[Shadow_Group] Fw: 2004 Year-end Report From Rights Action

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RIGHTS ACTION / Derechos en Accion

DECEMBER 2004

We are proud to send you this 2004 year-end report.  Only with your trust and support have we been able to accomplish what we summarize below.

As of November 15, Rights Action has channeled more than US$750,000 of your financial donations and grants to the community-based organizations and projects summarized below.

Our main focus continues to be supporting community-based development, relief and human rights organizations in Guatemala, Chiapas (Mexico) and Honduras.  At the same time, we were able to provide emergency funding to community groups in Haiti responding to the humanitarian crisis and political repression.  We aim to establish on-going relations with a few community development, relief and human rights organizations.

We are proud to support the Ken Saro-Wiwa Foundation, honoring the memory and continuing with the work of Nigerian poet and novelist, environmental and community activist, Kenule Saro-Wiwa, executed in 1994.  We are also proud to have supported the annual "Herbert Anaya" Human Rights Forum in El Salvador, commemorating the life and work of Herbert Anaya, a human rights leader assassinated in 1987.

Complimentary to the development, relief and human rights work of our partner groups, we continued our work to educate ourselves - North Americans - about the need to have a global and historic understanding about the issues of exploitation-poverty, discrimination, enviro-destruction and repression that our partner groups are confronting.  North American and European countries have long been part of the problem of 'bad development', repression and enviro-destruction in the countries we work, and must be part of the solution to these deeply rooted problems.

Thank-you for your trust and financial support.  Please send us questions and comments about our work.

Annie Bird & Grahame Russell, co-directors
416-654-2074 / info at rightsaction.org / www.rightsaction.org

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TAX-CHARITABLE DONATIONS
Make check payable to "Rights Action" and mail to:

* United States:  1830 Connecticut Av, NW, Washington DC, 20009.
* Canada:  509 St. Clair Ave W, box73527, Toronto ON, M6C-1C0.

On-line donations: USA and Canada: www.rightsaction.org.
Wire funds to Rights Action: contact info at rightsaction.org, 416-654-2074.

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ORGANIZATIONS & PROJECTS SUPPORTED & WORK ACCOMPLISHED - 2004
We present here a summary of the community-based organizations and projects that Rights Action funded in 2004 in Guatemala, Chiapas (Mexico), Honduras and Haiti, as well as in Peru, Costa Rica, Nicaragua and Nigeria.  Also summarized are other aspects of our work: technical assistance for our partner groups; alliance-building between groups in the south and north-south; human rights accompaniment; north-south education and activism related to global development, relief and human rights issues.

CHIAPAS
ALCANZAMOS COMMUNITY WATER PROJECTS:  Education and training in Indigenous communities in Chiapas and Guatemala, on water usage and source management; irrigation and potable water projects.

COMMUNITY HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDERS NETWORK:  Indigenous community focused human rights and legal work; emphasis on ILO Covenant 169; establishment of legal offices in Indigenous communities.

VOICE OF CERRO HUECO:  Seeks remedies for illegally jailed Indigenous people (Tzeltal, Tzotzil, Chuj); humanitarian support for illegally detained and their families in isolated, poor communities.

WOMEN OF CORN IN RESISTANCE:  Education and training for Indigenous women-operated cooperatives, loan funds and a women's shelter.

PALENQUE EDUCATION PROGRAM:  High school scholarships for Mayan community-selected girls.

SADEC - HEALTH & COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT:  Education, training and supplies for health and dental promoters, and midwives, in Mayan communities and the Lacandon region.

COSTA RICA
Purchase of land to expand the Guanacaste Conservation Area.

EL SALVADOR
"Herbert Anaya" Annual Human Rights Forum.

GUATEMALA
ACOGUATE - GUATEMALAN ACCOMPANIMENT PROGRAM:  Accompaniment for communities at risk of repression for participating in trials against former military officers.

ADEP - PETEN ASSOCIATION OF DEVELOPMENT FOR THE UPROOTED:  Micro-credit workshop.  (Peten)

ADIVIMA - ASSOCIATION FOR INTEGRAL DEVELOPMENT OF VICTIMS OF VIOLENCE, MAYA-ACHI:  Strengthening rule of law; support for Rio Negro and Marcos Sical trials; Panacal widows community development support.  (Baja Verapaz)

AESMAC - SANTA MARIA TZEJA STUDENT ASSOCIATION:  Determining where Mayan scholarship students will 'give back to the community', teaching in rural, Mayan schools. (Quiche)

AJCHMOL - AJCHMOL MAYA CULTURAL ORGANIZATION:  Community education and organization related to global mining companies.  (San Marcos)

