Garífunas Arrested for Occupying Their Own Land
On November 10, 2016 six Garífuna youth were violently arrested in the Garífuna community Guadalupe, Colón.
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Learning Without Borders, With Struggle and Hope: Our Time with MCP
In September 2016 eleven of our partners, grantees and allies flew to Goiás, Brazil to participate in a learning exchange of peasant movements that Grassroots International organized along with our friends at IDEX/Thousand Currents.
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Post-Election Reflections
As we try to figure out what the election means for us in the US, let’s remember that we are part of a much larger community on this one planet.
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Concerned About Famine, Grassroots International and Haitian Groups Call for Greater Hurricane Relief Via Haitian Organizations
Grassroots International and other Haitian groups are urging the international donor community to direct hurricane relief through Haitian-led organizations and networks.
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Photo Blog: West African Learning Exchange
Grassroots International grantees We Are the Solution (WAS) and the National Coordination of Peasant Organizations of Mali (CNOP-Mali) gathered together in Bamako for a farmer-to-farmer learning exchange funded by Grassroots International.
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Updates – and a request – from Haiti
Since Hurricane Matthew slammed into Haiti on October 3-4, communities have begun assessing the devastation and organizing recovery efforts. Below is an example of an assessment from the Southeast Department, followed by information from our partner, the National Congress of the Peasant Movement of Papaye (MPNKP).
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5 Food Systems Lessons the U.S. Can Learn from Africa
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.
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Movements Refuse to Give Up Despite Parliamentary Coup against Democracy in Brazil
We join our partners in Brazil in denouncing the recent vote to oust democratically elected president Dilma Rousseff from Brazil. The parliamentary procedures, led by known corrupt politicians, amount to a coup d'etat designed to install conservative policies and right-wing leaders that had repeatedly been turned away by Brazilian voters.
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Changing Haiti with PAPDA’s Ricot Jean-Pierre
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.
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Peanuts and Protest in Haiti Minimize US Surplus Dumping Scheme
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.
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Mega-Dam Project in Brazil Halted: Grassroots Groups Celebrate Victory
Indigenous peoples, local communities – and likely the earth itself – are breathing a sigh of relief and celebrating a major victory. After years of organizing and a series of major environmental studies, São Luiz do Tapajós mega-dam, the largest hydroelectric project planned for the Amazon, has been canceled.
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Court Stops Massive Land Grab in Brazil, Rules Against TIAA-CREF and Foreign Investors
With minimal fanfare or notice, Brazil's social movements just stopped a land grab larger than the area of Los Angeles, CA. The court ruling prevented the eviction of thousands of small-scale farmers and community members who have been living on the more than 306,000 acres of land in the Brazilian state of Piaui.
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Free Trade Dismantling Lives, Cultures in Mexico
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.
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Another COPINH Leader, Defender of Indigenous Communities and Rivers, Assassinated
With heavy hearts, Grassroots International mourns the death of Lesbia Yaneth Urquía Urquía, a member of COPINH (Civic Council of Popular and Indigenous Organizations of Honduras), who was brutally killed on July 6, just 4 months after the assassination of Berta Cáceres. Lesbia Yaneth defended the rights of Indigenous communities and opposed the privatization of rivers in La Paz, Honduras. Since the 2009 military coup in Honduras, over 100 environmental activists (including Indigenous Peoples, peasant leaders, and more) have been killed, and thousands criminalized and jailed.
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Organizing Women-Headed Households in Brazil
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.
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Brazil: 12 Things You Should Know About What’s Happening
Since the Brazilian Senate voted to impeach President Dilma Rousseff last month, the country of Brazil has made a sharp turn to the right (politically). Millions of Brazilians have taken to the streets in protest of the impeachment proceedings (calling them an administrative coup) and demanding that democracy be restored to their nation.
Below are 12 things you should know about what is happening in Brazil now.
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Hearts Beat with Pulse of Orlando
On Sunday morning, the unthinkable happened… again. A gunman armed with legally acquired assault weapons opened fire on a crowded dance floor in a gay bar in Orlando, Florida. He shot more than 100 people, killing 49, leaving more than...
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Three Courageous Fathers
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.
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Lessons from Feminist Organizing School
In May I participated in the first-ever World March of Women-US Chapter Feminist Organizing School. This training engaged World March of Women-US (WMW-US) member organizations – including Grassroots International -- around issues of feminism and gender justice. For me, this was an exciting opportunity to meet in person many of the women I’d interacted with on conference calls over the past year.
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Community Empowerment in Southern Mexico
When Ben Achtenberg and his wife Emily joined the Grassroots International delegation to Mexico, he brought his camera and an eye for picture-taking, along with a deep history of engagement with global movements and political activism. You can read more about Ben's observations on his blog (Caring for Survivors of Torture), starting with "Indigenous farmers are protecting a way of life and a vital resource for the future...."