As the world grapples with the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, we need solidarity and creative resistance now more than ever. While reports about how the pandemic’s impact on affluent countries abound, stories from countries already dealing with conflicts are far less common. However, our allies are responded to this crisis with urgency and leadership, taking action in countries around the world to protect the most vulnerable populations from this deadly virus. At the Cultures of Resistance Network, we are proud to be able to support the vital efforts of our grantees, from the Democratic Republic of Congo to Gaza to the United States. Below you can find more information about just a few of the organizations that are stepping up during this difficult time.

Middle East Children’s Alliance

Gaza was already in crisis when coronavirus entered in March 2020. The area’s hospitals and clinics faced medicine shortages and Gaza’s water, sanitation, and electricity systems were already crumbling. As Foreign Policy reported,

While Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza both have limited autonomy, Israel wields decisive decision-making power over these territories, and Israel alone has the resources to cope with a crisis of this magnitude.

‘This could be a tipping point. Gaza is in very dire straits. The health system has been in shocking state for a long time,’ said Jamie McGoldrick, who chairs the United Nations’ COVID-19 task force for the West Bank and Gaza Strip. ‘We’ve been lucky enough up until now with all the resilience … but you know it doesn’t take much to turn the system, which is coping, into something that really struggles.’

…

Israel already faces international censure over the humanitarian crisis in Gaza despite withdrawing its army from the territory 15 years ago. Rights organizations are calling on Israel to relax its blockade—imposed by land, sea, and air for years, in part as a response to rocket attacks by Palestinians—to allow more medical supplies into Gaza. Others are urging Israel to be ready to step up with emergency field hospitals.

Photo courtesy of the Middle East Children’s Alliance.

Anticipating the likely impact of the pandemic, Middle East Children’s Alliance, which works to protect the rights and improve the lives of children in the Middle East, began raising money to purchase and deliver basic hygiene supplies, antibiotics, vitamins, and medicine to treat routine and emergency conditions for tens of thousands of patients in Gaza—an effort that the CoR Network is proud to support.

Panzi Hospital

In the conflict-torn Democratic Republic of Congo, where the public health system is already strained, coronavirus arrived just as Ebola was finally on its way out. On March 4, 2020, the DRC officially discharged the last person in the country to have been afflicted with Ebola. Six days later, the country’s first case of COVID-19 was identified. According to UN News, “The looming threat of the new coronavirus disease COVID-19 is just the latest challenge to the beleaguered health care system in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), which is struggling with deadly measles and cholera epidemics that have killed thousands of children over the past year.”

Since that moment, our friends at Panzi Hospital in Kivu have been working swiftly to respond to the new public health crisis. At Panzi, Nobel Peace laureate Dr. Denis Mukwege treats serious gynecological injuries and advocates tirelessly for Congolese women affected by war and medical neglect. Now, he has been appointed to head the health commission of the provincial committee to fight the coronavirus disease. As the country’s health system struggles with a lack of needed materials, the CoR Network is helping the hospital receive medical equipment and food supplies.

The CoR Network is also supporting Congo Love, a partner of our ally Friends of the Congo. Congo Love is working with local groups in the DRC to go into communities and share crucial information about the virus.

Dissent Magazine

Photo courtesy of Dissent Magazine.

In the early days of the pandemic, homeless families in need of safe places to self-isolate in Los Angeles, California, moved into vacant homes. “Being homeless myself and seeing people literally dying on the streets, seeing sick people dying every day in L.A., made me start realizing that, ‘Well, we need to do something, and we should probably just start taking over these vacant homes,’” Benito Flores, one of the people who reclaimed an empty house, told reporter Sarah Jaffe.

As the pandemic continued, it became clear that it would impact the 2020 presidential election in the United States, and two writers, Miles Rapoport and Cecily Hines, tackled the question of how to vote in quarantine:

“As governors, election officials, and legislatures scramble to make plans for this November, the steps they need to take to run elections safely in a pandemic should also be a roadmap, and major accelerant, to reforms that are moving us, slowly and unevenly, in the direction of increased participation. The best way to keep people safe during this election season is also the best way to maximize participation: give people the widest possible range of opportunities to register and to vote.

