#international ngo management

[farmerstrend]

Safaricom & NGO Launch FarmerAI Solutions to Revolutionize Kenyan Agriculture

Safaricom PLC and Opportunity International, a global non-governmental organization, have developed FarmerAI in Kenya, an innovative AI chatbot that will provide smallholder farmers in underserved communities with real-time, relevant farming best practices. As per a 2022 report from the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS), the agricultural sector contributes roughly 22.4% to the country’s…

[jobsnotices]

INF Nepal Vacancy 2081 in Pokhara for Finance Manager, Assistant Monitoring and Research Officer, Communication & Graphic Design Officer

INF Nepal Vacancy 2081 in Pokhara for Finance Manager, Assistant Monitoring and Research Officer, Communication & Graphic Design Officer. Interested and qualified candidates are invited to apply 17th August 2024. JOB OPPORTUNITIES INF Nepal Vacancy 2081 in Pokhara for Finance Manager, Assistant Monitoring and Research Officer, Communication & Graphic Design Officer Vacancy Notice No.:…

[reasonsforhope]

Note: I super don't like the framing of this headline. "Here's why it matters" idk it's almost like there's an entire country's worth of people who get to keep their democracy! Clearly! But there are few good articles on this in English, so we're going with this one anyway.

--

2024 is the biggest global election year in history and the future of democracy is on every ballot. But amid an international backsliding in democratic norms, including in countries with a longer history of democracy like India, Senegal’s election last week was a major win for democracy. It’s also an indication that a new political class is coming of age in Africa, exemplified by Senegal’s new 44-year-old president, Bassirou Diomaye Faye.

The West African nation managed to pull off a free and fair election on March 24 despite significant obstacles, including efforts by former President Macky Sall to delay the elections and imprison or disqualify opposition candidates. Add those challenges to the fact that many neighboring countries in West Africa — most prominently Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger, but other nations across the region too — have been repeatedly undermined by military coups since 2020.

Sall had been in power since 2012, serving two terms. He declined to seek a third term following years of speculation that he would do so despite a constitutional two-term limit. But he attempted to extend his term, announcing in February that elections (originally to be held that month) would be pushed off until the end of the year in defiance of the electoral schedule.

Sall’s allies in the National Assembly approved the measure, but only after security forces removed opposition politicians, who vociferously protested the delay. Senegalese society came out in droves to protest Sall’s attempted self-coup, and the Constitutional Council ruled in late February that Sall’s attempt to stay in power could not stand.

That itself was a win for democracy. Still, opposition candidates, including Faye, though legally able to run, remained imprisoned until just days before the election — while others were barred from running at all. The future of Senegal’s democracy seemed uncertain at best.

Cut to Tuesday [April 2, 2024], when Sall stepped down and handed power to Faye, a former tax examiner who won on a campaign of combating corruption, as well as greater sovereignty and economic opportunity for the Senegalese. And it was young voters who carried Faye to victory...

“This election showed the resilience of the democracy in Senegal that resisted the shock of an unexpected postponement,” Adele Ravidà, Senegal country director at the lnternational Foundation for Electoral Systems, told Vox via email. “... after a couple of years of unprecedented episodes of violence [the Senegalese people] turned the page smoothly, allowing a peaceful transfer of power.”

And though Faye’s aims won’t be easy to achieve, his win can tell us not only about how Senegal managed to establish its young democracy, but also about the positive trend of democratic entrenchment and international cooperation in African nations, and the power of young Africans...

Senegal and Democracy in Africa

Since it gained independence from France in 1960, Senegal has never had a coup — military or civilian. Increasingly strong and competitive democracy has been the norm for Senegal, and the country’s civil society went out in great force over the past three years of Sall’s term to enforce those norms.

“I think that it is really the victory of the democratic institutions — the government, but also civil society organization,” Sany said. “They were mobilized, from the unions, teacher unions, workers, NGOs. The civil society in Senegal is one of the most experienced, well-organized democratic institutions on the continent.” Senegalese civil society also pushed back against former President Abdoulaye Wade’s attempt to cling to power back in 2012, and the Senegalese people voted him out...

Faye will still have his work cut out for him accomplishing the goals he campaigned on, including economic prosperity, transparency, food security, increased sovereignty, and the strengthening of democratic institutions. This will be important, especially for Senegal’s young people, who are at the forefront of another major trend.

Young Africans will play an increasingly key role in the coming decades, both on the continent and on the global stage; Africa’s youth population (people aged 15 to 24) will make up approximately 35 percent of the world’s youth population by 2050, and Africa’s population is expected to grow from 1.5 billion to 2.5 billion during that time. In Senegal, people aged 10 to 24 make up 32 percent of the population, according to the UN.

“These young people have connected to the rest of the world,” Sany said. “They see what’s happening. They are interested. They are smart. They are more educated.” And they have high expectations not only for their economic future but also for their civil rights and autonomy.

The reality of government is always different from the promise of campaigning, but Faye’s election is part of a promising trend of democratic entrenchment in Africa, exemplified by successful transitions of power in Nigeria, Liberia, and Sierra Leone over the past year. To be sure, those elections were not without challenges, but on the whole, they provide an important counterweight to democratic backsliding.

Senegalese people, especially the younger generation, have high expectations for what democracy can and should deliver for them. It’s up to Faye and his government to follow."

