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IN THIS ISSUE
Message sent to GLI Networkers in Mumbai on 11 July 2006 and reply
Dear Friends of GLI,
We are thinking of the people of Mumbai who have been effected by the latest bomb blasts. We hope that none of your relatives and friends or those you care for in so many ways have been badly effected or hurt. I know that those you help everyday also need us to think about them as their lives are just as important and when I hear of such deliberate hurting of people in Mumbai (and we have had the same in UK as have many other countries of course) it does make one think about ones friends in Mumbai and ALL those they care for, whatever their age or circumstances. So thinking of you and knowing life will go on as far as you are concerned and your passions to help others in need, with my own very best wishes and admiration - also on behalf of my GLI colleagues,
Robin

Dear Robin,
Thank you so much for your letter. We at SUPPORT are safe and fine. Please convey our message to all the members of GLI.
Regards, Sujata

What's New - Global Links Initiative News
GLI Networkers' Salon in Shanghai - On the evening of 23rd June 2006, GLI China hosted our first Networkers' salon at a small coffee shop on Hengshan Road. 10 members including 8 Networkers attended this gathering. Fan Li, the Executive Director of GLI, welcomed everybody and introduced the history of GLI and the launch of Shanghai Office this April. Among the 32 Networkers in China, 13 of them are currently based in Shanghai. The Networkers' salon aims to facilitate more communication between Networkers and with GLI. The GLI Networkers introduced themselves, shared their vision for the development of GLI and commented on our programme of activities. Read more

What's New - News Stories
GLI Networker wins CIVICUS awards for innovation - Five civil society organisations lead the way in working towards a just society. Five grassroots initiatives from around the world have been awarded a CIVICUS Nelson Mandela Graca Machel Innovation Award in honour of their achievements in working towards a more just world including The Rural Women's Movement in South Africa founded and run by GLI Networker Sizani Ngubane - Read more

Trek to Annapurna - Nepal this coming October - The CCSV-Nepal Trek to Annapurna-Nepal programme offers opportunities for participating individuals trekkers, organizations from developed countries, people from all walks of life, of all ages and backgrounds, a mixture of single and couples, as everyone is united by common goals to achieve, to Trek to the one of the world best trail treks and to work together to raise funds to help the less privilege people in Nepal. Read more

One Voice, One Action, One Africa Petition - 'We do hope that once you have signed this petition, you will have become an advocate to this noble cause and will assist 1Africa in obtaining the targeted 30 million signatures required to successfully complete our mission.' Read more 

GLI Networker's organisation - the Goodwill Social Works Center in Madurai - wins major prize - Goodwill social work centre, an Indian NGO based at Madurai, India has been declared as one of  four  the winners of 'Panda IT Aid', Panda Software International, Spain. The other organisations are Save the Children (with a pan-European project), Spain,  Fundacion Braille (Uruguay) and Paideia (Paraguay). Read more

What's new - Links
Our page of links to other useful and interesting website - Links  - is now accessible via the main green navigation bar at the top of each page making it easier to find. Don't forget our new Newsletter Links page too  - also in the Share area. Do you have a newsletter we could share with others on the Newsletter links page or do you receive a newsletter others might find interesting? If so email Libby Brayshaw.

What's New - Inspire Section
Be Inspired! - New 'learning by doing' stories
Rural Women's Movement - Robin Rowland and Libby Brayshaw were delighted and privileged to meet a very special inspirational person  - Sizani Ngubane - at the CIVICUS World Assembly in Glasgow in June. 'Sizani started working with our community in 1989. We had no idea about sustainable development or environmental justice issues.  She came to our community and suggested to us that we organize ourselves and establish an organization which is going to act as a voice to represent poor rural women's needs and aspiration. By end of 2000 we had built 10 rural women's grassroots organizations focusing on different issues: sustainable development, economic empowerment, participation of women in local governance and land rights issues.  All of these grassroots organizations are affiliated to the Rural Women's Movement of which she is a founding Director.' Read more

'People-friendly Police Project' - a UNICEF funded project with the Karnataka State Police - Copy Right UNICEF/India/Somasekher/2005  - The Gender Sensitisation and People-friendly Police Project is an opportunity to enhance the attitudes, skills and knowledge of police station level personnel, particularly in their treatment of women by Anasuya Sengupta. Read more

Doornkop Community Environmental Organisation - I was privileged to share a workshop on HIV/AID with Khethekile Mbatha at the CIVICUS World Assembly in June and was humbled by this quiet woman's strength of character, determination and persistence. She is clearly a leader and instigator in her community yet she does not recognise these skills in herself. There were other women  in this workshop also leading and galvanising their communities towards a better life and they also did not recognise themselves as the leaders they clearly are.   Khethekile's story is taken from the small printed leaflet she gave to me at the workshop - it makes compelling reading about what can be achieved when someone just starts to do something to make the life of her community better. Libby Brayshaw. Read more

The Carel du Toit Centre, Pretoria - "Where Deaf Children Learn to Speak" - 10th Anniversary - 05 July 2006 - The Centre is celebrating its 10th anniversary this year and what better tribute to one's 10th year than to include a report on how an 11 year old child received donated hearing aids though the outreach to disadvantaged communities on the borders of Pretoria known by the acronym, CHOP - (Cullinan Hearing Outreach Project) - Cullinan is on the eastern border of Pretoria and is chiefly a mining community. The community is rather poor and lacks many facilities one has access to in the larger centres. The mining group 'De Beers' - runs the Diamond Mine in the area, granted funds to run this project. Read more

What's New - Share - It's Good to Share!
Silence - a poem by Anasuya Sengupta
Too many women in too many countries
      speak the same language of silence.

