This new project will be coordinated by Dr. Bidya Prasad Pant, a Nepali ophthalmologic surgeon  who has dedicated his life to conducting cataract surgeries to help restore the sight of so many people. Students will be screened for vision and eyecare, free glasses will be distributed and students will receive proper medical treatment.  Target goals are to screen 5,000 students, distribute 250 glasses and provide medical treatment, including appropriate medicine to 400 students.  Project grant is $3,387.

This is another new project consistent with FFI’s desire to eliminate coal plants from the face of the earth as quickly as possible.  These plants produce an inordinate amount of greenhouse gas emissions and adversely impact the health of surrounding communities.   Chile is a county that produces 40% of its electricity through coal-fired plants.  28 coal utilities are located in highly concentrated areas along the Pacific coast.  While Chile, along with more than 40 other countries pledged to eventually eliminate coal, pledges are just that.  This project will provide pro bono legal representation and advisory services to communities impacted by coal plants, including a Chilean affiliate AEA Gener, of the US MNE AES company.  The goal is to bring administrative legal challenges to accelerate the elimination of these plants and to provide legal representation to those persons living nearby coal plants who have suffered health impacts.  FFI provided a grant  to the NGO Incidencia Global, led by Miguel Fredes, who is cofounder of Chile’s first public interest environmental law firm with $5,000.   It is wonderful to hook up with Miguel again as he was instrumental in connecting FFI to a small village in northern Bali years ago so that FFI could provide the funding for construction of a micro-hydro project that created up to 5 kilowatts of clean and renewable electricity.

In 2021, FFI continued to fund Planting Justice’s youth internship program in the amount of $3,000.  The funds helped support Planting Justice’s program to support 35 low-income youth living in the east Oakland near the Planting Justice nursery.  The youth develop skills while working at the nursery.  While roughly one-third of the youth had a past history of contact with the Oakland Police Department, not a single youth intern was incarcerated during the past year. Moreover, 90% of eligible High School seniors completed their high school education and graduated with a diploma.  Due to this continued success, in 2022, FFI increased its grant to $5,000 for 2022 to continue our support for this important project.  During this year, Planting Justice increased its hourly wage to the youth to $19.

The youth learn all types of plant propagation techniques, seeding, cuttings, grating, transplanting, organic soil mixes, compost teas and other forms of organic fertilization, organic pest control methods, customer service and sales.  There is also a culinary arts and nutrition curriculum.  Youth are also obtaining a food handlers license as well for future employment.  The funds are geared to help young people in high school facing many challenges.  Notably, Planting Justice provides wrap around services to 25 young people ages 14-18 that include life skill coaching in mindfulness/meditation/nutrition and are receiving referrals when they need mental health counseling, tutoring, legal or housing support.

In 2022, FFI donated $2,500.00 toward the completion of this documentary film that is focused

on the environmental impacts of cigarette butt litter and eliminating single-use plastic cigarette filters.  The film is expected to be completed in 2023. The grant enabled the film makers to complete filming with the main characters of the film ($1,500) and to hire an editing consultant ($1,000).   The documentary showcases stirring examples of how professional surfers seek to protect and restore the health of our oceans.  In 2021, FFI donated $2,500 that helped ship Cigarette Surfboards to Hawai’i, Ireland and South Africa and hire local videographers to film some of the main characters of the documentary.  After the film is completed, the plan is to begin doing free community screening events to be shown at beaches, parks, libraries, museums, movie theaters, marine education centers, aquariums, non-profit spaces, art galleries, community centers, and community colleges.  The film will be submitted to film festivals.  In September 2021, in coordination with Save Our Shores, in less than three hours, 85 pounds of trash were collected at Santa Cruz beaches (including over 2,000 cigarette butts) and hundreds of signatures gathered to petition to ban the sale of single-use tobacco filters in Santa Cruz.  The group is working with the City of Santa Cruz to pass the first ordinance in the country to ban single filter cigarettes.

FFI provided $3,900 to this women’s shelter for 2021 that was used to transform the roof terrace into an organic garden.   Residents were trained how to make non-toxic solutions that were used as a fertilizer and pesticide.  Since residents were seldom able to participate in life outside of Asha Rising due to fears of contracting COVID, once the garden began, there was less of a need to shop in the congested marketplace where not everyone was following mask protocols.  Anxiety diminished and the residents watched with amazement as the new growth began taking place.  In a matter of months, the terrace garden began offering up an abundance of vegetables and herbs including, eggplants, spinach, zucchini, squash, coriander, okra, peppers, cucumber and tomatoes.   The funding could not have come at a better time due to COVID restrictions.  This funding was instrumental in helping the women cope with the pandemic and has also led to other nearby apartments expressing interest in developing organic roof top terraces.   For 2022, FFI approved $7,000 for general support to run the shelter including funds for emergency hip surgery and rehabilitation for a resident, and to employ a therapist to address the psychological needs of the 16 residents at the home.

FFI continues to fund CEDE’s work toward protecting and defending the rights of communities in regard to a proposal to build coal plant in Guinea by consortium of companies from Singapore, France, China and Guinea.   In 2021, FFI provided funding in the amount of $2,500 that CEDE used to work closely with local representatives in several villages that will be impacted by the coal plant.  This included document review, identification of community advocates, developing an implementation agenda and identification of community leaders.  A visit to the proposed site of the construction took place in June and a training workshop took place in August.  The training focused on documenting the environmental and public health impacts, legal empowerment of communities to better know their rights and the right to object to the project.  CEDE is organizing several national NGO’s regarding this issue.  These national NGO’s are supported by international NGO’s such as the Environmental Law Alliance World- wide, Center for Transnational Environmental Accountability and Human Rights Watch.  Based on the work conducted in 2021, and the importance of ending coal plant approvals in the world, FFI has approved $3,000 to continue this work in 2022.