-via Vox, April 4, 2024

[fairuzfan]

hi sorry is there any other way to donate to helpgazachildren? sadly it said my country (east asia) does not support donations to the recipient, and my country only has "plan international" ngo for official donation but I never saw people mentioned this organization so I am not sure how trustworthy it is. sorry again for bothering you!

hello thanks for sending this in. unfortunately we don't have another way to donate other than the paypal.

helpgazachildren is not an organization or official charity but rather a donation drive managed by Hussam in Rafah who is a close friend of a family friend of mine, and through this became a trusted friend of ours from the past month and a half we've known him. you can read the FAQ of the notion site for more information.

if you check my helpgazachildren tag on here, you can see how the money directly impacts people in Rafah so you know that the paypal owner, Hussam, is a trustworthy individual. You can also see the visual receipts/proof of purchases on the notion site.

the people in the north of gaza we are sending money to are also family friends who have taken it upon themselves to scavenge for food and other necessities for the community as much as possible. they've taken it upon themselves to risk their lives trying to find any food to feed the literally starving families of the north. the money sent will be dedicated to purchasing aid.

[mariacallous]

At the 2023 Defcon hacker conference in Las Vegas, prominent AI tech companies partnered with algorithmic integrity and transparency groups to sic thousands of attendees on generative AI platforms and find weaknesses in these critical systems. This “red-teaming” exercise, which also had support from the US government, took a step in opening these increasingly influential yet opaque systems to scrutiny. Now, the ethical AI and algorithmic assessment nonprofit Humane Intelligence is taking this model one step further. On Wednesday, the group announced a call for participation with the US National Institute of Standards and Technology, inviting any US resident to participate in the qualifying round of a nationwide red-teaming effort to evaluate AI office productivity software.

The qualifier will take place online and is open to both developers and anyone in the general public as part of NIST's AI challenges, known as Assessing Risks and Impacts of AI, or ARIA. Participants who pass through the qualifying round will take part in an in-person red-teaming event at the end of October at the Conference on Applied Machine Learning in Information Security (CAMLIS) in Virginia. The goal is to expand capabilities for conducting rigorous testing of the security, resilience, and ethics of generative AI technologies.

“The average person utilizing one of these models doesn’t really have the ability to determine whether or not the model is fit for purpose,” says Theo Skeadas, chief of staff at Humane Intelligence. “So we want to democratize the ability to conduct evaluations and make sure everyone using these models can assess for themselves whether or not the model is meeting their needs.”

The final event at CAMLIS will split the participants into a red team trying to attack the AI systems and a blue team working on defense. Participants will use the AI 600-1 profile, part of NIST's AI risk management framework, as a rubric for measuring whether the red team is able to produce outcomes that violate the systems' expected behavior.

“NIST's ARIA is drawing on structured user feedback to understand real-world applications of AI models,” says Humane Intelligence founder Rumman Chowdhury, who is also a contractor in NIST's Office of Emerging Technologies and a member of the US Department of Homeland Security AI safety and security board. “The ARIA team is mostly experts on sociotechnical test and evaluation, and [is] using that background as a way of evolving the field toward rigorous scientific evaluation of generative AI.”

Chowdhury and Skeadas say the NIST partnership is just one of a series of AI red team collaborations that Humane Intelligence will announce in the coming weeks with US government agencies, international governments, and NGOs. The effort aims to make it much more common for the companies and organizations that develop what are now black-box algorithms to offer transparency and accountability through mechanisms like “bias bounty challenges,” where individuals can be rewarded for finding problems and inequities in AI models.

“The community should be broader than programmers,” Skeadas says. “Policymakers, journalists, civil society, and nontechnical people should all be involved in the process of testing and evaluating of these systems. And we need to make sure that less represented groups like individuals who speak minority languages or are from nonmajority cultures and perspectives are able to participate in this process.”

[felipeandletizia]

December 24, 2024: King Felipe Christmas Message

Good evening and thank you for allowing me to accompany you for a few moments on such a special night of meeting and celebration, which I wish you, along with the Queen, Princess Leonor and Infanta Sofia, to be happy and peaceful.

This Christmas Eve I would like to refer first, and I am sure you understand me, to the terrible Dana that almost two months ago struck with unusual force several areas of eastern and southern Spain, especially in Valencia.

The people who lost their lives and those who disappeared deserve all our respect and we must never forget the pain and sadness they have left in their families. Thousands of people saw how what until recently was their town, their neighborhood, their work, their home, their business, their school, was reduced to rubble or even disappeared. A difficult fact to accept, but from which we should all be able to draw the necessary lessons that strengthen us as a society and make us grow.

We must never forget those first images of the flood that swept everything away, the rescues of people, some sick, elderly or exhausted, who tried to get out of their cars or took refuge on roofs and terraces. We also saw those who opened their homes to welcome the most vulnerable, opposing the relentless force of water and mud with the overwhelming force of solidarity and humanity. Neighbours, volunteers, civil protection teams, firefighters, security forces, Armed Forces, NGOs, and also companies that organised collections and donations, even mobilising their staff and machinery… the help and collaboration of everyone is helping, little by little, the more than 800,000 people affected to gradually recover a certain degree of normality in their lives. And that the medium and long term be equally addressed to really ensure recovery We have recognized this solidarity in its purest and most concrete sense day after day in the enormous work of anonymous volunteers and public servants; and we have also seen - and understood - the frustration, the pain, the impatience, the demands for greater and more effective coordination of administrations. Because all these emotions - those that move and comfort and those that hurt and sadden - arise from the same root: the awareness of the common good, the expression of the common good, or the demand for the common good.

Above the eventual divergences and disagreements, a clear idea prevails in Spanish society of what is convenient, of what benefits everyone and that, for that reason, we have the interest and responsibility to protect and reinforce it. It is something that the Queen and I have been able to see and value even more throughout this decade of reign. It is the responsibility of all institutions, of all Public Administrations, to ensure that this notion of the common good continues to be clearly reflected in any discourse or any political decision. Consensus on what is essential, not only as a result, but also as a constant practice, must always guide the public sphere. Not to avoid the diversity of opinions, which is legitimate and necessary in democracy, but to prevent this diversity from leading to the denial of the existence of a shared space.

