NOTES

A Donor Committed to the

Global Struggle Board of Directors Two and a half years ago, I was drawn to Grassroots International’s Maria Aguiar Mijo Lee approach to funding community organizers — empowering oppressed Chair M. Brinton Lykes Nidal Al-Azraq Kathy Mulvey peoples while respecting their dignity. And I’ve become passionate about NEWS FROM GRASSROOTS INTERNATIONAL FALL 2020 VOL. 36 #2 our partners, including the Health Of Mother Earth Foundation (HOMEF), Kalila Barnett Ninaj Raoul Diala Shamas Janet Axelrod in Nigeria, and the Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR). Meredith Smith, Sha Grogan-Brown Meeting with HOMEF organizers in Nigeria, I learned that ecological Treasurer FOOD SOVEREIGNTY & COVID-19 Sam Jacobs Sam Vinal justice, especially for the poor, is a prerequisite for self-determination. I now see that the Pan-African fight for clean water is a fight for Staff Root Causes of Coronavirus Pandemic Katherine Asuncion human rights. Program Manager for Donor Engagement Corporate agriculture not only opportunities. And this The previous year, in a Donor Engagement Group (DEG), I got to Milourdes Augustin destroys the environment, concentration on serving local needs Solidarity Program Officer impoverishes small farmers, and minimizes the possibility of diseases know more about PCHR’s work. Using international law to advocate for Haiti and West Africa grabs land from Indigenous peoples. jumping to other regions. for their homeland while building bridges of solidarity with other Malkah B. Feldman Its greedy policies create ideal racialized groups inspired me. Strategic Philanthropy Manager FOOD SOVEREIGNTY Jovanna Garcia Soto breeding conditions for pandemics, If you are a donor, a DEG is a chance not only to help organizers fight Based on Agroecology — Is the Solidarity Program Officer for Latin America including COVID-19. for liberation, but also to strengthen your own solidarity, as an American, Chung-Wha Hong Answer to Agribusiness Meeting Threats with grantees — a way to see how apparently disparate struggles in Executive Director The fact is that the huge pig industry to Equality and Global Health the global South are linked to each other and struggles in the U.S. Trina Jackson may have been the key global vector BEAI Fund Director for COVID-19 — turning a local Food Sovereignty is the sustainable, To dismantle oppressive systems, we must “overstand” what upholds Jonathan Leaning outbreak into a pandemic in just a healthy, and equitable alternative to them and keeps us divided as nationals, Institutional Giving and Communications Coordinator few weeks. That’s because global the profit-driven model of the because profiteers of oppression have no and substantial role in food Sara Mersha livestock industries grow and ship corporate food industry. Food regard for national borders. Director of Grantmaking and Advocacy production. so many animals squeezed together, Sovereignty means growing food The 1960s Civil Rights and Opal Mita locally in order to feed families and Administrative Coordinator it maximizes the spread of disease Here are some examples of communities, not to fill investor activists felt linked to decolonization in Orson Moon from animal to animal, and on to Grassroots International’s Food Africa, Asia, and the Middle East. The Director of Administration and Finance humans worldwide. pockets. It protects people from Sovereignty partners — and their causes of the state-sanctioned murder of Chris Morrill diseases that are spread by global effective, locally-formed responses George Floyd in Minneapolis also Donor and Online agribusinesses — corporations that Communications Coordinator “ That [COVID-19] is splattering across to oppression and to COVID-19. caused the state-sanctioned murder of care about nothing but money. Emily Rose Navarro host types means populations of any Continued on page 3 Advancement Associate Ahmad Erakat in the Gaza Strip. living organism can be commoditized, Food Sovereignty asserts the rights Ayman Nijim of peasants, landless people, and local We must fight injustice everywhere. Solidarity Program Officer for the Middle East turned into another [disease] communities: “ [Food Sovereignty creates a world] The energy of global resistance Mina Remy reservoir … and transported near Director of Philanthropic Partnerships free of oppression and inequality movements is immense. But we must find and support one another. and far, a threat to all others.” • to have land, water, seed, and Let’s help Grassroots International partner with these communities, Carol Schachet —Rob Wallace, between men and women, peoples, Director of Planning and Special Initiatives credit; evolutionary biologist racial groups, social and economic to amplify the voices of our common struggle, until victory. Lydia Simas • to decide what they produce and In solidarity, Solidarity Program Officer for Special Projects consume; classes and generations.” Salena Tramel In other words, industrial agriculture • to protect themselves from —2007 Nyéléni Food Sovereignty Forum Nick Johnson Interim Solidarity Program Officer for Honduras and Puerto Rico and its obsession with profit bears foreign price dumping, and from Diana Villa responsibility for destroying natural pandemics spread through Grants Administrator local barriers to disease and industrial agribusiness; and Solidarity Program Officer Inside Grassroots International works in partnership with social movements to create endangering all of humanity. • • to have a voice in agricultural a just and sustainable world by advancing human rights to land, water, and Sam Yoon Where Do Black Lives Matter? Everywhere! .....2 Administrative and Executive Assistant Food sovereignty, in contrast, makes policy; food through global grantmaking, building solidarity across organizations Ivan Yung the most of local conditions and • • to ensure women farmers a fair From the Executive Director...... 2 and movements, and advocacy in the US. Finance Coordinator United Response to Pandemic ...... 2 A Donor Committed to the Global Struggle...... 4 4 Grassroots International SOLIDARITY NOTES 179 Boylston Street • Boston, MA 02130 • ph: 617.524.1400 • GrassrootsOnline.org GrassrootsOnline.org

