Critical connections to make and actions to take

From MADRE: Act Now to Help Lebanese and Palestinian Women and Children
Women and families in Lebanon and Gaza are facing a terrible crisis. The sudden war has killed hundreds of people in the region.
In Lebanon, more than half a million people have been forced to flee their homes because of Israeli ground and air strikes, now in their fourth week. Tens of thousands of them are crammed into school buildings in Beirut, waiting out the attacks; most of them fled without time to bring basic provisions. Our partners at the Center for Research and Training on Development-Action (CRTD-A) in Beirut are working around the clock to bring urgent aid—crucial necessities not provided by government relief efforts, such as toilet paper, sanitary pads, diapers, rash cream, and disinfectant—to women and children who have been displaced by the bombing. The estimated cost of one household kit is $62.50, and will provide enough supplies for a family of seven. With your assistance, MADRE can help our partners reach their goal of providing these crucial health and sanitation kits to 1,000 women-headed households. (click on link above for more information and to donate)

Grandmothers Group Calls for Letters Against the War

Grandmothers Against the War has launched The Grandmothers' Letters Project, inspired by one woman's urge to "write something to my 10-year-old granddaughter - not to scare her about the (Iraq) war and the state of the world but to help her to live positively in the world she must grow up in."

" Our plan is to gather the letters, to publish them in some form, and to disseminate them widely.Our age and experience - we've lived through so many wars!--make us well qualified to pass onto younger generations the helpful lessons we have learned. We are using letters, not lectures, sermons, or slogans, to describe our own real experiences.We urge all like-minded people - you - (regardless of gender) to write a letter that explores how experiences in your own life have brought you to oppose the current war and occupation. You can address actual children and
young people, or imaginary ones, and you are encouraged to send copies of your letters to friends, relatives, newspapers - to be disseminated widely, above all to The Grandmothers' Letters Project.

GUIDELINES FOR LETTERS: . 1. Length can range from 200 to 1,000 words. . 2. Addressee can be an actual young person but may be imagined. . 3. Letters should focus on a real experience, something the writer has seen or done or not done (or perhaps wished s/he had done), something s/he wants to pass on as a valuable action or learning experience.
REGARDING CONTRIBUTIONS: . 1. Letters will be edited solely for clarity (proofreading) and brevity (under 1,000 words, cutting repetition). No substantive changes will be made without consulting the writer. .
2. Contributors must include name and all contact numbers (email, snail mail, telephone). No anonymous letters will be accepted, but the writer's name will be withheld if requested.
3. Submitting a letter to the Grandmothers Letters Project constitutes permission for the Project to publish the letter in any format - newspapers, email, blog, printed book, sound recording, Website, or beamed to the stars of our galaxy. This is, of course, a non-exclusive right, and the main purpose of the project is that writers disseminate their own letters in every way possible.

4. The Grandmothers' Letters Project will bear only its own costs of printing, distribution, website fees involved in distributing the letter and
so on. In the extremely unlikely event that any money beyond what might cover these costs comes back to the Letters Project from its efforts to
publish letters, that money will be donated to peace organizations.

5. People who don't want to write a letter can volunteer to help in other ways: promotion, printing, editing, distribution, etc.The Letters Project committee EAGERLY awaits your letter.
Do sit down and WRITE NOW!Email your letter (or other offers of support for the project) to:GAWletters@hotmail.com.
Or send snail mail to:Grandmothers Against the WarLetters Project, P.O. Box 9476, Berkeley, CA 94709.

To get on the email list for announcements from Grandmothers Against the War, contact bayareagrandmothers@yahoo.com

Help Send Emergency Relief to Women and Children in Darfur
From the human rights organization MADRE: The UN World Food Program reported on April 28th that it is cutting food rations to Darfur by 50 percent due to a lack of funding.

We are responding to the crisis in Darfur by working with our partner, Zenab (a Sudanese women's organization) in El Sieref and other refugee camps, where conditions are horrific. Women face a systematic campaign of gang rape, children fear for their lives, and families lack even the most basic necessities, like enclosed toilets. Now they will have even less food.

MADRE is providing support to deliver food, prevent rapes, help ensure women’s and children’s security and privacy, and provide counseling and play therapy to traumatized children. Please help us to make a difference. (click on title link above)
See MADRE's Notes on the Crisis in Darfur for more backround information.

Petition the UN to stop promoting nuclear power Sign the Greenpeace petition online to call on United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan and IAEA Director-General El Bharadei to stop its promotion of a dirty, dangerous industry. It should focus its resources exclusively on its critical mission of disarmament and world peace. You can also add an optional personal comment opposing nuclear power and we will deliver these names and comments to the UN.

From Women and Life on Earth on International Women’s Day 2006:
It’s not enough for women to say: “That’s enough!”

ANOTHER WORLD IS NECESSARY- ANOTHER WORLD IS POSSIBLE - ANOTHER WORLD HAS ALREADY STARTED
An historic declaration coming out of the International Workshop on Self-Organizing and Common Self-Reliance, Cologne, Germany, October 20-22, 2005. The work of Grace Lee Boggs, Maria Mies and others, to spread widely. Here written up in the Michigan Citizen, Nov. 27-Dec. 3, 2005.

US voters! Express yourself: join in e-mail lobbying on issues from proposed nominations to global warming.
see 20/20 Vision