35th Anniversary Panelists Announced

As part of our 35th Anniversary Celebration, we are bringing three powerful and inspiring women to Boston on October 20 for a pre-event panel to discuss how the social movements that they are part of are building resistance, resilience and power in their communities.

• Ozawa Bineshi Albert is a Yuchi and Annishinaabe leader and heads up the Indigenous Environmental Network (IEN) international grassroots feminisms and broader movement building efforts. IEN was one of the main groups that helped bring Standing Rock to world attention and a Grassroots International climate justice initiative grantee. Bineshi is a founding board member of IEN and has also worked at other organizations working for environmental justice and Native rights.
• Alaa Hammouda is the Advocacy and Media Officer at the Gaza Community Mental Health Program (GCMHP), a Grassroots International partner. GCMHP provides critical mental health services to Gaza’s population, with an emphasis on mental health as a human right. In addition to their mental health work, they initiated and have been active in the Palestinian International Campaign to End the Siege on Gaza.
• Sofia Robles is a Zapotec leader and President of Grassroots International partner Mixe Peoples’ Services (SER Mixe). SER Mixe serves more than 130,000 Indigenous Peoples across 19 municipalities in the northwestern part of Oaxaca, Mexico. Their work includes disputing cases of expropriated land, organizing against mining and extraction and resolving territorial conflicts between Indigenous communities.

Each of these speakers’ movements represent a critical moment in Grassroots’ history. Our Middle East program was the first region Grassroots started working in back in 1983. With the passage of NAFTA and other free trade agreements and rising globalization, our program work in Mexico (beginning in 1993) embodies when we began to shift to support movements working not only for national liberation but also for global justice, which then led to the articulation of resource rights framework. And finally, Grassroots has expanded our work to include more domestic funding around environmental and climate justice, both through our Climate Justice Initiative and through our recent partnership with the Building Equity and Alignment Initiative Fund, as well as to include more explicit work around strengthening grassroots feminist movements in the US and globally.

And each of the movement leaders who will be joining us also embody the core importance of strengthening ongoing resistance, resilience and power toward a just and sustainable world.

Event Details

This panel is free and open to the public and will be an opportunity to learn more about what’s happening on the ground in each of these communities and how we can stand in solidarity with their struggles.

WHEN: October 20, 2018, 4:30 – 6:00 pm (Immediately following the panel, we invite you to stay and celebrate 35 Years of Resistance, Resilience & Power. Details here.)

WHERE: UMASS – Boston Ballroom, located in the Campus Center – 100 William T Morrissey Blvd, Boston, MA 02125

RSVP: Space is limited. Please reserve your tickets now. We will also livestream the panel using Facebook Live, so follow our event page if you are unable to attend in person.