ACT News Release

Geneva, January 25, 2005

White Rakuba appointed ACT Coordinating Office director

The Rev. White M. Rakuba has been appointed as director of the Coordinating Office of Action by Churches Together (ACT) International, a global alliance of churches and related agencies working to save lives and support communities in emergencies worldwide.

Since 1991, Rakuba has served as the director of the emergency-relief and refugee program of the Johannesburg-based South African Council of Churches (SACC). In this position he has had responsibilities for directing the overall program and developing the capacity of SACC member churches in responding to the needs of people in emergency or refugee situations. He has also related to churches and councils in assistance programs as well as staff of churches in the field.

Rakuba has been a member of ACT’s emergency committee, its highest governing body. He was also on the roster of ACT’s Coordination Assessment Teams (CAT), which can be deployed rapidly to a disaster zone to assist ACT members in preparing for a response. In August 2003, he led a CAT mission to Liberia to assist the members in coordinating their response to the civil war there.

Prior to working at SACC, where he started as a national field worker in 1990 in its Pietermaritzburg, South Africa, refugee ministry office, Rakuba held positions during the 1980s as a parish pastor in various locations for the Northern Diocese of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Southern Africa.

Ordained as a Lutheran pastor in 1981, Rakuba attended Marang Lutheran Theological Seminary in Rustenburg, South Africa. He has also completed a program in disaster management through Charles Sturt University, Australia.

“The ACT executive committee was impressed by White’s demonstrated commitment to ACT’s values and vision, to high ethical and professional standards, and his strong knowledge of the ecumenical movement. He brings significant experience in capacity assessment and strengthening local organizations engaged in emergency response and disaster preparedness, high priority areas for ACT. He brings direct experience as director of an implementer of ACT programs,” said Kathryn Wolford, president of Lutheran World Relief, a U.S.-based ACT member. Wolford is moderator of ACT’s executive committee.

In speaking of his new responsibilities as director, Rakuba recalled the words of the biblical prophets Isaiah and Jeremiah and how he would be led by God in his new role as they were. The instructions given by God to these prophets to help the poor and people in need, found in the Bible, are words of inspiration to him, he said. “I am excited to lead the team that coordinates the work of the ACT alliance, and I hope together we can make life better for those affected by disasters,” he said.

Rakuba will manage a staff of 12 in the ACT Coordinating Office at the Ecumenical Centre in Geneva. He succeeds Thor-Arne Prois, who served as director until September last year. Jenny Borden, a former senior staff member of U.K-based ACT member Christian Aid, and who served as co-moderator of the ACT executive committee after its founding in 1995, has been serving as interim director.

“We also take this opportunity to express gratitude to Ms. Borden for exemplary service as ACT’s interim director, leading a staff team in responding to the tsunami disaster in south Asia, the crisis in Darfur and in ‘forgotten emergencies’ like the DRC and Colombia. She and the ACT Coordinating Office staff have done a fantastic job in reorganizing staffing functions for a more efficient and effective coordination,” said Wolford.

Rakuba will begin his duties on February 15. He is married and has four children.