FFI provided $2,500 to CODED in 2021 for legal representation to communities to address the discharge of effluents from the palm oil company FERONIA into a nearby river that has caused health impacts to the local community.  CODED has continued to take water samples to document the connection between the company’s discharges and the health symptoms.  CODED has collaborated with the regional Public Prosecutor that has also collected evidence and has opened a criminal file against several top level employees of FERONIA. For 2022, FFI supported CODED in the amount of $5,000 in order to move forward with the litigation.

FFI provided Pro Public $3,000 in 2021 to support litigation activities to protect the environment and public health of the Nepali people.  With this funding, Pro Public was successful in several significant cases in the Supreme Court including obtaining an interim order against the government’s plan to construct a dam or water diversion project along the Kali Gandaki River, and an interim order to prohibit the illegal cross-border sales of Nepal’s captive elephants into India in violation of the CITES treaty.  For 2022, FFI provided $5,000 for Pro Public to continue with its cases against construction of an international airport that would have destroyed 2.4 million trees, to relocate cement industries and other polluting industries from the World Heritage site where Buddha was born in Lumbini, protect forest land around Pokhra, and to stop a hotel from boring into the ground water in Namobudha, to stop operation of a brick kiln.  In the biggest legal victory that FFI has supported, the Supreme Court of Nepal stopped the airport project from going forward.

FFI funded Mujer U’wa $3,000 in 2021 and $5,000 in 2022 to support of U’wa women in areas of women’s rights, children’s issues, food security and public health.  Funds provided support to indigenous women at Las Salinas Village by training indigenous women to lead and do the work of land recuperation and reclamation, territorial demarcation and defense against exploitation of oil and other natural resources on their lands, and creating food security by selling organic coffee and other crops as well as basic literacy/math courses classes and crating traditional crafts for sale in the marketplaces.  Funds supported the purchase of basic necessities including seeds for crops, cooking equipment, building equipment, mattresses and blankets.   Funds will continue to be used for the translation project of community-based research that raises public awareness of the U’wa and its struggles to ensure land security against constant government and corporate threats to the natural resources in and around its territory and to women in the Indigenous Guard, a largely-male group, as they participate in non-violent leadership and community-based governance.

In 2021, FFI provided $2,154 to plant over 800 trees along the banks of the Irrawaddy River and in other small villages near Mandalay.  For 2022, FFI provided $4,500 to support additional tree planting in and around these villages as well as the planting of organic vegetables so that families in these villages can stop using pesticides and earn a living through the sale of the produce to the local communities.   These goals are being accomplished.  See pictures on the website.

$3,000 The purpose of this project was to construct a solar powered water pump at the Bate Koba Health Post in Guinea and bring clean, running water into the clinic and to educate the local health instructors and community members on appropriate use of the pump including water testing and proper sanitation practices. The project is complete and based on water testing, the clinic now has safe and clean drinking water. 2021, FFI provided $3,000 toward the completion of the water pump in Guinea. The total project cost was $16,000 of which the village contributed $2,000. Thank you Mia Chasin for coordinating this project in Guinea. This is an amazing public health benefit.

Norway provided funding for the construction of the Jeevan Jyota Blind Hostel for 50 blind students studying at the Panchodaya Secondary School in Danghadi, Nepal.  FFI provided funding for the purchase of 50 beds and furniture for the students.  The project is completed.

Pictures will be provided on the website.

+$3000 The Delek Children’s Foundation project, “1,000 Pairs of Shoes for 1,000 Children”, will provide shoes for the most needy children in the Himalayan regions of Mustang and Dolpo near the Tibetan border in Nepal. Many Himalayan children lack basic footwear, relying only on flip flops or plastic sandals. Other children have no shoes at all. As each new pair of shoes costs about $7.00 in Nepal, FFI’s donation of $3,000 will purchase about 428 pairs of shoes. With the help of team members from the Delek Children’s Foundation, founder and Director Venerable Thubten Donyo, plans to deliver the shoes in September, 2020.

+$1,500 Toxics Link (a Just Environment Charitable Trust initiative) disseminates credible information about the impact of toxic chemicals on the environment in India. Toxic Link is headquartered in New Delhi and has a project office in Goa. FFI provided $1,500 to Toxic Link to assist with the production of a two-day environmental film festival entitled “Quotes from the Earth” that will take place in New Delhi in December, 2020. This will be the ninth film festival that will bring film makers from around the globe to show their films that cover a wide array of environmental topics such as vanishing bio-diversity, rampant mining, environmental threats to tribes, global climate change, contamination in lakes and rivers, forest conservation, household waste issues, and solutions to global energy challenges.

$1,485 The Democratic Republic of the Congo is home to the largest tropical forest in the world, after the Amazon. Approximately 62% of the country is covered by forest, which amounts to more than half of the forest of the African continent. Village leaders in Bongolu in the Democratic Republic of Congo asked CODED (Centre Congolaise pour le Droit du Developpement Durable- Congolais Centre for Sustainable Development Law) to test the water quality of a local river that villagers suspect is contaminated by operations at FERONIA SA’s palm oil factory. FFI provided $1,485 to CODED’s legal team to investigate the situation, conduct water sampling and assess the viability of legal action under Congolese statutory law and the Constitution. This effort will embolden the community and strengthen its ability to resist potential threats and intimidation.

