Catégorie : Civil Society

Linked to our presentation of Medea Benjamin.

And linked to our presentation of Leslie Cagan.

Global Exchange is a non-profit research, education, and action center working for global political, economic, environmental, and social justice. Since our founding in 1988, we have worked to increase the US public’s awareness of global issues while building progressive, grassroots international partnerships.

Global Exchange pursues these goals through six program areas:

Political and Civil Rights Campaigns, which complement the traditional human rights organization’s observation and monitoring work with activities aimed at directly empowering grassroots human rights movements within our target countries of Mexico, Colombia, Guatemala, Brazil, and the Middle East;

Economic Rights Campaigns, which struggle for the elimination of sweatshop abuses, monitor corporate behavior, and challenge global rule-makers such as the World Trade Organization and the International Monetary Fund;

Fair Trade, which helps build economic justice from the bottom up through the sale of handicrafts that generate income for artisans in over 37 countries;

Public Education, which produces books, videos, arti-cles, and editorials and organizes educational workshops and nationwide speaking tours that bring community leaders from around the world to the US to educate citizens on critical global issues;

Exploring California, which engages Californians in solution-oriented dialogue on issues such as immigration, treatment of laborers, and the environment;

and Reality Tours, which educate the public about domestic and international issues through socially responsible travel. (Read more on Orion Grassroots Network).

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Linked with our presentation of Dina Abdel Wahab – Egypt.

Linked also with our presentation of ashoka.

The Baby Academy is a chain of preschools for children three months to five years old. The school’s child-centered philosophy is based on love, learning and play and its curriculum is tailored to children’s developmental needs and designed to inspire children to achieve their potential.

Today the business is thriving with a remarkable 20 percent of its preschoolers children with special needs. Abdel Wahab recently opened a new branch in Cairo and plans to open two more schools in the next two years. Eventually she’d like to franchise the concept.

According to a United Nations report, less than four percent of Arab children have access to preschool education. The mission of The Baby Academy is to become a leader in early childhood education throughout Egypt and the Middle East.

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Linked with Dina Abdel Wahab – Egypt, with the Baby Academy, with Hasanain Juaini – Indonesia, and with Paul Rice – USA.

In Egyptian society, as in many societies, brain and genetic disorders are not well understood by the public. People who have, for example, autism or a severe learning disability are shunned, pushed to society’s margins, and written off as burdensome to families and society. Faulty public perception, shaped by ignorance and misunderstanding, is the condemning factor that underlies all others.

Dina, the mother of a five-year-old with Down’s syndrome, sees that to change attitudes and pave the way for societal reform, children are the place to start. In fact, the early preschool years offer an especially promising opportunity to realize important advances in societal integration by setting a different expectation of normalcy early on.

This insight has led to the first of what Dina hopes will be a regional network of preschools that prioritize the integration of children with special needs and children without them.

Traditionally, Egyptian children with special needs have not been well-accepted or provided for in mainstream culture. Already crowded public schools won’t accept children with disabilities and private schools will admit only the brightest students, leaving no place for children with a number of common disabilities. (Red more on pbs.org).

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Linked with our presentation Kafil Ahmed – Bangladesh.

Oxfam is an international organisation, helping poor people in many different corners of the world. Wherever we work, we always try to employ local people to help us, and we fund local organisations which are working to fight poverty. The use of this local knowledge and skills means that the work is done by the people who know most about the local communities and the problems facing them. (Read more on Oxfam).

Kafil Ahmed in his boat visiting local groups

The clean water-project for Bangladesh is realised with Oxfam’s help: Fill a bucket with ditchwater, pour the contents into the membrane.water4life filter, pump for a couple of minutes and out of the tap will come clean, safe drinking water. The invention is the work of DSM employees and is intended to provide Bangladesh with a safe water supply.

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Linked to our presentation of Delphine NANA MEKOUNTE – Cameroun, of February 4, 2006.

Also linked to our presentation of SUMMARY REPORT OF THE YAOUNDE COLLOQUIUM of February 4, 2006.

The African Civil Society for the Information Society (ACSIS) makes The Africa Region Report to CS Bureau:

The African civil society contribution to the WSIS process dates back to before the official launching of the WSIS.

In 2000, during the Bamako meeting titled “The passerelles du developpement” African civil society started its mobilization process to be ready in number for the WSIS process. This explains why, in May 2002, again in Bamako, during the first regional meeting dedicated to WSIS, African civil society was present in large numbers.

A major achievement in the Bamako meeting was the setting up of an inclusive African coordinating body dedicated to mobilization, sensitizing and awareness arising amongst African stakeholders. This body, called the African Group, innovated in many ways.

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