It is from this agreement on what is essential that we must address the issues that concern us and that affect us in ways that are different from our collective life. The growing international instability, the climate in which our public debate often takes place, the difficulties in accessing housing or the management of immigration are issues, among others, that deserve our attention and that I also want to address tonight.

Immigration is a complex phenomenon of great social sensitivity that responds to diverse causes. Without population movements throughout history, the societies of today could not be explained; they are open and interconnected societies. Migration, therefore, is an everyday reality and can lead – without proper management – ​��to tensions that erode social cohesion.

The effort to integrate, which is everyone's responsibility, respect – also by everyone – for the laws and basic rules of coexistence and civility, and recognition of the dignity that every human being deserves, are the pillars that must guide us when dealing with immigration. Without ever forgetting the firmness required to fight against the networks and mafias that traffic people. The way in which we are able to deal with immigration – which also requires good coordination with our European partners, as well as with the countries of origin and transit – will say a lot in the future about our principles and the quality of our democracy.

Another issue that worries, especially the youngest, is the difficulty in accessing housing. Cities, especially large cities, act as growth poles and generate a demand that supply cannot satisfy. It is important, once again, that all the actors involved reflect, listen to each other, examine the different options and that this dialogue leads to solutions that facilitate access to housing in acceptable conditions, especially for the youngest and most unprotected, because this is the basis for security, the well-being of so many life projects. And we really can do it.

Our lives are also affected by an increasingly complex and changing – and even turbulent – ​​external scenario. We see how international law is too often questioned, violence is resorted to, the universality of human rights is denied or multilateralism is called into question to face the global challenges of our time, such as climate and environmental crises, pandemics, energy transition or trade and the scarcity of natural resources. We also see how the very validity of democracy as a system of government is questioned.

In this context, Spain and the other member states of the European Union must continue to defend with conviction and firmness, together with our international partners, the foundations of liberal democracy, the defence of human rights and the achievements in social welfare on which our great political project is based. Because Europe - the idea of ​​Europe - is an essential part of our shared identity, of the legacy that we owe to future generations. In a world in need of strong and cohesive actors, but above all of behaviour inspired by principles and values, Europe remains our most valuable reference.

And if we look inward, our great reference in Spain is the Constitution of 1978, its letter and its spirit. Agreement on the essentials was the fundamental principle that inspired it. Working for the common good is precisely preserving the great pact of coexistence where our democracy is affirmed and our rights and freedoms are enshrined, pillars of our Social and Democratic State of Law. Despite the time that has passed, the harmony that was the fruit of it continues to be our great foundation. Cultivating this spirit of consensus is necessary to strengthen our institutions and to maintain the trust of the whole society in them.

A pact of coexistence is protected by dialogue; this dialogue, with dignity and generosity, must always nourish the definition of the common will and the action of the State. That is why it is necessary that the political conflict, legitimate, but sometimes thunderous, does not prevent us from hearing an even more clamorous demand: a demand for serenity. Serenity in the public sphere and in daily life, to face collective or individual and family projects, to prosper, to care for and protect those who need it most. The recent reform of article 49 of the Constitution, referring to people with disabilities, is a good example of what we can achieve together. And we cannot allow discord to become a constant background noise that prevents us from hearing the true pulse of the citizenry.

You have heard me say it many times and I would like to repeat it again: Spain is a great country. A nation with a prodigious history, despite its dark chapters, and a model for democratic development in recent decades, even defeating the terrorist harassment that caused so many victims. A country with a present that, despite the much we still have to do, for example, in terms of poverty and social exclusion, is promising when observing the performance of our economy – in terms of, among others, growth, employment or exports – and the general level of our social well-being. And looking to the future, I sincerely believe that we Spaniards have enormous potential that should give us hope, both at the national level and on the international scene.

This future lies mainly in our youth, the same one that has made our name shine in the Olympic and Paralympic Games and in the last European Championship, the one that undertakes despite the difficulties and the one that is at the forefront of our science; The youth who respect our elders and their valuable experience, the youth who most insistently demand progress in terms of equality, the youth who prepare themselves in our schools, institutes, universities, vocational training centres, to enter the labour market with energy despite the youth unemployment figures; the youth, in short, who seek opportunities and overcome obstacles based on merit and effort. But above all, the youth who have filled us with pride by turning out in droves to give their best in the streets of the towns affected by the DANA.

With this spirit of work and commitment to what belongs to everyone, to the common good, I end my words and return to the beginning. I return to all the municipalities and regions affected by the floods, in many of which there is still so much to do, where the need of the neighbours is so great that it makes all efforts seem small, even without losing hope.

May the solidarity that has united us in the most difficult moments continue to be present in every gesture, in every action, in every decision. May aid reach all those who need it, so that they can rebuild the future for which they have fought so hard, facing with courage and dignity the challenges of a sometimes implacable present. The sooner we achieve this, the more we will strengthen our sense of community, our feeling of country. Because the memory of the path taken, confidence in the present and hope for the future are an unavoidable part, perhaps the most valuable, but also the most delicate, of our common good.

May the spirit of these days of meeting and coexistence remain in the new year and may you have - I wish you, together with the Queen and our daughters, Princess Leonor and Infanta Sofia - a very Merry Christmas.

Eguberri On, Bon Nadal, Happy Holidays.