In times of crisis, strong journalism is more essential than ever. With support from the CoR Network, our ally Dissent Magazine is increasing its coverage of the coronavirus pandemic, focusing on the responses of social movements. The magazine is approaching the coronavirus crisis with a wide view, highlighting the myriad ways in which the most vulnerable populations are standing up to demand justice in uncertain times.

[Featured image courtesy of the Panzi Foundation.]

The post Pandemic Emergency: How to Extend Our Solidarity first appeared on Cultures of Resistance.

“Music against Malaria ready for debut festival”

October 10, 2019.

Organisers of Music against Malaria Festival, which debuts on October 26 2019 at College of Medicine Complex in Blantyre, have said all is set for the inaugural event which is aimed at raising funds for Chikwawa District Hospital’s Pediatric A and E Ward.

The project to refurbish Chikwawa District Hospital’s A and E Ward has a budget of K19 million with about K9 million already raised with the latest being a $5,000 donation from Brazilian filmmaker Iara Lee.

“As Music against Malaria, we are always committed and transparent in all our activities and this is why we have earned trust from the different partners. With the money we have generated so far, we have already purchased equipment through Thofu Investments, who have also already donated a trolley and also committed to helping in servicing the equipment,” musician Code Sangala, who is one of the co-founders of Music against Malaria, said during a press conference at Jacaranda Cultural Centre (JCC) in Blantyre Wednesday.

The singer and guitarist, who is set to perform at the festival, said the idea to create the Music against Malaria was hatched when he was in the Big Brother Africa (BBA) House and that he decided to push it.

Annemarie Quinn, who is a musician from United Kingdom but based in Malawi, and is also co-founder of the Music against Malaria, said people will experience the best during the festival and that all the artists on the line-up have confirmed their participation.

“We are ready. It is a one-day festival which starts at 6pm until midnight. It is free entry for kids under 15 years but K15,000 for advance tickets and K20,000 on the door. All the funds raised will go to Chikwawa District Hospital,” Annemarie said.

Having held several fundraising shows including an exhibition where they partnered Art Malawi in Malaria Art Stories exhibition, Annemarie said the festival was the main fundraiser.

“We are doing it one-day this year but we might grow it next year. For now, we just want to do it to the best,” she said.

Annemarie hailed partners such as Total Malawi, Toyota Malawi, Farming and Engineering Services and Thofu Investments among others, for their support.

Annemarie, who is set to perform, said apart from making links with Art Malawi which will also exhibit some of the malaria stories works during the festival, they have also partnered schools in the United Kingdom which have been raising funds for the project.

“Again, Code will be performing in United States of America in December. We have lots of great interest not only in Malawi but outside Malawi as well,” she said.

Lee, who is set to screen her movie during the European Film Festival at JCC on Saturday said she decided to make a little donation after she was impressed with the project.

Chikwawa District Hospital medical officer, Wamaka Msopole, hailed Music against Malaria for the project.

“On the challenges, malaria is number one cause for death in Chikwawa District and most of the deaths occur in children under five. Government is supporting a lot but still more there are some challenges that we looked at with Music against Malaria,” Msopole said.

The festival, which is also part of promoting and preserving the country’s culture through music, will feature acts such as Lulu, Madalitso Band and The Daughters Band from Lilongwe, Lusubilo Band from Karonga, Waliko Makhala, Agorosso and a Sounds of Malawi showcase featuring among others, Wyndham Chechamba, Goma Nyondo, Kukana Kuba Kasambwe Brothers, Eunice Kadzuwa Mhango, Chichiri Cultural Troupe and Dikamawoko Cultural Troupe.

The post Malawi’s The Times features Iara Lee and the CoR Network’s support of Music Against Malaria first appeared on Cultures of Resistance.

