Working for Peace

We hear a lot about war in the news these days: Iraq, Afghanistan, the Sudan, etc. We also hear about disasters... floods, earthquakes, hurricanes, famines, and recently tidal waves. We also learn about starving children, forest fires, discrimination, hatred, rape and fear. But how often do we learn of works of peace.

Believe it or not, there is a lot of that going around too, but we seldom hear about it. Without giving by any means an exhaustive list, may I share with you just a few efforts by people here in Ohio that I have heard about:

VOSH (Voluntary Optometric Services to Humanity), a group founded in 1982 I believe, that provides eye glasses to the poor. There are some 35 states with local chapters. The Ohio Chapter, added by the Lions Club, collects used eyeglasses, some 100,000 pair each year in Ohio alone, cleans, repairs and classifies them and provides them to eye doctors. They also send teams of eye doctors to third world c4untries to outfit the poor. Dr. Hookway in Willard is active with this group.

The D.O.V.E. Fund (Development of Vietnam Endeavors) out of Toledo Ohio works to promote development in Vietnam. They have built nurseries, primary schools, provided scholarships, several health clinics, set up a medical exchange program between hospitals in Vietnam and St. Vincent Medical Center in Toledo. One of their latest projects is to dig 1,000 wells in Vietnam so that people can have clean drinking water. So far they have dug 360 wells at $100 each.

COED (Cooperative in Education) in Cincinnati, Ohio provides school textbooks and computer labs for secondary schools in Guatemala. They have raised some $780,000 since 1996 for this project. $25 supplies a set fo text books for a student in secondary schools there.

Rotary International, an organization that is 100 years old this year, has many international projects it sponsors. Some of the Northern Ohio efforts include:

Rotary Club in Perrysburg collected over 700 used bicycles for children and adults in Central America. They are used to help people get a job, go to school, pump water, raise building materials up high.

Findlay Rotary club supports a hospital and an orphanage in El Salvador with nearly $100,000 a year.

Many local Rotary Clubs, like New London, sponsor international exchange students each year.

MESA (Medical Equipment and Supplies Abroad) an arm of Rotary and located in Findlay, collects and sends to Central and South America many types of medical equipment and medicines, buses, earth moving machines, as well used school desks, diapers, school supplies etc. St.

Paul’s Mission Team (Lutheran Church, Maumee) helps two girls’ orphanages, a large municipal nursery (350 pre-schoolers) and a Christian school, all in Guatemala.

Missionary Alliance Church in Norwalk has built and staffs a hospital in a rural area of Honduras. Ecumenical teams from Norwalk go to Honduras 3-4 times a year to continue building and providing services.

International Services of Hope, Waterville, Ohio, collects used clothing and medical supplies for third world countries and local poor.

There are dozens of others groups and individuals who are helping to build peace, sponsoring a child, contributing to the missions, supporting Catholic relief services, paying taxes. The United States for years has contributed hundreds of millions of dollars in international relief all over the world. Interesting enough, the US gives more than double what the European Union gives each year in food for the world’s poor. I have a classmate in Akron who sends school equipment to Central and South America for buildings built by the U. S. army there and then turned over to the local community for schools.

Yes, pray for peace... work for peace. There is a lot more to be done.