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• The 2017 Burmese military campaign against the Rohingya Muslim minority was unprecedented in its brutality, leading to the death of an untold number of innocent civilians and forcing over 700,000 to flee as refugees to Bangladesh, where they joined previous waves of refugees to form what has become the world's largest refugee camp, now home to nearly 1 million people.
   
• A United Nations investigation has led the International Court of Justice to begin examining Burma's culpability in upholding its obligations under the 1948 Genocide Convention, representing a necessary step toward international justice and accountability.
   
• Children represent approximately half of Rohingya refugees, and they have not been allowed to attend formal schooling since the creation of the camps in 2017, creating the prospect of a lost generation of an entire population.
   
• With a camp-wide internet ban, Rohingya families also now face additional threats to their safety and well-being from the effects of the coronavirus pandemic and the inability to access public health information.

This year's theme explores the meaning of home. For our grassroots partners and the communities they serve around the world, the sense of safety afforded by home is increasingly under attack, not just by the COVID-19 pandemic, but by oppressive governmental policies and the continued effects of the climate crisis. Your congregation or community group can use UUSC's Guest at Your Table program to learn more about the work of our partners and how you can support their fight for justice.

Get digital and downloadable materials to participate in this year''s program.

• Justice in Motion and its extensive network of local human rights defenders have been lifelines to isolated children and families. Their work identifying cases of separated children, locating families, and ensuring safe reunification has helped fill the void created by the absence of care from responsible U.S. or Mexican authorities.
   
• Legal resources and a national hotline from Freedom for Immigrants allow detainees to report conditions of abuse in detention centers and request support. 
   
• Pop No'j assists people returning to Guatemala who have been deported from the United States and coordinates with Guatemalan authorities in helping unaccompanied minors reunite with their families. 

• Text "UUSC" to 52886 to receive urgent notifications for taking action as the incoming Biden administration sets its agenda. 
• Help to fund our partners' vital work with families facing immense challenges to their freedom and safety.

• Preserving asylum for people fleeing brutal violence;
• Ending family separation and detention of immigrants by the U.S. government;
• Providing emergency relief to communities hit hardest by the coronavirus pandemic;
• Fighting the threats to ways of life and land loss that Indigenous Peoples face; and
• Restoring the rights of the Rohingya and holding perpetrators accountable for genocide.

Warm regards,

Mary Katherine Morn
President and CEO

• In New Providence, Hands for Hunger used UUSC support in the months after the storm to provide fresh food, pantry items, and food vouchers to people facing food insecurity, and has recently stepped up its food distribution work among families and individuals facing greater need during COVID-19. This month they began piloting a new digital, contact-less food voucher program, given the public health risks and economic decline brought on by the coronavirus.
   
• On the island of Eleuthera, the One Eleuthera Foundation (OEF) welcomed evacuees and provided them with emergency short-term housing and food. With UUSC support, OEF's work will ensure economic recovery and social integration for displaced families, focusing on long-term solutions for housing, employment, health and wellness, and small business needs. 
   
• Equality Bahamas has wrapped up its six-month food distribution and will now use UUSC support to lift up the unmet needs of undocumented and unregistered Creole-speaking Haitian evacuees across the island - many of whom have been left out of any official response efforts.

• Individuals seeking asylum are detained indefinitely in crowded jails and put at increased risk because they are not able to properly distance themselves to prevent the spread of disease.
   
• Pacific island communities who are reeling from the recent tropical storms and cyclones, which devastated homes, face challenges to their ability to "shelter in place" and quarantine.
   
• Honduran families under government lockdowns have lost their livelihoods and risk starvation from food shortages, while the government uses the pandemic as an excuse to consolidate power and further erode human rights. 

With deep appreciation,

Mary Katherine Morn
President and CEO

• In Bangladesh, we're working to meet the immediate public health crisis in the world's largest refugee camp. We''re helping one partner, for example, deliver face masks, soap for handwashing, medicine, and other supplies to help Rohingya families stay safe from COVID-19.
   
