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Want to write to Tia? Here’s her address:

Message from Tia:

It’s been just over a year since I returned from Papua New Guinea Global Forest Rescue Campaign and it feels like yesterday.
Since working with the local tribes in PNG- sharing food, traditions and stories - my views have broadened to more of an Indigenous Unity direction.

Because of the issues affecting the indigenous people (Maori) here in Aotearoa/ New Zealand, I’ve gotten involved in an organisation called Conscious Collaborations.

Our vision is to collaborate with other NGO’s creating Global Networks, so that indigenous peoples from around the world can share struggles, victories, strategies, arts… all the things that make us unique to our lands.
By doing this we can create a stronger voice and empower people to move forward in their campaigns… and just be there to support each other in each others’ fight for our lands and resources.

One thing I strongly remember from my time in Papua New Guinea was warning the local tribes about colonisation, corporate theft, government confiscation and privatisation of lands and resources: the things that Maori people in Aotearoa/ New Zealand have already experienced and are now fighting to reclaim.

I hope that from our example the people of Papua New Guinea will not go down the same road.

Peace love and indigenous global solidarity

Tia

With thanks to Greenpeace: http://www.greenpeace.org/international/

and to Pitch Black and Salmonella Dub for the music:

http://www.salmonelladub.com

http://www.pitchblack.co.nz/

and to Serena Stevenson for the footage of Tia’s moko session:
http://www.serenastevenson.com”

Tia’s Element relates to:
Millennium Development Goal 7: Ensure Environmental Sustainability

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Message from Craig:

At Free The Children, we are shameless idealists. We believe that young people of all ages possess the power to make real change in the world today, on both local and international scales. We believe that when given the opportunity of education, the world’s children can overcome poverty and injustice to become empowered global citizens. We believe that by taking action, today’s generation can have a positive impact to help developing nations break free of the cycle of poverty. And we believe that this movement begins with you.

For the first time in history, we possess the ability to actually eradicate extreme poverty on a global scale. Accomplishing this goal might seem an overwhelming task, but the power is within our grasp. But it will require a fundamental shift in the way we spend, think and act.

Many thanks to Element and MTV for their help in our ongoing mission.

Be the Change,

Craig Kielburger

What next?

Adopt a Village: empower a community by providing access to education, clean water and health programs, alternative sources of income
http://www.freethechildren.com/getinvolved/adoptavillage.htm

Step out of your zone: volunteer internationally–building schools, interacting with community members and see the possibility for change.
http://leaderstoday.com/trips/

Speak out through silence: Take a “vow of silence” with Free The Children to raise awareness and collect funds for the millions of children throughout the world who do not have a voice.
http://www.freethechildren.com/youthzone/campaigns/vowofsilence.htm

Craig’s Element relates to:
Millennium Development 2: Achieve universal primary education

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See Monica’s episode for a preview…

Element: Monica
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Want to write to Monica? Here’s her address:

Message from Monica (academic, human rights worker, internationally published poet and performer):

As an Afro-Peruvian woman, I face sexual and racial discrimination every day. I’d like to tell you about two hours of my life walking down the street in Peru. At 5 PM, I walk past a father and his child. The father points at me. He is laughing. He says, “Monster, monster! Do you see the monster?” The child says, “Her skin is burned!” At 6 PM, I walk past two men. One of them asks, “Woman, are you African? My doctor tells me that you are the best medicine, because you can make a man so happy.” At 6:10 PM, A taxi driver starts following me. He tells me to get into his car: “Nigger, come on.” I get angry and yell at him. He says, “You should be grateful that I am even looking at you.” This isn’t just an especially bad day. This is every day. So imagine what happens to Afro-Peruvian girls younger than me, girls living in the poor, rural town of El Carmen or in a port called El Callao, based in Lima.

Tourists with money approach them constantly, asking them to dance for coins -or to have sex. And these girls think they have to say “yes.” They think that sex is the only way to get a better life. I founded my organization, LUNDU, six years ago, because I wanted young Afro-Peruvians to have choices. Since 2004, the Coalition has supported our work with young people in El Carmen. We work with children and adolescents-mostly girls-to develop skills to resist sexism, prejudice, and what we call internalized racism, which makes us hate our culture and our own bodies. One way we help children and young people appreciate their Afro-Peruvian identity is with an activity we call The Mask. We ask the girls in our program to make a plaster mask of their face. We then ask them to wear the mask, give the mask a name, and tell a fantasy story about the mask.

