Will new land-use rules threaten the Amazon?

Posted on January 26, 2012 by ChangeMaker

The considerable gains made by Brazil in reducing deforestation in the Amazon are increasingly seen as at risk of reversal under President Dilma Rousseff, whose government has negotiated a bill seeking to overhaul the 47-year-old Forest Code, the latest in a series of measures that empower the president to cut land already marked for preservation, grant more flexibility for large infrastructure projects and give Congress veto power over designation of indigenous territories.

The rate of deforestation fell by 80 percent over the past six years, as the government carved out about 150 million acres for conservation — an area roughly the size of France — and used police raids and other tactics to crack down on illegal deforesters, according to both environmentalists and the government. Brazil’s former environment minister, Marina Silva, became an internationally respected defender of the Amazon. She ran for president in 2010 on the Green Party ticket and won 19.4 percent of the votes. More on: The New York Times

Posted in Climate Change, Energy, Environment, Grassroots | Leave a comment

Somali refugee situation deteriorates

Posted on January 16, 2012 by ChangeMaker


United Nations officials are expressing concern over the deteriorating security situation at refugee camps in Kenya and Ethiopia currently housing more than 700,000 displaced Somalis. The International Committee of the Red Cross was forced to halt food aid to more than 1 million people displaced inside Somalia Thursday after al-Shabab militants repeatedly blocked delivery.

The U.N. refugee agency says it is particularly worried about the situation in Kenya’s massive Dadaab camp following a spate of kidnappings, murders and robberies there. The rebels, who are hostile to Western intervention in the lawless Horn of Africa country, outlawed 16 relief agencies in November.

Abdullahi Haji Hassan, Somalia’s agriculture minister, said the action by the rebels would cause another humanitarian crisis, and called for international help to avert a disaster. “Al Shabaab wants the Somalis to perish,” Hassan told Reuters on Thursday.

Read more on: The Washington Post/ and AlertNet

Posted in Children, Education, Environment, Grassroots, Human Rights, Hunger | Leave a comment

MKFC students bring clean water to rural Ghana

Posted on January 12, 2012 by ChangeMaker


Environment and Sustainable Development is a one-year online course offered by MKFC Stockholms Folkhögskola. Participants work with their own projects related to these important global issues. One of the second semester students, Benjamin Adjei Kontor, is currently working on a successful development project in Ghana.

In this video, we join the project on a mission to Asaasekorkor village in the Eastern part of Ghana. Here, the focus is on raising awareness on diseases such as malaria and cholera. Another important aspect is clean water and hygiene, and with the help of the project, the local school now has access to Life Straw, a handy water filter which makes water safe to drink.

“We began work at 12:30pm at Asaasekorkor community school. We talk to student about water and how to purify them before usage”, writes Benjamin Adjei Kontor. “We took them through the installation of Life Straw machine and donated five pieces of the machine to the school. We got to Asaasekorkor village again the next morning at 9:30am to educate the villagers about malaria and cholera and also donated two hundred and fifty treated mosquito bed net to them.”

The course is offered in English and at the upper secondary level. For more information about how to apply, have a look at our extensive range of course options. E-learning is a flexible option that makes it possible to study anywhere, and anytime – from Scandinavia to rural Ghana!

Fanny Johansson

Posted in Education, Environment, Grassroots, Water | Comments Off

Current improvements

Posted on January 5, 2012 by ChangeMaker

Quality improvement actions at school level – January 2012

due to the outcome of the second Quality Check – Autumn 2011

To further increase MKFC Stockholm Folk High School students’ satisfaction, the school is to take some actions at school level to improve the results of the two questions that received the lowest performance in the most recent quality survey: ” The students in the course get an opportunity to collaborate ” and “The group has given me inspiration in my studies.”

The school is taking the following quality improvement measures:

1) Each tutor makes sure that the course has interactive study assignments that support the “opportunity for students to work together” and that support the statement “The group has given me inspiration in their studies”. Follow-up will be spring 2012.

2) The school will start the evaluation of a new learning management system (LMS) that better supports collaboration/interaction than the current LMS. The school will select one or two learning platforms in spring 2012 and it/they will be tested and evaluated during autumn 2012. The intention is that the new LMS is implemented Spring 2013.

Additionally, the school is taking the following measures to improve the quality of the survey:

3) Clarify the question “The students in the course get an opportunity to collaborate” by highlighting that the focus of the collaboration is between students within the group. New wording: “I have the opportunity for interaction with other course participants.”

4) Adding “not relevant” as a choice on each multiple-choice question.

5) Adding an open question “Describe if there is something that is unclear or could be improved upon with regards to the questions”.

In addition, each tutor presents course-specific quality improvement measures for their respective courses.

