The "If You Take Care of the Planet, You Fight Poverty" campaign highlights the importance of our habits.

Following the bi-monthly awareness calendar established within the Campaign IF YOU TAKE CARE OF THE PLANET, YOU FIGHT POVERTY To promote the commitment of Christians and society in general to a fair, supportive and sustainable development model, during the months of January and February 2017 the focus will be on the third principle of the Campaign's "Green Decalogue", which reads:You will value the importance of your daily behaviors».

Given the feeling that the task of transforming the world may seem utopian or unattainable, the entities promoting this initiative—Cáritas, CONFER, Justice and Peace, Manos Unidas, and REDES (Network of Entities for Solidarity Development)—are committed to vindicating the value of small, personal contributions when it comes to getting involved in protecting the natural and social world in which we live, caring for people, and fighting poverty.

In the encyclical Laudato si´, inspiration for the Campaign, the Pope Francis He is clear and forceful on this point. “Along with the importance of small, everyday gestures, social love,” the pontiff says, “moves us to think about grand strategies… A change in lifestyles could exert healthy pressure on those who wield political, economic, and social power.”

For this reason, the Campaign's third "green principle" highlights the importance of our lifestyle habits because, as noted in the materials prepared for this two-month period, "when we are able to pay attention to our daily behaviors and try to adjust them to what we believe is good, just, and supportive, we can see how things around us change." To achieve this, it is necessary to "break the individualistic, consumerist, and predatory logic of natural resources if we want to be stewards of the planet and the human beings who inhabit it."

What can we do or stop doing?

The beginning of a new year is a good opportunity to incorporate responsible changes in our daily behaviors that contribute to the care of Creation.

Some of these practices and actions within our reach range from slowing down our pace of life or preferring to use public transport and bicycles and sharing the use of private vehicles, to consuming more organic and Fair Trade products whenever possible, making rational use of paper and water, or recycling waste properly and increasing the use of reusable items. The Campaign also proposes opting for energy-certified electrical appliances and maximizing their useful life, encouraging domestic consumption of renewable energy, and making socially responsible use of our money.

Voices that cry out

As with the two principles already addressed in the last four months of 2016, this time, real testimonies are used to illustrate the significance of each of the proposals for advancing the care of creation.

To illustrate the third “green principle” the story is collected that Carmen Nango, president of the UruWarmi indigenous organization of Puyo (Ecuador), plays her father, who “defended our territory, called Canelos, a long time ago, when he was 24 years old.”

“They elected him president of the community,” Carmen says. “At that time, foreign companies wanted to take over Canelos, and my father thought, ‘If I destroy this community, my children, my companions, my friends, where will they go?’ So he said, ‘No, I have to fight, defend my territory.’ They offered him the land and gave him money in exchange, and he said, ‘What good is money? Where will I go? If I have to lose my life for my community, I’ll give more life.’ He fought and that’s how he managed to keep the Canelos commune, where we now live.”

For this Indigenous leader, “defending the territory is about nature. Cutting down a tree is cutting down a life; that's why, when I become an authority, I'm going to demand that, because if we plant a tree, we're going to plant a life. I know the rights I have, the rights we all have and that we can demand, but I also know that we must fulfill our obligations.”

"We want to move forward," Carmen says, "as women, with our children, without losing our customs, to teach our children our culture, how to plant cassava, because I've seen that it's not necessary to cut down a tree or exploit oil."

More information: http://www.enlazateporlajusticia.org/

Juan Ciudad is a member of REDES (Network of Entities for Solidarity Development)

Organizations promoting the Connect for Justice Campaign:

News Source: Press Release of 9/1/2016