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Frères des Hommes and our Partners in Action
India - "If it were not for the retired, the wheels of society would not go round"
On October 1st 2009, more than 500 retired persons took to the streets of Bangalore, Southern India, for a day of rallying on the occasion of the International Day of Older Persons. After a procession in the city’s avenues, there were speeches by activists and lawyers, as well as music and theatre throughout the day.
In the course of their professional lives, these now-retired persons had built the country’s roads, bridges, shopping centres; they had rolled beedis (small cigarettes), cleaned (...)
Peru - Training schemes for the deprived, to inform them of their rights
There is a lot of hustle and bustle, on this Sunday 11th of October 2009, under the thatched roof of a courtyard in the poor district of Pista Alegre in Lima. Davis Morante, educational organizer, leads a workshop on human rights run by a partner of Frères Des Hommes, Cenca.
He begins with a game demonstrating the right to free speech: who can shout louder than the rest! In the next activity, cards indicating different social statuses are distributed (student, priest, etc); participants (...)
India - Street Theater against discrimination in hospitals
Location: a public hospital in Bangalore. Scene: A young woman and her newborn die due to neglect and lack of care. This is not fiction, it’s a reality and it happened last May at the Vanivilas maternity hospital in Bangalore.
Fedina’s cultural team and Okkuta, the federation of retired people’s associations, demonstrated their anger on Saturday, June 27, 2009 in front of this hospital. With billboards, leaflets, and 20 minutes of performances: songs, dances and sketches, they denounced (...)
India /Philippines- Associations defend human rights before the UN
In India as well as in the Philippines, it is mainly associations who defend economic, social and cultural rights in a situation where public authorities violate these rights on a daily basis.
In order to better explain and defend these rights before the United Nations, Philippine and Indian organizations decided to pool their experiences for a common training session at Bangalore in India, last month, from 4th to 8th May 2009.
These organizations discussed various methods to better (...)
India – Two women in the same struggle for better working conditions
This article appeared in the May 2008 edition of Résonances, monthly civic newsletter written by youth activists With the help of Fedina, Muthu and Selvi get involved in the unions’ struggle for better working conditions. Could you tell us about your background? Muthu: I come from a humble family with 6 daughters in Tamil Nadu. I attended school up to standard 10th (9th grade). After I got married, I came to Bangalore where I became a seamstress in a factory. Selvi : My two brothers and (...)Indonesia - A grassroots political movement created by a coming together of countryside and city.
This article was published in the November 2007 issue of Resonances, a citizens’ information monthly drawn up by young activists.
Almost 500 Indonesian political activists came together this 5th July 2007 to speak out against the law on investments enacted by the Indonesian parliament in March. Such a protest might, statistically-speaking, appear modest. It embodies nevertheless a new alliance between social movements made possible by the nation’s movement towards democracy. Indonesia, (...)
India - Fedina fights the explosion of shanty towns in high-tech Bangalore
This article was published in the November 2007 issue of Resonances, a citizens’ information monthly drawn up by young activists.
Helping the shanty towns’ inhabitants claim their rights, that is the meaning of a day at the office for Fedina (Federation for Educational Innovations in Asia), an Indian partner of Frères des Hommes. In Bangalore, a south Indian city and capital of the state of Karnataka, Fedina campaigns to favour the access to property for inhabitants of the slums, to energise (...)
Indonesia - Elections in Batang, a symbol of hope for farmers
This article was published in the November 2007 issue of Resonances, a citizens’ information monthly drawn up by young activists.
Six out of nine candidates elected! The representatives of landless farmers have done fantastically. With massive participation (at times more than 90%) the local elections held on the 9th of September, in the Bantang district on the island of Java, constituted a fundamental stake concerning access to land. The term of office of a mayor is 6 years, and his (...)
India - The textile industry, incubator for the creation of workers’ unions
This article was published in the February 2008 issue of Resonances, a citizens’ information monthly drawn up by young activists.
A hundred men and women, all of them workers in the textile industry participated last summer in training for the unionization of the Kolar Gold Fields, a collection of mines in India located south of Karnataka. Organized by the Foundation for Educational Innovations in Asia (Fedina), this training is part of a program to inform workers about work-related (...)
Pakistan - Fishermen defend their fundamental rights
This article was published in the February 2008 issue of Resonances, a citizens’ information monthly drawn up by young activists.
Repression, resistance! On November 4, 2007, the members of the Pakistan Fishermen Forum (PFF) were assembled at the Press Association of Karachi not to discuss problems related to fishing, but to support the spontaneous protest by members of civil society against the martial law imposed by Pervez Musharraf. This law, established in anticipation of unrest prior (...)
Pakistan - Pakistani fisherman mobilise against attacks on their fundamental rights
This article was published in the May 2008 issue of Resonances, a citizens’ information monthly drawn up by young activists.
300 people participated in a seminar on fishermen’s rights and the role of democratic government, organised in Karachi on the 24th of April, 2008, by the Pakistan Fisherfolk Forum (PFF ) [ (...)' id='nh1'>1]. Journalists, representatives of civil society organisations, teachers, students and people from all different social groups (including a large proportion of women (...)
Indonesia - Indonesian activists seize the constitution to defend their rights
This article was published in the May 2008 issue of Resonances, a citizens’ information monthly drawn up by young activists.
The International Day of Peasants’ Struggle, held on the 17th April, was an opportunity for the activists of the Indonesian Peasants Union [ (...)' id='nh2-1'>1] to unite with other social movements as a part of the “People’s Assembly : the constitutional path towards a response to crisis”, which brought together 150 people. After the initiative of the People’s Movement (...)
India – Women advance, manufacturers retreat!
In the state of Tamil Nadu, beedi (short Indian cigarette) manufacturers have mostly set up shop in rural areas. 90% of the employees are women who remain in the villages when their husbands leave to work in town. Beedi manufacturing allows them to work at home while taking care of their housework and children.
The companies supply the womenwith raw materials (paper and tobacco) for the production of 1000 beedis, the amount required for a daily salary of about 70 rupees (a little over one (...)
Pakistan - In order to make a living from fishing, the contract system must be abolished
This article was published in the June 2007 issue of Resonances, a citizens’ information monthly drawn up by young activists.
After a massive mobilization, The Pakistan Fisherfolk Forum (PFF) has made a major step forward. The local government of Sindh province gave back to thousands of fresh water fishermen direct administration of their fishing area. This is a question of survival for them and their families. In April 2007, Arbab Ghulam Rahim, the Head of the Provincial government, (...)
India - Associations rally for the guarantee of employment
This article was published in the September 2006 edition of Resonances, a citizens’ information monthly drawn up by young activists.
Today, in some rural areas of India, labourers work only 100 to 120 days a year. Thanks to the massive intervention and mobilisation of NGOs, trade unions and popular movements, they have been granted the right to work 100 additional days per year. Under pressure from many Indian organisations, the government voted the Employment Guarantee Act (EGA [1]) on (...)