#4 SAWA highlights the heroes of The Panzi Hospital in The DRC

It is easy to focus on the negative. You don’t have to look too hard. The news on TV and in the papers is usually the bad kind, and if you can stomach it, it can leave you with a pretty grim view of our world and the individuals within it. It takes courage to be positive and hard work to share good news – which is what makes SAWA so special.

We feed off of the courage of those individuals out there making a difference and spreading positive changes within their communities and beyond. We aren’t here to ignore the bad news or the awful situations; we are here to show the world the remarkable ways in which people are dealing with awful situations.

Right now the situation for thousands of women in the eastern part of The Democratic Republic of Congo is truly awful. The violence being inflicted upon women by various militia groups is the most horrific imaginable. Women – from the ages of 6 to 75 – are being brutally raped and tortured by gangs of men to the point where their digestive systems are beyond repair. In October 2007, The New York Times published an article detailing the situation there: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/07/world/africa/07congo.html

But even in such horrific circumstances there are individuals providing hope and strength to their communities. The Panzi Hospital, (created in 1999 with the help of the Swedish International Development Agency), is the only place in South Kivu where thousands of women have been able to receive proper medical treatment for the kind of damage they have suffered. The individuals who work at Panzi Hospital, who are able to provide strength and healing for their communities despite all the negativity they see on a daily basis, are truly remarkable. Director Denis Mukwege performs on average 6 surgeries a day, working tirelessly to help the women of his community, while training new doctors to be able to perform the surgeries. He has a vision for a Women’s Center to be built alongside the hospital, which would provide counseling services as well as educational programs enabling the women to be reintegrated into society as financially independent individuals. He has witnessed some soul wrenching scenes and yet manages to find the strength to stay and help.

In the past few years, The Panzi Hospital has been able to receive some valuable support from a Toronto based organization called S.A.F.E.R. (Social Aid For the Elimination of Rape). S.A.F.E.R. have managed to send two shipments of two years worth of medical supplies to Panzi, and they are currently working on being able to send a third shipment in the spring of 2008. To learn more about them please visit their website at: http://www.saferworld.ca/ To donate e-mail them at donate@saferworld.ca

At SAWA we want to highlight these amazing individuals around the world who are making positive changes in some of the hardest places to be positive. It is vital that their stories be heard and that they are given all the support we are able to give. Their lives are a testament to the strength of the human spirit and they embody all that we could ever hope to be as leaders.

"Seek the good, the positive, the creative..."
Swami Radha

#3 Why SAWA focuses on the poorest countries

SAWA theme: Extreme Poverty

Poverty exists all over the world – in every country, and every city. But extreme poverty reserves its clutches for the people of the poorest and most underdeveloped countries. It is estimated that approximately 1 billion people in the world today live on less than $1 a day. Those living in extreme poverty are literally ‘the poorest of the poor’, and lack access to the most basic of human needs – such as food, clean water, proper shelter, clothing, medication, sanitation, and education. Extreme poverty brings along with it a list of other environmental and health problems. For example, the lack of clean drinking water is the number one reason for why 50% of Africans suffer from water related diseases such as cholera and infant diarrhea.

Tackling the issue of extreme poverty is a huge task, as it is a multifaceted issue, but change starts in each country with those courageous and inspiring individuals who, through their leadership and vision, create hope in seemingly hopeless situations. Their ability to create positive change – whether it be through providing a safe community environment for orphaned children (as the Fundación Niña Maria does in Columbia), or training the orphaned youth in Rwanda in employable skills so that they can support their siblings (as ASOLATE does) – is a testament to the strength of the human spirit.

SAWA chooses to focus its attention on the poorest countries of the world not only because the people there live in the harshest of human conditions and are in the most need, but because the stories of the individuals there who, despite everything, can and do gather the strength to lead, to give hope, to provide healing to their communities are the most inspiring of all. If they, who have next to nothing can, out of sheer determination, passion, and vision, create positive changes, then surely we can too.