Stockholm 2012-01-04

Tutor team at school

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Corruption ‘costs Africa billions’

Posted on December 28, 2011 by elsa_chm


Corruption in Africa is costing the continent nearly $150bn a year, according to a new report.

The African regional body, the African Union (AU) has drawn up a convention to stamp out malpractices, which the study says are hitting the poorest, the hardest.

Corruption is illegal everywhere in Africa, but everywhere it is woven deep into the fabric of every day life.

From the bottle of whisky slipped under the counter to speed a traveller’s way through customs, to the presidents and ex-presidents living way beyond their declared means, it results in an assumption that no business will ever get done without a present changing hands.

The report before this week’s meeting of the African Union in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, makes no attempt to excuse these “gratifications” as part of the culture.

It says that corruption is costing Africa more than $148bn dollars a year, increasing the cost of goods by as much as 20%, deterring investment and holding back development. Read more

Posted in Environment, MDGs | Comments Off

Using solar power to fuel disaster facilities

Posted on December 16, 2011 by ChangeMaker

The Canadian Red Cross is field-testing solar technology to power portable hospital facilities in disaster areas to help overcome infrastructure and supply issues. Solar capabilities are already being used in permanent hospitals in Haiti and Africa.

Solar energy is already being used as the primary energy source in a growing number of fixed medical facilities in impoverished Haiti and Africa, supported by donations from such non-profit organizations as the Clinton Foundation and the Washington, D.C.-based Solar Electric Light Fund (SELF).
Read more on: The Globe and Mail

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Militarism and Violence Against Women

Posted on December 15, 2011 by elsa_chm

“Militarism as an ideology creates a culture of fear and supports the use of aggression, violence and military interventions to settle disputes and enforcing economic and political interests of a few elites. Militarism presents violent forms of masculinity, which often has grave consequences for the safety and security of the population especially women and children”. Isis WICCE- Uganda

Violence against Women means any act that results in harm and disproportionately affects women. It is any threat or act (physical, emotional, sexual, and economic) directed at a girl or woman that causes harm and is meant to control. It happens to many women all over the world irrespective of race, nationality, culture, religion, age, color or class. The root cause of violence is attributed to unequal power relations between men and women in almost all facets of life. Read more

Posted in Environment, Human Rights, Women | Comments Off

Farmland bill could speed Amazon deforestation

Posted on December 8, 2011 by ChangeMaker

A controversial bill that reduces the amount of land Brazilian farmers must preserve as forest, a measure activists say will hasten Amazon deforestation, has been passed by the country’s Senate. Tree-clearance rates in the Amazon are at their lowest rates since 1988, but supporters of the legislation say the country needs land for food production.

In recent years, Brazil has opened up new Amazon mines and is spending tens of billions of dollars to build huge hydroelectric dams in the Amazon to harness the electricity-producing potential of rainforest rivers. Risks associated with Brazil’s ambitions to become a global oil power were laid bare in November when a Chevron Corp. well off Rio de Janeiro leaked 2,400 barrels of oil into the ocean.

Read more on: The Wall Street Journal and BBC

Posted in Climate Change, Environment, Grassroots, MDGs | Comments Off

Right Livelihood Awards “Alternative Nobel Prize”

Posted on December 4, 2011 by ChangeMaker

“… for her tireless efforts at great personal risk to win justice for the victims of the former dictatorship in Chad and to increase awareness and observance of human rights in Africa”.

Quotation:
“The rights of human beings continue to be violated because the perpetrators of the most atrocious acts enjoy total impunity. The fight against impunity which I lead and which I will win by the Grace of God, is the result of my decision to take the side of those who suffer and whose cries continue to be ignored by the decision makers.”
Jacqueline Moudeina

Read more on: Right Livelihood Awards and SR’s website (Swedish)

Posted in Environment, Grassroots, Human Rights, Women | Comments Off

In Ghana, novel anti-malaria program emphasizes drug access

Posted on November 24, 2011 by ChangeMaker

Mobilize Against Malaria has created a network of more than 1,000 small medicine retailers, so-called licensed chemical sellers, that are instrumental in an innovative campaign in Ghana to promote prevention and early treatment of malaria.

The group, started in 2007, targets pregnant women and children under five in areas without access to a pharmacy or hospital in an effort to fight malaria, which accounts for nearly 40% of Ghana’s outpatient illnesses.

Malaria is a preventable and curable disease. But due to a lack of awareness, misconceptions about the mode of transmission and the non-availability of medication, it causes nearly 1 million deaths a year worldwide, 90% of which occur in sub-Saharan Africa. Read more on: The Guardian (London)

Posted in Education, Environment, Grassroots, Health | Comments Off