $600 that will all be donated to Bridge of Hope to help give additional micro-loans to families living in Northern Sulawesi, Indonesia. You can read about how micro-loans can transform the life of the poor in the book, but hurry copies are extremely limited and available online Compassion and in person at Humphries newsagents in Manly.

You can change the life of a child and make an impact in a whole family by sponsoring a child today, visit www.compassionday.com.au

Love in Action is both an historical account of the relationship that will continue between the residents of Manly and Manado, and a demonstration of the mutual transformation that can result from one community meeting the needs of another community. Few copies of Love in Action remain. It can be purchased online via Compassion and in person at Humphreys in Manly, on the Corso. Profits from the sale of the book go to supporting people living in Manado.

The Freedom Writers offer real hope to school students that may have otherwise been ignored in class and left to fail. Illiteracy is a big problem in the US. Not all students are given the same opportunities. The Freedom Writers encourages underprivileged students to tell their story. Here is an excerpt from the Freedom Writers website that gives an insight into what they stand for:

Following the Rodney King Riots and the O.J. Simpson trial, the mood in our city was unsettling, and on our first day of high school, we had only three things in common: we hated school, we hated our teacher, and we hated each other.

Whether it was official or not, we all knew that we had been written off. Low test scores, juvenile hall, alienation, and racial hostility helped us fit the labels the educational system placed on us: “unteachable,” “below average,” and “delinquents.” Somehow, Ms. G recognized our similarities, and used them to unite us. She gave us books written by teenagers that we could relate to, and it was through these books that we began to realize that if we could relate to a little girl who lived on the other side the world, fifty years before we did, we could certainly relate to each other.

We felt like Anne Frank, trapped in a cage, and identified with the violence in Zlata Filipovic’s life. We were so inspired by the stories of Anne and Zlata, that we wrote letters to Miep Gies, and to Zlata, in hopes that they would come to Long Beach and share their stories with us. When Miep visited us, she challenged us to keep Anne’s memory alive and “passed the baton” to us. It was then that we decided to begin chronicling our lives.

We began writing anonymous journal entries about the adversities that we faced in our every day lives. We wrote about gangs, immigration, drugs, violence, abuse, death, anorexia, dyslexia, teenage love, weight issues, divorce, suicide, and all the other issues we never had the chance to express before. We discovered that writing is a powerful form of self expression that could help us deal with our past and move forward. Room 203 was like Anne’s attic or Zlata’s basement, it was our safe haven, where we could cry, laugh, and share our stories without being judged.

We decided to call ourselves the Freedom Writers after learning about the Freedom Riders who fought against segregation during the Civil Rights Movement. When we began writing these entries as a simple English assignment, we had no idea that they would one day be collected and published in a book, The Freedom Writers Diary.

Since graduation, we have kept our promise of trying to change education. We are pursuing our undergraduate and graduate degrees, many of us at California State University, Long Beach, while continuing to share our story and mentor students across the country about what it’s like to receive a second chance.

We have created this website because we want to form a community like the one we formed in Room 203, where people feel safe, accepted, and understood. We hope that The Freedom Writers Diary will inspire you to succeed academically, change your community, and share your own story.

Practical tip #1 is: Say no to bottled drinking water. You’ll help the planet and love your neighbour at the same time. Follow this link and check out this great short video from the folks at The Story of Stuff.