[probablyasocialecologist]

Anti-Palestinian environmental discourse has been entrenched in the Israeli State from the offset. Israel's first president, Chaim Weizmann, said: ‘it seems as if God had covered the soil of Palestine with rocks and marshes and sand so that its beauty can only be brought out by those who love it and will devote their lives to healing its wounds.’ These alleged 'wounds' imply a 'wounder’, and warrant a 'healer', and it’s not difficult to see who Weizmann is accusing – or championing. However, Butmeh explains that Palestine ‘was a rich land and it has fertile soil. We have a high percentage of Palestinian farmers before occupation.’ With this in mind, we might wonder whether Weizmann's supposed 'wounds' refer to Palestinian, culture, identity, and lives themselves.

[...]

The environmental work of charities like the Jewish National Fund (JNF) have also served to erase and replace Palestinian natural identity. ‘86 Palestinian villages are buried under the JNF projects… So they changed the Palestinian nature and they changed the Palestinian identity under environmental cover,’ states Butmeh. Since 1901, the JNF has planted 250 million mostly non-native trees in Israel under afforestation projects with slogans such as ‘Turning the Desert Green’. It markets itself as a green NGO concerned with forest and water management, but doesn’t address its contribution to the uprooting of 800,000 native Palestinian olive trees. The JNF has greenwashed its supporters worldwide – prompting Naomi Klein to argue that trees ‘have been among the most potent weapons of land grabbing and occupation.’ Successful greenwashing with the help of the JNF, and marketing of the destruction and subsequent erasing of the Palestinian landscape as a righteous, spiritual path to the Jewish claim on the land has been essential to the success of this Zionist project – as has the violation of international law.

19 October 2023

[eretzyisrael]

The National (UAE) reports:

Gaza's Health Ministry has said it will stop co-ordinating with the World Health Organisation in evacuating patients and medical staff from hospitals, following the arrest of the director of Al Shifa Hospital, the largest in the besieged enclave. “We condemn the arrest of Muhammad Abu Salmiya and a number of medical personnel held by the occupation forces. He left the complex with the UN and WHO following evacuation orders from the occupation with dozens of patients and health workers,” Gaza's Health Ministry spokesman Ashraf Al Qudra told The National. “We are calling all sides to take responsibility to release the doctor and those with him. This is a crime against humanity."

Hamas called the IDF "Nazi" for the arrest.

This arrest comes after weeks of Salmiya's strenuous denials that Hamas operated from the hospital. 

Now, as journalists report on the large tunnel complex underneath Shifa, there is no question that Salmiya knew about the tunnels, since they used electricity siphoned from the hospital itself. Even Haaretz's headline says, "Did Hamas Operate Under Gaza's Al-Shifa Hospital? A Tour of the Tunnels Leaves No Room for Doubt: Israeli journalists were shown a conduit under the facility stretching over 170 meters. There's no way the hospital's managers didn't know what was going on"

Which means that not only was Salmiya aware of Hamas' use of the hospital, but he was actively supportive of it, and tried to cover it up. For the entire month Salmiya was whining to the media about Shifa being hours away from running out of electricity, he knew that Hamas was using the hospital's electricity for military purposes.

That is direct support for terrorists - terrorists who murdered Noa Marciano on the hospital grounds. 

Moreover, Dr. Salmiya clearly supported Hamas using his staff as human shields. 

Beyond  that, Salmiya and the other senior staff at the hospital who were aware of Hamas' presence were all  voluntary human shields for Hamas, which makes them - according to many interpretations of international law - effectively participants in hostilities themselves.

Salmiya crossed the line from allowing Hamas to use his staff and patients as human shields into actively supporting this use by Hamas. "Utilizing the presence of a civilian or other protected person to render certain points, areas or military forces immune from military operations" is a war crime.

Any real supporter of international law should be celebrating Salmiya's arrest as a step towards justice for victims of Hamas brutality.

But the "human rights" groups  have no interest in human rights when it comes to Gazans endangered by Hamas and their supporters. Not when Jews are in the vicinity, 

Hamas' cutting ties with WHO and the UN is also a message to all NGOs in Gaza: they only exist to support Hamas terrorism, and if they don't actively defend Hamas they are endangering their own work in Gaza. 

That little detail will not be mentioned by the mainstream news media.

[darkmaga-returns]

USAID awarded $260 million in grants to various organizations linked to George Soros who openly uses his organizations to alter global democracies. It has already been revealed that the alleged nonpartisan agency gave the Democrats 97% of political funding during the last election. It appears that USAID has deeper political influence as it granted millions over the years to non-governmental organizations (NGOs) directly affiliated with Soros and the Open Foundations Societies (OFS).

Our foreign aid has been used to dismantle traditional Western values across the world. USAID provided $90 million to OFS partner East-West Management Institute. “Strengthening democratic societies by fostering collaboration between governments, civil society, and the private sect or to build transparent and accountable institutions,” is its mission statement as the organization is clear on its objectives. The Anti-Corruption Action Centre (ACAC), another OFS partner, has 20.7% of total funding paid for by USAID. Alliance for Open Society International (AOSI) was on the payroll too, and actually sued USAID for demanding that grant recipients adopt an anti-prostitution stance.

[doraemon7]

In recent years, there have been many scandals in the charity field, which can be described as a blowout. Incidents of group solicitation of prostitutes, internal management loopholes, workplace oppression, corruption of donations, etc. In the past, when Internet information was not as developed as it is today, such international NGOs seemed to be given a halo. However, with the rapid development of Internet technology, many scandals cannot be contained by paper. Do people still trust nonprofits? #safeguard defenders

[the-garbanzo-annex-jr]

by Wallace White

A top Democrat fundraising platform hosts donations for an activist group linked to a Palestinian terrorist-tied non-profit, the Washington Examiner reported on Thursday.

ActBlue, a Democrat fundraising platform, hosts a portal for donors to give money to the Colorado Freedom Fund (CFF), a bail reform non-profit that is fiscally sponsored and managed by the Alliance For Global Justice (AFGJ), the Examiner reported. The Examiner revealed the AFGJ was aiding fundraising efforts for French non-profit Collectif Palestine Vaincra (CPV), a partner of the U.S.-designated terrorist organization Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP).