There’s a quiet revolution taking place in farms and kitchens across the small West African country of Burkina Faso. As food has moved towards the pre-processed and microwavable, people have become more and more detached from their meals’ origins and ingredients. However, an international movement pushing back against these trends is developing. In place of fast food, people now demand “slow food.” Slow food recovers the traditions of food preparation and celebrates diversity, rather than standardization. With an emphasis on culture, the movement focuses on growing, making, and eating food as a community.

When some people think of slow food, they think of a movement that’s about people in wealthy countries who are enjoying elaborate meals in expensive restaurants. But despite this common perception of slow food as a craze reserved for upscale urban centers, slow food is actually a grassroots movement coming from below, rooted in indigenous communities and building ties with food producers in the global south. In West Africa, where the movement is growing, slow food means defending food security, breaking from large-scale industrial agriculture, and preserving traditional, sustainable agriculture practices. At the Cultures of Resistance Network, we’re proud to be involved with international organizations like Slow Food and Via Campesina, which are both creating rich networks of people and groups working in West Africa and beyond to promote sustainable and ethical food practices.

In Burkina Faso, a small, landlocked country in West Africa, the slow food movement is taking root, spreading from the capital of Ouagadougou to small villages. In spring 2016, a caravan organized by Via Campesina allies traveled from Burkina Faso to Senegal, linking together the struggles for the human rights to food, land, water, and seeds. A year later, in February 2017, Slow Food organized Terra Madre Burkina Faso, West Africa’s first gathering of food communities. For years, the organization has been working to map the country’s local food products and create school and community food gardens, but this campaign is just one of the many slow food initiatives underway in Burkina Faso. Below are a selection of other grassroots efforts in the country that offer lessons for the rest of the globe. For a complete list of Slow Food‘s efforts in Burkina Faso, click here.

La Saisonnière Educational Garden

Ouagadougou lies in the center of Burkina Faso’s over-105,000 square feet of land. With a population of about 2.7 million, the city is growing rapidly. From 2007 to 2014, the population increased by over 50 percent, according to the New York Times.

On the outskirts of this burgeoning metropolis lies a chemical-free community garden run entirely by women. La Saisonnière, an organization in Ouagadougou, works to guarantee the economic and social rights of Burkinabé women. One of its major projects is the Nongr-Maasom community garden, tended to by about fifty women. Chemical fertilizers were once used in the garden, but the women now use natural products, including fertilizer, compost, and manure. This switch from chemical to natural is helping to restore the soil’s health and produce better harvests. The women each choose the vegetables that they wish to plant. After they’ve produced enough to feed their families, the women sell their surplus harvest at a nearby market. About 300 children also use a portion of the garden as an open-air classroom, where they are taught the basics of sustainable agriculture.

Génération Revenu

In the northeastern town of Yako, a new restaurant is celebrating local food and preserving indigenous traditions. Run by the Génération Revenu association, which works on agricultural projects, the restaurant’s proceeds support small farms in the town. In this part of Burkina Faso, the best-selling product is the desert date, which is harvested by about a dozen women in the community. At the restaurant, the typical dish is guelbom, which is made with the condiment soumbala, fermented sorrel seeds (a type of herb), dried fish, and millet flour. Next door, Génération Revenu also runs a shop selling local foods. If you were to visit, you would find cookies made with baobab and jujube fruit, soaps made from desert dates, and seasonings like soumbala and liikalga.

Watinoma

On any given day at Watinoma‘s community center in Koubri, about fifteen miles southeast of the capital, you might find kids engaged in educational projects, adults learning traditional textile methods, or artists giving musical or story-telling performances. A member of Slow Food‘s network and based in Italy, Watinoma is working to impact food and agriculture practices in Burkina Faso through community involvement. In addition to the many activities at its community center, the organization also created and runs numerous local gardens. It even started a school of its own for local children from ages six to twelve. 160 students now attend the school at no cost.

Get Involved

From eating locally and examining your own food consumption to standing in solidarity with food activists in other parts of the world, there are many different ways that you can get involved with this international movement. To get started, you can:

• Join one of Watinoma‘s volunteer projects in Burkina Faso! You might help out at the organization’s primary school or tend to one of the community gardens.
• Head to Slow Food’s Get Involved page to learn more about the movement, become a Slow Food member, and join campaigns to save endangered food products.
• Find a Via Campesina organization in your town and connect with food justice and slow food activists around the world.

