AFSC - period ended 11.1.2007

AFSC/Politics and Economics/Christian/McNish, Mary Ellen/Ahmadinejad Meets Clerics, and Decibels Drop a Notch/New York Times/New York/NY/USA/27-Sep-07/...

“My heart was broken that there was so little support from other religions to be here,” said Mary Ellen McNish, general secretary of the American Friends Service Committee, a Quaker group that helped sponsor the event. “If we don’t walk down this path of dialogue, we’re going to end up in conflagration.”

…….One critic said that these religious leaders were well intentioned, but naïve.

Malcolm I. Hoenlein, executive vice chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, said in a telephone interview: “They’re not going to convince him. Their very presence there gives him respectability.”

Ms. McNish, of the American Friends Service Committee, said the reverse was true: “The more we isolate him, the more support he gets at home.”

AFSC/War/Protest//War Costing $720 Million Each Day, Group Says/Washington Post,/Washington/DC/USA/22-Sep-07/........ according to the American Friends Service Committee, which displayed those statistics on large banners in cities nationwide Thursday and Friday. ..."The wounded are coming home, and many of them have severe brain and spinal injuries, which will require round-the-clock care for the rest of their lives," said Michael McConnell, Great Lakes regional director of the AFSC, a peace group affiliated with the Quaker church.

AFSC/War///War tab hits home as 5000 rally/Chicago Sun-Times/Chicago/IL/USA/30-Oct-07/... school lunches and health care for 163525 people, according to estimates by the American Friends Service Committee that were highlighted at the rally. ...

Integrity/AFSC///Quaker charity sued over a doctor's legacy/Philadelphia Inquirer/Philadelphia/PA/USA/8-Oct-07/Thirty-one years after Eloesser's death at age 95, the Pennsylvania Attorney General is suing the American Friends Service Committee, saying the Quaker … Manion's seven years as a fund-raiser for the Friends committee ended last month, when his contract wasn't renewed.

According to Manion, 43, he and the charity had a falling out for a couple of reasons. He said his bosses wouldn't accommodate him after his feet got painful - and were unhappy when he raised complaints in-house about the use of Eloesser's money.

The suit claims that the American Friends Service Committee used millions for purposes other than those specified in his will...John Treat, a charity spokesman, said he believed the grants went to health care in Latin America - though sometimes directly for medical care instead of training....

AFSC/Immigration/Humanitarian Assistance/Wildfire Relief Efforts Leave Some Behind/CBS News / The Nation/New York/NY/USA/30-Oct-07/…Meanwhile, some who do are not being allowed to leave. "Some farmers are not following evacuation orders and have kept workers in the fields despite orders being given to evacuate," says Christian Ramirez of the American Friends Service Committee.

But if they stay they should know that, as Ramirez explains, "the atmosphere conditions are not safe to be working in." His organization has been sending volunteers into the fields to supply farmworkers with eye drops, face masks and goggles. ….

AFSC/Quaker History/Humanitarian Assistance/RIVESALTES, FRANCE; Paying Tribute To the Persecuted/New York Times/New York/NY/USA/14-Oct-07/…By July of 1941, French Jewish activists and Red Cross officials visiting Rivesaltes and other camps were revolted by the conditions.

There were rats, lice, a contaminated water supply -- and death. Jewish groups desperately attempted -- sometimes successfully -- to pull children from the camps. Some were spirited out by the American Friends Service Committee, the Quaker organization. ….