World Social Forum 2009 Update (31st January)
At the fourth day of activities at the World Social Fórum, ActionAid and its partners promoted activities related to the right to food, to education and about the solidarity among countries of the South.
The South-South Solidarity gathered representants of the social movements from Africa, Asia and South America to share experiences about Democracy and Social Progress, its struggles and lessons learnt, and also about Alternatives in the making : Spaces of Hope under the coordination of Sandeep Chachra, International Coordinator- Governance & Economic Justice.
"Join people from the south to discuss the process of construction of democracy is not a new idea, it comes from the post-colonialism struggles. There is no democracy without social progress," said Chacra.
To discuss the integrated actions to achieve food security and sovereignty in the world, Celso Marcatto, Food Rigths coordinator in ActionAid Brazil, presented the actions of the HungerFree Campaign and its national and regional versions, called AlimentaAÇÃO – Direito de Todos and Mercosur sin Hambre, respectively.
The right to have a decent work and is the right to have a decent life. John Samuels, International Director of ActionAid Asia, participated of the conference about the campaign Decent Work, decent life.
"There are people who works more than 12 hours a day and still doesn't earn enough to buy food for their families. Those workers have a gender, a race and live in specific places of the planet," he said.
Half of the worlds workforce earns less than 2 dollars a day; 12.3 million people work in slavery, and 200 million children uder the age of 15 work instead of going to school.
The National Campaign for the Right to Education promoted a workshop to prepare for the Global Week of Action, that will happen in April. It was an opportunity to receive suggestions for the mobilizing materials.
"This year, in Brazil, we have a chance to make the recent elected mayors more aware about education and bring then to the Global Week of Action, what could improve the mobilization all around the country," says Avanildo Duque, from Programs Coordinator from ActionAid Brazil.
© Andre Telles/ActionAid