$3,000 FFI provided $3,000 for the expansion of Planting Justice’s (“PJ”) paid internship/mentorship program for high school youth in Oakland, CA. who have been identified by school counselors and health professionals as being at high risk of violence and incarceration. Under PJ’s expanded program, it will partner with Roots Community Health Clinic and the Alameda County Center for Healthy Schools and Communities, to provide mental health counseling support to the most troubled youth in Sobrante Park and its local public high school, Madison Park Academy. Selected students will participate in free individual and family counseling, and will have access to other mental health services. In addition, they will be paid $15/hour for their involvement in the mentorship, education and job training programs at the PJ plant nursery. This new partnership will create a stronger safety net for these youth. If they can get through the sensitive adolescent years with a strong support network, they are more likely to stay safe and avoid the life-changing trauma of acute violence or childhood incarceration.

$2,500 FFI provided $2,500 to Honduran attorney, Laura Palmese Hernandez, who is working in partnership with the Bay Islands Conservation Association and the Environmental Law Alliance Worldwide, to enhance Utila Island’s ability to separate waste products by their source. Ms. Hernandez is an expert on waste management and legislation in Honduras and a member of a team that is drafting a new National Waste Management Law and Policy. The funded project will improve plastic waste management on Utila Island, including the plastic generated by the community and plastic brought by marine currents. The project will engage neighborhood associations, middle schools and university students to clean up waste and collect data about the composition of waste generated on the island. Using the collected information, the project partners will draft a new ordinance requiring that glass, plastic and other materials be separated at the source of the waste on the island. The ordinance will be presented to the city council in 2020. It is highly probable that the project partners will succeed in their effort to present a new ordinance to the city council. In 2019, the partnership was successful in its efforts to have the city council pass an ordinance banning the use of plastic bags, straws and polystyrene containers on Utila Island.

$4,000 Over the past year, FFI’s support helped Asha Rising vacate a small two-room space with its single share toilet and move into a three-story building with a large bathroom on every floor. As a result, the number or women served tripled, with 17 elderly survivors receiving permanent housing. This enabled Asha Rising to open its doors to women with HIV and AIDS as well as partial or full paralysis. With FFI’s assistance over the past several years, Asha Rising continued to offer its residents on-going healthcare, including individual and group trauma counseling as well as literacy, arts and crafts, and yoga classes. FFI’s funding in 2019 went to the purchase of needed kitchen appliances, pots and pans, and other essential supplies to make the kitchen ready for cooking in-house meals. Funds were also used to pilot a food delivery program to serve free food packages to other elderly women in need in the surrounding area. The Asha Rising residents were trained to prepare a variety of pickles, including mango, lemon, carrot, chili and others, with the goal of one day selling the pickles to local businesses. In 2019, several FFI Board members were privileged to meet with the founder of Asha Rising. The meeting provided a clear understanding of the difference FFI’s funding has made for the residents of the Asha Rising shelter. On December 1, 2019, Asha Rising wrote FFI and stated: “Due to your support, seventeen elderly trafficking survivors who would otherwise be living on the streets can experience security, peace, community, family, love and a place to call home.” To help Asha Rising continue its mission, FFI provided $4,000 for 2020.

$3,136 In 2019, 760 trees such as ironwood, persimmon, and coconut and 500 organic vegetable plants including carrot, bean, leak and other greens were planted in the three small villages north of Mandalay in Myanmar. This year, FFI provided $3,136 for the purchase of tools, transportation, planting and maintenance of approximately 850 trees between the village of Sin Kyun and Mandalay, a hot and dry area currently with sparse trees. Trees will be planted alongside the Irawaddy River to provide shade. Organic vegetables including carrot, eggplant and pumpkin will also be planted around Sin Kyun village. FFI continues to fund tree planting in Myanmar as the country is located between China and India – two of the largest sources of greenhouse gas emissions in the world. The annual temperature in Myanmar continues to rise at unsustainable rates.

$3,000 FFI continues its long-standing support of Mujer U’wa by providing $3,000 to empower the U’wa community in its effort to promote indigenous women’s rights and leadership, children’s issues, public health, and the defense and demarcation of U’wa ancestral lands.

$3,000 With financial assistance from FFI, Pro Public achieved a huge victory in 2019 when the Supreme Court of Nepal took measures to protect the Lumbini World Heritage Site (birthplace of Buddha) from the rampant air pollution in the area. The Supreme Court imposed a ban on new factories within 15 kilometers of the Lumbini perimeter, banned heavy vehicles in the area and directed the government to form a five-member probe panel, including government officials and a member of Pro Public to report back to the Court. For 2020, FFI provided $3,000 for Pro Public’s further litigation and advocacy activities to protect Nepal’s forests and wildlife.

In 2020, FFI made a grant to the Delek Children’s Foundation in the amount of $3,000 to provide shoes for needy children in several villages in the Himalayas in Nepal.  Due to COVID, the project could not go forward until the fall of 2022.  I am happy to report, that Thupten Donyo and a team of volunteers from the USA delivered 1000 pairs of shoes, school uniforms, school supplies and medicines to 14 different schools in Solukhumbu, Nepal.  Of this total, FFI sponsored 250 pairs of shoes.

In 2020, FFI made a grant in the amount of $1,500 to Toxics Links in New Delhi to help promulgate the largest international environmental film festival in India.  While the film festival has not been able to take place for the past several years due to COVID, the film festival is scheduled to take place during the beginning of December, 2022.

+$2,500 to support Planting Justice’s (PJ) new program to provide paid internships for formerly incarcerated youth released from Camp Sweeny and other at risk youth to work at PJ’s 2- acre nursery in East Oakland, CA. This program is an extension of FFI’s 2017 funding involving many of the same youth. This program will also offer resume-building, income generating and life skill building opportunities for these youth.

+ $1,000 for laboratory construction and $1,800 for hospital beds and other furnishings.

