When Chenoa Stock first experienced life in Lesotho, South Africa, while on a Wittenberg service trip her junior year, she immediately fell in love with cultural immersion abroad.

Upon her return to Ohio, she began exploring volunteer opportunities and eventually learned from her parents, both Presbyterian ministers, about a Presbyterian Church-sponsored young adult global volunteers program. She applied and was assigned to teach English at a school in Kerala, India, shortly after Commencement.

A year later, the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church invited her to be the companionship facilitator for a new Joining Hands (JH) network the church was establishing. She accepted and has worked for the JH-supported Praja Abhilasha Network (People’s Aspirations) in Sri Lanka since 2006.

“Joining Hands is an extension of the Presbyterian Hunger Program, and it introduces a new strategy for a holistic international hunger ministry,” Stock said. “The focus of this program is to address the inequities and suffering resulting from the spread of globalization around the world, through community education, advocacy, alternative economic activities, lifestyle changes and spiritual grounding,” she continued.

“The Sri Lankan network consists of local grassroots organizations, NGOs, churches, and people from Buddhist, Hindu, Muslim and Christian backgrounds, working together for the purpose of studying the grassroots issues of hunger, poverty, and injustice within the country.”

Stock is currently assisting Praja Abhilasha on a campaign to recover land rights, especially as they relate to displacement from the 2004 tsunami and from the continuing Civil War between the Sinhalese majority government and the separatist group, the Tamil Tigers.

“I have the role of being the bridge of communication between the network in Sri Lanka and General Assembly in the United States,” she said. “I am here to translate the context of the country, help explain what we are doing as a network, and answer any other questions they might have about our work,” she said.

“My hope for this country and its people and is that a negotiation can be found and that peace can be sustained,” Stock said. “I also hope that Praja Abhilasha will make at least some small difference for people who deserve equality and justice.”

– Karen Gerboth ’93