AMES - WOMEN IN SOLIDARITY:  Promotes women's rights; emphasis on sexual, reproductive and labor rights; provides medical, legal and moral accompaniment to victims of violence.  (Guatemala City)

FRIENDS OF THE SUN:  Construction of solar ovens and empowerment of women leaders.  (South Coast and Foothills)

AMRIS - RIO ISQUIZAL WOMEN'S ASSOCIATION:  Rural Mayan women empowerment, video production and scholarships.  (Huehuetenango)

ANH - NEW HORIZONS ASSOCIATION:  Operation of women's refuge; provides medical and moral support, legal services and daycare for battered and single women.  (Quetzaltenego)

ASCRA - 13TH OF MARCH, RIO NEGRO ASSOCIATION:  Mayan-Achi people, displaced by World Bank and Inter-American Development Bank-funded Chixoy dam, work for reparations for damages and loss of life caused by dam; support community re-building projects.  (Baja Verapaz)

ASECSA - ASSOCIATION OF COMMUNITY HEALTH SERVICES:  Trains health promoters and midwives throughout Guatemala; this project with Mayan-Achi women in Cubulco, with emphasis on environmental health.   (Baja Verapaz)

ATI - TOTO INTEGRATED ASSOCIATION:  Quiche women, working with Mayan perspective, promoting natural medicines and self-esteem; addressing domestic violence, pregnancy, sexuality, venereal diseases, nutrition, reproductive apparatus, maternal lactation, maternity, puberty, vasectomy, love and fertility.  (Quiche, Totonicapan)

BJP - POPULAR LEGAL CLINIC:  Operated by Maya-Achi genocide survivors in Rabinal; provides legal assistance and human rights education.  (Baja Verapaz)

CCDA - HIGHLANDS CAMPESINO COMMITTEE:  Community education and organizing around: peace accords; community-controlled development; Mayan rights and culture; gender.  CCDA exports fair trade coffee.  (South coast and highlands)

CEDAP - CENTER FOR CRIMINAL JUSTICE & CONFLICT RESOLUCION:  Formed by returned refugees; trains mayors, women's organizations and community leaders in conflict resolution; provides legal advice to victims of crimes and violations; accompanies victims to file complaints; establishing community legal defense centers.  (Quiche)

MAYA AJ-SYA EDUCATION PROGRAM:  Provides schooling to poor children in Patzicia based on Mayan-Kaqchikel cosmovision.  (Chimaltenango)

COLEGIO "MIGUEL ANGEL ASTURIAS" EDUCATION PROGRAM:  Primary school and scholarships for poor youth; specialized career in bi-lingual, multi-cultural education.  (Quetzaltenango)

CONCERN INTEGRAL DEVELOPMENT:  Training for rural health promoters; environmental health program for promoters; solar technology (for lighting clinics or community buildings), water tanks, rainwater catchment systems, and improved wood burning stoves.  (Peten)

CONIC - NATIONAL INDIGENOUS & CAMPESINO COUNCIL:  Promotes sustainable development through program areas: gender, education and training, land and Mayan rights, legal defense, agricultural reactivation, communication. (Throughout country)

COPAL AA EDUCATION PROGRAM:  Community school, using Mayan-focused pedagogy, with teachers from Santa Maria Tzeja education program. 

CRPQ - COUNCIL OF Q'EQCHI' PEOPLE:  Community organizing work in Chisec; mass grave exhumations; reparations and community development.  (Alta Verapaz)

CUC - CAMPESINO UNITY PROGRAM:  Among oldest popular organizations in Guatemala;  promotes land and labor rights for mainly Mayan campesinos and plantation laborers; hosted popular forum with CONIC and COPINH and MCA from Honduras, seeking 'best practices and exchange experiences. (Throughout country)

INDIGENOUS DEFENSE CLINIC, LAS VERAPACES:  Conflict resolution through application of Mayan laws; legal support for poor Maya-Achi women in cases of domestic violence, rape, divorce, child support and land conflicts.  (Baja Verapaz)

ENTRE RIOS EDUCATION PROGRAM:  Primary and middle school for returned refugee population of Saxajche; dormitory; agriculture, computer and life-skills training. (Peten)

ETESC - TECHNICAL TEAM FOR COMMUNITY HEALTH EDUCATION:  Education and training for health promoters in mountain communities.  Construction of water storage tanks in Petanac.  (Huehuetenango)

FAFG - GUATEMALAN FORENSIC ANTHROPOLOGY TEAM:  Exhumation of mass graves and determination of identify and cause of death.

