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Apr 20, 2011
Anti-mining leader from El Salvador wins the Goldman Prize
Francisco Pineda of the Environmental Committee of Cabañas, El Salvador has won the 2011 Goldman Prize for Francisco Pineda for his work in stopping a gold mine from destroying El Salvador’s dwindling water resources and the livelihoods of rural communities throughout the country.
CESTA / Friends of the Earth El Salvador has worked closely with Francisco and the Environmental Committee of Cabañas.
Ricardo Navarro, the Director of CESTA, expressed his joy at Francisco's achievement and said that such recognition will strengthen the community and organisations' struggle to prevent mining exploitation in El Salvador.
Find out more about Francisco Pineda
Apr 19, 2011
We really appreciate your big support
Our colleagues at Friends of the Earth Japan are writing a blog on life after the earthquake and tsunami. They will be documenting how they, and fellow citizens, are rebuilding their lives and addressing some of the issues that have arisen as the country recovers from its biggest crisis since World War II.
Thanks to the people who made donations to Friends of the Earth's International's appeal, we have been able to forward 600,000 yen to the Japan Chernobyl Foundation (JCF). The group are providing medical support to people in Minami Souma City, Fukushima Prefecture, who are suffering in the wake of the earthquake, tsunami and nuclear accident.
Below is the message by Ms. Sadako Kamiya of JCF, translated and edited by FoE Japan
We really appreciate your big support
Some people have come back because they were exhausted by life as evacuee, some feel uncertainty about the future and are concerned about employment. And others have come back because they expected the schools to be open and daily life to have resumed.
The original shelters have become crowded with the new returnees and so new shelters have opened. There are many elders in the shelters. Some walk around in the night confused, so medical team and JCF staff watch over them. Staff at JCF listen carefully to them and prescribe medicines. As the weeks have passed life in the shelters has become tougher as people realise they have to stay longer than they initially thought.
While a part of Minami Souma City has been declared as the 'planned evacuation area' by the government last week, JCF continues to support the people who are staying in the city by providing physical check-ups.
Since the situation is not expected to improve any time soon, we will also call on people to evacuate to Nagano Prefecture (where JCF is located). We try to talk to the mayor, the head of the education and emergency measure centre but the city
officials were all very busy. So we will plan to make a guide informing people who will be accepted as residents.
We really hope that the situation of nuclear power plant will be stabilised as soon as possible.
