Global Greengrants Fund’s activist-led approach to grantmaking relies on the expertise of our network of more than 120 volunteer advisors that are intimately knowledgeable about the most pressing issues in their regions. Our advisors determine the grantmaking strategy for each region in which we work, ensuring that these strategies are appropriate given the local context, and identify community-based groups that are poised to take action against environmental degradation and social injustice.

Since 2009, Michael Mazgaonkar has served as the Coordinator for our India Advisory Board. A longtime activist, he is the co-founder of Mozda Collective and Paryavaran Suraksha Samiti, two nongovernmental organizations that work on a variety of issues including water conservation, women’s cooperatives, alternative energy, and toxic pollution.

Michael and his team of Mozda Collective volunteers are helping families in Ringa Padar, a small indigenous hamlet in India’s Gujarat state, improve their food security and farming practices through bund construction. Due to the Ringa Padar’s remote location, there is no access to health care for hamlet’s 60 families, children must cross a river seven times to reach the nearest school, and travel and communication outside of the hamlet is difficult.

Build a Bund, Increase Crop Productivity

In 2003, Tarsing Vasara, a resident of Ringa Padar, visited a nearby village and noticed small stone dams, known as bunds. He learned that these bunds help conserve soil and water, enabling families to grow two crops of rice and chickpeas each planting season instead of one.

Since then, Tarsing has worked with Mozda Collective to build bunds for families throughout Ringa Padar. When a family wants to construct a new bund, the Mozda Collective team travels to the hamlet to help determine each bund’s height and width measurements and the best location based on topography and direction of water flow. After these specifications have been determined, bund construction begins.

Since there are no cars or trucks in Ringa Padar, each bund takes about 20 days to build with help from at least 10 people. Bund construction is tough work and families rely on each other to help carry heavy stones need for the bunds. In February 2012, I visited Tarsing, his wife Dhanuben, and their three children in Ringa Padar. Michael and Tarsing report that with the bunds, families now have more productive crops which means more food at home, better farming practices, and richer nutrients in the soil.

Check out the video clip below to see Tarsing and the bund he built outside his home in Ringa Padar.

With traditional knowledge and personal investment in their environment and wellbeing, local people are positioned to protect water at the source. Grassroots groups are protecting our rivers, lakes, and water tables. Local activists are changing wasteful and polluting practices. Community-led projects are improving access for poor and rural families.

Every April, the Aveda network raises over a million dollars to fund local water projects through Global Greengrants Fund. Over the years, their support has enabled hundreds of grassroots organizations to take action for clean, accessible water.

Organizations in…

SRI LANKA

Currently, 70% of the world’s freshwater supply is used for agriculture, a practice that also contaminates water sources with hazardous pesticide runoff. In Sri Lanka, the Vikalpani National Woman Federation protects environmental and human health from pesticides, empowers rural women who have the greatest risk of exposure to these environmental hazards, and promotes ecological agriculture based on biodiversity to ensure food security and food sovereignty. In 2012, the organization began to collect information regarding the health of the communities that suffer from pesticide poisoning. Through education and advocacy, the organization aims to ban highly toxic pesticides from Sri Lanka altogether.

VIETNAM

Large hydroelectric dams irreversibly change our planet’s rivers. In Vietnam, The Center for Social Research and Development (CSRD) is committed to mitigating the negative effects of large dams on those living in poverty. As a coordinating agency for the Vietnam Rivers Network in central Vietnam, CSRD is engaged in an environmental assessment and scientific inquiry into the effects of two proposed dams on the Dong Nai River. Through careful social and economic assessments, CSRD will advocate for the 15 million people who use this waterway and make recommendations to policymakers on the socio-environmental impacts of the dams.

CHINA

Both innovative technology and traditional practices can offer sustainable alternatives to both protect and conserve water resources. In China, the Nanling Action Team works to promote sustainable agriculture, wildlife conservation, and diversified income generation. In the villages of Jiangxia, Xinjian, Lingtou, and Xindong, the group is promoting forms of income generation that also conserve natural resources, such as no-till agriculture, organic agriculture, traditional medicinal plant cultivation, and forest and watershed protection.