My grandmother was always silent -
       always aggrieved -
only her husband had the cosmic right
       (or so it was said) to speak and be heard.
Read more

GLI Networker Who's Who
People with energy, compassion and creativity can make the world a better place to live in. If you are one of them, we would like to invite you to become a Networker and share your visions, stories and interests with more people through our website. You would be one of over 190 others who have so far joined us from 28 countries. See who they are and read about them in the Get Involved area under Networkers on the website.

Here is what some of our new Networkers say about themselves - read more in Networkers under the Get Involved area of the website:

Francis Mason, Sierra Leone
Conforti Community Aid Children Organisation - I was born and brought up in Sierra Leone. I am a graduate from Freetown Teachers College. I have taught in primary school for six years before I started to work as a volunteer in a local charity registered with the ministry of social welfare gender and children affairs, Sierra Leone. My love for children led me into the classroom. As a founding member of C C A C O we have been involved in project which focuses on children and youth development programmes. This organisation was formed in 1998 during the rebel war, when people were forced to flee their homes, families lost their loved ones, houses destroyed and most children were forced to become orphans, women widows, atrocities committed at alarming rate and over 1000 people were internally displaced. Present Activities - Parenting and Fostering - Education and Training - Youth Empowerment Activities - Micro-Credit Facilities - Projects For The Disabled - Support Agriculture In Community (food security) - LOOKING FOR PARTNERS THAT SHARE SIMILAR VIEWS.

Makata Lehutso, Mpumalanga, South Africa
Educator in mainstream / also work as a tutor in Adult centre

Samuel Igbatayo, Nigeria
I am Coordinator of the university's Entrepreneurship and Skills Acquisition Programme

Shireen Dooreemeah, Mauritius
During my career as a Teacher/Senior teacher after 25 years in service, I have had the opportunity to work with children aged 6 to 11 years coming from urban and rural areas.  Since 1999, I have been working in a low achieving ZEP school and I have been fully involved in pastoral care.  I am among the few who have volunteered to work in a low achieving school namely the ZEP school catering for children coming from poor economic background due to poverty and broken families. Combating truancy and absenteeism have been an important concern of my activities. I would like to go a long way to train parents so that they become more interested in their wards progress. I would like to open a day-care centre in Mauritius for those children coming from broken families.  When it is time to go home after school hours - instead of being at risk from abuse and violence - instead of begging and stealing on the road and in supermarkets - these children can go to the day-care Centre. This Centre is only one action among many that is needed to cure this sick society.

Tammy M. Dzadeyson, USA
Rural Integrated Relief Service, Ghana, is a community based non-governmental organization established in 1994. Our mission is to improve living conditions of disadvantaged populations through an integrated approach emphasizing on health, education, agriculture, economic and social development of households and communities. In line with our mission statement, we employ participatory approaches notably Participatory Learning and Action (PLA) tools including the stepping stones methodology in most of our programmes in order to achieve maximum involvement of beneficiaries.

Yashneel Gobin, Mauritius
Royal College Curepipe Environment Health Club (RCC-EHC) - Am 18 years old, am a student (A Level) of Royal College Curepipe (RCC) and President of EHC. EHC's Objectives: 1. promotion of values associated with healthy living and to campaign for a better physical and social environment within / outside the school premises. EHC's Responsibilities: 1. Organise talks, debates, film-shows, awareness campaigns, 2. Organise activities for the enhancement of the school's physical environment, 3. Organise blood donations, medical check-ups, physical fitness tests, 4. Organise leisure activities (hiking, fitness classes, games for staff) and competitions (literary & others) in line with the philosophy of the club.

Vinesh Chintaram, Mauritius
Association Civique Midlands & Global One Foundation (Mauritius) - I am a young architect (26yrs old) and i am currently preparing my PhD at the Technical University of Dresden (Germany). My theme is about sustainable urban planning and progressive architecture in my homeland Mauritius; it is to design new strategies in community development with a special attention to social housing schemes. Besides I am working on a number of projects over the African continent and once again dealing with community aids. I am a pioneer member of ACM (existing since 1997) Founded by G.Raj Chintaram who is also my brother. Raj as leader of the team has been taking very daring initiatives to bring forward our association as one of the national leading NGOs in community service. The GOF inspires itself as being a national / international platform as an extended arm of ACM ( in my opinion).

Arisa Kishigami, Japan
Africa Rikai/Understanding Project - We seek to promote a better and wider understanding of African culture and issues, especially through education. We also support education for girls in Africa.

Yong Mei, Shanghai, China
AIESEC, the world largest student organization is a platform to develop the youth potential with the vision of world peace and human development.

