Index for Volume 7, Issue 4
January - March 1996

Rural learning helps stem urban migration
JAMUNDI, Colombia -- An innovative approach, using a curriculum adapted
for country life and delivered via NGOs, provides new opportunities for
15,000 in rural Columbia

Creating sustainable communities
PERSPECTIVE -- Throughout history, urbanization has been associated with
human progress. Humanity's coming together in villages, towns and cities
has fostered social, economic and cultural development. Many of our greatest
religious, political, educational and scientific institutions have been
established in metropolitan areas. In short, to borrow a phrase from the
Habitat II agenda, cities have been the "incubators of civilization."
NGOs gear up for Habitat II
NEW YORK -- Prepcom for UN Conference on Human Settlements allows greater
participation than in the past. Non-governmental organizatioins around the
world are gearing up for the United Nations Conference on Human Settlements,
the last scheduled major UN conference of the decade, hoping it will further
establish civil society as a key player in the creation of a peaceful and
sustainable world civilization.
Community health workers in Kenya stir broad changes
MENU, Western Province, Kenya -- As the mother of seven children,
Judith Soita is well aware of what it means to worry over a sick child.
One day they are out playing happily by the road with other children, the
next they are lying down quietly inside, their eyes glased with hurt. And
in this remote village some 1,000 kilometers from Nairobi, there is always
doubt over whether they will get up to play another day.

UN
report calls for an end to intolerance against the Bahá'ís
in Iran
GENEVA -- Saying that Iran's treatment of the Bahá'í community
should be regarded as a violation of a 1981 United Nations declaration
on religious intolerance, the Unitd Nation's chief expert on the issue
has called on Iran to end the ban on Bahá'í institutions
and other oppressive measures against Iran's Bahá'í community.
FUNDAEC: Not a typical development foundation
CALI, Columbia -- It is often said that some of the best new ideas come
from outsiders. Because they are not hemmed in by the traditions of a particular
field of study, they feel free to strike out in new directions.
A read of the "The Most Holy Book", Aspects of the Sublime
One of the most puzzling theological questions of our
age -- how to account for the great number and diversity of world religions
and at the same time to acknowledge their similarities -- is also one of
the most challenging social issues confronting humanity.
(January-March
1996 / OC 7.4)