Interview:

Inteview to a collavorator of the NGO "Etiopia Utopia":

This interview had to be made ​​in Spanish, because the project that we have embarked have asked.

Entrevista a Lourdes Fernandez.

ONG: Etiopia Utopia.

• ¿Por qué decidiste colaborar con esta ONG?

En primer lugar porque tenía tiempo. Vi que habia muchas necesisdades y aparte, coincidió que conocí a un padre blaco de aquí, de Hernani que estuvo trabajando en Etiopia, Ángel Olaran. Bueno, una cosa llevó a la otra y nos empezamos a implicar una serie de personas y llegamos a constituir esta ONG; fundamentalmete, trabajamos en Bucro, un pueblo que está al norte de Etiopia, con bastantes proiectos que si quereis más tarde os los comento.

• ¿Y que tipo de cosas haciais para mejorar la situción en la que Etiopia se encontraba?

Ángel tiene allí una infraestructura bastante grande, también una escuela pública, para los niños huerfanos. Todo esto está pasando principalmente, por las guerras que han tenido contra Eritrea. En principio, entramos por ahí, y luego, poco a poco fuimos aunmentando los proiectos, bien por petición de los etiopes o porque nosotros veiamos la necesidad de hacerlo.

También, construimos una importante área sanitaria que está en contacto las veinticuatro horas del día con el hospital de San Sebastián, con aporte de personal médico y asesoración médica. Además, hay una zona impresincible llamada “Zona ecológica” que limpia los rios, la canalización del agua, etc... una clínica dental... y como anteriormente he dicho se nos van aumentanto los proiectos. El último que nos han pedido ha sido la construcción de una farmacia en el centro de Etiopia.

• ¿Por qué crees que es importante que la gente se anime a colaborar con estas ONGs?

Creo que las ONGs están cumpliemdo un papel muy importante que ninguno de los estdos recoge. Hay ayudas de los estados al tercer mundo, pero realmente, en mi opinión son insuficientes. Entonces las ONGs vienen a cumplir ese hueco y ese espacio. Las ONGs de lo que se nutren es precisamente de la ciudadania, de las personas. Por esto, es imporatnte que las personas se impliquen, a nada que seas un poco inquieto, pues ebidentemente te enchufas en este tipo de ayudas. La gente se presenta para ayudara este problema del tercer mundo, que por otro lado es un problemas creado por el primer mundo. Si el primer mundo no achuchara como achucha, probablemente vivirian mejor.

Etiopia es un país rico en muchas cosas y lo que revierte para ellos es poquísimo. Entonces, es imporante que las ONGs funcionen y también que la gente de una manera u otra se implique.

Ahora tenemos aquí, en España, el problema, grande problemas, de probreza y a veces uno se pregunta por qué sigo ayundando si en el sitio en dónde vivo están igual. Creo que no es una decisión de a este si y al otro no. La razón es que aquí hay muchos más apollos que en Etiopia. Y si nos olvidamos nosotros, no hay reconocimineto ni de dificultades.

• ¿Crees que la juventud de hoy en día partucipa en estos proiectos?

Si, nosotros desde luego en nuestra fundación si. Es verdad que quién lleva la carga organizativa somos personas adultas, mayores, por decirlo de alguna manera, pero tenemos un grupo de voluntariado joven, bien que va a pasar temporadas allí o bien está aquí colaborando e incluso nos proponen cosas nuevas.

Ane Irati Cartajena, Antigua-Luberri, Batxiler.

INTERVIEW

Eleanitza Project: The Interview

The project of this month consist on interviewing four different people who have participated with an NGO. The interviews had to be made ​​in four different languages too, the ones that we have chosen are English, Basque, Spanish and French. 

