ONE PERSON CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE

Some of the issues might look insurmountable for an individual. But it is a fact that everybody has the power to improve poor living conditions. The following examples show, how one single person or a small group managed to make a difference.

JULIA BONDS is a coal miner’s daughter and native West Virginian. When she saw her grandson standing in a polluted local stream with his hands full of dead fish, Bonds formed a community group to oppose mountaintop removal coal mining. This highly destructive “strip mining on steroids” is ravaging communities throughout Appalachia, turning river valleys into mining waste dumps, driving up asthma rates and forcing whole communities to abandon their homes. Bonds won important concessions from the State Mining Board, which recently imposed a 30-day suspension on a polluting mine and set tougher protections for local communities against mine blasting. (http://www.goldmanprize.org/recipients/recipientProfile.cfm?recipientID=123)

FATIMA JIBRELL, of Somalia, is one of the main voices in the fight against the ecological depletion of her country. In order to raise awareness among Somalians, the 54 year old woman founded Horn Relief, a grass-roots development organization. She trained a team of young people to organize campaigns about the irreversible damage of unrestricted charcoal production. The production of the black gold, as people in Somalia call charcoal, has led to large-scale logging. But as a result of Jibrell's education and lobbying, the regional government of North Somalia banned the export of charcoal. Horn Relief promotes the use of solar cookers instead. In May 2001, the organization initiated a Camel Caravan through a nomadic area, in the course of which the participants educated nomads about the careful use of fragile resources, healthcare, livestock management and peace. (http://www.goldmanprize.org/recipients/recipients.html)

JAMIE LERNER served three terms as Mayor of Curitiba – a city in Brazil. The architect by training turned his fast growing hometown into a model for sustainable urban development. Lerner implemented an “Integrated Mass Transportation System” acknowledged worldwide for its efficiency, quality and low cost. Further he intensified social measures that place Curitiba among the capitals of the world with the highest quality of life. The inhabitants of Curitiba gave him the unprecedented approval rating of 97% for his achievements. (http://www.cdsea.org/archives/Kcontrib/curitiba.htm)

ODIGHA ODIGHA, a forest protection activist in Nigeria, won unprecedented protections for the country’s last remaining rainforests. Odigha was instrumental in creating a statewide logging moratorium and has educated hundreds of forest communities on sustainable forestry practices. He has dramatically increased civil society and forest community representation in all forest management policy decisions. (http://www.goldmanprize.org/recipients/recipientProfile.cfm?recipientID=124)

MUHAMMAD YUNUS is an economics professor and founder of the Grameen Bank (GB) in Bangladesh. What began as successful efforts to help the local poor with 5-10 dollar loans from Yunus’ pockets became an international force to decrease poverty. GB was founded in 1979 to provide small loans to help individuals and small groups without collateral start businesses. In late 2002 the bank had 2.4 million borrowers, 95 percent of whom are women. Grameen Bank's positive impact on its poor and formerly poor borrowers has been documented in many independent studies carried out by external agencies including the World Bank and the International Food Research Policy Institute. (http://www.grameen-info.org/agrameen/profile.php3?profile=2)

PAOLO LUGARI is a Colombian visionary and founder of Gaviotas, a village that is experimenting in land reclamation and sustainable living. Built on Colombia's barren, rain-leached eastern savanna in 1971, Gaviotas is now a thriving community of 200. The United Nations has called the village a model for the developing world. The scientists, artisans, peasants, ex-street kids, and Guahibo Indians of Gaviotas have elevated phrases like sustainable development and appropriate technology from cliché to reality. Sixteen hours from the nearest major city, residents invented wind turbines that convert mild tropical breezes into energy, solar collectors that work in the rain, soil-free systems to raise edible and medicinal crops, and ultra-efficient pumps to tap deep aquifers. (http://www.chelseagreen.com/Gaviotas/topia.htm)

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