K. Nicole Kindred – Sustainability Consultant

On Tuesday I had the opportunity to attend World Pulse LIVE at the Paley Center for Media in New York City.

World Pulse is an organization that strives to bring a voice to women around the globe using new technology and media. One example of this was in the My Camera and Me against a Regime video – a video that was uploaded from a mobile phone by a women who was arrested during a Sudanese protest. World Pulse allows for an online area where women can come together to find and share their success stories.

For World Pulse LIVE, Martha Llano from Colombia, Beatrice Achieng from Uganda, and Sarvina Kang from Cambodia were selected to come to the US to discuss how they are using new media and technology to facilitate them as grassroots leaders.

The women told powerful stories of how they found their voices. In Martha’s talk she spoke about the dangers of living in the Columbia cloud forest and how she had learned to overcome the dangers. When people told her she should carry a gun, she refused, saying “I will not take a gun to speak for me, because I have my own voice and words”. She emphasized the importance of thinking globally and acting locally.

Sarvina told her story of being the only literate individual in a family of 35. She was the only girl in her family and her village to go to college and now has her Master’s in NGO leadership. She emphasized the importance of education for women in creating change and preventing social problems like sex trafficking.

Beatrice told her story of growing up in Uganda and her emphasis on HIV prevention and education. She emphasized how if you give hope to one girl, a grassroots leader will emerge. She told the story of how when her last brother died of AIDS, her mother lost all hope because only men can own land in Uganda; however, after she told her story on the World Pulse platform, the World Pulse members emphasized that they were behind her and she stood up to her village for the land and was able to keep it.

When asked what the women thought would be most beneficial to their communities in spreading their voice, all three women emphasized that their was a lack of technology in their communities, and solar panels would be an easy remedy.

World Pulse LIVE is also available launching an online tour for individuals who are not able to attend the event in person.

As part of their human impact stories, tcktcktck.org has recently added Oxfam’s report on climate change adaptation in poor countries.

Climate change is fast pushing communities, particularly the poorest and most marginalized, beyond their capacity to respond. Across the world, subsistence crops are approaching the limits of their viability as temperatures change, erratic rainfall patterns and changing seasons are upsetting agricultural cycles and many are left struggling to feed their families.

Oxfam’s report draws on case studies from around the world and Oxfam’s experience working with rural communities to set out what is needed and a range of interventions that are available to enable people living in poverty to adapt to climate change. Nonetheless, there are limits to adaptation, and without rapid and significant global mitigation, these options will be quickly lost.

The report identifies the need for a combination of bottom-up and top-down processes in order to create the enabling conditions needed for people living in poverty to adapt to climate change.

Source: tcktcktck.org and Oxfam UK

Toronto’s Aurea Foundation‘s Munk Debates just announced the topic of their upcoming series on June 7th: “Be it resolved, I would rather get sick in the United States than Canada.”


In the past, the Munk Debates  have confronted a broad range of issues including climate change, foreign aid, and humanitarian intervention. Although the debates take place in front of a live audience, live webcasts have also been set up so that even if you aren’t in Toronto, you can still watch the debate.

The upcoming debate will focus on the merits and demerits of the Canadian and American healthcare systems. For example: do ballooning healthcare spending, evermore expensive prescription drugs and an increased use of private medicine foreshadow the wholesale reform of Canada’s universal, single­payer system? Or, are the divisive debates, social inequities, and sky­high expenditures associated with the U.S. experience with private medicine a validation of universal Medicare in Canada?

Given that this has been a lively topic recently, this should be a good debate to watch.

Flatpack is an innovative and experimental opera composed by Tom Lane and, in this production, is being staged by Mammoth Music Theatre, directed by Rebecca Lea. The Opera explores issues encountered in everyday modern life and how our consumer decisions and domestic interaction with others are indicators of more profound life choices and personalities. Practically, this focuses on a selection of scenes taken from the lives of a cast of characters, which relate to furniture, living and lifestyle. The marriage of music and drama and the important role of passion, adventure, humour and love are consistent with the traditional elements of the medium. Where it differs is in the setting, its specific content and its performance. The opera also seeks to be as inclusive of the public as possible: by performing Flatpack in a public place, during the official opening hours of IKEA in Wembley, UK, the hope is to attract audience members previously unfamiliar with opera, to catch them unawares, transforming a conventional furniture shop into an unforgettable experience.

On 12 February 2009 100+ cities around the world will be hosting Twestivals which bring together Twitter communities for a fun evening to raise money and awareness for charity: water.

charity: water is a non profit organization that aims to bring clean, safe drinking water to people in developing nations by funding sustainable clean water solutions in areas with the greatest need.

Visit twestival.com to learn more about this event and to find out where it is taking place near you.