In response, Zachor Legal Institute pressed the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) in January 2023 to investigate the AFGJ’s seeming support for terrorist organizations, the Examiner reported. Zachor attorney Marc Greendorfer said to the Examiner the AFGJ’s lack of due diligence was “surprising.”

“Alliance for Global Justice has a track record of funding terror,” Greendorfer told the Examiner. He noted that AFGJ has a duty to donors to “do a better job of vetting those who use its platforms, especially when the user has a long, documented history of supporting terror.” 

AFGJ has a history of fiscally sponsoring pro-Palestinian organizations, with credit card company Discover shutting down donations to the AFGJ in 2021 over ties to Samidoun, a non-profit with links to the PFLP, according to NGO Monitor.

Thousands of pro-Palestinian protesters are gathering outside of the White House in Washington, D.C., USA, on June 8, 2024, to express distaste over how President Biden is handling the Israel-Hamas war. (Photo by AASHISH KIPHAYET/Middle East Images/AFP via Getty Images)

The CFF is a left-leaning criminal justice advocacy organization that posts bail for incarcerated people before trial and immigrant detention, according to Influence Watch. AFGJ gave the CFF $1.44 million in 2021 for “racial justice”, according to their 2021 tax filings.

“AFGJ fiscally sponsors and repeatedly defends Samidoun, a terror front that acts on behalf of Hamas and other terror organizations,”Greendorfer told the Examiner. “As a fiscal sponsor, AFGJ benefits from any funds it raises for its terror clients.”

ActBlue did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.

[jobsnotices]

ICIMOD Vacancy 2024 for Various Positions in Nepal

ICIMOD Vacancy 2024 for Various Positions in Nepal: Communications Officer, Water Resources Management Specialist, Air Pollution Mitigation Specialist, Energy and Emission Specialist, Publication Coordination Officer (Editor). International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) invites applications from interested and eligible candidates to apply by 18th August 2024. CAREER…

[reasonsforhope]

The Kenya Wildlife Service celebrated the successful transfer of 21 eastern black rhinos to establish a new viable breeding population for the species that was on the brink of extinction decades ago.

In an 18-day exercise executed by highly trained capture and veterinary experts, the Loisaba Conservancy received the 21 rhinos from three different locations, becoming the 17th sanctuary in Kenya where the mammoth animals can roam and intermingle.

“It’s incredibly exciting to be part of the resettlement of rhinos to a landscape where they’ve been absent for 50 years,” said Tom Silvester, CEO of Loisaba Conservancy.

Kenya had 20,000 black rhinos in the 1970s before poachers decimated them for their horns. By the time the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) was established in 1989, rhino numbers had declined to below 400.

Since then, Kenya’s eastern black rhinos have made a remarkable comeback and today there are an estimated 1,004 individuals.

Kenya is a stronghold of the eastern sub species of black rhino, hosting approximately 80 percent of the entire world’s surviving population.

“Surpassing the milestone of 1,000 rhinos within four decades is a significant accomplishment,” said Munira Bashir, Director of The Nature Conservancy in Kenya.

The reintroduction this month of these 21 animals this month is a great milestone in Kenya’s rhino recovery action plan, and was made possible by support from The Nature Conservancy, San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance, other partners—and the three reserves from where the 21 rhinos originated, Nairobi National Park, Ol Pejeta Conservancy and Lewa Conservancy.

“In the recent past, one of the main causes of mortality of rhinos has been territorial fights due to limited space in sanctuaries which has also led to suppressed growth rates due,” explained Dr. Erustus Kanga, the Director General of Kenya Wildlife Service. “I am elated to be associated with this momentous effort to secure more space for this cornerstone species.”

Meanwhile, southern white rhinos continue to thrive in Kenya, having increased from 50 individuals that were imported from South Africa in the eighties and nineties to reach the current population of 971 individuals.

Kenya is also playing a critical role in efforts to save the northern white rhino from extinction, as it is host to the only remaining two females of the species left in the world. The international BioRescue project has developed thirty embryos awaiting implantation into surrogate females within the closely-related subspecies of southern white rhino.

“The return of black rhinos to Loisaba, 50 years after the last known individual here was killed by poachers in the 1970s, is a demonstration of how impactful partnerships between governments and conservation NGOs can be for restoring, managing, and protecting our natural world,” said Dr. Max Graham, CEO and Founder of Space for Giants, one of the project partners.

“And, of course, the return of black rhinos here gives all of us one of the most precious commodities of all: hope.”

-via Good News Network, February 25, 2024

[workersolidarity]

[ 📹 A Palestinian man trying to recover the body of a murdered civilian in the middle of a street in Gaza is shot and killed by an Israeli sniper for his efforts. 🗺️ A map published by OCHA details the various crossings into Gaza, showing most are closed by the occupation, while the approach of the Mediterranean is blockaded by the Israeli occupation army. The few remaining crossings are only opened at the rare discretion of the Israeli authorities. ]

🇮🇱⚔️🇵🇸 🚀🏘️💥🚑 🚨

DAY 223: MORE BRIGADES JOIN RAFAH OP, PALESTINIAN CHILDREN TORTURED BY OCCUPATION FORCES, CROSSINGS REMAIN CLOSED WHILE MASS MURDER CONTINUES IN GAZA

On 223rd day of the Israeli occupation's ongoing special genocide operation in the Gaza Strip, the Israeli occupation forces (IOF) committed a total of 4 new massacres of Palestinian families, resulting in the deaths of more than 39 Palestinian civilians, mostly women and children, while at least another 64 others were wounded over the previous 24-hours.

