Sunday, August 11, 2013
Not Today Coalition: “Modern Day Abolitionsts”
International partnership takes aim at India’s poverty
By Jeremy Reynalds
Senior Correspondent for ASSIST News Service
YORBA LINDA, CALIF
(ANS) – By 2025, half a million former “slumdogs”-young slum residents in India-will be able to pursue better lives.
According to a news release received by the ASSIST News Service, they will be graduates from one of the 1,000-plus schools built and led by the Not Today Coalition, a partnership headed by Dr. Joseph D’souza of India’s Dalit Freedom Network and Matthew Cork, a U.S. megachurch pastor and author of the book Why Not Today.
“Every new school, every graduate is a frontal attack on the poverty and prejudice that fuel human trafficking,” D’souza said in the news release.
Different from sponsorship and literacy programs, the Not Today Coalition brings churches, organizations and individuals together to purchase land for schools and facilitate construction and permanent employment of teachers. The group’s Good Shepherd Schools-registered with and authorized by local governments-teach students English, math, science, health and nutrition.
“The Not Today Coalition is a collective, a band of modern-day abolitionists who are declaring an end to the injustices that are being done to the Dalits of India,” said Cork speaking in the news release. He is lead pastor of Friends Church of Yorba Linda, Calif., and executive producer of the film Not Today.
Cork added, “Together, our voices can be heard and our actions can produce life-changing results.”
India, the world’s third-largest economy, ranks 136th on the United Nations Human Development Index (a 10-year low) and is home to one-third of the world’s poor.
D’souza, president of the Dalit Freedom Network, announced the Coalition at Friends Church. The group already has received $225,000, including $100,000 from another church joining the effort.
According to the news release, the Not Today Coalition’s roots formed following Cork’s 2007 trip to India where he saw firsthand the plight of the Dalits.
As the lowest caste in India-even though the constitution bans caste discrimination-the Dalits remain in dire poverty often cut off from educational or other advancement opportunities. They are the most trafficked people in India with an estimated 1.2 million children trapped in sexual slavery.
Cork’s epiphany was simple. He couldn’t end slavery, but there was something he could do.
“Instead of ringing my hands, I rolled up my sleeves and so did the members of my church,” said Cork in the news release. “There’s a tendency to see a big problem and think ‘Someday I’ll do something about that.’ But I say, forget ‘someday.’ Why not today?”
The Friends Church congregation quickly caught Cork’s vision aided by meeting and hearing from D’souza. They formed the Global Freedom Network to raise awareness about and fight human trafficking, and pledged to help the Dalit Freedom Network with a commitment of $20 million to build 200 schools.
Even though human trafficking is a worldwide problem-including in the United States-a challenge remained to engage those not directly affected, particularly in western nations. Cork and Friends Church saw a theatrical film as the right communication tool to bring the story home.
The movie Not Today, produced by the church, debuted in theaters nationwide in April and soon releases on DVD. Cork followed that with the July 1 release of the book Why Not Today from Moody Publishers that details his personal journey.
The book and the film have generated widespread interest from people and organizations wanting to know what they can do to fight human trafficking. The Not Today Coalition helps answer that need.
“A Dalit child who has been educated is a Dalit child who has been rescued from human trafficking,” said D’souza speaking in the release. “Our experience is that once a school is built in a village or community, it becomes the focus of the community and transformation begins to take place.”
For more information visit www.NotTodayCoalition.org
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Jeremy Reynalds is Senior Correspondent for the ASSIST News Service, a freelance writer and also the founder and CEO of Joy Junction, New Mexico’s largest emergency homeless shelter, http://www.joyjunction.org He has a master’s degree in communication from the University of New Mexico, and a Ph.D. in intercultural education from Biola University in Los Angeles. His newest book is “A Sheltered Life.”
Additional details on “A Sheltered Life” are available at http://www.ashelteredlife.net. Reynalds lives in Albuquerque, New Mexico. For more information contact: Jeremy Reynalds at jeremyreynalds@comcast.net.
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<!–BYLINE:By Jeremy Reynalds
Senior Correspondent for ASSIST News Service–>