GUATEMALA

The burden of water insecurity is not distributed evenly across populations: the most vulnerable groups are impoverished, indigenous, and/or women. To that end, La Asociación para el Desarrollo Integral de Multiservicios (ADIM) is a community-based organization that focuses on cultural preservation and income equity in the Ixil region of Guatemala. With proposed dams threatening the water sources of indigenous communities, ADIM is collaborating with Guatemalan, American, and Italian lawyers, to help local people explore legal options for protecting their rights.

Bomb fishing devastates underwater ecosystems. It involves using ammunition, dynamite, or chemical bombs to stun fish so that they float to the surface. The technique is attractive because it offers a simple way to bring in a large catch.

Of course, it is completely unsustainable. With every bomb, the habitat for future fishing is further destroyed.

Eight years ago, a husband and wife team set out to stop this destructive practice along their home island in Bahia, Brazil. Carlos and Gabi formed a grassroots organization, Canto Ecologico, and began to teach their community of Cacha Pregos “how easy and important it is to live in balance with nature.”

Nearly a decade since they began, Canto Ecologico has diversified its mission. Bomb fishing may have been their original motivation, but it wasn’t the only problem they saw in Cacha Pregos. Inadequate resources, illiterate populations, and unsustainable living habits all needed to be addressed.

Focusing on the future, Carlos and Gabi built a library in their home for local children to learn about the environment: “We’re planting, today, the environmental awareness so they can teach the adults at home…and become better adults themselves.”

To date, the lives of more than 400 children have been enriched by this resource.

The couple is also exploring more direct ways to end the bomb fishing and shrimp aquaculture industries that threaten the island’s mangrove ecosystems. They continue to mobilize press to bring publicity to the issue while campaigning for a more progressive and proactive mayor in the upcoming elections. Despite set backs, they have made progress:  as few as three bombs explode off the coast every month, and several arrests have been made.

Still, the couple remains electric in their campaign to protect the local environment. Never deterred and always creative, Canto Ecologico is a bright spot in an otherwise “dirty” environment, where many seek to exploit this paradise.

In everything they do, Carlos and Gabi look to the future: “We believe that the serious environmental problems can only be solved by the children as they represent the future. It is very difficult to educate adults that our vibrant natural world should be preserved. It is a cultural issue of a lack of respect for the natural environment that transcends generations.”

Most recently, the couple opened a small school to expand their environmental education program and better serve the youth of Cacha Pregos.  Their four year-old daughter, Mel, is one of the students.

And as if parenting hasn’t put enough on their plates, with the library still in operation and active campaigns to protect the mangroves underway, somehow Carlos and Gabi still find time to celebrate Earth Day: “We will have a simple but fun Earth Day, cleaning up all the marine litter and [placing] more garbage bins at the beach to help people keep it clean.”

This Earth Day, join Carlos and Gabi in doing your part to keep this planet healthy.

Get involved in Aveda Earth Month and help support clean water projects across the globe.

Check out Earth Day Network to find local opportunities to get involved.

Many challenges remain for the communities affected by the disaster, especially in the area near the destroyed Fukushima nuclear reactor. According to The Guardian, radiation levels are much higher than thought and radioactive water has been leaking into the ocean.

Over the past year, grassroots groups have led recovery efforts to help those affected by the disaster. Looking forward, these local organizations are pushing for a nuclear-free energy future. Here are some of the local groups you’ve helped us support over the past year:

Green Action strives to move Japanese energy policy away from nuclear energy by working with partner non-governmental organizations, the public, youth groups, consumer organizations, and scientists.

Anti-nuclear flyer designed and disseminated by Green Action

With help of a small grant, Green Action is working to refocus Japanese energy policy. In the past year, the organization began a national campaign against nuclear power and worked on citizen contamination monitoring in communities near nuclear power plants . Additionally, the organization is working to close the Hamaoka nuclear power plant near Tokyo, which is the most earthquake prone site in Japan.

Collaboration Center for Hanshin Quake Rehabilitation is committed to supporting relief work after the 2011 earthquake.

In the past year, the Center has initiated income-generating activities for the relief of the East Japan earthquake. Specifically, the Collaboration Center for Hanshin Quake Rehabilitation has introduced an activity to make a handicraft called “Makenaizou,” (meaning “Never Give Up”), which is an elephant-shaped towel made by local artisans. These towels will be sold for 400 yen each, 300 of which will support the recovery process from the earthquake.

