arch/ive/ief (2000 - 2005)

Via Campesina launches initiative to raise funds for self-help by affected communities

Please support fisherfolk and peasant communities in their own relief and reconstruction from the Tsunami disaster

Via Campesina (http://www.viacampesina.org) - the global alliance of peasant, family farmer, farm worker, indigenous and landless peoples organizations, and other rural movements - calls for solidarity with the millions of people affected by the tsunami disaster and is launching a global fundraising campaign to channel assistance to affected communities of fisherfolk and peasants, for their own relief and reconstruction efforts, through grassroots organizations.
We ask for your donation for direct emergency support to provide basic needs of food, clean drinking water, shelter and health care to affected fisherfolk and peasant families, as well as to help us initiate the long term work of reconstructing our own communities and rebuilding our livelihoods.

Make a secure on-line credit card donation now by clicking on:
https://secure.groundspring.org/dn/index.php?aid=4589
[SEE BELOW IF YOU PREFER TO GIVE BY MAIL OR BY WIRE TRANSFER]

The relief philosophy of Via Campesina is that our communities should participate actively and be the key actors in the re-construction process, and that our fisherfolk and peasant organizations should play a key mobilizing and supporting role. Via Campesina wants to give our communities and organizations the political support they need in this process, and to help get the funds we need for reconstruction. The funds raised in this campaign will be used to strengthen local communities as the key actors in this process.

The success of local, self-organized, civil society disaster relief efforts in previous disasters in Latin America, Asia, and Africa, contrasted with government inefficiency and top-down, demobilizing programs, has often marked a key stage in the empowerment and growth of large, popular, grassroots, civil society social movements by which previously marginalized people take control of their own lives. Let us work together at this time, and let us do so in ways that help build self-sufficiency, grassroots organization, and peoples power for the future.

In addition to the millions who have been displaced or affected, many tens of thousands have lost their homes and fishing equipment or farming tools. Fisherfolk have lost their boats, and the land of peasant families has been contaminated, their crops destroyed and their farm animals lost. Your donation will help us get back on our feet.

Examples of actions already underway:

In Indonesia, the National Federation of Indonesian Peasant Organizations (FSPI), a member of Via Campesina, together with a number of non-governmental organizations (NGOs), has created a civil society relief team that is now working in Aceh (with an estimated 25,000 dead and many times more missing and/or homeless) and in North Sumatra (5,000 dead) provinces to distribute supplies, and to carry out search and rescue missions for missing people. The situation in dramatic, and at the moment (30 Dec) there is no direct communication with many areas.
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In Sri Lanka, perhaps the country worst hit by the tsunamis, the National Organization of Fisherfolk (NAFSO) has sent 5 teams to affected areas for relief work and help communities start the task of reconstruction. They have organized fact finding missions and are now defining how to cope with the urgent relief needs while communities plan and begin to carry the medium term work of rehabilitation.
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Make a secure on-line credit card donation now by clicking on:
https://secure.groundspring.org/dn/index.php?aid=4589 or
SEE BELOW FOR INSTRUCTIONS ON HOW TO GIVE BY MAIL OR BY WIRE TRANSFER.


INSTRUCTIONS ON HOW TO GIVE BY MAIL OR BY WIRE TRANSFER

1. If you are in Europe, you can deposit funds in the following account:

Account number: 3035 0022 4202 2005 5606
Beneficiary: Via Campesina-Honduras
IBAN code: ES23 3035 0022 4202 2005 5606
BIC/SWIFT code: CLPEES2M
Bank: Caja Laboral
Bank address: Calle 8 de enero, Guernika, Pais Basco
Tel: +34 94 625 0098
Fax: +34 94 625 6662

Please send an email alerting us of your donation to:
nico.verhagen@t-online.de

2.If you are in the United States (and/or have US dollar denominated checks or money orders), and want to donate by mail:

Please make your check out to "Via Campesina/CENSA"
and mail it to:
CENSA/Via Campesina
2288 Fulton Street, suite 103
Berkeley, CA 94704 USA

3. If you want to make a bank wire transfer for the relief campaign, you can wire funds to:

NOTE: the funds must be transferred to the First Union Bank in the USA,
where the Banco Grupo El Ahorro Hondureño (BGA) has an account. In the
communication with the transfer you have to put in the data of the
final beneficiary.
a. Data of the final Beneficiary Bank
- Bank: Banco Grupo El Ahorro Hondureño (BGA)
- Name of Beneficiary: Pedro Rafael Alegria, Maria Concepción
Betanco, Via Campesina
- Account Number at BGA: 107 108 6292
- Telephone: ( 504 ) 235-9915 and 239-4679
- Country and City: Honduras, Tegucigalpa M.D.C.

b. Data of the Bank in the USA
- Bank: First Union Bank (now called Wachovia)
- ABA Code 026005092
- Swift Code B/C: PNBP US 3N NYC
- Account Number: 2000192001436
- Name: Banco Grupo El Ahorro Hondureño (BGA)

Please send an email alerting us of your donation to:
viacampesina@multivisionhn.net

4. If you want to make a bank wire transfer for relief specifically in Indonesia, you can wire funds to:

Bank: Standard Chartered Bank
Swift Bank Code: SCB LIDJ XAXXX
Address of Bank: Jl. Imam Bonjol No. 17 North Sumatera,
Indonesia.
Account number : 047-1-005467-2
Name of Payee : Sintesa (Yayasan Sinar Tani Indonesia)

Please send an email to alert us of your donation to:
ilubis@cbn.net.id


THANK YOU FOR YOUR SUPPORT AND SOLIDARITY,

Via Campesina (http://www.viacampesina.org)