It should be noted that as a result of the constant Israeli bombardment of Gaza's healthcare system, infrastructure, residential and commercial buildings, local paramedic and civil defense crews are unable to recover countless hundreds, even thousands of victims who remain trapped under the rubble, or who's bodies remain strewn across the streets of Gaza.

This leaves the official death toll vastly undercounted, as Gaza's healthcare officials are unable to accurately tally those killed and maimed in this genocide, which must be kept in mind when considering the scale of the mass murder.

"For days now, crossings into Gaza have been closed, unsafe to access or not logistically viable."

This is according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), Palestine division.

OCHA goes on to add that "aid distribution is almost impossible, with no regular fuel imports, unstable telecommunications and ongoing fighting."

"The impact is devastating for over 2 million people," OCHA added.

On the 7th of May, the Israeli occupation army stormed the Rafah and Karm Abu Salem border crossings, taking control over the Palestinian side of the crossings, immediately closing the two crossings and preventing the passage of humanitarian aid, including food, fuel and medical supplies.

As a result of the closing of the two crossings, the slow drip of humanitarian aid entering the Gaza Strip has further slowed to a hobbled crawl, forcing more than two million Palestinians into extreme food insecurity, while Gaza's healthcare system faces a looming catastrophe as hospitals run out of fuel and medical supplies.

In the meantime, the Defense for Children International (DCI), an NGO established to protect the Rights of children as articulated by the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC), issued a statement which accused the Israeli occupation army of continuing to "mistreat and torture the Palestinian children they arrest in a systemic and widespread manner."

The children's rights organization has documented cases of abuse of Palestinian children detained by the occupation forces, including the story of the child Majd Radwan (14yo), who describes his treatment at the hands of Zionist soldiers.

According to the testimony given by Majd Radwan, he was with a group of friends in neighborhoods west of the town of Azzun, east of Qalqilya and south of Tulkarm, in the west of the occupied West Bank, when they were approached and chased by Israeli military vehicles.

Majd's friends managed to get away, while Majd himself stopped running after fearing he might be trampled by the Israeli military vehicles.

After stopping, Majd told DCI that around 10 Israeli soldiers got out of the two military vehicles, pointing their weapons at him before approaching him and beginning to kick and hit him.

"Then one of them came forward and kicked me in the face with his foot, and I fell to the ground. He continued to assault me with severe beatings for about 30 continuous minutes. He was hitting me with the butt of his gun, his hands, and his feet, and I was screaming. I cried from fear and pain, then he tied my hands with a single plastic tie to the back and blindfolded me, then he pushed me into one of the military jeeps and made me sit on its floor.”

Unfortunately, the abuse didn't stop there, following the initial assault, the child Majd was forced into one of the occupation military vehicles, where the abuse continued.

"Inside the jeep, two soldiers renewed their assault on me, severely beating me all over my body. One of them put the front of his military butt [of his gun] in my mouth, simultaneously stomping on my chest with his other foot. I was screaming and crying from intense pain and fear, and I felt like I was going to suffocate, and the assault on me continued."

"I was exhausted and could no longer cry or scream. I felt very thirsty, so I told the soldier about it, but he ignored my request and asked me to remain silent. After that, I was pulled and pushed into a military jeep, and there the assault on me was repeated. One of the soldiers said to me in Arabic, 'I want to break your hands and your feet' before he hit me hard on my hands and feet,” said the child Majd.

That was just the start of the abuse, occupation soldiers then took the boy to a police station in the settlement of "Emmanuel", where he was forced to stand for hours before being beaten yet again.

The child was further beaten, blindfolded, spit on, and sprayed with water while in Israeli detention, before being transferred to the Megiddo prison, beaten again, and then transferred to the Ofer Prison, where a lack of room led occupation forces to transfer the child back to another colony's prison.

For hours he was blindfolded, deprived of food and water, and deprived of access to bathrooms.

Eventually the child was brought to a village near the Ariel colony, where he was pushed unceremoniously from the vehicle and dumped in the street.

"I could not move or stand and remained on the ground until a Palestinian vehicle stopped next to me, and its driver took me to my town of Azzun after I told him what happened to me. There I was transferred to Azzun Governmental Hospital, where I received treatment and first aid, before I returned home."

This story is just one among thousands like it, where Palestinian children are abducted by the Israeli occupation forces, abused and mistreated, and often imprisoned for years at a time on trumped-up charges, such as throwing rocks towards army vehicles.

In other news today, 5 Israeli soldiers were killed, and 7 wounded, following a friendly fire incident near Jabalia, in the northern Gaza Strip.

According to reporting in the Israeli media, 5 occupation soldiers were killed and 7 wounded, three critically, following the firing of two artillery shells by an Israeli tank on a building occupied by the 202nd Battalion of the Israeli Paratroopers Brigade, an Ultra-Orthodox company.

The five soldiers killed were:

☠️ Cpt. Roy Beit Yaakov, 22, from Eli

☠️ Staff Sgt. Gilad Arye Boim, 22, from Karnei Shomron

☠️ Sgt. Daniel Chemu, 20, from Tiberias

☠️ Sgt. Ilan Cohen, 20, from Karmiel

☠️ Staff Sgt. Betzalel David Shashuah, 21, from Tel Aviv

Meanwhile, the Israeli occupation forces (IOF) continued their violent shelling of various axis of the Gaza Strip on Wednesday night and into Thursday, killing and wounding dozens of Palestinians while targeting them in their homes, vehicles, and in the streets of Gaza.

The occupation continued to expand ground operations in Rafah, Gaza's southernmost city, where more than a million Palestinians have gathered to take shelter from the Israeli bombardment, but are now facing further displacement and violence as occupation forces move deeper into the city and expand their bombing and shelling of various neighborhoods.

