News

A day's work with Indian Patients in the Hospitals of Salta

It's 6.30 in the morning, Monday, 15th December, and you can find me in the public hospital named after Dr. Arturo Onativia. I am waiting for the arrival of Indian patients from the small town of Santa Victoria, more than 500 km. away on the banks of the R. Pilcomayo, which marks the frontier between Argentina, in the south, and Bolivia and Paraguay to the north.

One of the patients who arrives is Liliana. She has been diagnosed as having Diffuse Hypothyroidism and now, at 7.15 a.m., she has had a blood sample taken to test her TSH. It is over a year since she has had her last test and she has been more than 3 months without medication. The doctor who is attending her has asked for new tests to establish the correct daily dosage of Levotiroxina.

The situation of Liliana is typical and reveals a whole series of problems that the Indians face and the public health service finds hard to resolve:

• In the first place, the local hospital of Santa Victoria, with limited facilities, doesn't arrange for the patients with chronic pathologies to have the regular medical check-ups in Salta that they need.

• Secondly, the local hospitals are unable to provide the necessary medication.

• Thirdly, no provision is made for the patients' transport from Tartagal to Salta, more than 500 km. away, with some 120 km. of dirt roads.

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The Right Reverend Bill Flagg, founder of Siwok Crafts in the UK

Evangelical missionary who ministered to the Anglican communities of South America and trained their priests

The Right Reverend Bill Flagg, who died on October 1 aged 79, began life as a farmer's boy in Somerset and, despite leaving school at the age of 14, became a missionary statesman of considerable importance, playing a key role in the development of the Anglican Church in South America.

Flagg: from the age of 16 he used his spare time to bicycle round Somerset preaching in churches and the open air.

He was Presiding Bishop (the equivalent of Archbishop) of the Anglican Council of South America from 1974 to 1977, a post he combined with episcopal leadership in Chile, Peru and Bolivia, and before that was Bishop of Paraguay and Northern Argentina. Later he spent seven years in London as general secretary of the South American Mission Society (SAMS) and also exercised notable ministries as an assistant bishop in the dioceses of Liverpool and Southwell.

Flagg's missionary zeal became evident when, at the age of 16, he used his spare time from farming to bicycle around Somerset preaching in churches and the open air, thus becoming known as "the boy preacher". He also began to educate himself with the aid of a correspondence course and, having matriculated, entered All Nations Christian College at Taplow, Buckinghamshire, to prepare for overseas missionary work.

From 1951 to 1958 he was in Chile as an agricultural missionary, then returned to England to prepare for Holy Orders at Clifton Theological College, Bristol. In 1959 he became chaplain and missionary superintendent of St Andrew's, Asuncion, in Paraguay, and five years later he was appointed Archdeacon of Northern Argentina; five years after that, when only 40, he became a bishop.

Firmly rooted in the Evangelical tradition, Flagg made an indelible impression wherever he went, often travelling on horseback for several days across the continent's vast open spaces to minister to small isolated Christian communities and often to start new ones, particularly among the Mapuche Indians. He had taught himself Spanish on his first sea crossing to South America and acquired the ability to preach in several local languages. Inseparable from his preaching was a humble and inspiring personality who brought many to faith.

As a bishop, he recognised that the days of importing church leaders to South America from England were numbered, and he devoted a good deal of time to the training of indigenous clergy who would soon assume responsibility within their own parishes and dioceses. He also saw the importance of bringing the separate South American dioceses to work together and relate more closely to the rest of the worldwide Anglican Communion. He was himself a member of the Anglican Consultative Council from 1974 to 1979.

John William Hawkins Flagg was born on June 16 1929 at the village of Mudford, near Yeovil. He had an inquisitive mind, and when still very young had a vivid conversion experience that determined the course of his life. He remained, however, wedded to the soil, never lost his Somerset accent - even, it was said, when speaking Spanish - and during his subsequent work as a missionary bishop used his knowledge of farming to sustain the life of rural missions. He could turn his hand to almost any practical task, including the repair of buildings and motor vehicles, and seemed no less at home when working in great cities.

In the 1960s he obtained wood-working tools for the poor Wichi people of northern Argentina and started an industry of hand-crafted wood sculptures - beautifully carved and inlaid birds and animals - which provided them with a sustaining income. On his return to England he became one of the industry's chief salesmen.

As general secretary of the South American Mission Society from 1986 to 1993, Flagg not only continued the necessary fund-raising, but also proved to be a visionary, strategic thinker in a period when the Church of which he had first-hand knowledge was experiencing considerable growth and was in need of unification. He made frequent visits to South America to advise those responsible for leadership in the Province of the Southern Cone, which he had done so much to create. The flourishing of the missions he had founded moved him greatly.

During the seven years between ceasing to minister in South America and becoming general secretary of SAMS (1978-85), Flagg served as Assistant Bishop of Liverpool, under David Sheppard, who had visited South America and had been deeply impressed by what he found there. Flagg combined this post with that of vicar of St Cyprian's, Toxteth, where he was much loved and had an important role in the rebuilding of community life after the destructive riots. He also worked tirelessly to retain the landmark church and was responsible for overseeing the design and building of a new community centre.

