Raging Grannies The Raging Grannies movement began in 1987 in Victoria in the province of British Columbia, Canada. A group of senior women including teachers, businesswomen, artists, homemakers, librarians and other professionals started a protest against the threat to health and environment posed by the visit of US Navy warships and submarines in the waters…
Category: Community
081. Favio Chavez and the recycled orchestra of Paraguay
Favio Chavez and the Recycled Orchestra Caterua in Paraguay houses one of the largest landfills in South America. The landfill receives more than a tonne of waste daily from Asuncion and the surrounding areas. More than 40,000 families live in the slum that has come up on the Cateura landfill. For most of the residents,…
069. Compensating indigenous knowledge: Promise and failure
Aarogyappacha In December 1987, a team of scientists was on a botanical expedition in the Western Ghats in Kerala, India. They had taken with them a few members of the Kani tribe as their guides. The scientists noticed that the guides were eating a plant that seemed to keep them energetic even during tough treks….
066. Rosa Parks: Not giving up her seat in a bus, sparking a movement
Rosa Parks On the evening of 1st December 1955, 42-year-old Rosa Parks was sitting in the front seat of a bus in Montgomery, Alabama, US. Those days, there was segregation in buses with the whites sitting in the front and the blacks in the back. Rosa was in the first row of the black section….
064. Underground Railroad: The escape route for slaves
Harriet Tubman The Underground Railroad was not a real railroad with tracks and trains. It was just a series of routes and hiding places that slaves from the American South used in order to reach places of freedom in the North. It is said that slavery began in America in early 17th century. Black Africans…
062. Le Chambon-sur-Lignon: French community shelters Jews during the Holocaust
André and Magda Trocmé Le Chambon-sur-Lignon is a village on the Vivarais Plateau in the Auvergne, a hilly region of south-central France. During World War II, even as the Germans were occupying France and other parts of Europe, the residents of Le Chambon (along with those of the surrounding villages) did something remarkable: From December…
061. Kokkarebellur: Community protects migrating birds
Birds in Kokkerebellur (Photo: Kuttan) Kokkarebellur is a village located 80 km from Bangalore in Mandya District of Karnataka, India. For six months of the year, it is a quiet village like any other one in that rural area. In December, however, a spectacular transformation occurs here with the arrival of hundreds of spot-billed pelicans…
056. Popatrao Pawar and Hiware Bazar: From Poverty to Prosperity
Popatrao Pawar Hiware Bazar is a village in Ahmednagar District of Maharashtra, India. A resident, Raosaheb Rauji Pawar, recalls how things were in the village about 50 years ago: “We lived in a poor village, but were happy with our simple lives. But, after the drought of 1972, the peace was shattered. People became irritable…
053. Pattuvam: Recording biodiversity, declaring ownership
In 1997, the village of Pattuvam in Kannur District of Kerala, India, created history. They declared their absolute ownership over all the genetic materials currently growing within the village area. They announced that biodiversity belonged to the current and future generations of the village. Nobody could access the genetic material without the people’s permission. A…
043. Rajendra Singh: Making rivers come back to life
Rajendra Singh “Build a johad!” On Mahatma Gandhi’s birthday in 1985, five young men led by Rajendra Singh got off the bus at Kishori Village in Alwar, Rajasthan, India. They belonged to the Tarun Bharat Sangh (TBS), founded by Singh. They had come to the village “wanting to fight injustice against all people”, but had…