Save Watari Kids supports a parent-led initiative in Watari to establish plans for evacuation to protect children and community members from further radiation exposure.

Watari has some of the highest radiation levels in the region since the tsunami and is in the process of undergoing decontamination. To facilitate this and keep children away from dangerous locations, the organization will aid in mapping the district and radiation levels. Global Greengrants Fund is helping Save Watari Kids prepare these evacuation programs for Watari residents.

Japan RQ Disaster Education Center engages and aids Japanese tsunami-affected communities through empowerment and tourism activities. The organization provides psychological help and relief to victims of the disaster and encourages tourism as a means for spreading awareness and continuing support for relief initiatives.

Global Greengrants Fund helped support training programs for Japan RQ Disaster Education Center staff so that they can better develop effective community empowerment activities in tsunami-affected communities. The Center is bringing together people to provide relief as well as psychological help for victims of the disaster. The Japan RQ Disaster Education Center is also establishing tourism-based initiatives to bring people to the area and inspire continued concern for relief initiatives.

With the generous support of our donors, Global Greengrants Fund has supported more than ten grassroots projects in Japan over the last year. Together, these organizations are leading local rebuilding and relief efforts and helping to change policies, plans, and services to protect people and ecosystems in an uncertain future.

The Ararat Valley in western Armenia (Photo: Armenian Federation of UNESCO Clubs & Associations)

The Ararat Valley in western Armenia is a sunny, verdant basin with a hidden dark side. As the country’s major food producing region, pesticide use in this valley has left a dangerous legacy of environmental pollution and health risks to local and distant communities.

The contamination is largely attributed to the well-known and controversial pesticide, DDT, which was heavily used in Armenia in the 1950s and 1960s. High concentrations of the chemical can contribute to liver damage and temporary impairment of the nervous system. Studies also suggest the pesticide may be linked to diabetes, reproductive toxicity (premature births and lower birthrates), and cancer (U.S. EPA).

What’s more, the toxin has a long half-life, meaning it survives for decades in the environment and in the fatty tissues of organisms. So, despite the DDT ban in Armenia in 1970 by the former USSR, the pesticide’s dangerous effects continue to threaten the country’s population.

Most immediately, local farming populations are exposed to the pollutant through their water, crops, and livestock. Global Greengrants Fund grantee Armenian Women for Health and Healthy Environment (AWHHE) investigates environmental pollution in the country and raises public awareness about its presence and harmful impacts. The organization conducted a study on DDT concentrations in the breast milk of women in the Ararat Valley and found traces of the toxic chemical in every single mother. Considering that elevated concentrations of the toxin contribute to childhood disease and can cause damage to the developing brain, these are formidable findings for new generations of local Armenians.

“This is a Bomb, Immediately Next to Yerevan”

The dangers of DDT are also felt hundreds of miles away, in the capital city of Yerevan. In 1982 a disposal site for expired DDT and other pesticides was established just outside the city limits. Since then, little has been done to prevent the toxic waste from seeping into the soil, and no measures were in place to prevent public entry into the site.

With funding from Global Greengrants Fund, under the recommendation of Pesticide Action Network, AWHHE completed a study of the ground soil around the dumping site in 2005. Incredibly, they found the concentration of DDT and other chemical pesticides to “exceed the marginal permissible amount by several hundred times” and that those levels have increased in recent years, according to the report published by the organization.

The proximity of Yerevan’s population to the toxic waste site also raises major concerns about its future. The site is located on a hillside just 800 meters from residential developments, and there have already been several landslides. Meanwhile, the high contamination levels in the soil threaten to poison the city’s drinking water. Karine Yesayan, with the Armenian Ministry of Agriculture, sums up the situation with ominous simplicity: “In a word, this is dangerous, this is a bomb, immediately next to Yerevan”.

While the situation is daunting, AWHHE continues to uncover the depths of pesticide contamination and fight for a ‘toxic-free future’. Founded in 1999, the women’s organization is committed to redressing environmental pollution in Armenia while also achieving three of the Millenium Development Goals: 1) Ending poverty and hunger; 3) Promoting gender equality; and 7) Supporting environmental sustainability.

