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Thinking Globally,
Acting Locally
Devon Trapp and Chris Newhouse, high school students from Livingston, Montana, were attending the Northern Rockies branch of the Bioneers conference for the first time, but their commitment to the environmental movement represents the spirit of Bioneers. Designed as a national gathering of scientific and social innovators, Bioneers is the place where all voices are heard and honored. By connecting local visionaries and national activists like Amy Goodman, the conference hopes to directly implement the idea of thinking globally and acting locally. Not long ago, Devon Trapp was a cutter. She’d fallen
into the wrong crowd, had run away from home twice, and was, as a last
resort, sent to a wilderness camp, where she Most importantly, these youth took the overarching message from the conference that it is possible to change the world—with passion and a smile. “We believe positivity changes people,” Devon says. “We hope to be so positive and exciting that people who meet us will want to generate change.” Contact: Bioneers Chishawasha means “that which lives on” in the Zambian Bemba language and the Chishawasha Children’s Home of Zambia (CCHZ) is the result of the efforts of the Zambian Children’s Fund (ZCF ) to insure that the children of Zambia grow to be healthy and caring citizens of that peaceful and friendly nation. It began on July 4, 1999 when Tucson Arizona resident Kathe Padilla read a newspaper article that described the efforts of an organization attempting to feed 2,000 Zambian children each day. To Kathe’s horror, she found that only 100 of these youngsters were fed daily. The rest, mostly orphans, were left to scrape by as best they could. Kathe, a life long activist, rejected the notion that nothing more could be done to aid these kids. In characteristic fashion she did her homework and found that in Zambia three quarters of the children live in poverty and eighteen percent die before their fifth birthday. Raising about $2,500 from friends, Kathe flew to Zambia and in two weeks put together a Board of Directors of the ZCF and began to lay out long term objectives and plans to shelter, feed clothe educate and nurture 500 Zambian orphans. It’s taken six years, a feature article in The Oprah Magazine, and incredible commitment and energy by Kathe, volunteers and staff, but that vision is becoming a reality. In a period of six years, CCHZ has seen the
construction of two homes housing up to 20 children each, the
acquisition of additional land for expansion, creation of a school that
serves both resident children as well as those who live in the vicinity
of CCHZ, the beginning of a sustainable agriculture program and an
apprentice program that teaches skills Kathe divides her time between her on site activities at Chishwasha, work at ZCF in Tucson and traveling the U.S to raise both awareness about the Zambian orphans and money for the Chishwasha programs. There are setbacks along the way such as delays in construction, increasing costs and bureaucratic snafus, but Kathe is not troubled. As she told The Oprah Magazine in 2003, “I’ve learned to keep my focus on these beautiful kids. You can’t allow yourself the luxury of being overwhelmed, because then you can’t do anything.” Contact: Zambian Children’s Fund Sussex University-Eco Pioneers "Eco Uni" is a project born out of the 2006 AGM at Sussex University in the UK. Students from every department of the university are uniting to help create an educational accreditation scheme that aims to set environmental standards for institutions across the nation. The project focuses around ten "Eco- mandments" which comprise far reaching policies that aim to permanently and drastically reduce the university’s ecological impact. Recycling facilities for glass, aluminium and paper will be in all university residences by March. Mineral water, bottled in biodegradeable bottles has replaced other brands, with the aim of reducing consumable plastics on campus by 50% by June. A food mile strategy stipulates that suppliers must prioritise local food sources. Residents have had compost bins installed in every campus residency, which will support the student allotments. The other major changes proposed over the coming few months include a ban on flights for staff and students within a 500km radius and a full time member of staff to lobby the University on environmental issues and provide information on alternate modes of transport. Perhaps the most testing eco- mandment is the ethical investment and procurement policy, which would stretch the imagination of any management team, especially in an institution already facing financial difficulty. The most important message coming from Sussex is the sense of solidarity and commitment to positive changes, illustrating the power that lies in the hands of the countries huge student body. This initiative demonstrates the accessibility of a grass roots developments, with students holding the university accountable for managerial decision making. There is a fantastic sense of the huge potential to fuel major changes in the ideologies of academic institutions, and hopefully see the results eventually filter out into wider social structures. Contact:
www.sussex.ac.uk Kids are exposed to an average of 8 hours and 33 minutes of media content daily. How much of this media is current events news or critical reporting? According to experts, close to none. This is why IndyKids was started. IndyKids is a new progressive current events newspaper for kids in grades 4 to 8. The eight-page paper was founded in October 2005 by a group of activists, parents and teachers with the help of New York City Indymedia. The newspaper now has a circulation of 8,000. It is currently distributed five times a year to over 30 schools and community organizations, mostly in News York City where IndyKids started, but more and more to readers in other states. IndyKids encourages kids at a young age to form their own opinions and to engage in politics. The paper challenges the notion that the real world is too scary for kids and works to build understanding and to foster action. IndyKids has sections you might see in any adult newspaper. Adults and kids write the articles. The paper has covered the war in Iraq, the Military Commissions Act, military recruitment in schools, the immigration debate, kids’ opinions on violent toys and video games, science experiments, sports, movie and book reviews, puzzles and activities. A regular feature is profile of a child in another country, a little information about his or her country and a glossary of words in the child's language. “My students look forward to IndyKids each month.
They usually bug me about when the next issue will be out,” said John
Yanno, a 6th grade teacher at the Secondary Contact:
www.indykids.net This is one of many stories available from Positive News newspaper. For more stories like this please visit: www.positivenews.org.uk (In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.) |