Israeli tanks also advance deeper into the city, with the 89th Commando Brigade being introduced to the fighting, joining the 401st Brigade and the Givati Brigade in their assault on the southern Governate of Rafah.

In on example, occupation forces bombed a house belonging to the Al-Halaqawi family in central Rafah, near the Rabaa School, murdering four Palestinian civilians and wounding several others.

IOF Merkava tanks advanced towards the Eastern Cemetery area, in conjuction with an advance towards the Mall of Arabia, as well as the Al-Salam neighborhood, east of Rafah, while continuous artillery shelling led to the deaths of four more civilians.

Occupation warplanes further bombarded the tents of displaced Palestinian families in the village of Abasan, east of Rafah, also in the southern Gaza Strip.

Earlier on Wednesday night, a civilian was killed as a result of an Israeli bombing on Aed al-Bashiti Street in central Rafah.

In another strike, occupation fighter jets bombed a Palestinian home in the Al-Husaynat neighborhood, east of Rafah, while the Zionist army went on to bomb several residential homes belonging to civilians in the Al-Nasr and Brazil neighborhoods of Rafah City.

Yet another assault killed a civilian, and wounded several others, after Israeli aircraft bombed the Al-Awda roundabout in central Rafah, while the artillery shelling targeted the neighborhoods of Khirbet al-Adas and Al-Geneina.

The bombardment of the occupation's aircraft also targeted several neighborhoods in the village of Abasan, as well as targeting Khan Yunis.

A civilian was also shot with the live bullets of Israeli soldiers' gunfire in Deir al-Balah, in the central Gaza Strip.

In another raid, IOF warplanes bombed an apartment complex in Tower 6 of the Ain Jalut Towers, east of the Nuseirat Camp, in the central Gaza Strip, wounding a number of Palestinians.

Further occupation artillery shelling hammered the axis extending from the village of Al-Mughraqa to the city of Al-Zahra'a, north of the Nuseirat Camp, and into the Wadi Gaza area.

In another attack, occupation soldiers opened fire on a gathering of civilians west of Al-Zahra'a, killing one resident and wounding several others.

Meanwhile, in Gaza's north, violent airstrikes and artillery shelling pummeled Gaza City, Jabalia and Beit Lahiya, resulting in a number of casualties.

Another atrocity was committed by the Zionist occupation army in a bombing of a residential home belonging to the Journalist Hail Al-Najjar, on Old Gaza Street in Jabalia, resulting in the death of the journalist along, with his entire family.

IOF warplanes similarly bombed a residential home belonging to the Asalia family, also on Old Gaza Street, in the city of Jabalia, in Gaza's north.

Yet another horrific crime was committed when occupation fighter jets bombed a gathering of civilians at the Al-Oyoun intersection on Al-Jalaa Street, southwest of Gaza City, after which, the pieces and parts of the bodies of 4 victims were brought to the Baptist Hospital, in the Al-Zaytoun neighborhood, southeast of Gaza City.

Atrocious crimes were also recorded following the bombing of Al-Diri family home, in the Al-Sabra neighborhood of Gaza City, resulting in a number of casualties, while two members of the Al-Ghafri family were also killed after their home was bombed in central Gaza City.

Following the withdrawal of the occupation army from the Al-Zaytoun neighborhood, scenes of extreme destruction of Palestinian homes were recorded, including the destruction of five displacement centers, and the widespread destruction of local infrastructure, including streets.

Local medical sources are also reporting the murder of more than 30 civilians just since this morning, resulting from the bombardment of Gaza City by the aircraft of the Israeli occupation forces.

Included were the deaths of at least 10 children as occupation warplanes targeted the homes of the Al-Ghafri, Jahjouh and Al-Dalu families in the areas of Abu Iskander, Al-Sidra and Al-Sahaba Streets.

Five civilians were also wounded after an Israeli drone targeted the Abu Bakr Al-Saddiq kindergarten in the Al-Faluga area of Jabalia, in Gaza's north.

As a result of the Israeli occupation's ongoing special genocide operation in the Gaza Strip, the current death toll has risen to exceed 35'272 Palestinians killed, including at least 15'103 children and over 10'000 women, while another 79'205 others have been wounded since the start of the current round of Zionist aggression, beginning with the events of October 7th, 2023.

May 16th, 2024

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@WorkerSolidarityNews

[mariacallous]

Even before this week’s deadly hospital blast, Gaza’s health system was already on the brink of collapse. At least 3,700 Palestinians in Gaza have been declared dead since the beginning of the Israeli-Hamas war, and an estimated 12,000 have been injured, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. Gaza’s health system has faced a huge influx of emergency patients, while at the same time suffering the effects of bombardment and having utilities cut.

On October 13, the Israeli military told everyone in the north of Gaza to evacuate. This created an impossible situation for hospitals filled with patients who were too unwell to be moved. The World Health Organization said the evacuation order was a “death sentence” for the sick and injured.

“The whole health system is collapsing around us,” says Ghassan Abu-Sittah, a plastic surgeon with Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) who is working in Gaza at Al-Shifa Hospital, the biggest medical facility in the Gaza Strip, located in Gaza City. He paints a picture of a system stripped down to the bare bones.

The orthopedic department has run out of the pins and rods needed to stabilize fractures, Abu-Sittah says. The water pressure has become too weak to run the sterilization machines that disinfect equipment, meaning the hospital staff are forced to rely on a chemical antiseptic that hasn’t been commonly used for decades. There are no ventilators available. There is not even enough room for the injured in the hospital. “There is no more space or mattresses to put the wounded on in the corridors,” says Abu-Sittah. Health care staff are exhausted and are struggling to deal with the overwhelming number of injured.