20125 GRI 2020 October NL Pkg. Brochure - Back Cover 20125 GRI 2020 October NL Pkg. Brochure - Cover EW – 9.15.20 Doc. Size: 17” x 11” Flat. 8.5” x 11” Folded Colors: CMYK Doc. Size: 17” x 11” Flat. 8.5” x 11” Folded Colors: CMYK Where Do Black Lives Matter? Everywhere! FOOD SOVEREIGNTY & COVID-19 Continued from page 1 PUERTO RICO COVID-19 crisis here one of the The struggles are the same, everywhere … But thanks to you, our grantees like MOQUIBOM and Feeding the People, Protecting Public Health world’s deadliest and worst managed. in Minneapolis streets … CONAQ are bringing hope, by organizing Quilombolas Social movements, like the Landless to defend themselves and their territories. Puerto Rico’s colonial status has Or Brazillian mountains ... exploited women, labor, and land for Workers’ Movement (MST), are The Quilombola are Afro-descendants who resisted Or the northern Atlantic coast of Honduras … profit; impoverished the people, and working nonstop to save and improve and founded their rural communities. But they The , descendants of shipwrecked Africans who nearly destroyed independent people’s lives. MST has converted didn’t gain rights to land they’d lived on for hundreds escaped slavery and put down roots, face the same farming — making the island their training centers into COVID-19 of years, until 1988. injustices. Their lands are stolen, with government dependent on global supplies of hospitals and is campaigning to enact And still, large landowners and state officials use approval, for tourism, and oil extraction. industrial, disease-prone food. “Emergency Measures for Agrarian PALESTINE Reform,” to prioritize health, jobs, violence, even murder, to grab Quilombola land. For But our local partner OFRANEH is helping them to Food Sovereignty can remove the Social Movements Respond to COVID-19 and farms for the people. those who worship profit, Quilombola lives don’t matter. organize, resist, and win, in the courts of law and public root causes of hunger and poverty, Continued on page 3 as well as widespread disease. Grassroots International partners with social movements in the Middle Comedores Sociales (Community East to meet emergencies and fight From the Kitchens), our local partner, is the fundamental driver of poverty, working effectively to replace an hunger, and disease — inequality in Executive Director unjust, unsafe food system. all its forms. Wow. 2020 is nearly, finally over. Around the In the current COVID-19 emergency, The Palestinian Medical Relief world, both we and our movements have all which is intensifying injustice, Society (PMRS) has long served its Comedores Sociales is delivering food faced so much this year. But we have also community. In the current crisis, it to people trapped in lockdown with stepped up in inspirational ways. has distributed over half a million few resources For the longer-term, pamphlets on prevention, and In this issue of Solidarity Notes, you can find it’s promoting the benefits of Food operated 50 community and eight Sovereignty for Puerto Rico — stories of Grassroots International partners facing down disasters mobile clinics, thereby drastically The goal of Agrarian Reform — and growing, sharing, and controlling its of your generous support for all our and building real solutions. Black communities from to limiting COVID-19 fatalities. GRASSROOTS NEWS own food supplies, based on global partners — is Food Honduras are defending their land and lives. Our Palestinian and Meanwhile, the Lajee Center in Aida communal need, not corporate profit. Sovereignty: a sustainable food United Response to Pandemic Puerto Rican partners and grantees are confronting both COVID and Refugee Camp is providing resources Thanks to your support, Comedores for young Palestinians and their system that pays workers fairly, colonialism, providing much needed education, food, and facilities. The COVID-19 pandemic has been horrifying, especially Sociales is proving Food Sovereignty families. Local solutions include produces sustainable nourishment for peasants and racial minorities, on whom the virus has for all, and defends communities You can also learn more about your own impact. Since March, viable. They’ve linked peasant cultivating rooftop and urban wreaked endless misery and death. from pandemics. generous contributions from donors like you allowed us to provide farmers and harvests to community gardens, and providing basic services kitchens where people can eat at a of water, cloth masks, and remote The emergency calls for help from our partners led to our a record amount of emergency funding to communities around fair price. And the proceeds, in turn, education — even as Israel’s Emergency Pandemic Fund. And our requests for dona- the world. Where Do Black Lives tions prompted inspiring levels of generosity, totaling support the comedores and expand occupation makes the pandemic peasant farming. The goal is to scale worse. Matter? Everywhere! nearly $400,000. This year more than ever, we’ve seen how our fates are connected. up, once the pandemic subsides, to A virus may spread, but so too can solidarity to combat it. But there is so much more to do! Continued from page 2 Here’s a sampling of life-saving Emergency projects, provide safe, nutritious food for the That’s why your continued support which are as varied as our partners: whole island. opinion. Thanks to you! As a fellow donor Nick Johnson writes in this issue, “The energy of of Grassroots International * Buying meds, masks, sanitizers, and protective global resistance movements is immense. But we must find and is so essential! But the struggle is far from over. Elites have contempt for Garifuna products for the Afro-Brazilian Quilombola, support one another.” You and other donor-activists have helped BRAZIL and Quilombolas lives, especially * Providing preventive health education, materials and ensure that, through one of the most difficult years in recent memory, In COVID-19 Chaos: We Demand those of activists. Armed men recently outreach, to the Garifuna in Honduras, global movements can continue to build a better world. Thank you! Emergency Agrarian Reform murdered one and abducted five others. * Funding COVID-19 E.R.s for Palestinians under In gratitude and solidarity, The Brazilian Government seems to That’s whyyour continued support is Israeli occupation. Chung-Wha Hong, Executive Director be helping coronavirus to spread, so vital. Remember, the crisis is not over. Please continue to give! destroy, and kill — making the BLACK LIVES MATTER!

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20125 GRI 2020 October NL Pkg. Brochure - Inside Spread EW – 9.15.20 Doc. Size: 17” x 11” Flat. 8.5” x 11” Folded Colors: CMYK