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September 23rd 2007
On September 23rd 2007 Funding Day we gave 9 environmental projects
from across the globe and across the range of environmental issues
a platform to pitch to us. We think we covered the range of issues,
approaches, and even the geography - as much as anyone can do in 9
bites. We a raised £50,883.46 on the day for the following 9 projects.
- Shaanxi Mothers Volunteers for Environmental Protection,
China: To spread the adoption of the highly successful biogas
cooking stove and household piggery scheme, as developed by the
'Shaanxi Mothers', among rural households in Shaanxi Province,
central China. This helps preserve tree cover, protect fragile
soils from erosion, improve the health of women and children in
particular, and boost the income of poor farming families.
- Transition Tales: "Transition Town Totnes" began as a
community initiative to explore how to plan and implement the
changes that are necessary in a future with less cheap oil. Since
its official unleashing in September 2006, TTT has successfully
acted as a catalyst for a wide variety of local initiatives and
events, which include the launch of the Totnes pound (a local
currency), the publishing of a local food directory, dozens of
well-attended talks, film screenings, open space days and workshops.
Over 30 new Transition Towns, cities and villages have already
blossomed around Britain and a Transition Network is being established
to support these initiatives. The projects aim was to inspire,
educate and involve young people in the issues and solutions around
peak oil and climate change, within the context of the "Transition
Towns" movement. www.transitionculture.org
- Excellent Development: Excellent Development's mission
is simple: we enable disadvantaged communities in Africa to transform
their environment sustainably and improve water supplies, food
production, health and incomes. Working in semi-arid Kenya, our
simple but effective self-help strategy is based around three
core pillars: building sand dams, terracing land and planting
trees. The aim of project was to work with a self-help group in
Kenya to build a small-scale sand dam and open a tree nursery
to plant trees for firewood, building, fruits, fodder and medicines.
www.excellentdevelopment.com
- St John's School for the Deaf,West Africa: St John's
School is located in Serrekunda, which is some 10 miles from Banjul,
the capital of the Gambia. It was set up by the Catholic Church
in 1984 to educate deaf children from the age of 6 up to 23 or
24 but some, whose education has been interrupted for health or
family reasons, can leave later. Initially the School had some
20 pupils and 8 teachers but it has grown to 184 students and
29 teachers today ( very good teacher/pupil ratios for "disabled"
children). The number of children have always been equally divided
between boys and girls. It's project aim was to provide a reliable
and virtually costless form of electricity for one or more essential
areas in the only school for the deaf in The Gambia, West Africa.
- Global Canopy Project: The Global Canopy Project wants
to move the conservation of tropical rainforests up the international
political agenda by demonstrating their social and economic value.
TFN's contribution to help develop a policy paper for the UN Convention
on Climate Change in Bali was vital to their development. www.globalcanopy.org
- Green Thing: Created by Andy Hobsbawm and Naresh Ramchandani,
two respected online and creative marketers, Green Thing is the
first initiative to combine marketing psychology, world-class
creativity and the self-fuelling energy of online communities
to turn sustainable behaviour from a chore to a pleasure. Green
Thing is launching on August 31 2007. Green Thing's basic principle
is to tempt people to do one delightful thing a month and so build
up a programme of sustainable behaviour one easy step at a time.
Green Thing's mission is to get as many people in as many countries
as possible to do the Green Thing to prevent global warming and
then leverage that people power to get government and business
to do the Green Thing too. www.dothegreenthing.com
- Sustainable Agriculture Training for Balinese Farmers:
TFN's grant helped train Balinese farmers as trainers in organic
growing techniques to restore their exhausted/contaminated land,
increase and diversify crops, provided viable alternatives to
chemical pesticides, and has enabled them to pass on these techniques
to their own and other communities.
- Global Witness: Illegal logging in Ghana is a problem.
Institutional corruption, undermined land rights and ineffective
mechanisms for citizens to hold government to account have led
to severe environmental and social costs, and at times to local
conflict in Ghana. TFN's grant to stop the illegal timber logging
in Ghana by involving local groups. Civil society advocacy to
ensure Ghana's Voluntary Partnership Agreement (VPA) delivers
positive social, environmental and equity outcomes. www.globalwitness.org
- P80 - A meeting of 80 of the world's largest pension funds
to address critical environmental issues: The aim of the project
is to have 80 of the world's largest pension funds use their influence
to have public companies governed more environmentally sustainable,
to bring a further $10-20 billion ("BN") US dollars into clean
technology markets, and hopefully to influence the regulatory
agenda worldwide toward environmental sustainability. www.environmentalcapitalgroup.com
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