1. Women Who
Cared for the
Earth
Stories of Six
Activists in Six
Minutes
Presentation by Swati Arunprasad
EMC, December 2010
2. Women Who Cared for the Earth
Yosepha Alomang
Battle against a Mining Giant…
• West Papua, Indonesia
• Leader of “Amungme”
Community
• Fought against Freeport‘s
mining activities
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3. Women Who Cared for the Earth
Yosepha Alomang
Battle against a Mining Giant…
Freeport dumped
200,000 tons of
mine tailing into the
river daily!!!
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4. Women Who Cared for the Earth
Yosepha Alomang
Battle against a Mining Giant…
4
5. Women Who Cared for the Earth
Yosepha Alomang
Battle against a Mining Giant…
•Finally Success in May
2010!!!
•Recipient of Goldman
Environmental Prize
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6. Women Who Cared for the Earth
Rashida Bee and Champa Devi Shukla
Fighting Toxic & Nuclear Contamination…
• Bhopal Gas Tragedy
• 27 T poisonous gases
6
7. Women Who Cared for the Earth
Rashida Bee and Champa Devi Shukla
Fighting Toxic & Nuclear Contamination…
• 1989: 469-mile
march to New
Delhi
• 2002: 19-day
hunger strike in
New Delhi
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8. Women Who Cared for the Earth
Rashida Bee and Champa Devi Shukla
Fighting Toxic & Nuclear Contamination…
“Beat Dow
With a
Broomstick!"
Recipients of Goldman
Environmental Prize 2004
2003: Hand delivered samples of
toxic waste to Dow
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9. Women Who Cared for the Earth
Wangari Maathai
Believing in Sustainable Forestry…
• Kenyan environmentalist
• Green Belt Movement
• 1977
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10. Women Who Cared for the Earth
Wangari Maathai
Believing in Sustainable Forestry…
• 5,000 grassroots
nurseries throughout
Kenya
• Over 20 million trees
planted
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11. Women Who Cared for the Earth
Wangari Maathai
Believing in Sustainable Forestry…
"I know that I am doing this work
for all who cherish freedom and
justice and without such ideals,
we can't save this planet."
• Recipients of Goldman Environmental Prize 1991
• Nobel Peace Prize 2004
• Named one of "Heroes of the Environment " in 2007 by Time
Magazine
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12. Women Who Cared for the Earth
Syeda Rizwana Hasan
Environmental Policy and Advocacy…
• 20,000 ship breaking workers,
some as young as 14 in
Bangladesh
• One ship breaking worker dies
every week and every day one
worker is injured!!!
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13. Women Who Cared for the Earth
Syeda Rizwana Hasan
Environmental Policy and Advocacy…
• Ships laden with
asbestos, PCBs,
lead, arsenic and
other toxic
substances
• 2005 to 2007,
>250 ships, 2.5
million tons
• 95% of each ship had steel coated
with 10 - 100 tons of paint
containing Pb, Cd, As, Zn and Cr
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14. Women Who Cared for the Earth
Syeda Rizwana Hasan
Environmental Policy and Advocacy…
• 2003: Petition with the
Supreme Court to follow Basel
• Feb 2006: Entry of SS Norway
banned
• May 2006: MM Alfaship left
territorial waters
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15. Women Who Cared for the Earth
Syeda Rizwana Hasan
Environmental Policy and Advocacy…
Recipient of Goldman Environmental Prize 2009
• March 2009 : Tightening of ship
breaking regulations
• Closure of 36 ship breaking
yards without environmental
clearance
15
16. Women Who Cared for the Earth
Laila Iskander Kamel
Empowering garbage collectors…
• Zabbaleen, a minority community
in Cairo, Egypt
• Informal waste picking from 1930s
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17. Women Who Cared for the Earth
Laila Iskander Kamel
Empowering garbage collectors…
• Designed innovative social and
environmental projects to the
garbage collectors since 1982
• Basic Health and Hygiene
Education
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18. Women Who Cared for the Earth
Laila Iskander Kamel
Empowering garbage collectors…
Two Zabbaleens can collect waste from
350 homes using a horse cart & can earn
3 times the ave. income of a person!!!
• Primary school
• Paper recycling project
• Weaving school
• Health centre and small
industries project established
• Recipients of Goldman
Environmental Prize
1994
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19. Women Who Cared for the Earth
Thuli Brilliance Makama
Defending Environmental NGOs
• Swaziland’s only public interest
environmental attorney
• 1992: Swaziland Environment
Authority Act
• 2002: First Minister for
Environment excluded NGOs
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20. Women Who Cared for the Earth
Thuli Brilliance Makama
Defending Environmental NGOs
• Pressure from Makama’s Yonge
Nawe Environmental Action
Group
• 2009: Court’s ruling that
environmental groups will have a
place on the Management Board
to monitor actions of Swaziland
Environment Authority
Recipients of Goldman
Environmental Prize 2010
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