An educational statement created by the Nakba Day organizing group in Boston (of which Grassroots International was a part) that provides background information to help frame the conditions in Gaza leading up to the protest.
Outraged at the possibility of the theft of Honduras’ election by the discredited current administration, US rights groups are rallying to urge the US to press Honduras for electoral transparency.
Amid initial indications that the Honduran opposition presidential candidate has received enough votes to defeat the ruling National Party candidate, international election monitors and civil society groups are reporting violence and strong indications of fraud during the vote count following the November 26 election.
The Climate Justice Alliance calls for A National Day of Action on Wednesday, October 11th, to demand that Congress pass an immediate federal aid package designed for the Just Recovery and Resilient Rebuild of Puerto Rico. The relief package must include debt relief, the repeal of the Jones Act, transparency in distribution of resources, an assessment of infrastructure, and additional provisions detailed in the online petition that will be delivered to U.S. representatives the day of the mass actions.
Residents of the Standing Rock Indian Reservation in North and South Dakota say they were never consulted about an oil pipeline. Now they’re fighting back.
As food activists work to localize food systems in the United States, small farmers who sell their food locally still produce around 80 percent of the food in sub-Saharan Africa. But that does not mean that farmers and food activists on the African continent can be complacent. Quite the opposite.
No social and political changes can be achieved without the men and women who dedicate their lives to the improvement of their communities' living conditions. Ricot Jean-Pierre is one of them. As the program director of our partner the Platform to Advocate Alternative Development in Haiti (PAPDA), Ricot works restlessly to better the lives of Haitians and the country itself – a fight he started at a very young age. Ricot lived his early years under the violence of the Duvalier dictatorship. Very close friends of his and family members including his father directly experienced violence and repression.
Our partner PAPDA joined a delegation of organizations for a meeting on June 29, 2016 with high-level members of the Prime Minister Cabinet and the Minister of Agriculture in Haiti. They discussed the reaction to a letter sent by dozens of NGOs, including Grassroots International, on May 27 to the USDA and USAID calling for the cancellation of the planned USDA shipment of 500 metric tons of peanuts to Haiti.
The USDA is planning to ship 500 metric tons of dry-roasted U.S. peanuts to Haiti to feed schoolchildren this fall. Ask Haitian peanut farmer St. Abel Pierre her opinion, and she’ll tell you: she’s worried, and she isn’t alone.
Since its implementation in 1994 the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) has had a devastating impact on our partners and the people of Mexico. The trade agreement has resulted in the destruction of rural livelihoods and the environment, a decrease in jobs and wages, more economic and social inequalities and an increase in human rights violations.
Since 1989, our partner the Association in the Settlement Areas of the State of Maranhão (ASSEMA) has organized thousands of women-headed rural families in Northeast Brazil to expand access to rights and to improve their quality of life.
This Father’s Day we celebrate three men who courageously strive to overcome adversity and improve the lives of their families and of their communities: Carlos Marentes, Sr., Antonal Mortimer, and Alfredo Lopez.
Portland is hosting an event [the week of May 9, 2016] that could have a significant impact on the search for Middle East peace. If the United Methodist Church General Conference votes to divest from companies that profit from Israel's occupation, all the mainstream Protestant churches in the U.S. will have taken a principled stand for Palestinian freedom through boycott and divestment, joining the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), the United Church of Christ and others.
April has been an exceptional month for Indigenous groups in Brazil.
On April 19th, which happens to be Indigenous people’s day in Brazil, Ibama, the Brazilian Institute of the Environment and Renewable Natural Resources, suspended the license of one of the biggest hydroelectric dam projects in Brazil, São Luiz do Tapajós in the Amazon, which was to be started this year. The company building the dam was planning on flooding about 7% of the Mundruku peoples land, which would be unconstitutional once the indigenous status of land is confirmed.
This Mother’s Day we celebrate three women who find the courage to overcome the great adversity they face as they work to improve the lives of their families and of their communities. Juslene, Esperanza and Samiha are three inspiring mothers who, working with Grassroots International’s partners in Haiti, Honduras and Palestine, are key leaders within their communities.
March 22nd is International World Water Day and it serves as a reminder that water has not yet become a human right, and that millions continue to be denied access to water or have difficulty obtaining a fresh supply on a daily basis.
To corporations, the forest is only business. To communities, the forest is everything: trees, medicine, culture, spirituality. Land-grabbing and the removal of communities from forests and land breaks the community, displaces access to food and water, and uproots the connection to nature and local knowledge. If the community structure is broken, if the land – the means of food production – is lost, we lose everything. Land That Can Only Grow Stones In Mozambique, where 80% of the population is campesinos – traditional, family farmers – companies are taking the best, most fertile land and moving people to land that can’t grow anything.