FFI previously funded the construction of piping so clean water could be delivered to the Chewele Health Clinic and Community Centre. The Clinic’s facilities now need to be updated in order to receive government accreditation to provide care for government insured patients (the only health insurance for rural populations). Once renovations are complete and clinic facilities approved for the National Health Insurance Fund, the project improvements will be fully sustained by funds from patient care activities. All eligible patient care will be paid for by the government’s reimbursement and income will increase to the Clinic by more than 80% above present levels. The changes that are required include the renovation of a laboratory and 10 rooms in the Comprehensive Care Centre (of which 4 currently hosts the HIV/AIDs program) with the remaining rooms to be used for maternal/child related and other clinical services. Without these required changes, the clinic facilities will not be accredited to provide care for government insured patients and very few patients will be able to attend the existing healthcare resources at the clinics. FFI will help fund part of this important project.

+$2,775 to support this women’s shelter to expand its food delivery program to the surrounding area.

The funding will be used to launch a training program to train residents in making and selling nutritious food. An instructor will be hired to teach the residents to cook healthy food, and a refrigerator, stove and other cooking utensils will be purchased with the goal of doubling the number of women who receive free meals on a weekly. The secondary goal of the project is to help the shelter become more self sufficient by selling meals to working women in the community.

+$3,000 as continued support to U’wa indigenous women to build female leadership, improve public health, and work toward the demarcation and defense of territorial lands.

+$3,020 to purchase, transport, plant and provide maintenance for trees and organic vegetables in three rural villages north of Mandalay.

$2,500 to support the conservation of important heritage sites in Nepal.

+ $2,500 to reduce the amount of plastic waste that makes its way to coastal zone areas and into the Mesoamerican Barrier Reef System from Honduras. The funding will be used to engage neighborhood associations, middle schools, and university students to clean up waste and collect data about the composition of waste generated on the island and to draft a new municipal ordinance on waste reduction and source separation.

+$1,500 to address the problems of flooding and damage to marine life caused by the improper disposal of plastic wastes in rural communities. This funding will assist this environmental organization to create awareness about the dangers of plastic waste, starting with school children in rural communities of Freetown. This initiative will help invigorate the movement toward legislation to address the high level of plastic use in the country.

$3,000 as continued support to U’wa indigenous women to build female leadership, improve public health, and work toward the demarcation and defense of territorial lands.

$3,268 was provided for the purchase, transportation, planting and maintenance of 950 trees in Kyun Bin and U Yin villages, north of Mandalay. The need for tree planting is paramount, especially in a country like Myanmar, sandwiched between India and China, world leaders in greenhouse gas emissions. Temperatures in Myanmar continue to rise more than most other countries making it imperative to plant as many trees as possible.

+$2,500 to transport 15 youth from Camp Sweeney Juvenile Justice Center to Planting Justice’s East Oakland nursery on weekends to be taught from inspiring & formerly incarcerated educators about urban sustainability, environmental justice and economic development alternatives and give these youth a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to help transform a 2-acre empty lot in their community into a globally significant plant nursery. This mentoring program taught youth how to propagate fruit trees, plant and harvest, cook healthy meals with ingredients grown on-site or sourced locally and participate in a health and wellness curricula.

$3,340 for trauma based therapy for this group home involving survivors of sex trafficking . Between January –November, 2018 seven women were provided up to 270 counseling hours. Funds were spent on specialized staff training, a program to work with residents in making handicrafts and a meal delivery program geared to elderly survivors in the community.

For the year, 330 meals were delivered to about five women per month (fruit, bread/butter & eggs or roti, vegetables and chicken) and four community meals were held at the residential center involving 117 needy people.

+$3,000 for for ProPublic to file legal actions to protect various waterways and groundwater threatened from development projects.  ProPublic is a public interest organization in Nepal that FFI has funded for decades. The groundwater in the Kathmandu is decreasing at an alarming 2.5 meters annually and the Bagmati and Bisnumati Rivers are severely polluted due to industrial and residential discharges into the rivers continuing without any enforcement. In one case Propublic seeks to stop illegal construction in a World Heritage site that has dried up the local water source. In a second case, ProPublic seeks to protect Queens Pond, a square-shaped pond that dates from the 17^th century that is one of Kathmandu’s most famous landmarks and known for its religious and aesthetic value. It is an important source of water for birdlife and a significant place for the recharging of underground water in the Kathmandu Valley. ProPublic filed a unique action against government officials to hold them criminally liable under the Ancient Monument Protection Act. After continuous lobbying, protest, and filing the criminal case, the government decided to restore the pond to its original form.

$2,400 to these schools in Lowarengak, a town of roughly 15,000 pastoralists and fishers along Kenya’s Lake Turkana near the Kenya, South Sudan and Ethiopian borders. This area is undergoing massive scale livelihood collapse – primarily from the effects of the Gibe II dam which has radically reduced river flow, destroying traditional fishing and lakeside grazing vital to the survival of thousands of Turkana. Hunger, malnutrition, and diseases (including cholera) are prevalent in this region.

In light of this background, FFI provided funding to purchase 200 straw sleeping mats and 20 new mattresses (children of families from distant locales/orphans), repair pipes and carpentry work in the school kitchen, repair desks, construct new benches, construct a security fence, paint classrooms, purchase social studies, math, history, science, exercise and fiction books, wall charts, paper, pencils and small supplies and two large first aid kits (with medicines, ointments, bandages etc.) –there are no first aid facilities in the region).

$2,000 for the purchase of wonderpads – washable sanitary pads for young girls. The Kliptown Youth Program provides tutoring training, meals and supplies to approximately 500 children. FFI partnered with the Kansha Foundaiton and the Mark Day School in Marin to provide funding for the purchase of wonderpads for girls at the youth program and primary school.

The rationale behind the wonderpads is simple: When girls have access to reliable menstrual health products they can focus on education and stay in school every day. Over 800 packs of wonderpads were purchased and distributed.

