Holding Up More than Half the Sky

When: Saturday, September 28, 3:30-5pm. Followed by Grassroots International 30^th Anniversary Celebration

Where: Dante Alighieri Society (41 Hampshire Street, Cambridge, MA)

The panel is free, but space is limited, so please RSVP to reserve a seat.
  Boston-based Grassroots International will present a panel featuring leaders of some of the world’s most powerful and promising social movements at a special event on September 28.

• Itelvina Masioli from the International Coordinating Committee of the Via Campesina. The Via Campesina is a global social movement that brings together more than 200 million peasants, small farmers and producers to promote food sovereignty, justice and dignity. Itelvina is also a member of the Landless Workers Movement in Brazil. She is a tireless fighter for social justice, for a just world, with agrarian reform, food sovereignty and egalitarian relationships between human beings, free from violence against women. Itelvina lives in an agrarian reform settlement in the province of Mato Grosso in the Central West region of Brazil. The settlement is one successful result of the fight against large-scale landholdings and large-scale agribusiness.
• Miriam Nobre, Coordinator of the International Secretariat of the World March of Women (WMW). The WMW is an international feminist action movement connecting grassroots groups and organizations working to eliminate the root causes of poverty and violence against women. She is also an agronomist. She has completed a master’s program in Latin America Integration at the University of São Paulo (Brazil). Within the Sempreviva Organização Feminista (SOF) she worked with popular education and as analyst on themes of feminist economics, agro-ecology and economic solidarity between 1993 and 2006.
• Cindy Wiesner is the National Coordinator of the Grassroots Global Justice Alliance (GGJ), a US-based alliance of grassroots organizations building a popular movement for peace, democracy and a sustainable world. Cindy has been active in the grassroots social justice movement for over 20 years. She started organizing with HERE Local 2850. Cindy then served as Director of Organizing for People Organizing to Win Employment Rights in San Francisco, and as a Organizer and Board member for generationFIVE. Cindy has also been a consultant for Men Overcoming Violence Everywhere and Mujeres Unidas y Activas. Before joining GGJ staff she was the Leadership Development Director of the Miami Workers Center (MWC) and represented the MWC as a member of the US Social Forum (USSF) National Planning Committee.

Grassroots International’s 30^th Anniversary Celebration will follow the panel.  Tickets are available online for the celebration.
A pioneering organization headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts, Grassroots International has partnered with success over three decades with courageous human rights leaders around the world, and the organizations they work with. A global advocate for the human rights to land, water and food, Grassroots provides support to some of the most progressive social movements around the world. The organization remains committed to standing with its partners, amplifying their voices and struggles, telling their stories, and engaging other donors and activists to support their vital work.   Media contact to schedule interviews or cover event: Jonathan Leaning, Communications Coordinator, Grassroots International e-mail:jleaning@grassrootsonline.org ph: +1 617 524 1400, web: www.GrassrootsOnline.org.