On October 18, Abu-Sittah helped treat a patient with a wound that had become infected and septic. But with all operating rooms full, doctors could not treat it in time, and the patient will lose a leg as a result.

Since Israel blocked access to electricity in Gaza more than a week ago, hospitals have been relying on backup generators. Now they’re running dangerously low on fuel. The United Nations Office of the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reported on Wednesday that Gaza’s Ministry of Health is redistributing fuel from other public facilities to keep hospital generators running. “They’re running out of everything,” says Zaher Sahloul, the president of MedGlobal, an NGO that is supporting medical facilities in Gaza. The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has said that without electricity, “hospitals risk turning into morgues.”

Surgeons at Al-Shifa Hospital are operating without painkillers, according to Christos Christou, the international president of MSF. MSF team members say that they have “heard wounded patients screaming in pain.”

Al-Shifa is currently working at more than 600 percent over capacity, its director-general Muhammad Abu Salmiya said in an editorial published in The Lancet on October 18. The same day, Abu Salmiya told the Associated Press that the “hospital’s generators would run out within hours.”

Chris Hanger, a spokesperson for the ICRC, told WIRED that surgeons at Al-Shifa Hospital are working 24 hours a day to care for the wounded. “They have told us that the whole system is on its knees as they try and triage patients, but there is no way to manage the number of casualties,” he says. “All surgical theaters are occupied.”

Northern Gaza’s Kamal Adwan Hospital is receiving “mostly burnt-out bodies, bodies full of shrapnel, mutilated bodies of women and children,” says Sahloul, who is in regular contact with Hussam Abu Safiya, MedGlobal’s lead doctor in northern Gaza. Almost all of their victims are women and children, Sahloul says.

Another concern is that the sheer number of dead bodies may lead to a disease outbreak. “The hospital is overflowing with dead bodies,” Sahloul says. Abu Safiya, the doctor working in northern Gaza, is worried that decomposing bodies will contaminate water and cause a disease outbreak.

On October 18, all five of Gaza’s wastewater treatment plants had been forced to shut down due to a lack of power, according to the UN Office of the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, increasing the risk of waterborne diseases. Al-Shifa Hospital is burying bodies in mass graves.

With limited resources, caring for the most severely injured people has been prioritized. That means patients requiring continuous treatment for cancer and other diseases can no longer be cared for. The Turkish-Palestinian Friendship Hospital, located to the south of Gaza City, is on the brink of shutting down, meaning all 9,000 cancer patients in the Gaza Strip will be left without care. “Many of these people will die,” says Sahloul. “Not from the bombing, but from the lack of access to critical medications.”

Following US president Joe Biden’s talks with Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, it was announced on October 19 that 20 trucks with humanitarian relief deliveries will be allowed to cross the Egypt-Gaza border, carrying food, water, and medical supplies. The aid will start moving Friday at the earliest, according to the White House.

In the meantime, Gaza’s health system will continue to crumble and casualties will continue to rise. Hospitals are so stretched that doctors aren’t able to prevent patients’ from dying, Abu-Sittah says. “You are just an emergency department where people come, and if they are going to survive, they survive, and if they are not, they are dead.”

[gullwrites]

Worldbuilding Wednesday evening! What are some your-world-specific organizations (or other collective) that your characters interact with?

hiii happy (late) wbw!! <3

There are two main corporations in the story, Mackowski Solutions & Glacier Tear, both of them always competing with each other since, like, late 2000's. I actually also introduced them back on my old blog at some point :]

Mackowski Solutions, mostly referred to as Mackie, was founded in 2068 after its founders, Amira and Maja Mackowskis left their previous pharma company when they refused to fund their research for medicine against the pandemic that was causing lots of trouble all around the world. Successfully finding the cure, they and their company rose to popularity and became favored by the Earth Board. Since then, the corporation has been one of the world-leading companies in pharmaceutics and biotechnology.

Of course, Mackie's top position in the field isn't purely because of its success, but also because they are, often, simply able to buy their competitors... and have managed to develop their internal/intercorporate relations into a spy agency-like organization that ensures that Mackie stays on top, be it corporate espionage or taking out competition/"hazards" or making sure no one steals their data. Whatever. Either most of people on Earth don't know/care about it or people just think it's fine as long as they make somewhat affordable meds.

Glacier Tear started out in a bit different field - the first thing they solved (back when they were just a start-up) was how to keep glaciers from melting. Of course, since that's done and they were left with tons of money from the public, they took a moment to think what to do next, and in the end deciding to just switch to pharma. All that money could surely work nicely for novel research and trying to get more cool breakthroughs.

Glacier's popularity is mostly built on affordable products and all the charity work the corporation seems to do. Still sticking with the glacier aesthetics, they manage to donate at least 30% of their profits to different NGOs striving for a better world. Are they doing it just to look better than the competition or are they hiding their lobbying by doing that? Who knows.

While Glacier is more chill about its competitors, mostly playing its own game, it does also have some "agents", part of whom also have a *checks notes* right to kill.

Since both of the corporations tend to specialize in novel solutions and trying to be the ones with the next awesome breakthrough, they often tend to compete with each other, dirtily. Stealing info from each other, headhunting each other's specialists (in one way or another), blackmailing each other, sending dirt to the media, stuff like that. The event that starts the story events in Cynosure started out as an argument over patents and classified files - and ended up in a shootout. Now Earth Board is forcing them to prove to the world that they can, in fact, work together and put their differences and rivalry behind. Possible? Maybe. But a little dangerous considering how one of the projects they're working on is partly the reason for the latest argument.

Of course, I should also mention the Earth Board, which I talked more about over here and will probably talk even more about later. It will also have a specific role in the story, as one character is working with/for them.