A letter from Grants Manager Dana Perry
Sometimes in our work at the grassroots it’s easy to get discouraged. In a media landscape that emphasizes big change, big names, and big governments, it’s often difficult to see—or at least, concentrate on—the small steps forward.
But for Greengrants, this week represents the cumulative gains of all of those little steps. Today, I’m proud to announce that we have made our 6,000th grant!
With our last 1,000 grants, we’ve supported the small movements (often with big results) of so many great people and organizations. Among other noteworthy projects, we funded activists’ travel to two U.N. Conferences of the Parties, we supported communities as they worked to rebuild their livelihoods after environmental disasters, we backed movements to demand responsible mining practices in the Kyrgyz Republic, and we sponsored climate change mitigation in Nigeria. Together, these 1,000 grants are part of a much larger trend toward environmental justice.
I’d like to take this opportunity to share one of our grant stories from the last 1,000. It’s been hard to choose, but I’ve found one grant that represents a small step forward on a troubling issue (one that we often don’t hear about): the violence faced by environmental activists.
A Grant Story: Strength in the Face of Violence
In Mexico and Central America, international mining companies are taking over communal lands and destroying environments: mine runoff pollutes water, dust gets into the air, and chemicals seep into the soil.
All along the way, environmental activists have stood up to these corporations. They’ve conducted studies, held informational campaigns, pushed for regulation, and demanded that their governments step in. But in speaking out, these activists face huge risks. Across Central America, people who question the mines have experienced threats and violence (after receiving death threats, one Honduran activist, Francisco Machado, was forced to flee to the United States). Others haven’t been so fortunate: Mexican activist Mariano Abarca Roblero, Honduran Germán Rivas, and El Salvadorian Ramiro Rivera Gómez are only a few on a long list of anti-mining activists who have been murdered in the last several years.
“When we called attention to how the mine threatens our health and land, we were answered with criminal charges, arrest warrants and violence. The company violates our rights, has contaminated our environment and escapes justice; we protest the violations, and we are persecuted,” — Aniseto López of FREDEMI, a coalition of local organizations in San Miguel Ixtahuacán, Guatemala.
On October 25th, in response to a petition by the U.S.-based Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL), the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) convened a hearing on these issues. We were a part of this hearing: a $5,000 grant funded the travel of activists from the affected countries, enabling them to present their first person testimonies.
Though the potential for violence has not disappeared, the IACHR has the capacity to influence systemic change in the Americas. By putting mining company abuses on an international stage, Greengrants and CIEL have made a giant step towards holding them and governments accountable and towards ensuring that grassroots voices are heard.
The organization produced a report for the commission that you can access here. The testimonies of those who traveled to the conference (in Spanish) are here.
Our Thanks to all of our Partners
In the next five years, we plan on doubling our yearly grantmaking. In the face of ever greater challenges, we will continue to fund appropriate, targeted, grassroots activism like this. As we reach 6,000 grants, though, I’d like to extend my thanks. This work would not have been possible without the fantastic grassroots groups we work with, our advisors, and most of all, our donors. Together, we’re a part of something big.
With many thanks,
Dana Perry
Greengrants Grants Manager