FAMDEGUA - FAMILIES OF THE DISAPPEARED AND DETAINED:  Support for community-based exhumation processes and pursuit of justice for crimes of the past.

FNE - FOUNDATION NEW HOPE EDUCATION PROGRAM:  Provides bi-lingual (Achi-Spanish), multi-cultural education for children of repression victims in Rabinal; promotes respect for human rights, cultural differences and the construction of a State that promotes justice, historical truth and participatory democracy.  (Baja Verapaz)

GADIMFS - ACTION GROUP FOR INTEGRAL DEVELOPMENT OF WOMEN, FAMILY & SOCIETY:  Provides medical and psychological support and training, and other services to mainly Indigenous women.  (San Marcos)

IMPUNITY & COMMUNITY JUSTICE & RULE OF LAW - POPULAR FORUM:  Brought together regional grassroots organizations to determine 'best practices' and build relations and alliances.

INITIATIVE NORTHERN QUICHE:  Community controlled development organizing and education work.  (Quiche)

IXCAN FRONTERIZO & IXTAHUACAN EDUCATION PROGRAM:  Pre-schools in the rural communities of Fronterizo and Ixtabuacan.  Women from the region received child-care training and workshops in: financial accounting; nutrition; literacy; children's and women's rights. (Quiche)

JOYABAJ EDUCATION PROJECT:  Operation of Patzula middle school and scholarships for high school and university students.  (Quiche)

MICRO-CREDIT & FAIR TRADE - POPULAR FORUM:  Brought together regional partner organizations working on fair trade productive projects, to determine 'best practices' and to identify fair trade markets.

MONUMENTS, EXHUMATIONS & RE-BURIALS:  Support for mainly Mayan communities digging up mass graves, re-burying loved ones, and building monuments to commemorate their lives. (Across Guatemala)

MTC - MOVEMENT OF RURAL WORKERS:  Promotes rights of farm laborers, based on Guatemalan and international law, and builds solidarity and mutual support between farm workers. (San Marcos)

SHELTER FOR THE ELDERLY:  The Posada (in Santa Lucia Cotzumalguapa) is run by a former Maryknoll priest and Fransiscan nun, providing support for elderly destitute people.  (Escuintla)

Q'ANIL EDUCATION PROGRAM:  Scholarships, vocational training, library and cultural activities for Ixil youth, Nebaj.  (Quiche)

ROMERITOS ASSOCIATION FOR CHILDREN'S RIGHTS, MONSEÑOR ROMERO:  Provides a safe environment, food, education, medical and psychological attention, for poor children from urban barrios.  (Guatemala City)

SANTA MARIA TZEJA EDUCATION PROJECT:  Primary and middle school program, plus high school and university scholarships for Mayan students from isolated communities in Ixcan.  (Quiche)

TRINIDAD EDUCATION PROGRAM:  Operation, by returned-refugee community of Colonia 15 de Octubre La Trinidad, of an agricultural cooperative and a primary and middle school. (Escuintla)

XIMBAXUC WATER PROJECT:  Support for efforts to get potable water to village of Ximbaxuc.  (Quiche)

HAITI
BAI - OFFICE OF INTERNATIONAL LAWYERS:  Provides legal assistance to victims of human rights violations and emergency support for victims of hurricanes.

KONPAY / KONBIT POU AYITI:  Supports community-controlled relief projects and educates about the situation in Haiti to North Americans.

HONDURAS
CEPAVEG:  Grassroots organization defending locally-controlled development in communities affected by construction of hydro-electric dam in Gualaco.  (Olancho)

COPINH - CIVIC COUNCIL OF INDIGENOUS & POPULAR ORGANIZATIONS:  Community organizing, education and activism related to community development issues, with particular focus on land and indigenous rights.  (Intibuca, Lempira, La Paz, Santa Barbara)

COPINH - MONTANA VERDE PROGRAM:  Support and accompaniment for isolated community of Montana Verde, under siege from landowners and politicians using the legal and penal systems as tools of repression against community leaders.  (Intibuca)

MARTYRS OF GUAYMARAS:  Works for campesino land rights; supports recuperation of lands unused by State and global fruit companies; emergency support for family of assassinated community development leader Cesar Virgilio Pinot.

MAO - OLANCHO ENVIRONMENTAL MOVEMENT:  Community development education and organizing work.  (Olancho)

RISING ROOTS INTERNATIONAL:  Popular computer and communications training course for COPINH. (Western Honduras)

SIRIA VALLEY ENVIRONMENTAL COMMITTEE:  Training, education and organizing for community-controlled development; addressing illegal logging and open-pit mining resulting in environment destruction and health issues, and repression against community leaders.  (Francisco Morazan)

JAMAICA
Popular computer and communications training course, by Rising Roots International, for community groups in Kingston.