• As Pacific Island communities rebuild after recent tropical cyclones and other climate effects, our partners are ministering to critical needs; for example, by supplying sanitary kits to two of the most affected communities.
   
• Here in the U.S., the Trump administration is using the coronavirus pandemic as an excuse to inflict even more suffering on immigrants through its detention and deportation policies. We're working in coalition to secure the release of asylum seekers held in crowded, unsafe immigration jails, so they can shelter in place with their families, friends, and loved ones - not deport them to dangerous situations.
   
• At the U.S.-Mexico border, our partners are providing shelter, food, and access to healthcare for asylum seekers trapped in Mexico because of the administration's "Remain in Mexico" policy. Their efforts are having a huge impact on reducing the risk of violence, extortion, trafficking, and exposure to COVID-19 for the families they serve. 

Thank you,

Mary Katherine Morn
President and CEO

Oftentimes overworked and on the verge of burnout, those leading social justice movements need more opportunities and resources to connect and build relationships, learn from each other, plan together, and draw from deep wells of support to continue putting pressure on the levers of power. UUSC aims to be a true partner, in eye-to-eye relationship with the grassroots organizations we support.

Understand more about the unique ways we power the long-term work of frontline communities. ? 

This year, we saw how important and powerful voting is in voicing your desire for change. Tomorrow, we have another way to make a big difference collectively.

Giving Tuesday is a global day set aside for giving from the heart. There are just a few hours to go before it begins - the biggest day of the year to support the nonprofits and causes most important to each of us. 

Alex, I'm asking you urgently, will you join hands with people across the globe to support UUSC's vital human rights work? 

Thanks to a special Matching Gift from a generous UUSC supporter, your Giving Tuesday contribution can go twice as far.

Simply make a Giving Tuesday gift in any amount between now and midnight tomorrow, and it will be matched dollar-for-dollar, doubling its impact!

Participating in Giving Tuesday helps to boost the power of people and organizations working together, transforming our communities and the world for the better.

Alex, here are just a few examples of what your gift will do:

• Respond with shelter, clean water, medicines, and other necessities for Central American families in need following two recent devastating hurricanes.
• Support Rohingya refugees from Burma with sewing workshops, literacy classes, and computer skills trainings to provide income generation and sustainable livelihoods.
• Ensure activists of Black-led movements can access mental health and wellness resources to continue their fight against oppression.
• Provide free legal help for those who are fleeing violent conditions in Central America as they apply for asylum in the U.S. and Mexico.

With the dollar-for-dollar match, I hope you'll be as generous as possible.

Thank you for your care and compassion, ensuring people everywhere can live in freedom and safety, with dignity. 

With appreciation,

Mary Katherine Morn
President and CEO

Bring UUSC Sunday to your congregation this summer! In times of crisis, looking to moments in our shared history when we rose to the challenges before us can offer important lessons - as well as hope. A special virtual UUSC Sunday with UUSC President and CEO, Rev. Mary Katherine Morn, is available now. We invite congregations to use the entire service or the elements that best suit your summer service needs. Join us as we explore how congregations have brought our Unitarian Universalist values to the fight for human rights since UUSC's founding 80 years ago and how, together, we will continue the work of justice into the future.

Download UUSC Sunday Worship Resources. ? 

• Andrea Gittleman, Senior Program Manager, Simon-Skjodt Center for the Prevention of Genocide
• Greg Constantine, Photographer and Curator of "Burma''s Path to Genocide"
• Wai Wai Nu, Rohingya human rights activist and Founder/ Director of the Yangon-based organization, Women''s Peace Network
• David Angeles, UUSC Senior Partnership Officer for Crisis Response

• Sharing food, household items, coming together in groups (to worship, gather as a tribe, or hunt and gather food) are crucial parts of communal living in the Pacific. Social distancing will pull apart the bonds of close-knit cultures.
• In many of the outer island communities, reliable access to clean, safe drinking water and sanitation is scarce, putting these families at greater risk of contracting the coronavirus.
• Much of the latest health information must be translated from English, ensuring that information about the spread of the virus and how to avoid contracting it are readily available. 

