BWA Vice President Wins Prestigious Human Rights Award

The Vice President of the Baptist World Alliance (BWA), Gustavo Parajon, has been named as the 2006 recipient of the prestigious Baptist World Alliance Human Rights Award.

|PIC1|Parajon, who is also a medical doctor and clergyman, will receive the award, which was previously only handed out once every five years, but has now been made an annual award following a vote at the BWA Centenary Congress held in July 2005 in Birmingham, England.

The award is given in recognition of "significant and effective activities to secure, protect, restore or preserve human rights," and is set to be handed out at the General Council/Annual Gathering of the BWA, held 3-8 July this year in Mexico City.

As a recognised figure in relief and development work, Dr Parajon has a reputation as a leading Nicaraguan evangelical, and is praised for his contributions to the evangelical movements and Baptist witness in his country.

Parajon has founded two major organisations.

One is PROVADENIC (Nicaragua Vaccination and community Development Program), founded in 1967, and was started in partnership with the First Baptist Church of Cleveland in the United States, the Nicaraguan Baptist Convention and the First Baptist Church of Managua. It is a primary health care program that serves 25 rural communities by training local health promoters to treat and prevent common illnesses.

|TOP|The second organisation, CEPAD (Nicaraguan Council of Evangelical Churches), was founded in 1972 as an interdenominational relief organisation to aid victims after an earthquake severely damaged the capital Managua and other parts of the country, taking more than 10,000 lives. CEPAD has broadened its ministry and now serves congregations of approximately 45 different member denominations and the population at large with emergency relief, development, and reconciliation programs.

The BWA explain: "During the Sandinista Revolution and the war in the 1980s, CEPAD was the intermediary between the Evangelical Churches and the government, and won the admiration of Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega who appointed Parajon as a member of the National Reconciliation Commission, together with Cardinal Miguel Obando y Bravo, former Catholic Archbishop of Managua.

"This led to misrepresentation in some conservative circles that CEPAD was a communist organisation working in tandem with the Soviet-backed government. As a result, CEPAD's clinics became targets for attacks from Contra rebels, who sought to overthrow the government, placing doctors, nurses and patients at risk.

|AD|"An intervention by noted Eastern Baptist Theological Seminary professor and author, Ron Sider, who organised visits of prominent conservative leaders from the United States to the sites served by the organisation, helped to dispel the erroneous accusation. CEPAD continues its outstanding ministry of reconciliation."

The latest award is a tribute to Parajon, who has received a number of awards for his outstanding contributions to ministry works throughout his life.

Other awards he has received include the Sesquicentennial Medallion as an Outstanding Citizen of Managua during Managua's 150th anniversary in 2002. He was also awarded the Dahlberg Peace Award by the American Baptist Churches in 1980, and a Doctor of Humane Letters degree by Denison University in 1981.

Parajon becomes the fourth person to receive the BWA award. Previous recipients were former United States President Jimmy Carter in 1995, recognised for his promotion of peace and democracy worldwide; 'Rev. Simon' of Burma, principal of the Kawthoolei Karen Baptist Bible School, in 2000, for his work among Cambodian refugees on the Thai border; and in 2005, Lauran Bethell of the United States, in recognition for her work with exploited women and children.


For more information on the BWA, please visit: www.bwanet.org


[Source: BWA]