$2,150 for on-going support to the U’wa to protect their native lands in Colombia.

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$2,000 to purchase and plant 1,000 trees in rural Myanmar villages.

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$600 to purchase and install 500 meters of cable, 4 electricity panels and one water tank to provide electricity and water to complete home for children living far from their school.

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Planting Justice: $2,500 for the gardening project at Camp Sweeney Juvenile Justice Facility, Oakland, CA. Funding for planting sessions and culinary arts lessons.

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$2,500 to finish surveying villages in Sarawak, Borneo to select an area for construction of micro-hydro projects.

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$4,500 to provide continuing services including but not limited to addressing literacy training, medical issues, employment and opening a second home for women in Kolkata, India.

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$3,750 for four school gardens in Cuenca, Ecuador to cover teacher support for workshops, transportation, curriculum materials, and materials including seeds, garden tools and lumber.

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$2,000 to complete purchase and installation of high grade piping to provide water to the Dadeldura Eye Hospital in western Nepal.

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$530 to school children in Sapa, Vietnam. The funds were used to purchase warm jackets and blankets, especially for young students who live far from their homes in the mountains who often sleep at the school due to far distances from their homes.

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$2,000 to The Borneo Project for a training program on community-managed renewable energy systems for the villages in Sarawak on the island of Borneo. Fresh off a monumental victory in working with local villages to defeat the Baram Dam project, The Borneo Project is now embarking on a three-month training program to strengthen community organizing and provide technical assistance to implement solar and micro-hydro projects in the communities of Baram.

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$2,500 to Planting Justice to Expand the Meditation Garden at Mr. Grace’s Special Day Class at McClymonds High School in Oakland, CA. FFI hooked up with Planting Justice, an amazing organization that continues to make its imprint in urban areas around the Bay and beyond. Funds were provided to enlarge the vegetable garden at this inner city school and work with special education students teaching gardening skills and good nutrition. See photos here.

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$2,500 to Aisha Rising to assist women in the red light district of Kolkata, India who are no longer involved in prostitution. This unique project seeks to interrupt the cycle of exploitation by providing older women, many who have suffered prolonged illness and trauma with alternate pathways for sustaining themselves. Funds will initially be used to help create a permanent home for these women (a five-year lease on a home for 6-7 women is already in place), procure food, medical check-ups counseling, attend literacy classes and eventually find employment. Funds will help establish a kitchen area to allow the women to cook aloo/puri and later sell to women in other organizations.

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$3,000 to Mujer U’wa who work with the U’wa in their fight for human rights and environmental stewardship of their native lands in Columbia. After a tremendous victory in 2015 whereby Ecopetrol abandoned the Magallanes gas exploration block, the U’wa require additional funding to continue existing legal cases to protect U’wa lands. FFI’s funding will go to help the U’wa oppose other gas exploration wells, mining concessions and pipelines on their land. FFI facilitated a 2013 law internship for the current legal advisor to ASOUWA, the U’wa governing council. The internship blossomed into a key partnership between the U’wa and Earth Rights International, which led to the reactivation of a case at the Interamerican Human Rights Commission.

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$3,900 to purchase and install an additional 4,000 meters of piping to provide water for the Dadeldhura Eye Hospital and village of Karigau in western Nepal. The piping has been successfully installed to the village so that the villagers now have water to drink and utilize in their daily lives. FFI is currently seeking additional funding so that water can be delivered to the eye clinic.

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$13,000 for the purchase and installation of a water tank and 600 meters of piping to provide water to the Chwele health clinic and community center. Now, patients at the clinic and the community center can drink safe and clean water as the previous water source in the village was badly contaminated. Funds were also used to construct 8 toilets and a septic tank at the community center.

$2,000 to Mama Hope for a greenhouse project in Kisumu, Kenya: The funds from FFI were used to construct a new large greenhouse to grow organically grown tomatoes. The tomatoes to be produced will supply part of the food for the Kisumu Children’s Rescue Center, an orphanage for vulnerable children, with the remainder sold in the community at local markets and given to women who participate in the planting and harvests. There are currently 26 children at the Rescue Center who are victims of HUV/AIDS, neglect, abuse poverty and hunger. They are provided with in-house food, shelter, clothing, health care, specialized education, psychosocial support and skills training.

$3,000 to Global Student Embassy (“GSE”) Project, Nicaragua: In Chacraseca, Nicaragua, GSE has had past success building strong collaborative relationships with schools, cultivating student and parent leaders, and creating the fencing, irrigation and greenhouse infrastructure to grow bountiful organic gardens in formerly severely degraded soils. GSE partners with complementary organizations to lead comprehensive training programs that will build capacity among Nicaraguan families to become experts in sustainable agriculture methods and harvest food for their families. FFI’s funding helped support the growth of eco-education programs at four Chacraseca schools in Nicagarua. FFI’s support trained teachers in the region and created an ecologically integrated curriculum. Funds directly supported the development and printing of essential training materials, as well as funded the implementation of new trainings. Supplies were purchased for gardens, including fencing, tools and grey water catchment infrastructure.

$3,000 to Mujer U’wa for general support and legal activities in Colombia: The U’wa continue to fight for their human rights and environmental stewardship of their native lands and FFI continues to help. 2015 funding was used to file a legal case to nullify the environmental license granted to Ecopetrol to begin oil exploration of the Magallanes block on U’wa territory. A documentary made with UCSC students on the U’wa. Presentations regarding activities impacting the U’wa people were made to the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues and the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. FFI funds were used for a Mujer U’wa Board member therapist to conduct trauma workshops and therapy for U’wa women. In February, 2015 Amazon Watch issued the following press release: “The U’wa people would like to inform national and international public opinion that the Magallanes gas exploration block has been completely dismantled. Ecopetrol has removed all the machinery that had been found there in a demonstration of respect for our rights as an indigenous people.”

