Catégorie : Civil Society

Survivors Associated – Sri Lanka

Linked with our presentation of Shanti Christine Arulampalam – Sri Lanka.

Survivors Associated is an NGO engaged in holistic care of survivors of armed conflict in Sri Lanka.

Survivors Associated (SA) was established in 1996 to conduct psychosocial development activities at grass roots level in conflict areas. It is now active in the districts of Mannar, Vavuniya, Batticaloa and Ampara. SA works in border villages, Government controlled areas, and in LTTE controlled areas through secondary school educated young people from the areas, who are trained to work within their communities as psychosocial caregivers and in peace building.

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History: Survivors Associated was established in April 1996 following a series of Needs Assessment Surveys among Survivors of War in Mannar, and Kalmunai. A group of concerned citizens from all walks of life came together to commence this organization.  Continuer la lecture de « Survivors Associated – Sri Lanka »

Mouvements paysans argentins : « Terre, travail et justice »

Trouvé sur RISAL – Réseau d’information et de solidarité avec l’Amérique latine.

Source : Brecha, Rebelion, janvier 2006.

Par María Soledad Segura – Depuis la dernière décennie, dans les provinces du centre et du nord argentin, des organisations paysannes tentent de faire face à la menace d’expulsion de leurs terres et aux difficultés pour continuer à produire. A l’image des mouvements paysans du reste de l’Amérique latine, ils commencent également à envisager une réforme agraire intégrale et un modèle agricole alternatif.

Il y a encore de cela vingt ans, les terres sur lesquelles vivent et travaillent les petits producteurs agricoles d’Argentine – qui produisent pour leur autoconsommation ou pour le marché local interne – étaient considérées comme marginales. Cependant, avec les changements climatiques de ces dernières années, notamment en ce qui concerne l’augmentation des pluies, ces terres à faible valeur productive ont été revalorisées. De plus, au cours des années 90, le gouvernement de Carlos Menem [1] a mis en œuvre une série de politiques qui ont changé le modèle agraire établi, et ces terres sont alors devenues attractives. « A partir de 1991, par un décret “de nécessité et d’urgence“, tous les arrangements institutionnels qui avaient permis, au cours du XXe siècle, cette coexistence entre la petite unité agraire et la grande exploitation agraire et d’élevage ont été modifiés », soutient Norma Giarraca, chercheuse à l’Université nationale de Buenos Aires dans une interview publiée par la revue Desafíos urbanos.

Continuer la lecture de « Mouvements paysans argentins : « Terre, travail et justice » »

Self Employed Women’s Association SEWA

Linked with our presentation of Ela Bhatt – India.

Linked also with our presentation of Reema Nanavaty – India.

The group SEWA.org started small — a few thousand members — but these days, it’s the largest primary labor union in the country, representing a quarter of a million self-employed workers, from fruit vendors to stitchers to road construction workers. Members have formed trade cooperatives for various groups — like cattle raisers and cigarette rollers — to share resources and tackle common issues. Along with negotiating power, SEWA (which means “service” in Hindi and Gujarati) offers programs for health and maternity benefits. One of the group’s biggest coups was the 1974 creation of its own bank, where women can start a savings account with just a few rupees, or take out a small loan to grow their enterprise. These microfinancing opportunities are vital resources for women who previously would have had to resort to hawking their bangles or borrowing from gouging moneylenders. It also gives women a place to stash their savings, safe from the hands of husbands, sons and in-laws — in other words, a chance to be self-reliant.

Elaben Bhatt, SEWA’s founder and former secretary general, gives her perspective on poverty. She speaks of the struggle to break the cycle of subsistence, deprivation and survival that characterizes the life of the world’s poor, in particular women. She provides some answers: access to credit and productive resources, action, organisation and leadership. (Read the whole article on BBC world).

Appropriate technology for supporting micro enterprise: SEWA’s provision, training and capacity-building with ICTs at the grassroots level has helped in bridging the existing digital divide through the use of technologies appropriate to the needs of its members. It has shown that such technologies can support women working in the informal sector, bringing greater livelihood security to economically vulnerable households living in increasingly fragile environments … Having understood the effect of poor access to information on poverty, SEWA embarked on a journey to include ICTs within its work.

Continuer la lecture de « Self Employed Women’s Association SEWA »

The Huairou Commission

Linked with our presentation of Prema Gopalan – India.

June 12-16, 2006, Grassroots Academy, Women Building Communities Amid Rapid Urbanization and Decentralization, Vancouver, Canada. Contact Sandy.

June 19-23, 2006, World Urban Forum , Vancouver, BC, Canada. Contact Marnie, or Nola Kate.

For both see also this Website, or also this mail Info.

Download two pdf texts: past, present and future, and partnership.

The Huairou Commission was created:

To promote the institutional transformation needed to engender local community development and governance. To develop and implement a global plan of action to ensure accountability of governments and international agencies to the commitments made to grassroots women (national to global). To strengthen and promote ongoing dialogue, strategic alliances and power-sharing among grassroots women, local authorities, parliamentarians, private sector representatives, academics, policy makers, and their associated networks (local to global).

Also:

Continuer la lecture de « The Huairou Commission »