Haiti is not as devoid of resources as you have been led to believe. At least, not according to AP’s recent reports detailing precious metal mining in Haiti’s northeastern mountains.
Today, Grassroots International honors International Women’s Day by celebrating the ongoing victories of our partners, grantees and allies in their promotion of a global social movement for women’s rights and climate justice.
Two years following the earthquake, community-based organizations in Haiti are still advocating for the same changes and considerations as they did last year, namely land and housing rights, respect for national sovereignty in the reconstruction process and aid accountability.
Three years ago today, on December 27, 2008, the Israeli Defense Force launched Operation Cast Lead in Gaza. The offensive left a trail of death and destruction in its wake, including hundreds dead, thousands displaced, and nearly the entire 1.5 million-person population traumatized and hungry. In the years since the bombing stopped and tanks rolled through agricultural fields, recovery has been slow.
The United Nations declared November 29 to be the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People some 63 years ago.
Since that time, the lands on which Palestinians live have continued – quite literally – to shift from under their feet, as the Israeli Occupation claims more land and water for Israeli settlers and “security” zones. Those living in the occupied Palestinian territories face tremendous hardships with resilience and, in this Arab Spring, even some hope. We stand in solidarity with them.
Hebron (Al-Khalil in Arabic) is home to more than 165,000 Palestinians—making it the largest city in the Palestinian West Bank. The city is famous for leather shoes, avant-garde blown-glass vases and qidreh, a fragrant dish cooked in clay pots. It is also notorious for settler violence in the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians. And now Hebron is becoming increasingly known for an agricultural project that sets the standards for access to food in that city and across the occupied Palestinian territories.
GAZA CITY—The turnstile locks behind me and I’m standing in a small metal room. I flashback to the first time I crossed Erez checkpoint last year and remember the claustrophobic feeling of walking into a trap, three small metal doors blending into the steel. This time, I know the drill, and place bets on which one of these gateways to Gaza will randomly open. One finally does, revealing a seemingly endless open-air tunnel that snakes through the expanse of the buffer zone. I have been waiting for this moment, for the long walk alone to the other side.
The women whose works are presented in this publication are teachers, trainers, resource-persons and leaders—disaster recovery and development efforts should not reduce them to mere victims. disaster and development professionals, researchers, scholars and organizations partnering with grassroots women can use these case studies as examples, for ideas or for advocacy efforts.
Make no mistake; Haiti needs seeds and
food. Following last January's devastating earthquake, it's been all hands
on deck in the small island nation-but it sometimes seems that it's all
hands but Haitian hands.
Since long before the earthquake, Haiti
has been known as the Republic of NGO's and is bound by more free trade
agreements than any other country in the hemisphere. And this kind of outside
intervention has failed Haiti time and again-especially since last year's
unprecedented disaster.
The United Nations designates December
10 as International Human Rights Day. At Grassroots International, we give
special recognition to the efforts of our partners and allies around the
world-but for them, it's just another day in the trenches to realize these
rights as communities in action.
From the Middle East to Latin America
and the Caribbean to Africa and Asia, our partners engage in determined
struggles for resource rights-the human rights to land, water, and food.
Despite enormous obstacles like land grabs, poisoned water, and decreased
For a week in late September, steady
rain in the southern states of Mexico created mudslides and floods, affecting
communities and farms in Oaxaca, Chiapas and surrounding southern states.
Fortunately early reports overestimated the number of people killed in
the disaster in Oaxaca.
Grassroots International supports several
organizations in the region, including: Mixe Peoples' Services (SER Mixe);
Center to Support the Popular Movement in Oaxaca; The Union of Organizations
of the Sierra Juarez of Oaxaca; and Oaxaca State Coffee Producers Network.
The hillsides of Oaxaca literally slipped
into mud and slid through community villages nearby. Among those affected
by the deluge are Grassroots International partners: Mixe Peoples' Services;
Center to Support the Popular Movement in Oaxaca; The Union of Organizations
of the Sierra Juarez of Oaxaca; and Oaxaca State Coffee Producers Network.
The full extent of the damage is yet unknown, but already we can see a
clear need to fund recovery efforts.
Rainfall continues as the remnants of
Tropical Storm Matthew pound this impoverished southwestern state of Mexico.
Nestled between Haiti's turquoise Caribbean
waters and the foothills of the northern mountains, is a large plot of
land close to the town of Limonade. Here at the height of planting season
a group of peasants is hard at work. Claudelle Sensmyr, 36, quietly sprinkles
handfuls of seeds down row after row of prepped soil. "I just started
farming a few months ago," she told me, brushing off her hands and
looking up. "I'm from Port-au-Prince," she added shyly and then
motioned to the other farmers, "Many of us are."
A compilation of recommendation documents
from several Haitian civil society and diaspora conferences, organizations
and coalitions.
This compilation was prepared by a Washington,
D.C. based ad-hoc Haiti advocacy coalition (contributing members listed
inside). Views expressed in the documents included are not endorsed by
and do not necessarily reflect the positions of the coalition that prepared
this document.
The following documents have been developed
by Haitian civil society and diaspora conferences, organizations and coalitions
On the cusp of Haiti's spring planting
season, we received urgent communications from our partners and allies
in Haiti about their dire need for seeds and tools to ensure that food
production might be enhanced in the immediate planting season.
Grassroots International is making three
new grants of $25,000 each, all of which will help provide seeds, tools
and training for this planting season to these groups:
- The Peasant Movement of Papaye (the
MPP). Funds for the MPPwill cover the Central Plateau.
By Nikhil AzizSome of the advice for how
Haiti ought to rebuild after the earthquake sounds hauntingly familiar,
echoing the same bad development advice that Haiti has received for decades
-- even before the nation faced its current devastating situation. To avoid
repeating the past failures, we would be wise to review how previous aid
models led down the wrong path.
Twelve years ago, Grassroots International
released a research study entitled "Feeding
