Grassroots Projects
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Grassroots Projects is a Dutch international charity organisation that on request helps the oppressed poor who fight for a decent living. Grassroots Projects started in July 2005 when several social globalist wanted a alternative to the current international charity work. The organisation itself is very critical of the current free market and tries to build up a social alternative. Therefore instead of defending the free market, Grassroots Projects ideology is to show direct solidarity with the people they are helping. [1]
[edit] Projects
- In Morelia, Mexico Grassroots Projects financed and worked on 2 water projects. The 2 water projects have connected two Zapatista communities with a water system.
- In El Peten, Guetamala Grassroots Projects is financing indigenous farmers who are against Plan Pueblo Panama http://www.globalexchange.org/countries/americas/mexico/ppp/ppp.html
- We financed several organisations in Oaxaca, Mexico that have been involved in the Oaxaca protests. The money went to Indymedia Oaxaca, CIPO and prisoner support for the demonstrators. [2]
[edit] Solidarity tour 2006
Chiapas
In October 2006 a group of nine volunteers of Grassroots Projects went on a solidarity tour to Mexico. There they witnessed the final work on the water project in Morelia, wich has been financed by Grassroots Projects. All the collected money went to building materials. In co-operation with Catas ( http://www.catas1.org/eng/home.htm ) a water containment system has been built, that collects rainwater. The rainwater will be transferred trough a special filtering pipe and go to a large water tank. During the Project several Zapatistas where trained by Catas , so that they can build their own tanks in the future. The team members also visited the rest of Chiapas , they wrote their experiences down on the Grassroots Projects Weblog: http://grassroots.web-log.nl/
Oaxaca
In October and November 2006 the Grassroots Projects solidarity groups also visited Oaxaca. The people in Oaxaca are currently embroiled in a conflict that has lasted more then 6 months and has resulted in at least 17 deaths and in the occupation of the capital city of Oaxaca by federal police. The conflict emerged in May 2006 with a strike involving the local teachers' union and has since grown into a broad-based movement pitting the Popular Assembly of the Peoples of Oaxaca (APPO) against the state's governor, Ulises Ruiz Ortiz. Protesters are demanding the removal or resignation of Ulises Ruiz, whom they accuse of corruption and acts of repression. Grassroots Projects went there as a group of independent media to write about the Oaxaca conflict for Indymedia. [3]
