Workshops for Global Citizenship

France - In Rennes, a workshop to meet and join forces

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Members of Frères des Hommes, of the Confédération paysanne, of the AMAP, of the Haïtian Mouvement paysan Papaye, of Adenya in Rwanda: about fifty local volunteers from the North and the South met in Rennes in November 2008, at the world citizen workshops run by Frères des Hommes. Three months after Frères des Hommes’ volunteers’ summer tour of Brittany, those who mobilized on this occasion met to try and mesh together local and international solidarities for food security.

France - In Rennes, a workshop to meet and join forces

Different forms of action were suggested at round tables, debates and casual exchanges. For example, we have chosen to reinforce the collaboration of local and international solidarities around the same values of the struggle against poverty. We wish to continue what was done in the first solidarities collaboration experience : in the summer of 2008, Frères des Hommes and the Mouvement paysan Papaye (MPP) worked in line with operation "2000 paniers paysans" in Quimper, which was an initiative to defend local peasant farming.

Frères des Hommes wishes to move further, for instance by sharing the experience of our partners from the South with French activists. Indeed, local answers developed in France are in line with global citizen answers: they have been tested in the South and they work. In Bolivia with Kampesino, we encourage the transformation and commercialisation of local products for local communities. In Rwanda with Adenya, we are working toward the anti-erosion management of hills and the improvement of agricultural output. With the MPP in Haiti, we are developing the local production of fruit and vegetables.

All these actions have proved workable, and we would like to share this experience with French activists who are interested in similar subjects. In this way, we can pass on the message of international solidarity right to the heart of local initiatives and encourage the collaboration of solidarities.


Update: Friday 24 April 2009
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