Tanzania has one of the highest maternal mortality rates in the world. Approximately 85% of the country’s 45 million people live in rural areas without access to electricity. In health facilities without electricity, health workers work in near darkness and the provision of skilled care at night is nearly impossible. Health workers struggle by kerosene lanterns, cell phone lights, or candles to conduct life-saving procedures. FFI’s funding was used to install solar powered lights at several health clinics to address this deficiency.

$600 for the Beninese Water Tower Project: This project involves the pumping of water from a river to a water tower for a drip irrigation system for a community garden in the village of Govi in Benin, West Africa. FFI’s funding was used for the purchase of metal piping and construction costs associated with the creation of a support structure for the water tower as well as transport of the material to the project site. The drip irrigation system is being used to grow okra, tomatoes, local greens, hot peppers and corn. Within a short period of time after the system became operational, the villagers were already earning income from the sale of the local greens and okra.

$6,650 to provide Drinking Water for the Dadeldhura Eye Hospital and Karigau Village in far western Nepal. Water resources are scare in this region and villagers have in the past had to walk outside the village to find water sources. The village has about 70 families with a population of 370 and the population in the region is growing. The recently constructed eye hospital has 20 beds with one-two Ophthalmologists to provide eye care services for the village and surrounding region. The hospital will provide needed eye care to combat blindness and reduce visual impairment through preventive and curative eye care programs. Several years ago, a source of drinking water was identified 8 km from the village. The goal of this project is to provide accessible drinking water and sanitation for the village and hospital. As of 9/27/15, 4,000 meters of piping had been purchased and installed with need for 3,000 additional meters. The cost of the project is shared between FFI, villagers and the Dadeldhura Eye Hospital. Additional funding is needed to finish this project.

Solar Installation Completed: Several years ago, FFI held a benefit at the Freight & Salvage for this project. FFI is now proud to announce that the solar installation is complete. There are now 18 children living at the Jacmel Children’s Center. See www.jacmelchildren.org.

Many years back, FFI funded a legal case filed by Pro Public to set aside the Nepali government’s approval of the controversial Godawari Marble Factory. In response to a Petition filed by Pro Public in 2001, in April, 2015, the Nepal Supreme Court finally directed the government to shut down the factory, holding that the quarrying and extraction activities caused adverse impacts on the local environment and threatened the existence of globally important flora and fauna. These include 330 types of butterflies, 254 types of birds, 80 types of trees and 571 types of fruits. This case represents a tremendous victory for Pro Public after many years of contested litigation. See: Republica April 27, 2015 news article.

$1,200 to school children in the mountainous region of Sapa, Vietnam for winter jackets.

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$600 to assist drip irrigation project to produce fresh vegetables (especially for the dry season) in conjunction with Peace Corp volunteers working in the rural village of Govi in Benin. Funding for construction of the structure for which a water barrel will rest and the purchase of a water pump.

$4,520 Global Student Embassy – Continued support for the Advancing Agro-Ecology Gardens program. In 2013, FFI assisted this youth-led organization to develop an innovative community gardening curriculum utilizing sustainable agro-ecology principles. In 2014, FFI will support GSE to utilize this curriculum in support of its community gardening program in Chacraseca, Nicaragua.

$7,980 Nepal Geta Eye Hospital: Funding to provide safe drinking water to patients and their family members. Additional funding for eye screening for 16,000 children in grades 1-10 evaluating defective vision and other eye conditions. Ointment, eye drops, and spectacles provided.

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$5,000 Tanzaniza LEAT: Support for litigation to eliminate lead from paint in Tanzania. FFI has supported several successful actions by the LEAT team over the years. In 2014, LEAT will be working to eliminate lead paint sold in stores and prohibit its production and import.

$1,000 Planting Justice: Support for their work with incarcerated youth at the Stanislaus Juvenile Detention Garden. Funds were used to purchase plant starters (vegetables, herbs and flowers), educational materials and to construct 12 raised beds filled with peppers, eggplants, strawberries, melons, tomatoes and marigolds. The food grown will be used in the kitchen and culinary arts program, while cultivating teamwork, job skills, and a sense of achievement and a connection with the Earth.

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$3,000 Mujer U’wa Colombia: Support for continuing legal workshops and training across the different U’wa communities. Travel expenses for legal team’s participation in meetings related to Colombia’s indigenous peoples.

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$3,000 Mujer U’wa, Colombia. Support for law schools costs for female U’wa.

$500 Sapa Vietnam (purchase of warm coats for school children)

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$2,500 for Global Student Embassy (“GSE”), an international youth student organization. The funds will be used to conduct curriculum development for Eco-Action programs in Nicaragua and Ecuador.

$2,500 for the continued construction of the Tajikistan Women’s Resource Center. Tajikistan is located in the southeastern most corner of Central Asia, sharing borders with China to the east and Afghanistan to the south. Tajikstan is considered the poorest of the Central Asian republics with nearly half of its inhabitants living below the poverty line. The first floor of the Community Center has been built and FFI’s funding will facilitate construction of the second floor. The mission of the Center is to improve the socio-economic situation of low-income families, increase the role of women in society and prevent discrimination against women in society and in the family. Major activities to accomplish these goals will include community seminars for parents and young girls on the importance of education and on domestic violence issues, in-house legal assistance and psychological support to women, young girls and teenagers, especially victims of violence and free education for women and young girls in literacy, computer courses, embroidery and sewing courses. NEW: See update report on Tajikistan Women’s Resource Center.