In solidarity,

Salote Soqo

• Taking a Collective Breath: Deepening Our Alignment with the Movement for Black Lives is built around the elements of the BREATHE Act to effectively support ongoing racial justice work. Download the toolkit here to get started. This five-session series is a collaboration with UUA's Side With Love.
   
• People of the Land: Healing from the White Supremacy and Colonization Pandemic presents a series of conversations with the Carrizo Comecrudo Tribe of Texas. Listen to the wisdom of the tribe and learn more about allyship, solidarity, honoring lifeways, and more. The six monthly webinars offered between now and December are in  collaboration with the Texas CCT Tribe, UUSC, UUA, UU Ministry for the Earth, and the Texas UU Justice Ministry.
   
• The UU College of Social Justice offers three different justice workshops, for groups wanting to deepen their capacity for effective, grounded activism. All have been adapted to an online format, and in many cases, supplemental coaching can be offered. Find out more and schedule a workshop here.

June 1 to November 30 marks the Atlantic Hurricane season. It is now upon the Gulf Coast, along with a grim forecast for Indigenous tribes in the bayous of Louisiana. The annual hurricane season drastically impacts Indigenous communities in places like Louisiana, who face high levels of displacement and lack of government support.

Read more about what challenges our partners in the region are now facing.

Big opportunities for building a better world are on the horizon before us in the coming year.

Your generous donations to our Year-End Campaign have positioned UUSC and our partners to greet the new year with the resources to make a real difference in people's lives around the world. Thank you to the hundreds of UUSC members who were able to step up with gifts in abundance during a time of great difficulty for many.

We are grateful to the UU Congregation at Shelter Rock in Manhasset, N.Y., and a generous donor who both pledged Matching Gifts that made your contributions go twice as far.

The challenges to human rights keep growing and the needs around the world are immense - so your steadfast generosity enables us to start working immediately on our ambitious plans for 2021.

Please accept our heartfelt thanks for the unwavering commitment you showed not only during the holiday season of giving, but all throughout an arduous year.

A world free of oppression is possible, and we are building it together.

I wish you and your family peace and happiness in the new year.

With deep appreciation,

Rev. Mary Katherine Morn
President and CEO
Unitarian Universalist Service Committee

This year was one of multiplying crises that tested our resolve. Among them, we confronted a global pandemic, repaired damage from hurricanes, and worked to dismantle the barriers placed in front of people migrating for safety. 

No matter the challenge, grassroots change makers did not give up. And your past generosity has helped immensely to fuel the struggle on the frontlines of human rights. 

Building on the gains we've achieved together requires the strong backing of our supporters. It's why the end of the year is so critical - a time when a spirit of giving unites us and strengthens our bonds of community. Individual donations from folks like you have the ability to power grassroots movements leading to sustainable change.

To multiply your impact and help us meet our ambitious goals for next year, a generous UUSC supporter will match your gift in any amount if we receive it by December 31.

Here are a few examples of what your doubled gift will accomplish:

• Help our partner No More Deaths continue to leave water, food, and other supplies on dangerous migrant trails and provide medical care for all who need it along the route to safety and freedom.
• Provide the funding for Rohingya refugee community centers in the Bangladesh camps, which ensures places of peace and privacy for women to breastfeed, shower, or engage in quiet reflection, as well as programs for Rohingya children to receive the basic education from which they''ve been banned in Burma. 
• Assist Ecological Solutions in the Solomon Islands to supply building materials for families relocating from Nusa Hope Island to the mainland of New Georgia due to the effects of climate change.
• Enable UndocuBlack Network to continue offering mental health resources to the Black undocumented community in the U.S.

Imagine how much good UUSC can do with additional matching funds to support communities building a better world!

Please take advantage of this limited-time opportunity to make your generosity DOUBLE in impact. But to do so, we must receive your gift by midnight Thursday.

Don't wait, click HERE now to make your contribution online. It's quick, it's easy, it's secure.

Thank you for your commitment to our shared values of compassion, equity, and justice.

Sincerely,

Rev. Mary Katherine Morn
President and CEO
Unitarian Universalist Service Committee