And so SAWA continues to search out and give voice to those heroes whose stories remind us that anything is possible as long as there is someone to imagine the possibilities. After all, “The First Step To Better Times Is To Imagine Them.”

“There is absolutely

No inevitability

As long as there is a willingness

To contemplate what it happening”

– Marshall McLuhan

#2 SAWA Member Profile: Daphne Nederhorst, Founder and Executive Director

Be the change you want to see in the world.- Mahatma Gandhi

Daphne Nederhorst is someone who lives by these words. Driven by a passion to change the world, to inspire, and to empower, she embodies the positive energy that she longs to see more of in the world. The first time I met Daphne she welcomed me with a warm hug and after being with her for only a few minutes I saw immediately that she was full of life, energy, and compassion.

Daphne is an extremely driven individual and a natural leader. Throughout her life Daphne has never been afraid to challenge authority and speak up against injustice and inequality. She founded SAWA in 2004, but the concept of SAWA has its roots in her childhood experiences in Tanzania where she lived until she was 6. There she was deeply affected by the strength of the local people who creatively faced the challenges of living in extreme poverty. She wanted to be able to inspire change in the world through telling their stories.

Daphne is truly a global citizen, traveling to California at 16 to study Film, getting a degree in Development Studies and Environmental Management in England, completing a Masters degree in Environmental Engineering from the University of Calgary, returning to Tanzania to research how to bring water to poor urban communities, and then going on to work in over 35 countries all over the world with various non profit organizations, aid agencies, and international organizations (including the World Bank and the World Health Organization).

It was after returning from visiting an orphanage in Colombia in 2004 that she thought of using the internet as an empowering new media to tell the stories of hope she had come across. She had a strong desire to form a space where such stories could be shared in order for support to be directed back to the local heroes she had met. With the help of dozens of volunteers, from all over the world, she was able to follow her life's passion to change the world, and form SAWA.

Daphne's vision for SAWA is that it will grow to be become an internationally recognized site where heroes can come and express their stories, and people around the world can come and learn how they can get involved. This is just the beginning, but with your help, SAWA will impact and empower people all over the world for positive change.

Daphne is someone who shows us, with her creative energy and steadfast ideals, how to make this world a better place - the same way local heroes all over the world are showing us how to have hope, be strong, and change the world for the better.

(You can learn more about Daphne's accomplishments on SAWA's main website).

www.sawaglobal.com/howwestarted.htm

#1 SAWA Global- a new media to change the world

At SAWA we believe in the power of media as a tool to empower and inspire. Unfortunately, the mainstream media offers us a constant diet of indulgent pessimism, misleading us to believe we are out of reasons for hope. There is no denying that our world is faced with many challenges, but many of our global challenges are being tackled creatively by individuals with local solutions. SAWA focuses on sharing local solutions to the following global problems: How to 1. Reduce extreme poverty, 2. Protect and empower children, 3. Promote gender equality, 4. Halt the spread of HIV and other diseases, 5. Promote environmental sustainability, 6. Promote conflict resolution, and 7. Build global partnerships

The truth is, that all over the world, from Colombia to Kenya, from Cambodia to Rwanda, there are real individuals working within their communities to face these challenges and come up with real and lasting solutions. We should draw hope and inspiration from these individuals, sharing their stories to reinforce that not only is change possible, but it is happening. We, the public, need leaders and role models to drive our hopes and expectations about the future. These role models are out there, and we are here to find and tell their stories.

At SAWA we want to build a space where you, and I, and people all over the world can come to share positive ideas and creative solutions to our shared global problems.

One of my favourite Chinese proverbs is : The first step to better times is to imagine them. Let us imagine the future together.

Lending hope to the continued evolution of our species are our language and communication abilities. Jane Goodall points out that this gives us the unique ability to evolve culturally […] With language we can discuss the past, the present, and the future [and together] build collective wisdom.

(Redwire Magazine, November 2005).