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$2,900 to the Friends of the Cambodian Child’s Dream Organization whose mission is to promote sustainable village development in partnership with the Cambodian people by helping to provide clean water, sanitation, education opportunities, health care, improved nutrition and economic empowerment. In this project, funds will be used for personal hygiene, with emphasis on hand washing to reduce the spread of disease. The focus is to conduct workshops in ten villages by establishing Tippy Taps in each of the villages serving over 8,000 people. The Tippy Tap is simply a plastic container with water that can be poured on one’s hands for washing, instead of the traditional wash basin that has been identified as a source of disease. Each kit to be distributed will be comprised of gravel, bamboo poles, nails, string, plastic jug and soap.

$3,000 to Eco-Friends, India to educate the public, monitor, and take measures to reduce pollution in the Ganges River.

$5,000 to Random Acts to provide funding for a solar installation at an orphanage in Haiti, The Jacmel Children’s Center.

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$1,500.00 to purchase warm clothes for Black Hmong school children in the mountainous area of Sapa, Vietnam.

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$5,000 to TanzSolar to complete a solar photovoltaic power system for the Tegeruka Secondary School in rural Musoma, Tanzania. Installation was completed during the summer of 2012 and pictures are here. This renewable and pollution free electricity is being used to power indoor and outdoor lights, a computer with internet and a printer for the school.

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A Single Drop – Biosand Filter Technology in Jinja, Uganda

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$1,000.00 to the Jamaica Environment Trust (JET) to litigate a case against five regulatory government agencies for their failure to perform their duties relating to the maintenance and operation of a sewage treatment plant in Harbour View, Jamaica. JET obtained a favorable ruling from the Supreme Court ordering the National Water Commission to construct within six months an interim sewage waste facility to treat the untreated sewage that has been escaping from the plant into the surrounding coastline and sea for the past three decades and to construct a new facility to meet all regulatory standards within 18 months.

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$4,000.00 to Friends of Ruwenzori to help install a solar system to refrigerate medications at an HIV/AIDS clinic in rural Uganda.

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$3,950.00 for public health projects in Sikkim, India including the construction of toilets and a drinking water fountain in a rural village elementary school.

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$22,950.00 to produce up to 5 kilowatts of clean and renewable hydro-electricity in a small rural village in northern Bali.

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$7,000 to Conservation through Research Education and Action (CREA) to purchase and plant 1,500 trees to reforest agricultural and ranching areas in Panama and to build a tree nursery. Farmers in the surrounding area can now obtain free trees to preserve and protect the forest from agricultural and cattle infiltration.

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$2,000.00 to Tree People to work with students and teachers to plant trees at schools located in disadvantaged urban areas in southern California where there are few trees. First grant in 2007 benefited Rosecrans Elementary School & Centennial High School in Compton. 2008 grant benefitted Fullbright Avenue Elementary School in Canoga Park and Sherman Oaks Center for Enriched Studies. Asphalt was ripped up and replaced with trees.

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$4,000.00 to the Center for Legal Assistance to Pollution Victims (CLAPV) in Beijing, China. CLAPV has represented a large number of fisherman who lost their livelihood. Due to a chemical discharge into the Huai River causing most of the fish to die. CLAPV is involved in a case against a mining company for its pollution to water and soil which has created a cancer cluster in a small village.

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$5,100.00 to Centro para Justicia y Derechos Humanos en la Costa Atlantica Nicaragua (CEJUDHCAN) to work with the Mayagna Indians to protect their territorial rights against foreign corporations. The group has produced a guidebook of environmental laws to instruct indigenous peoples of the Atlantic how to obtain title to their lands to prevent destruction from a major logging development. Recently, FFI funded the group to engage in a women’s empowerment training on issues affecting local communities.

$3,500.00 to CEPDA, an environmental public interest law firm in Chile working to protect pristine forest areas in their country from foreign logging interests and harmful development projects.

$15,742.00 to Corporacion De Defensa De La Vida “(CORDAVI”) for legal assistance in helping grassroots and indigenous organizations in the Amazon River Basin in Ecuador defend their environmental rights affected by oil and mining activities. The lawyers for CORDAVI have worked with local communities and the government to create forest reserves and legal title to land in order to protect the rainforest from environmental disastrous projects. CORDAVI lawyers have been requested to provide legal and technical assistance to the Confederacion de Nacionalidades Indigenas del Ecuador and collaborates with Luis Macas, the indigenous leader. Dr. Byron Real has published a book that serves as Ecuador’s seminal citizens guide to environmental enforcement.

$8,900.00 to the Lawyers Environmental Action Team (“LEAT”) to fight for the rights of the Masai people whose lands have been exploited and confiscated in Tanzania and to protect the largest remaining continuous mangrove forest in East Africa. LEAT obtained an injunction stopping the African Fishing Company from developing the world’s largest proposed industrial prawn farm which would have destroyed 25,000 acres of shoreline mangroves.

$3,000.00 to YEUANI, a public interest law firm fighting to protect maquiladora workers from exposures to toxic chemicals in Tijuana, B.C. Mexico. YEUANI provides free legal and consulting services, and provides workshops and training to maquiladora working women, grassroots communities and other non-governmental organizations. In the last year, YEUANI offices have been vandalized repeatedly by the government and an attempt was made to kill the director.

$500.00 to Project Underground’s outreach campaign to individuals and organizations working in support of the U’wa indigenous peoples in Columbia.

$16,500.00 to Eco-Friends in Kanpur, India for their legal and educational campaign to improve the water quality of the Ganges River which has been severely degraded from cremated bodies, industrial pollution and sewage discharges. Eco-Friends obtained a cease and desist order from the Supreme Court and continues its efforts to monitor compliance and mobilize thousands of students and Indian people to protest generations of neglect. Rakesh Jaiswal, the founder of Eco-Friends was recently recognized by His Holiness The Dalai Lama in an awards ceremony called “Unsung Heroes of Compassion” this summer in California. Based on FFI’s initial support, in 2002, Eco-Friends was able to obtain several grants from larger foundations in order to conduct toxics monitoring of the Ganges and to continue its efforts to protect the River.

