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Context:

Context:

In Haiti, more than half of the population lives below the poverty line, making roughly one dollar per day, and nearly half face problems related to malnutrition. With regard to agriculture, small local producers struggle to compete with big industries. However, intensive planting has caused soil erosion, at the same time that the forest has fallen to 2% of total land area. Poverty resulting from job insecurity and lack of jobs in general has led many to relocate to the Dominican Republic.

Goals:

Alternatives supported the organization of the Pan-Amazon Social Forum that took place in the city of Belém in the Brazilian Amazon in January 2003. This thematic forum, held in the sphere of the World Social Forum (WSF), allowed representatives from Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Venezuela, Guyana, Suriname and Brazil to discuss the issues surrounding the Amazon, one of the world’s largest natural resource reserves.

Context:

Providing the backdrop to this project were attempts by Cuban civil society to improve its democratic system by encouraging increased citizen participation in policymaking.

Since the revolution, the Cuban people have been actively participating in various areas of the public sector, such as health care, education and the justice system. Today, however, the people’s involvement has descended into carrying out simple tasks that have little influence on the functioning of government.

Goals and Achievements:

SUPPORT FOR A BETTER HEALTH CARE SYSTEM IN KINSHASA

In N’Djili-Brasserie, a peri-urban neighbourhood 14 kilometres from downtown Kinshasa, Alternatives has started a project to help a community in need.

The project aims to: 

Context:

In Canada, we’ve seen evolutions in ethno cultural composition and diversity. However, racism and discrimination are still major problems, the most affected demographic being young women from visible minority and immigrant families.

Files: 

tisser_la_toile_de_la_solidarite.pdf

A project with the worker training school Escolas de Marcois currently in the preparation stages, with the goal of improving the training and networking of producers in worker cooperatives and consumers of the popular solidarity economy. The project should help improve the living conditions in six regions of the state of Rio Grande do Sul in Brazil, where several solidarity economy programs already exist.

Context:

Drought is a natural physical phenomenon that frequently and regularly afflicts Northeast Brazil. For a long time, drought has been harming Brazil’s semi-arid regions, mainly by destroying local ecosystems, which causes significant losses in biodiversity.

Context:

This project took place when the military dictatorship was increasing its repression, particularly against the people of South Sudan, in reaction to the rise of a democratic opposition that was quickly gathering strength. It was therefore necessary to take action against the arms trade that was enabling the dictatorship to persist, while refugees, displaced persons, women and children were in growing need of support.

Objectives:

In DRC, AIDS affects a large portion of the population at a rate of 5%. With an average of 173,000 new cases each year, this number will probably continue to grow. Several aggravating factors, such as the war and mass displacement, have likely contributed to the spread of HIV and other STDs. Hospitals are currently overrun with HIV patients. At the Kisangani hospital, 68% of its patients are expected to die of AIDS, compared to 75% at the hospital in Kikwit.