| The Council maintains three national
program units:
- The Health Program works with faith- and community-based organizations
to promote better care and access to treatment for people living
with HIV and AIDS. Through education campaigns and training
workshops, it encourages pastors and congregations to fight
the stigma that is still so often attached to HIV infection.
It also helps communities to fight other diseases of poverty,
such as tuberculosis and cholera.
- Justice, Reconciliation and Healing coordinates programs related
to land, peacemaking, and human rights. The Council's "Transcending
Racism" initiative, for example, empowers congregations
to identify and address sources of racial and gender injustice
in their churches and communities. The unit also facilitates
South African church involvement in peacemaking and human rights
initiatives elsewhere in Southern Africa and in the Middle East.
- The Poverty Eradication Unit not only engages in advocacy
to address the causes of poverty and economic inequality in
South Africa, but it also provides practical assistance to households
seeking sustainable livelihoods. In partnership with the South
African National Development Agency, the unit has helped community
groups to set up agricultural projects, livestock breeding schemes,
bakeries, and sewing and craft groups.
In addition, the General Secretariat coordinates the Council's
public policy, faith and mission, and communications offices as
well as facilitating the full involvement of member churches in
the life and decision-making of the Council through its governing
structures.
Doug works to ensure the smooth operation of several aspects
of the Council's administrative support and accountability systems,
including program planning, budgeting, and reporting. He also
maintains the Council's information technology networks and Web
sites (see South African Council
of Churches and South
African Council of Churches Parliamentary Office), and provides
advice and support to member denominations on technical issues
such as tax and municipal property rates legislation.
Doug writes: "Although I miss the excitement of the Council's
public policy work—taking part in Parliamentary Committee
hearings or strategy meetings with other civil society bodies—I
have appreciated the opportunity to get a larger sense of the
many ways in which the SACC is touching people's lives.
“My current position in the SACC's National Office gives
me more contact with Provincial Councils, where much of the actual
work of the Council is carried out. I get to hear the stories
of young people who have found jobs and ways of contributing to
their communities after taking part in SACC training workshops.
I see the photos of the agricultural projects and the bakeries
that are not only providing livelihoods for the participants,
but are often also improving nutrition for vulnerable people in
their communities: children, the elderly and people living with
HIV and AIDS. And when the communications systems are down, the
budget is not approved, or the reports aren't ready on time, I
quickly become aware of just how important these behind-the-scenes
tasks are to the Council's effectiveness."
Since 2005, Doug has also been the PC(USA)'s regional liaison
for southern Africa. Regional liaisons are playing an increasingly
important role in facilitating mission partnerships and helping
Presbyterians to identify appropriate ways of working together
with sisters and brothers in faith around the world.
"Our church is changing, and so are the ways in which we
approach mission and partnership," Doug writes. "One
of the most dynamic developments of recent years has been the
growth of direct presbytery and congregational links between the
United States and other parts of the world. Another important
development is the emergence of mission networks to enable those
involved in partnerships to exchange experiences and insights
and learn from one another. Regional liaisons can assist these
efforts by providing relevant information and analysis, facilitating
communications, and troubleshooting problems. They also have a
role to play in supporting other PC(USA) mission personnel in
their regions."
As regional liaison for southern Africa, Doug works with partners
in South Africa, Lesotho, Madagascar, and Mauritius.
Doug graduated with honors from Macalester College in St. Paul,
Minnesota, with a B.A. in history, political science, and economics.
He was both a Truman Scholar and a Rhodes Scholar. He received
a M.Phil. in politics from Brasenose College, Oxford, England,
in 1985 and then worked for a year as a legislative coordinator
for the Washington Office on Africa in Washington, D.C. In that
position he coordinated the office's advocacy work on southern
Africa issues, including support for the Comprehensive Anti-Apartheid
Act. Doug returned to England and received his Ph.D. in politics
from Wolfson College, Oxford. He then went to South Africa, serving
as a Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) mission diaconal worker in a
semi-rural environment on the tropical upper south coast of KwaZulu-Natal,
just south of Durban. In 1994 Doug was the provincial administration
and financial officer for the KwaZulu-Natal Electoral Observer
Network in Durban. From 1995 to 1997, Doug returned to Washington,
D.C. as a PC(USA) mission specialist assigned to do policy and
communications work with the Washington Office on Africa and the
Africa Policy Information Center.
Birthday: March 30 |
