Office of Religious Life quietly expands international humanitarian efforts

Dean of Religious Life Rev. Alison Boden will speak at a meeting of the United Nations High Commissioner’s Dialogue on Protection Challenges in Geneva next week, discussing how the UN can work with faith-based organizations without sacrificing its secular nature. The speaking engagement reflects the Office of Religious Life’s broader reorientation toward international humanitarian efforts since Boden’s appointment in 2007.

This event comes as the latest in a series of efforts being made on the part of the Office of Religious Life to participate in the world of international humanitarian action — an undertaking that started largely with Boden’s appointment as dean of religious life in 2007.

These efforts include opportunities developed by ORL for individual students to work with faith-based organizations abroad. ORL is now focusing on expanding these efforts by encouraging more students to go abroad, in addition to helping students organize and develop new humanitarian programs.

“We do interfaith,” Boden said, explaining that ORL’s emphasis on cooperation between different religions coincides with its international efforts. “And it’s what we have to contribute.”

This past summer, the Office of Religious Life organized and cohosted an interfaith humanitarian conference in London, bringing together various faith-based organizations.

The conference was the first time many of the organizations interacted with each other, Boden said, adding that they realized they shared many interests.

“It was bringing together people who really aren’t ever in the same room,” Boden said. “The novelty is amazing, and the new sparks of energy and ideas are amazing.”

Increased interaction between faith-based groups of different faiths would help make their shared humanitarian efforts more effective, Associate Dean of Religious Life Matthew Weiner said. He pointed to the situation in Sri Lanka after the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami as a great example of an instance in which interfaith cooperation among faith-based groups could have improved the effectiveness of the humanitarian response.

“The people on the ground are Buddhist and Hindu. The relief groups tend to be Christian. They have a history in Sri Lanka of being scared that we’re trying to convert them.” Weiner said. “If that aid organization were to go in with a Buddhist organization or a Hindu organization, their work is going to be more effective.”

In addition, Weiner said that increased cooperation between these organizations could also help spread the message of interfaith cooperation to the people they help — the same goal that ORL has been promoting on campus.

“It’s just what we’re doing here, but thinking about it globally,” Weiner said.

Under Boden, ORL has also established a partnership with the United Nations Population Fund and a think tank, the Social Science Research Council. Through these partnerships, ORL has met with UN officials, academics and religious leaders to discuss how the UN, as a secular organization, can enlist the aid of faith-based organizations.

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“[We] brought together religious organizations, or faith-based organizations, to work on international issues as well as various United Nations officials and agencies and as well as various distinguished academics,” UNFPA Senior Adviser on Culture Azza Karam said. “The three communities, if you will, came together to discuss and learn from each others’ varied experiences on the relationship between religion and religious issues and international development issues.”

In addition, the Office of Religious Life is working hard to increase student involvement in these efforts, Boden said. She said that ORL has brought students to these discussions to represent the Office of Religious Life.

Weiner added that ORL is planning to let students play a larger role in organizing future events and programs in an effort to get them thinking about a range of issues related to humanitarianism.

Furthermore, ORL will set up internships with humanitarian organizations — whether faith-based or secular — to encourage students to take part in the actual development and execution of various humanitarian efforts.

The office has matched internships with students in New York City on issues such as domestic violence and prison reentry. Weiner said ORL is now looking to replicate this on the international stage and is currently planning a trip this summer that will send students to training programs in Thailand alongside Burmese activists to learn about activism and then go to Burma with the organizers.

“We’re trying to develop — this is both local and international — interfaith internships, where students will spend a summer in an organization that could be a religious organization or a secular organization, developing an interfaith project,” Weiner said. “The idea, as this builds, will be to get a cadre of students who are interested not necessarily in religion and interfaith, but in one of these topics and the religion angle on that.”