Under the direction of our Global Advisor, Pesticide Action Network, Global Greengrants Fund has given AWHHE four grants since 2001, empowering the organization to move closer towards those goals. More specifically, funds have been used to raise public and political awareness on environmental pollution, conduct studies on pesticide contamination levels, and participate in regional discussions to share information and strategies.

For more information on the presence of pesticides in Armenia, check out this article from ArmeniaNow.com, and this article from Environment News Service.

Written by Hilary Byerly

Eco Development Foundation (ECODEF) is a grassroots organization in Uganda. With a small grant, the group led a project to enhance climate change adaptation and resilience among women in rural villages.

Over the duration of the funding, ECODEF’s objectives were:

1. To raise awareness on impacts of climate change, adaptation and resilience strategies through a grassroots communications approach
2. To transfer energy and agro-forestry technologies for improved indoor air quality and food security
3. To promote good governance in natural resource management

To accomplish these goals, the organization held training workshops, planted trees, established vegetable gardens, and helped implement innovative stove technologies. Each of these activities was aimed at increasing the uptake of and limiting the production of carbon dioxide. In this way, ECODEF aimed to improve the surrounding environment and the day-to-day of local women.

Seeding Change through Connecting

ECODEF’s trainings centered on the causes of climate change, how communities can adapt, and how impacts of these changes could be overcome. Over the course of a year, more than 122 women and girls were trained on climate change adaptation and mitigation.

As primary caregivers and farm laborers in their communities, the women had already felt the effects of climate change and could easily associate this environmental shift with crop losses and water scarcity during dry periods. As a result, women were especially valuable agents of change in their towns and villages. They would regularly gather after daily chores to learn and share knowledge about food security, energy, and raising household incomes through savings. In this way, anything that they learned at the trainings was shared with and disseminated among a much larger population.

The Difference of a New Technology

Energy conservation is a major strategy in mitigating climate change. In rural areas, biomass is a significant source of energy for domestic use; almost 100% of households depend on it for cooking and lighting. Biomass use contributes to both indoor air pollution and deforestation. Energy efficient stoves reduce biomass use and improve multiple aspects of daily life.

With support from Global Greengrants Fund, ECODEF trained women to manufacture energy efficient stoves, called Lorena stoves. Trainings also provided social marketing skills to promote these newer, safer technologies to other households. Now, five women are running businesses to manufacture and sell Lorena stoves in neighboring villages, and one woman alone has  processed ten orders a month and earned an income of more than $75 per month—a significant income for a rural household in Uganda.

In addition to the economic impact that these businesses are having in communities, the new stoves also improve air quality for participants. This has positive implications on the health of women and girls, particularly young children who spend time indoors with their mothers and are the most vulnerable to environmental pollutants.

Another significant achievement towards energy conservation has been the reduction of excessive consumption of firewood.

One beneficiary told ECODEF, “Before I got the stove I would use a bundle of fuel wood every four days, but now with the Lorena stove it can last me two weeks!”

The stoves ECODEF installed have reduced fuel wood consumption by over 55% in most recipient households. As a result, deforestation has slowed, carbon emissions have gone down, and women can put less time and energy toward firewood collection.

One Project with Many Benefits

There is no question that the collective efforts of ECODEF have had a positive impact on these communities. By improving the environment, they have directly improved the wellbeing of hundreds of women and girls, not to mention that of their husbands, fathers, and brothers.

By introducing new stoves, local deforestation has diminished, air quality has improved, and violence has decreased as women and girls spend less time traveling to collect fuel.

Due to the trainings, bank accounts have been opened, loans applied for, and household savings have increased.

As a result of the vegetable gardens, vitamin intake has improved, household expenditure on food as gone down, and time and resources toward securing food and fuel have been saved.

The benefits are interconnected and profound, and we couldn’t be more proud to have supported this work.

Are you aware that 783 million people still rely on unimproved drinking water sources, putting them at risk for ingesting bacteria on a daily basis?

Can you believe that an American taking a five minute shower uses more fresh water than somebody living in a slum might use over the course of an entire day?

Did you know that 2.5% of the world’s water supply is in the form of freshwater, of which 70% is used for irrigation, 22 percent for industry, and only 8% for domestic use?