As we are four students doing this project, we had distributed the work in one language each student.
- Ainhoa Atorrasagasti: English
- Joane Unanue: Basque
- Maria Irureta: French
- Ane Irati Cartajena (me): Spanish

Ways to improve the POVERTY situation:

1) To my mind, first of all we must finished with the discrimination. For example the 

    discrimination of women, the disabled, ethnic minorities, tribes or castes.            

    eliminate the inequalities will be key to eradicating poverty in the world.

2)  Put planetary boundaries: Like this, the world              would    have the same laws for all   

     countries.

EUSTAT

Poverty and exclusion in Europe and the Basque Country (link)

If you click on the link above, you will see different poverty and exclusion rates in European countries compared with the one in the Basque Country.
As we can see there, poverty rates have increased since 2008 in most of the countries; mostly in Ireland, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Greece and some eastern countries.

Poverty and Exclusion:
Almost 80 million people live below the poverty line in the European Union.
Problems that arise from living in poverty may include not having enough money to spend on food and clothes, poor housing conditions, homelessness, and limited lifestyle choices that may lead to social exclusion.
Inspired by its founding principle of solidarity, the European Union joined forces with its Member States to make 2010 the European Year For Combating Poverty and Social Exclusion. The objectives were to raise public awareness about these issues and renew the political commitment of the EU and its Member States to combat poverty and social exclusion. The year also challenged stereotypes and collective perceptions of poverty.

POVERTY

Let’s unite, Poverty we fight!

European Commission - Eurostat

LINK: http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/statistics_explained/index.php/

 

 

LINK: http://www.inequalitywatch.eu/spip.php?article99&lang=en

 

 

The Green Belt Movement

THE GREEN BELT MOVEMENT:

The Green Belt Movement is a indigenous grassrouts non-governmental organisation which started in Nairobi, Kenya, in 1977. Created by the Nobel Prize Laureate Wangari Maathai, with the help of the National Council of Women of Kenya, this organisation encourages women from the area to plant trees, combat deforestation and restore their main source of fuel for cooking, creating profit.

This is where the name of the organisation comes from: a green belt of trees that protects kenyan villages from hunger and poverty.

Since Maathai started the movement, over 51 million of trees have been planted, and more than 30,000 women have been trained in forestry, bee-keeping and other trades that help them ear income. As she said, having their own possession makes them more authoritarian and powerful, they are not simple housewives any more.

However, both men and women have been organised to prevent enviromental destruction, restore what which has been damaged and change the political situation. Participants began to understan that for years they had been placing their trust in leaders who had betrayed them and that they were sabotaging their lives by not working for the common good and failing to use their natural resources

wisely. Consequently, the Green Belt Movement began to fight against land grabbing and the encroachment of agriculture into the forests.

In 1981, they got their first significant funding when the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) provided money that transformed the effort from a few tree nurseries to a larg number with thousands of seedlings. That helped also to mobilize thousands of women who Maathai called ‘foresters without diplomas’. Because of that, several grassroots enviroment an development groups in Ethiopia, Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda and other African countries, integrated

this movement ́s approach.

Over the years, the Green Belt Movement incorporated other community activities apart from tree planting efforts, such as the cultivation of more nutritious and indigenous foods, effective ways store rainwater, training in entrepreneurship and providing information on AIDS prevention. 

Nowadays, it has extended its reach internationally to campaign and advocate on climate change the importance of Africa’s rainforests in the Congo, and has partnered with the UnitedNations Environment Programme (UNEP) in its Billion Tree Campaign.

After being awarded with the Nobel Prize in 2004, Professor Maathai ́s and the Green Belt Movement ́s work ́s fame raised worldwide. She was named ambassador for the Congo Basi Forest Ecosystem, the world ́s second ‘lung’ after the Amazon Rainforest. The four books she writed and the documentary ‘Taking Root: The Vision of Wangari Maathai’ expanded the key concepts behind the Green Belt Movement ́s achievements.

This NGO continued under her leadership until her unexpected death in 2011 at the age of 71; but it's still opened to every single person who would like to put its bit for helping the enviroment.