Marie Natacha Stephanie Manuel , Moka, Mauritius
I'm a university student who feels that we should dedicate ourselves to the most needy. Actually I'm involved in my own country in social projects - assisting children in education, giving a hand for community service. In looking at the GLI website, I discovered that it matched my ideals.

Archana Kannan Mumbai, India
I am student of Sion hospital, Mumbai, doing my masters in biochemistry. Every day, in this city, I see many street children exploited and abused, especially in Dharavi, which is Asia's biggest slum. Drug abuse amongst youngsters is rampant here. And many of them succumb to it. Its terrible and no one is bothered. In this country where human life does not seem to have any value, I want to make a difference.  I would like to be a volunteer to help rehab these kids. I want to actually go out there and help them out, rather than just posting comments on the website. Please can you guide me on how to go about it.

Johanna Perez, Chile
Fundacion Chol Chol We area Fair Trade Organization working with Mapuche women to provide them with tools to improve their life. This is done through social and economic development enforcement and cultural re-valuation.

Kath Acres, London UK
We publish Social Enterprise - a monthly magazine in the UK.  It is an essential resource for social entrepreneurs and anyone working with them.  The magazine offers opportunities to network, learn from others and pass on your own news and success stories. (Kath is also a founder of New Start Magazine - the first choice weekly news magazine in the UK for all involved in community regeneration.)

Selvarani Ayyanar, Tamilnadu State, India
Thulir Trust is a non-profit voluntary organization working in rural areas. I have been concentrating among disadvantaged, and weaker sections. Our main target groups are women and children in Pudukottai and Virudhuagar districts. Chid care, women empowerment, environment and community health promotion are our main focus areas for the development of the groups.

Federico Elizalde, Argentina
Idealist.org connects people, organizations, and resources to help build a world where all people can live free and dignified lives.

Uday Thakkar and Robert Foster, London,UK
Red Ochre - We are a social enterprise that delivers innovative and practical solutions and training to the social sector. We are a management consultancy, training and delivery organisation for the social economy. Collectively we have started and successfully grown and managed a number of social enterprises, commercial businesses, virtual businesses and a charity. Our specialist support advice, mentoring and training is underwritten by years of practical experience. We offer simple and practical assistance to enable you to reach your objectives. We provide help with fundraising, finance and financial management, procurement, strategic development and management, governance and trustee issues, legal and corporate structures, monitoring, evaluation and reporting, on- and offline marketing, research within our specialist areas, pr, web development, database development, ICT strategy, mentoring, coaching and training, and ongoing business counselling.

Elma Black, Cape Town, South Africa
Durbanville Children's Home is a non-profitable organisation that was established in 1883  in Cape Town. The home is the refuge to children from both sexes, all races and creeds and ages 0-18 years. The children come from approximately 23 different communities in the nearby vicinity of low socio-economic disposition, characterised by disorganisation and little formal resources. They represent white, coloured and black cultures where problems of poverty, violence, drugs and alcohol misuse are common. Durbanville Children's Home accommodates 169 children who stay in 13 different home units. We have a special unit for  25 mental and physical disabled (profoundly handicapped) children who are stimulated and being cared for 24 hours a day by well trained staff members.

Vanessa Barker, Bromley by Bow Centre Social Enterprise, London, UK
Green Dreams is a social enterprise running under the umbrella of the Bromley by Bow Centre. Green Dreams is a landscape design and build team based at the Bromley by Bow Centre. We deliver a professional design service from small re-planting design projects through to large community landscapes. When taking on contracts, we will employ as many local people as possible to help build their own landscapes. We believe that employment and involvement in local schemes is the best investment for sustainable regeneration.

We were very pleased to meet the following at the CIVICUS World Assembly in June and are delighted that they have now joined GLI as Networkers
Sizani Ngubane, Umgungundlovu, KwaZulu Natal, South Africa
The Rural Women's Movement (RWM) is a land rights grassroots women's movement.  It was initiated in 1998 and officially launched in 2000.  It is registered as a non-profit making organization.

Anasuya Sengupta, Bangalore, India
I work as an independent consultant based in Bangalore, India. I coordinate a partnership project on violence against women and children with UNICEF and the Karnataka State Police, as well as research and facilitate a process of organisational change for gender equality, with Gender at Work.

Get Involved!
Find out how to get in touch with our Networkers or be a networker yourself by clicking on 'Get Involved' to find out more or on 'Register' to sign up as a Networker. It is free to all. Also please contribute to our website - send an email to Libby Brayshaw.

Update your Profile Information
Have you checked your GLI Networker profile recently? Is it up to date? Are you using it to publicise what you do and to make it easy for people to find out about you? Your profile is  easy to edit - just click 'Login' in the top line of the green navigation bar at the top of the web page and enter your email address and password - then click on Edit Profile in the green navigation bar. Update your details on the form - add or change the information about you and your organisation, add your website address - and press Submit. Go on! Have a go!

Volunteers
If you are bilingual or trilingual in English, Japanese, and/or Chinese, and are interested in volunteering for GLI, please contact Fan LI

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