Around the world, the growth of population, agriculture, and industry are transforming water into an increasingly scarce resource (see WHO’s Drinking Water and Sanitation Update for details, and UN Water Statistics for more great numbers).  As global water resources become more limited, water is being privatized in the hands of corporations, forcing millions to depend on illegal taps, dirty canals, and other unreliable and unsafe sources.

The ways in which water is conserved, used, and distributed ultimately impacts its availability and accessibility to people who need it. Even in areas with adequate rainfall and freshwater, inadequate infrastructure can limit access to this vital resource. In other areas – including many countries in Sub-Saharan Africa – insufficient quantities of freshwater can compound poor infrastructure, leaving people to walk as much as eight hours to secure enough water to hydrate and clean their families, as well as irrigate their fields. In fact, on any given day, women around the world walk a collective 200 million hours just to fetch water for their families!

Regardless of causation, water scarcity affects one out of every three people around the world.

Improving access to clean water means so much more than building wells in communities. Without protecting water at its source, there wouldn’t be any clean water to pump.  With the help of Aveda Earth Month proceeds, Global Greengrants Fund is getting much-needed small grants to local groups who are making a difference for clean water. Around the world, our grantees are:

• Eliminating pesticide use and supporting organic farming initiatives
• Protecting watersheds from destructive projects, like dams, mining, and oil drilling
• Conserving forests and biodiversity, thereby protecting rivers and water quality
• Cleaning up industrial pollution and toxics that poison drinking water
• Sponsoring environmental education campaigns to improve local awareness about protecting water sources and keeping water clean

As one of our advisors noted, “It is essential to support grassroots groups now in securing their water rights, as their voices may not be there for much longer. For generations, forest dwellers and agriculturists have adapted to a scarcity of water. But new challenges are emerging. It will be too much for them to bear without effective support for change.”

To that end, check out details of the various water projects that we have supported, and this World Water Day helps us work towards water justice – – the idea that all people have the right to access safe, affordable water.

A grantee in rural Uganda worked with village women to adapt to climate change, improve the surrounding environment, and create a sustainable livelihood through the production and marketing of energy efficient stoves.

Women and the Environment

In every corner of every country, women’s health is jeopardized both by physical and social realities, including child birth, sexual violence, gender discrimination, and domestic responsibility, just to name a few.

In addition to these well-known risks, there are many environmental exposures that are especially hazardous to women’s health in developing countries. Women are the first to go without food if there is a shortage. Women walk farther for water in the event of a drought. Women are fourteen times more likely to die after a natural disaster. Women breathe polluted air as they cook for their families. Women are more vulnerable to toxins during pregnancy. The list goes on and on.

Our Approach

In recognition of these connections between women’s wellbeing and environmental degradation, Global Greengrants Fund has prioritized grantmaking with a gender lens. It’s an obvious and effective strategy.

Propagating change from the ground up begins more and more often with women. Environmental sustainability and social justice are intricately tied to the involvement of the women these ideals affect.

As one grantee described, “In many regions, migration has left households in the hands of women with the strength, desire, and need for adequate work.” Following any small amount of economic success, women are more likely to invest in their families, in the health of their children, in the stewardship of their environments. As a result, the wellbeing of women translates to the wellbeing of entire communities.

As with everything we do, integrating a gender-approach into our funding begins with local buy-in and leadership. Historically, while our grants have always benefited women in some way, they had rarely targeted women as a specific grantmaking strategy. In the past three years, Global Greengrants Fund has prioritized the relationship between women and the environment and targeted gender-specific initiatives.

The Gendered Grantmaking Continuum

Global Greengrants’ funding is now measured against the “gendered grantmaking continuum” to evaluate our impact on women’s wellbeing.

At one end of the spectrum, grants that do not reinforce existing gender inequalities are considered gender-neutral. According to Executive Director Terry Odendahl, “most of Global Greengrants’ funding falls into this category.”

In the middle of the spectrum, gender-positive funding can empower women to decrease inequalities. As Global Greengrants Fund moves in that direction, we are proud that in places like Russia as much as 70% of our grants are made to women-led organizations. Still, we are constantly looking for ways to more profoundly impact the wellbeing of women and the environment. Gender-justice funding – at the other end of the spectrum – restructures social systems to change gender relations in a community. It presents just such an opportunity for impact.