The post Slow Food Revolution: Burkina Faso first appeared on Cultures of Resistance.

In Balochistan, one of Pakistan’s poorest provinces, conflict is the norm and many children lack access to quality education. But our ally The Citizens Foundation (TCF) is aiming to change that. The Cultures of Resistance Network worked with TCF to open a new primary school in Balochistan that is completely free for students. Named The TCF School – Cultures of Resistance Campus, it is providing education for children who might not otherwise have the chance to attend school. After more than a year of planning and construction, it began welcoming local children in April 2017 and currently has 130 students in kindergarten, first grade, and second grade!

The TCF School – Cultures of Resistance Campus is located in a rural section of Balochistan that is home to many low-income households and where the majority of people work as fishermen. Any child from one of the low-income families within walking distance is eligible for admission, while members of the local community have been hired in non-faculty positions. Besides its six classrooms, the school includes a room for art and a library. After classes, students choose from a wide range of extracurricular activities, including art, field trips, debates, and sports competitions. The campus has plenty of outdoor space for students to participate in team sports like volleyball, cricket, and soccer.

Balochistan

Balochistan has witnessed incredible violence. American drone strikes against the Taliban have hit the province and a long-running separatist insurgency continues with no end in sight. Despite being home to vast natural resources, Balochistan’s residents are also facing both food and water shortages, leading to an increasing sense of disenfranchisement and alienation. Amnesty International has called it is the hardest place in Pakistan for human rights workers to operate. According to the organization, twelve journalists were killed in Balochistan between 2008 and 2016.

The school will be located in a rural area in the Gwadar district, on the southwestern coast of Balochistan, near the border with Iran. Gwadar is most famous as the home of a deep-water sea port that links Pakistan and China. Construction on Gwadar Port began in 2002 and continues today as China seeks to shorten trade routes and create a new “Silk Road” on both land and sea. This corridor connects China to Europe via Pakistan, Central Asia, and Russia. China has already invested billions of dollars in the project. However, the people of Balochistan have not seen much of that money. In a 2011 report, Human Rights Watch cited the port as one of the reasons for unrest in the province, writing, “Militancy in Balochistan has been fuelled by ethnic Baloch anger over the Pakistani government’s moves to harness local mineral and fossil fuel resources, maintain large numbers of troops in the province, and construct the Gwadar deep-sea port at the mouth of the Persian Gulf with non-Baloch workers.”

The Citizens Foundation

TCF already operates 1,202 schools, reaching 175,000 children in urban slums and poor rural areas, and has a strong focus on gender equality. Its model for affordable, quality education has proven to eliminate the barriers of class and privilege. TCF encourages female enrollment and strives to maintain 1:1 ratio of boys and girls in most of its campuses. TCF also has a full female faculty of 10,100 members. TCF schools are located in the most marginalized, low-income, and often conflict-prone neighborhoods of the country.

Get Involved

There are many different ways that you can get involved with TCF:

• Volunteer in Pakistan or the US – TCF is always looking for volunteers in both Pakistan and the US! In Pakistan, volunteers help teach skills and lead fun activities at TCF’s programs in Karachi and Lahore. In the US, you can help spread the word about TCF’s work in your community or get involved in one of TCF’s local chapters, which help organize fundraisers and other outreach events. If you’re interested, you can find your local chapter here. Get more information about volunteer opportunities in both Pakistan and US and sign up here!
• Intern in the US – TCF’s Chicago and Houston offices both offer internship opportunities. Their needs are always changing, but you can find current internship openings listed here.
• Donate – Support a student or school! Learn more about the different ways you can help TCF continue to provide affordable quality education here.

• Back to “Education Not War”

The post The TCF School – Cultures of Resistance Campus first appeared on Cultures of Resistance.