Following his retirement from SAMS, when he was an assistant bishop in Rochester diocese, Flagg moved to Southwell, Nottinghamshire, in the same role, except that he was now free to give it his full attention.
Besides exercising a characteristic pastoral and evangelistic ministry in the parishes, he accepted the responsibilities of adviser on rural ministry, which proved invaluable at the time of the BSE outbreak, and also for stewardship and overseas relations. He finally retired in 1997, but remained an honorary assistant bishop and continued to lend a hand until illness intervened.

Archbishop George Carey awarded him the Cross of St Augustine in 1996. Flagg's autobiography, "From Ploughshare to Crook", was published in 2000. (Copies available on this website)

His wife, Marjorie, who predeceased him, played an important part in his ministry, often accompanying him with their large family on hazardous journeys to remote places in South America.

Taken from the Daily Telegraph dated 17th October 2008

Bill Flagg is survived by a son and four daughters, and by a son whom he adopted in Peru.

Forest Destroyed, a Family Devastated

Destruction of Argentina's Chaco forest has featured in recent issues of SHARE. (SAMS Magazine) Andrew Leake now tells how global economic forces affect real people:

Six-year-old Vanesa had been born into a humble Wichi family in the small village of Chofwayuk in the dry tropical forests of northern Argentina. Her early years were happy ones spent playing with her siblings. Most of all, she loved helping her mother look after her baby brother Jeremías.

Family life changed abruptly the day the bulldozers arrived. As the trees crashed down, Vanesa's world was literally wiped out. The beautiful forest was replaced by a barren ocean of soy beans, patrolled by giant agricultural machines and bombarded from the air by crop dusters.

Just when things could seemingly get no worse, an irritation in one of Vanesa's eyes was diagnosed as cancer. Her father, Eduardo, took her to the city where doctors had to remove the eye. She put on a brave face, and recouped some of her beauty with the aid of a glass eye. Eduardo believes the disease was caused by the pesticides used by farmers on their crops.

Confronting the Giants

The loss of the forest made family life more and more difficult. Vanesa's parents could no longer find the plants, fruits, honey and animals that provided them with much of their diet. When bulldozers arrived to knock down one of the last patches of forest near her community, Eduardo decided enough was enough. He sought help from local authorities, but when this drew a blank he decided to take direct action. With the rest of his community he stood in front of the advancing bulldozers -- which sure enough generated a response, but not one they desired.

Riot police came to the village, beat up the peaceful protestors and arrested all the men. Terrified by what she witnessed, Vanesa grabbed her baby brother and ran off into the forest. In tears, she wandered aimlessly, dragging Jeremías as she was not strong enough to carry him. She became disorientated and was lost for several hours. Eduardo, back home after his ordeal with the police, found the children in the late evening. They were bruised and cut by thorns but otherwise in good shape.

The family recounted the day's events, trying to make sense of the injustice they had suffered. At that same moment, in a lawyer's office a few miles away, a court injunction was being signed that would make it a legal offence for Eduardo and some other community members to go within 50 metres of the plot being deforested. In practical terms, this now means Eduardo has to break the law in order to travel to and from his village.

Though far removed from our own reality, the misfortunes of families such as Vanesa's are often linked to our own lives. International demand for cheaper crops finds a willing partner in the insatiable greed of agribusinesses that supply products regardless of environmental and social costs. Left unchecked and fuelled by our own consumer demands, these economic forces play havoc with the wellbeing of family life halfway round the globe.

The Anglican Church, with support from SAMS, is actively involved in supporting indigenous communities in Argentina in issues of land rights and preservation of the forest. This work is conducted by the programme of social justice, ASOCIANA, to which Andrew devotes part of his ministry.

This article appeared in the International Anglican Family Newsletter, Easter 2008, and is reproduced here with permission.

Saturday, July 28, 2007

New Public Enquiry?
As a result of the opposition manifested at the public enquiry over a proposal to deforest 30,000 hectares of Chaco forest (see below), we have learnt (informally, and yet to be confirmed officially) that the government may now carry out a second public meeting.

Both ASOCIANA and the government agency for indigenous issues (IPPIS) presented legal measures questioning the project and the manner in which the public enquiry was carried out. ASOCIANA questioned the scientific validity of the company’s environmental impact assessment. The government agency was basically unhappy with the fact that they were only informed of the event two days before the event, and therefore unable to attend.

Audience at the initipublic hearing in Embarcación 02 07 07

This news is both good and bad. Good in the sense that our questioning was strong enough to stop an outright authorisation of the project. Bad in that the government and the land owners still thinking they can somehow get the project approved. The fact if the matter is that had ASOCIANA not been involved, it is quite likely that no formal questioning of he project would have been made, which would have made it easier for it to have been approved. What is interesting is that this is occurring just as a big sugar and paper factory in the neighbouring province of Jujuy have backtracked on a proposal to deforest a large area of tropical cloud forest after meeting a lot of resistance from non-government organisations. On a slightly different plane, another issue making headlines is the opposition being mounted by a small town high in the mountains against a proposed uranium mine.

Sugar and Paper Mill in Ledesma (Jujuy) - which recently backed down from a proposal to deforest tropical jungles in the Andean foothills

The above is indicative of a gradual growth of environmental awareness among certain sectors of public opinion, and it is to be welcomed. Small as it may be, one feels we are no longer alone. There are others out there with whom we can link our efforts, and this is very positive.