Supporting Women as Environmental Leaders

Global Greengrants’ gender-lens approach to grantmaking has seen some impressive results. We have helped female doctors improve health in remote Russian settlements, empowered Indian women to make informed production and consumption choices, and funded Nicaraguan entrepreneurs to support female-owned businesses.

It’s an approach that we’re proud to embrace. As Terry reminds us, “Where women are doing well, so is the environment; where the environment is healthy, women’s, men’s and children’s lives are better.”

This International Women’s Day, we’re excited to be contributing to just that!

For more on Global Greengrants Fund’s gender-approach to grantmaking, read Executive Director Terry Odendahl’s recent article in Alliance Magazine.

For more on our gender-specific work, download our focus piece on women.

Workers brought together by FOMENTO

Cultural and Educational Development (Fomento Cultural y Educativo A.C., or FOMENTO) is a Global Greengrants Fund grantee that we’ve supported since 2006. Based out of northern Mexico, the organization was established to support indigenous peoples and labor movements. The group works to defend socio-economic and environmental rights, with a focus on issues related to environmental health.

Factory workers gather at a home to share experiences and learn about their rights

Over the past year, FOMENTO has focused on improving the labor conditions of workers in Mexico’s electronic industry. Their strategy is to reduce exposure to dangerous and toxic substances, including lead, cadmium, flux, copper, and tin. To achieve this goal, FOMENTO held a number of workshops and educational trainings with workers in various cities in northern Mexico. Workers shared their experiences, compared situations, and developed strategies to increase their working and health conditions. In many of these meetings, the organization educated workers on how their human rights may be being violated. The group offered legal advice and strategies for uniting to bring this issue to the media and policymakers.

Eventually, they were able to present the cases of over 200 workers to the National Chamber of the Electronics Industry of Telecommunications and Information Technology. Specific companies that were in violation of workers’ rights were targeted, and the group achieved positive resolutions for around 72 cases. Grant funds were also used to strengthen FOMENTO’s own directives by enabling them to participate in a number of international conferences and networking events, such as the Good Electronics Network and the Electronics Industry Conduct Code.

FOMENTO protests working conditions outside a Foxconn factory

Finally, FOMENTO played an integral role in assisting 12 workers in Reynosa and 36 workers in Guadalajara to enroll in a diploma program on labor rights, where they are receiving training on labor regulations, rights, and how to raise awareness on the violations of these rights.

As an unfortunate by-product of global economic troubles, the environmental health conditions in the electronics industry has seen a downturn. Many companies are looking to save money by not improving factory conditions for their workers. The work of FOMENTO and other similar organizations becomes increasingly important in protecting the health, rights, and environments of communities near manufacturing.

Oil-contaminated water in the Niger Delta

WHY IT’S IMPORTANT

The topic of environmental health intersects nearly every other area of environmental work, especially in an international perspective, including water quality, air pollution, waste management and incineration, industrial agriculture (pesticides, GMOs), marine and fishery health, mineral extraction, and more.

For example, spilled oil may severely contaminate water sources, contaminate the land that crops are grown on, or impair the health of fish in an area. All of this affects drinking water quality and sources of food that local residents consume, contributing to disease or illness or impairing childhood development.

FACTS

• The World Health Organization estimates that approximately 3 million children under the age of five die every year due to environmental health hazards.
• Methylmercury exposure in the womb, which can result from a mother’s consumption of fish and shellfish that contain methylmercury, can adversely affect a baby’s growing brain and nervous system.
• In Africa, 115 people die every hour from diseases linked to poor sanitation, poor hygiene and contaminated water.
• 99% of Americans tested positive for DDT degradants, even though DDT hasn’t been used in the U.S. since 1972. Women who were exposed to DDT as girls are 5 times more likely to develop breast cancer.

Pesticides Stored in on a Living Room Shelf in Pakistan (Courtesy of Khoj Society for People’s Education)

VIDEOS ON THE SUBJECT

Check out some of the videos on the website of the “Story of Stuff Project.” They have various informative and entertaining videos on different environmental health issues as they relate to production and consumption.

SOURCES FOR MORE INFORMATION

Zero Waste

Mining and Environmental Health

Toxics and Incineration

Health and Toxics

Cosmetics and Health

Pesticides

Persistent Organic Pollutants

Environmental Health and Health Care