Over the past two weeks, we have seen broad-based protests in the United States reflecting generations of frustration and anger over our society’s failure to resolve systemic racism. This is an issue which has been central to the history of this country. We at ACDI/VOCA stand in solidarity with all peaceful protesters, who are exercising their First Amendment rights under the U.S. Constitution to demand reforms to policing practices which have led to repeated horrific killings of our fellow citizens.
ACDI/VOCA’s programming is exclusively outside the United States. We recognize that the issues being addressed in the United States are also very much present in countries where we work, and many other countries, around the world. Regardless of location, racial equity and inclusion are central to our core values. Fair and just access to the social, economic, and legal structures of society is a moral imperative anywhere.
We want to make it perfectly clear that we as an organization hold values which demand that we act in accordance with that moral imperative against systemic racial injustice anywhere we find it – in our international development projects around the globe, and in the United States at our home office. We stand in solidarity with anyone determined to eliminate systemic racism anywhere in the world.
