Ten members of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America are visiting Nicaragua to examine the effects of climate change. They will also study how extreme poverty, hunger and climate change interrelate.

To achieve reconciliation takes nothing less than the transformation of society, World Council of Churches general secretary the Rev Dr Samuel Kobia said in Managua, Nicaragua, on a recent visit to the Central American country.

An international ecumenical churches' delegation led by World Council of Churches general secretary Dr Samuel Kobia, has visited Nicaragua to support work for peace and justice in one of the world's poorest countries.

Nicaragua, one of the poorest countries in the western hemisphere, is in recovery from a long history of oppressive dictatorships, civil war and natural disasters. You can sponsor a child in Nicaragua here

As world financial leaders gather in Washington DC for the annual joint strategy meetings of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund, Christian Aid is calling for an urgent rethink of the World Bank’s approach to tackling energy poverty.

Mennonite Central Committee (MCC), the North American Anabaptist relief, development and peace agency, is helping to provide food and other aid in seven indigenous communities in northeastern Nicaragua that were devastated by Hurricane Felix.

Church and development organisations working in hurricane-hit Nicaragua and Honduras are urging people not to forget the long- and short-term victims of the region's 'hidden disaster', the profile of which is being dwarfed by other world events in the media.

Hurricane Felix, which struck Nicaragua on Tuesday 5 September 2007, has destroyed 9,000 homes, according to the Nicaraguan government. 38 people are confirmed dead, with another 80 missing. Honduras and Guatemala have also been hit.

Evacuations from coastal areas have begun in earnest, as a ‘potentially catastrophic’ hurricane threatens Central America. Church and development agencies have been working with local emergency committees to help communities create shelters.