Fatima Haidara

Today I learned more about fair trade products threw Eve one of the interns from the lower eastside girls club she explained the difference between free trade and fair trade. Beverly the owner of Ghar Sita Mutu organization had an opening for the storefront and it was amazing. The Ghar Sista Mutu is an organization that takes in abandon children and mothers of less fortunate and teaches them how to make clothes, sew and create products that would be sold in the U.S. She’s inspired me to apply for a grant to visit Katmandu and document the kids in her program. I thought it was crazy how one person made such a huge difference in a community that hardly gets any attention. One of the artist Morley ask us about 3 words that comes up to our mind when we hear about the program and I explained to her how I felt hope, faith and change. I felt that she gave these kids hope, love and something to believe in I also explained to everyone how she remained me of Bob Marley song Africa unite because he talks about the children coming together and loving one another.

www.GharSitaMutu.org

We met with a group of young adults called the YAYA (Youth Activits Youth Allies) Network and they about young teens being recruited into the military. They told us about how recruiters don’t always give us all the facts, and how you can save yourself from being recruited.

The YAYAs explained that many teens are brain-washed into joining the military because most recruiters lie and say that you’ll be there for certain amount of years and they keep you there longer. They tell you’re going to receive money to pay for school or to take care of your family, and if you do the research, you can see that many veterans after the war are homeless.

They also explained that women aren’t treated with respect, they are often molested and referred with disrespectful names, and when they bring up the issue to the court, there is never enough evidence to prove that what happen, actually happened. I liked how the YAYAs came and talked about the issue that recruiters hide like many veterans are left with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and every time the veterans tried to get help most of the doctors say that it’s a personality disorder and it has nothing to do with the war. I find that it’s so disappointing how our government is for the people but they seem to hide all these negative insights on war and how people don’t really know what happens there. When the YAYAs came to explain the truth to make sure that you think twice before joining the military, it made me happy that there are people who do care for the young teens who are being misled.

To learn about the YAYAs, check out their website, YAYANetwork.org

Today I met Damaris. She is the Executive Director of GOLES (Good Old Lower East Side) and she explained to us what self-determination is and how we need to change the L.E.S back to the way it used to be and how we need to unite so that we can have our voices heard. She talked about how we aren’t fighting for our neighborhood and how we’re letting big businesses take over our small businesses. She said we fight by speaking up for one another. Damaris talked about how GOLES is making a difference by them being activists for the Lower East Side community. Damaris inspired me today when she told us that unity is better than one. One voice can make a difference but a crowd can resonate all the way up to the mountains. Working in a group works better to solve a problem than just trying to solve the problem on our own. For me one of the greatest lesson I learned today, is that asking for help is a good thing. It doesn’t mean that you can’t do it on your own; it means that having others can lead to new ideas.

This is Fatima reporting for The Lower Eastside Girls Club. Today during my last day at Bioneers I met Mary Ann Hitt, the executive director of Appalachian Voices (www.appvoices.org). Appalachian Voices (AV) is an organization that brings people together from Appalachia to solve their environmental problems.

Mary Ann got the idea to start this organization because she was witnessing the damage that it was bringing to her community. She saw that people were dieing from the carbon dioxide that coal would later on release after being dug up from underground. She saw how mountaintops were being broken down in order to extract coal. Coal is what electricity companies dig up and then burn to receive electricity. By doing that it damages the environment with the CO2 it releases. When the mountaintops are broken leftover pieces of rocks that the workers leave behind get thrown in the lakes and end up killing animals and endangering the environment.

The AV movement has been going on for 10 years and in 2006 they started a new project called I Love Mountains (www.ilovemoutains.org) (ILM). ILM is a website that explains to the world what the coal companies are doing. By starting the website many more people are connected and aware of what is going on Mary Ann then decided to connect her website with Google Earth. What Google Earth does for the website is show people where in their community coal is located and it also shows them if their electricity is coming from coal.

Mary Ann is an amazing woman that lights up the room as you get to know her. She is so full of power and happiness. Knowing that she is making a difference keeps her going everyday to fight for what’s right. She is such a role model to me I love how she brings the community together and makes them unite as one.