NIGERIA                       
AFRIDA - AFRICAN ENVIRONMENTAL & HUMAN DEVELOPMENT AGENCY:  Research and community led initiatives in health, environment and human rights, in African mining communities.

KEN SARO-WIWA FOUNDATION:  Honoring the memory and continuing work of Nigerian poet and novelist, environmental and community activist, Kenule Saro-Wiwa.

PERU
ALAS - ASSOCIATION FOR LEGAL & SOCIAL ACTION:  Provides humanitarian relief and legal education and support to former and current political prisoners.

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OTHER AREAS OF WORK

ALLIANCE-BUILDING & EXCHANGES:  Community to community regional exchanges between partner groups from different Program Areas: education; micro-credit and fair trade; land struggles and indigenous rights; impunity and justice.  Travel grants for community development leaders to go to forums dealing with global development, human rights and military issues.

DELEGATIONS - EDUCATIONAL & ACTIVIST:  Education delegations: Juniata College (Pennsylvania), Guatemala; University of Northern British Columbia (Canada), Guatemala; RA's annual Development and Human Rights activist seminar, Honduras and Guatemala; Global Exchange delegation, Honduras; RA delegation, Honduras.

INVESTIGATIONS:
Lis Lis case:  In March 2002, 3 campesino leaders were massacred by security forces of Standard Fruit Company, subsidiary of Dole Fruit.

Lanquin II case:  Preparation of report on violence against campesinos on Lanquin II plantation, formerly a United Fruit Company and Del Monte Fresh Produce banana-producing plantation.

Chixoy Dam Reparations Campaign:  Efforts to seek redress for forcibly displaced Mayan-Achi victims of the World Bank and Inter-American Development Bank funded Chixoy dam.

Global Mining Companies versus Community Development:  Reporting regularly on negative impact of North American mining companies on development needs of local Indigenous communities.

PUBLICATIONS AVAILABLE:
"The Rio Negro Massacres", eye-witness testimony by genocide survivor Jesus Tecu Osorio.

"Continuing the Struggle for Justice and Accountability in Guatemala: Making reparations a reality in the Chixoy Dam case", by COHRE in collaboration with Rights Action.

SUPPORT PROGRAM FOR COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT DEFENDERS:  RA provides accompaniment - by staff or coordinating international volunteers - to community development and human rights leaders at risk of repression; preparation of urgent actions; helping with US and Canadian embassy paperwork; documenting cases of repression; providing emergency support to targeted individuals; coordinating legal support.

TOURS:  Gilberto Flores, Honduran community leader, toured the USA, educating about the effects of hydro-electric dams, water privatization, illegal lumbering, and repression of community development leaders.

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WHAT YOU CAN DO

ADOPT-A-COMMUNITY.  Consider developing a long-term, north-south relationship with a needy and dynamic community (including educational exchanges, work exchanges and fund-raising)

MAKE TAX-CHARITABLE DONATIONS TO "RIGHTS ACTION".  Getting funds to community-based organizations is the front-line of work for global justice and equality

EDUCATIONAL TRIPS SOUTH.  Come to Guatemala, Chiapas and Honduras on educational delegations.  Organize your own group of people, or join trips that Rights Action organizes. (Join our e-list for regular announcements - info at rightsaction.org)

URGENT ACTION E-LIST.  Be on our e-mail list and respond to urgent actions

ALTERNATIVE INFORMATION.  Set up your own e-mail and mailing lists and re-send our information to your lists.  On request, we provide extra copies of our newsletter.  Countering and getting around the dominance of the corporate media is a major challenge for work for global justice and equality.

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STAFF & BOARD

BOARD RIGHTS ACTION (USA):  Annie Bird, Iain Guest, Grahame Russell, Julie Stewart, Michael Willis

BOARD RIGHTS ACTION (CANADA):  James MacDonald, Wayne Rosen, Merran Smith

FULL-TIME STAFF:  Guatemala: Annie Bird, Jane Pelly, Ruben Domingo and Tono Catalan.  Toronto-Washington DC: Grahame Russell.  Honduras: Sandra Cuffe

PART-TIME STAFF:  In Washington DC: Paul Magno, Freddie Schrider

VOLUNTEERS & SHORT-TERM PROJECTS:  Rosemary Burnett, Domingo Matias, Beth Brockland, Rosalind Gill, Kate Flatley, Tony Vaughan, Beckki Bolthouse, Mariaconcetta Patti




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