Organizations as Global Citizens

It is very important for the modern world that global citizens come up all over the world. However, when those citizens come together they get much stronger and can spread the effects of their actions further. In this topic I want to talk about organizations of global citizen that has changed the world gradually.

The first organization I would like to demonstrate is African Solutions to African Problems - ASAP. This organization founded in 2003 has tried to change the life of people in the poorest continent on Earth. Its actions include different fronts as:

• Education
  ASAP provides access to pre-school, primary, secondary and tertiary education in order to yield healthy, self-reliant young adults who contribute back to the community. Our trained child care workers monitor the children’s attendance and progress and advocate for child rights in school, conducting strategic planning meetings with the Department of Education.
  There are several challenges in educating today’s youth in South Africa. The drop out rate is exceptionally high, particularly for girls who are forced to care for parents with AIDS and manage the household. How a child performs in school can be an indicator of their overall well-being and children not enrolled in school are more vulnerable to neglect and abuse. Senior schools charge fees and all schools require uniforms, which orphans cannot afford.
  
• Capacity Building
  ASAP builds the capacity of grassroots groups of women with no administrative systems by providing tools so that they can acquire and manage funding to build sustainable organizations. The aim is to attain 100% accountability, develop and practice good governance and attain their own development goals.
  They help them establish their own offices and create systems in order to manage growing programmes. Their staff work on-site with the communities, consulting on programme development, resource allocation, training coordination and project management. Their field staff provide hands-on technical assistance, trouble shooting, conflict resolution, and operational support.
  Historically, community-based organizations were predominately informal structures driven by volunteers and usually lacking professional organization, financial management and unable to access funding due to lack of communications and no experience with grant’s criteria.
  The purpose is to make women self-reliant and independent through the supply of appropriate skills. Capacity Building covers a large part of the work being done on-site by ASAP and encompasses the following:
  
• Nutrition and Agriculture
  More than 5 million school children do not have ready access to nutritious food according to the Department of Education. A child cannot concentrate and learn on an empty stomach and good nutrition plays a vital part in a good education. Though some schools offer nutrition programmes of bread and juice, they are inadequate and cannot be relied upon to meet basic dietary needs. The lack of sustainable agriculture and shortages of water have resulted in chronic malnutrition and persistent food insecurity for children.
  In an effort to establish sustainable nutritional sources for children, as well as to encourage the self sufficiency of the child care workers, ASAP supports vegetable gardens at Drop-in centres and schools.

The second organization I would like to mention is Chico Mendes Institute for Biodiversity Conservation (ICMBio), a brazilian institute responsable for protect and conservate the Biodiversity and directly related with the government in Brazil.

The name is a tribute to Francisco Alves Mendes Filho, better known as Chico Mendes (December 15, 1944 – December 22, 1988), a brazilian rubeer tapper, trade union leader and environmentalist. He fought to preserve the Amazon Rainforest, and advocated for the human rights of Brazilian peasants and indigenous peoples. He was assassinated by a rancher on December 22, 1988. After his death The Chico Mendes Institute for Conservation of Biodiversity (Instituto Chico Mendes de Conservação da Biodiversidade), a body under the jurisdiction of the Brazilian Ministry of the Environment, is named in his honor.

Chico Mendes has not travelled to a lot of countries however he understood the importance of the environment for the planet a long time ago, when the term 'global citizen' was barely known. Even living in an isolate comunity a long time ago in Amazonia, I have no doubt that Chico Mendes was one of the most important global citizens in Brazil and his fight against devastation go on now with his institute.

At first I thought I was fighting to save rubber trees, then I thought I was fighting to save the Amazon rainforest. Now I realise I am fighting for humanity.

—Chico Mendes

Those organizations have effectively modified the environment around them and these examples show us that It would be probably too difficult for only one individual make all these acts, but together they can be much stronger and definitely change the world...