#8 UN World Urban Forum 2008 in Nanjing, China

SAWA Global, together with the Huairou Commission, have applied to participate in the upcoming UN World Urban Forum happening in March 2008 in Nanjing, China. Together, and in partnership with two other organizations, they have sent a proposal to do a training workshop on video production for organizations of the economically poorest countries. The goal of the workshop is to empower these organizations to be able to make and submit short effective videos promoting their projects. The ability to create effective short videos and submit them to media outlets like SAWA is an empowering way for organizations to raise awareness and gather resources to support their causes. SAWA is excited by the prospect of connecting with the many organizations that will be at the conference and being able to offer them the opportunity to promote their causes through SAWA.

The UN World Urban Forum - hosted by the UN every two years, bringing together NGOs from all over the world to discuss the environmental, social and economic impacts of rapid urbanization - is a wonderful opportunity for organizations to network, share ideas and solutions and work together to figure out how to make our cities environmentally, socially, politically, economically sustainable. This is an extremely important and valuable conference and SAWA Global is hoping to participate.

The 100 years from 1950 to 2050 will be remembered for the greatest
social, cultural, economic and environmental transformation in history
– the urbanization of humanity. With half of us now occupying urban
space, the future of the human species is tied to the city.
– Anna Tibaijuka, Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations, Executive Director
UN-HABITAT in remarks at the third session of the Forum in Vancouver, Canada, in 2006.

#7 SAWA partners with The Huairou Commission

SAWA Theme: Global Partnerships

SAWA is pleased to announce its new partnership with the NGO Huairou Commission – a global coalition of networks, institutions and individual professionals supporting and promoting the creative and grounded perspectives of grassroots women’s organizations involved in development. Grassroots women’s organizations have emerged as innovative leaders offering creative and tested solutions to many challenges facing their communities. They also play a vital role in promoting gender equality and women’s empowerment as a priority in development work

SAWA is excited to partner with the Commission and help support and empower the different grassroots organizations it is involved with by sharing their stories and spreading their ideas. Through this new partnership these grassroots organizations are given the opportunity to submit videos of their inspiring stories, strengthening their influence and impact on the global community.

The Huairou Commission provides a platform where grassroots women’s organizations share creative solutions to problems facing their communities; a goal SAWA Global is happy to support. Together, SAWA and the Commission will help improve the overall practice of development by sharing the stories of grassroots organizations using local solutions that work.


To Learn More: http://www.huairou.org/

#6 SAWA Global supports upcoming 2008 Youth Darfur Conference here in Vancouver, BC, March 2nd

SAWA Theme: Empowering Youth

SAWA is excited to support the upcoming model-UN conference for youth, being held here in Vancouver, BC on March 2nd, by Amnesty International. At this 2008 Youth Darfur Conference, students from across the province will come to discuss the issues currently surrounding Darfur- where, according to UN estimates, at least 450,000 people have died from violence and disease, and 2.5 million people have been displaced since the conflict began in 2003.

At the conference, 100 youth between the ages of 16-30, will represent relevant nations, groups, multilateral organizations, and non-governmental organizations, in order to examine and discuss the complex issues surrounding the Darfur crisis. For the sake of creating a better understanding of the complexities surrounding the conflict, groups like the Janjaweed, the Justice and Equality Movement, Sudanese Liberation Movement/Army and Darfuri women refugees will be represented at the event.

Through participation in this forum, students will not only gain a deeper understanding of the situation in Darfur, but they will also gain insight into effective and creative ways to raise awareness and motivate appropriate individual action after the conference.

The conference is further exciting for bringing together the support of many different Canadian NGO’s, of which SAWA Global is one of them. This conference allows an opportunity for different organizations, who are working in their own way towards a better world, to be able to come together to share insights and inspiration for today’s youth. Each participating youth will receive a package with information on the different organizations supporting the conference. Through the package youth at the conference will learn about SAWA’s journalist campaign – just one opportunity for them to continue making a difference after the conference.

To learn more about the upcoming conference, or the crisis in Darfur, please visit:

www.darfur2008.com

#5 SAWA's Journalist Campaign

In the fall of 2007, SAWA Global launched a campaign to recruit 100 volunteers across the world("Sawa Journalists") to find and film stories of hope and inspiration in the poorests countries of the world. SAWA has been receiving hundreds e-mails, (which we are currently going through), from people all over the world who know of individuals, local heroes, and local NGO's making positive changes in their communities. With their knowledge and connections, the stories of these local heroes will be shared at SAWA Global: the gateway to change.

SAWA's aim is to make connections with journalists and journalism/media students in the capitals of these countries who can help us find stories we can showcase on our site. Finding these stories of inspiration and admirable leadership may be challenging, and being able to film a shrot clip about them may be even more challenging. This is why SAWA's goal is to make connections with new and established journalists and media personell. Together we hope to ignite a new media - one that offers hope and inspiration for positive change, and fosters global awareness, and global action.

At SAWA we give a voice to these heroes of the world and offer an opportunity for them to voice their initiatives to a global audience, which we hope will inspire and spark action and positive change.

At SAWA we also provide an opportunity for people all over the world to get involved by supporting these local grassroots intitiatives that are making positive lasting changes in the fight against poverty, HIV/Aids, child abuse, gender inequality and environmental degradation.
Stay tuned for more stories of hope coming soon!

#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