On the island states in the South Pacific, communities are pushing for independence while battling sea levels that are rising due to climate change. One of the key struggles in the region is the fight for freedom in West Papua, which comprises the western half of New Guinea. Since the 1960s, West Papua has been occupied by Indonesia. Indigenous West Papuans are still trying to gain their independence today. The Cultures of Resistance Network has been privileged to partner with some of the most dynamic and outspoken groups working for freedom in West Papua. We’re proud to recommend to our networks great opportunities for supporters to get involved.

From campaigning for the right to self-determination, to challenging the Indonesian government’s ban on independent journalism, to joining in international solidarity to combat the perils of climate change, our allies are committed to calling out injustices and defending both their land and traditions. If you want to get involved, read below for some great opportunities to contribute by translating, donating, or demonstrating!

Free West Papua Campaign

Launched in 2004 by West Papuan independence leader Benny Wenda, the Free West Papua Campaign aims to give the people of West Papua the freedom to choose their own destiny through a fair and transparent referendum.

Indonesia’s occupation of West Papua began in 1962 and the territory was formally absorbed into Indonesia in 1969. Since then, the population of West Papua has gradually shifted away from indigenous West Papuans. According to the Free West Papua Campaign,

“Over the last fifty years Indonesia has carried out a social engineering project on a massive scale by relocating hundreds of thousands of people from across Indonesia to live in camps cut into the forests of West Papua. This program of transmigration has long been heavily criticised and has brought problems for both the indigenous population and transmigrants alike. As a result the population of West Papua in 2010 was around 3.5 million people, with an estimated split of almost 50% Papuan and 50% non-Papuan.”

Wenda and the Free West Papua Campaign are working to raise awareness of the West Papuans’ plight around the globe, while continuing to push for a referendum on self-determination. If you’d like to help, check out the campaign’s website. You can join in by taking actions ranging from organizing a Free West Papua demonstration, to supporting West Papuan prisoners, to bringing a Free West Papua benefit concert to your town, to lobbying your elected officials, to subscribing to get more information.

West Papua Media

The Indonesian government bans independent reporting from inside West Papua, making it incredibly difficult for West Papuans to access fair and accurate news. Our friends at West Papua Media (WPM), however, have worked to change that by coordinating a network of journalists inside and outside West Papua. The organization monitors the latest independently verifiable news from West Papua, where journalists—Papuans and outsiders alike—are under constant threat of imprisonment. WPM specializes in reporting on human rights violations and civil resistance inside West Papua. By doing so, it seeks to create a situation where the Indonesian government’s ban on foreign media becomes impossible to enforce. In recent years, repression against journalists has made it very difficult for West Papua Media to continue functioning and they had to suspend operations in 2019. However, the group is currently looking for the support that they need to be able to restart. You can help by making a donation or by offering to help translate materials.

350 Pacific

As climate change begins to turn island residents into the world’s first climate refugees, communities on West Papua and the other Pacific Islands are taking action to protect their homes. 350 Pacific, part of the international 350.org network, represents individuals from numerous islands that are facing climate-induced challenges. In total, 350 Pacific has members in fifteen of the Pacific Island nations. They have four key demands: end the era of fossil fuels and move to 100% renewable energy, kick the big polluters out of climate talks, support the immediate delivery of resources needed for countries already facing irreversible loss and damage, and do what is needed to limit warming to 1.5°C. Visit their website to learn about ways you can get involved and show your support for these common goals, such as signing on to the Pacific Climate Warriors Declaration on Climate Change!

[Featured image courtesy of Free West Papua Campaign.]

The post Celebrate Island Resilience: West Papua first appeared on Cultures of Resistance.

At the Cultures of Resistance Network, one of the most basic things we do to promote sustainability is support tree-planting and reforestation initiatives. While working to address larger social and economic issues, we cannot forget the importance of preserving and expanding our forests and gardens. Throughout the world, trees are being destroyed and illegal logging continues to fuel deforestation. Trees provide us with air, as well as many other essentials, and protecting them remains one of our top priorities.

To address this crisis, we’re supporting several different initiatives:

• Haiti
• Korea
• Endangered Trees

The post Saving Our Trees: Reforestation and Preservation first appeared on Cultures of Resistance.