2007 Smithsonian Article: A Prayer for the Ganges

$17,800.00 to Pro Public in Katmandu, Nepal to help this environmental advocacy and litigation group fight to protect the air, land and water of their country. With the financial support of Friends Foundation, Pro Public established the “Friends Foundation Pro Public Scholarship Fund to fund two girls from the untouchable community to further their educational studies. Pro Public was successful in a legal challenge against several factories polluting the air quality of the Katmandu Valley. The government issued a notice to close down these factories and a study took place to improve the pollution control technologies of these facilities With FFI funding, Propublic has conducted trainings for the judicial on environmental issues.

FFI funding helped Pro Public achieve several legal victories including an order from the Supreme Court to the Ministry of Health to set up a committee to include Pro Public to study the problem of medical waste management and an order form the Supreme to the government to provide potable water for those compelled to drink arsenic contaminated water. FFI funds supported Pro Public to obtain a favorable ruling in the Court of Appeal to protect a valuable wetland in which the Court ruled in favor of public ownership. From 2009-2012, Pro Public in Nepal was successful in three of its legal cases.

The group obtained a Writ of Mandamus from the Supreme Court ordering government agencies to 1) take immediate measures to protect the endangered one horned rhino in and around Chitwan National Park; 2) follow the provisions of the Water Resources Act, enforce the licensing system and control the illegal exploitation of underground water; and 3) safely dispose of pesticides to make public areas safer for children and residents, study the impact of pesticides on the health of local residents, provide free medical treatment and establish a fund for compensation of injured persons.

$15,300.00 to the Environmental Legal Assistance Center (“ELAC”) in the Philippines to help document mercury contamination from a mining company, seek rehabilitation of the Bay, pass an ordinance to ban the quarrying of mine tailings and to protect tribal ancestral lands in Palawan by drafting guidelines to protect such rights. Quarrying activities have ceased and proposed mining activities have been put on hold. ELAC has brought a successful legal action to stop fishing companies from employing child laborers and will be filing a case to prohibit illegal fishing involving dynamite. ELAC has worked to protect mangroves from illegal developments and has successfully reduced illegal fishpond development activities occurring in these areas. Currently, FFI supports ELAC to protect indigenous Tagbana communities in northern Palawan from illegal land schemes that are taking these properties away from the original inhabitants.

$14,500.00 to the U’wa Defense Project/Amazon Watch and Mujer U’wa supporting the U’wa fight to preserve their indigenous territory in Colombia from oil exploitation. FFI funding over the years has gone toward a collaborative legal action to protect U’wa land from Occidental Petroleum’s massive oil drilling project in northeastern Colombia. In August, 2001, the oil company withdrew its plan to drill in the first exploratory well site on U’wa ancestral territory. Despite this victory, the State petroleum company is now exploring for oil on U’wa territory. FFI has supported leadership training for U’wa women and women’s workshops on human rights/environmental rights. FFI has provided financial assistance to the first U’wa women ever to study law at a Colombian University and for post degree international and human rights law training program.

$6,000.00 to the Center for Environmental Justice in Sri Lanka to help restore the devastation to the country from the December 2004 tsunami, provide water testing, green belt restoration and conducting legal aid clinics in the Tsunami affected areas.

$1,000.00 to rural Honduras for a training program to utilize improved agricultural techniques to increase food production.

$1,800.00 to ELAW Peru to fight against the government granting commercial licenses for harmful pesticide products, to develop federal legislation to ban certain pesticides and to promote alternatives to pesticides. Successful legislation was passed in Peru with help from this group.

$1,025.00 for the Indonesian Center for Environmental Law to assist ICEL’s efforts to curtail toxic contaminants from pulp, paper and tannery companies into the Ciujung River on the island of Java, Indonesia. The river is used by communities for drinking, bathing, irrigating rice fields and other agricultural products. ICEL was successful in getting best available control technology from a major polluter of the river.

$450.00 to purchase a video camera to document the environmental degradation occurring in the La Amistad Biosphere Reserve in Costa Rica from deforestation and coal and other development projects.

$600.00 to a medical clinic in the San Blas islands in Panama for refrigeration of medicines.

$700.00 to Centro de Pesquisa Indigena (The Indian Research Center) for reforestation of the Krenak indigenous reserve in eastern Brazil. Numerous trees were planted based on our donation.

$650.00 to the System Environmental Protection Project to provide village workshops in Nigeria to educated farmers and community members on alternatives to slash and burn agriculture and the harmful effects from agricultural chemicals.

$430.00 to Individual & Community Rights Advocacy Forum, Inc. (ICRAF) to educate the local people in Milne Bay Province, Papua New Guinea about the environmental consequences to forestry and mining activities and to develop contacts to organize an opposition for to such projects.

$100.00 to Alberto Muenaca as seed money to begin to develop a film about the plight of the Quichua Indians in Chile.

$1,000.00 for the second edition of the Natural History of the University of California, Santa Cruz campus which was completed in 2008.

$2,400.00 to the Dick Cooley Endowment at U.C. Santa Cruz for student projects that will have a positive impact on the environment.

$900.00 toward the preparation of a conservation management plan for a wilderness area in Alaska.

$600.00 toward the making of a film on the harmful effects of the ozone depleting chemical methyl bromide which is often sprayed on much of the food we eat.

$200.00 to help start a newsletter and organize the community regarding toxic pollution of the Fort Belknap Indian reservation by the Pegasus gold mine in north-central Montana.

$300.00 to examine the genetics of several rare and endangered plants in northern California areas pressured with development proposals.