Esmerelda, who is 19 years old, tells this story about her mask: “I am Maria. I am white, with brown, straight hair. My eyes are blue. I have my own dance school. I travel abroad. Like most girls in the program, Esmerelda, who is Afro-Peruvian, created a character who is white, with straight hair and blue eyes. Esmerelda then takes off her mask, and tells her own story:

“I am Esmerelda. I am black. I don’t like my face. It is so big. And I hate dancing for coins.” When the girls compare the story of their mask with their own story, they become angry, or start to cry-their reality is so different from their dreams. So in groups of peers and with LUNDU staff, we work to build their self-esteem—to really love who they are, as beautiful black young women. We are establishing a new youth center in El Carmen. With this center, we can reach more young people who need our support. With the Coalition, we can empower more young women against violence, abuse, forced sex, unwanted pregnancies, and AIDS. Our girls believe their lives are worth something. When tourists ask them to dance, or have sex, our girls can say “no”. Our girls learn to live without wearing a mask.

www.racismonuncamas.com
and www.oruperu.com

With thanks to Madre: madre.org

Monica’s Element relates to:
Millennium Development Goal 3: Promote Gender Equality and Empower Women
Millennium Development Goal 4: Reduce Child Mortality
Millennium Development Goal 5: Improve Maternal Health

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In 2006, 39.5 million people around the world were HIV+. Numbers of people infected have gone up in every region since 2004 - especially in East Asia and Eastern Europe. Worldwide, less than one in five of us can get any basic prevention services - education; condoms.

The huge majority of HIV+ people who’d benefit from anti-retroviral treatment - the drugs that help prolong lives - aren’t getting that either.

But. Access to treatment and care has actually gone up - by 400%!- since the end of 2003. If you estimate how many more years of life HIV+ people in poor and middle income countries now have because of this, it’d add up to two million years’ worth. Two million years divided into individual lives - years in which people stay alive to raise their children, love their families and lovers, work and play.

It’s still very far from enough. But things are changing, and can be made to change for the better.

For HIV/AIDS related actions and info, tap into:

www.worldaidscampaign.info

eu.staying-alive.org

www.avert.org

www.unaids.org

Madan’s Element relates to Millennium Development Goal 6: Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases

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You don’t expect fire to feel metallic.

That’s what flaring feels like – you feel it as a whine, like metal being rubbed. Turn off the engine, someone said, but it wasn’t on – it was the flame’s vibration shaking the van.
Tina talks angrily. Why is this gas being burnt, when it could be used, and people are suffering because of it?

Then she’s quiet. It just feels wrong.

Gas is ‘flared’ or burnt up as part of the process of extracting crude oil from the ground. Separating the gas from the oil makes the oil more usable. This gas could also be stored and used. But it’s cheaper – if only economically – to burn it off than to build the infrastructure that storage would require.

Especially if you’re not paying for the damage locally, and the tab for the long term is split between everything on earth.

Gas flaring in Nigeria contributes more greenhouse gases – the gases contributing to climate change – than all activity in sub-Saharan Africa combined. More than from Portugal, Switzerland, Sweden or Norway!

Flaring is illegal in Nigeria: its toxicity and effects on health and the environment make it a violation of human rights.

Oil companies get away with flaring and other activities because we want more oil to do more with. There are ways to change this.

Tina and Ifie are filming testimonies so that people around the world see the local cost of oil.

We can also:

• Demand that energy companies are more socially and environmentally responsible
  http://climatelaw.org
  http://www.foei.org/campaigns/

• Write to the Nigerian government requesting that they uphold this recent court decision
  http://www.climatelaw.org/media/Nigeria%20May%202007

• Reduce how much oil (and gas!) we each use and support renewable forms of energy
  http://www.greenpeace.org<

• Read here for more on the oil spill documented by Tina and Ifie:

  http://www.eraction.org
  http://www.foe.co.uk

Tina and Ifie’s Element relates to Millennium Development Goal 7: Ensure Environmental Sustainability.

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“I’ve survived. That means I’m here for a purpose.”

Emmanuel Jal was using AK47s by the time he was eight.
His gun was taller than he was.

Emmanuel was one of millions displaced by Sudan’s civil war, one of tens of millions of conflict refugees worldwide.
Now he travels internationally, using his music to promote disarmament and sharing his history as inspiration for the future.

He points out the link between conflict and poverty: if you can’t grow your own food, hold a job or go to school because where you live isn’t safe, how will you support yourself or your children?
Where will you go?

Between 2000 and 2002, most of the one million refugees who applied for asylum in the European Union came from Iraq, the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, Afghanistan, and Turkey…all countries EU states had sold weapons to in the 1980s and 1990s.

Meeting the Goals means addressing the causes and consequences of conflict.
It’s no news that the amount of money spent on arms is typically way higher than spending on education, healthcare… and aid. Under the Millennium Development Goals the world’s governments agreed to improve in these areas by 2015.

Focusing on reducing the amount of arms in the world is one way to contribute to the Goals’ success.
Emmanuel supports the Control Arms campaign started by Amnesty International, Oxfam and the International Action Network on Small Arms (IANSA). They’re calling for a global Arms Trade Treaty to bring the trade in weapons under control and for local action to protect civilians from armed violence.

You can get more info and join the petition here:
http://www.controlarms.org/the_issues/solution.htm

Emmanuel: “We all have a chance to change the world. But it has begin from one person. And if people are willing to do it, it will happen.”

Write to Emmanuel and hear his music on:
http://www.myspace.com/emmanueljal
http://www.emmanueljalonline.com

Emmanuel’s Element relates to:
Millennium Development Goal 1: Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger
Millennium Development Goal 8: Change trade and aid practices; give debt relief to poorest nations