In San Diego, a young teenage girl’s eyes stare into a compact mirror. She paints a dramatic black swirl around her eye. Never knowing what her day will bring, the one constant she counts on is knowing how it will begin – – with paint.

INOCENTE is an intensely personal and vibrant coming of age feature documentary about a young artist’s fierce determination to never surrender to the bleakness of her surroundings.

At 15, Inocente refuses to let her dream of becoming an artist be caged by her life as an undocumented immigrant forced to live homeless for the last nine years. Color is her personal revolution and its extraordinary sweep on her canvases creates a world that looks nothing like her own dark past – – a past punctuated by a father deported for domestic abuse, an alcoholic and defeated mother of four who once took her daughter by the hand to jump off a bridge together, an endless shuffle year after year through the city’s overcrowded homeless shelters and the constant threat of deportation.

Despite this history, Inocente’s eyes envision a world transformed…where buildings drip in yellow and orange, where pink and turquoise planets twinkle with rescued dreams, and one eyed childlike creatures play amongst loved babies and purple clouds. Inocente’s family history is slowly revealed through her paintings, which are brought to life onscreen in an animated storyline of her own creation and woven throughout the narrative.

Told entirely in her own words, we come to Inocente’s story as she realizes her life is at a turning point, and for the first time, she decides to take control of her own destiny. Irreverent, flawed and funny, she’s now channeling her irrepressible personality into a future she controls. Her talent has finally been noticed, and if she can create a body of work in time, she has an opportunity to put on her first art show. Meanwhile, her family life is at a tense impasse – – if she legally emancipates herself from her mother to strike out on her own, she’ll risk placing her brothers in foster care, but to stay is unbearable.

INOCENTE is both a timeless story about the transformative power of art and a timely snapshot of the new face of homelessness in America, children. Neither sentimental nor sensational, INOCENTE will immerse you in the very real, day-to-day existence of a young girl who is battling a war that we rarely see. The challenges are staggering, but the hope in Inocente’s story proves that the hand she has been dealt does not define her, her dreams do.

Visit our INOCENTE Project page and stay tuned for updates!

“A person without education is a life without examination,” she says, paraphrasing the ancient philosopher. “You have to study and study to be a big philosopher, a great intellectual.”

And Christine has done just that, even though she was out of school for three months following the earthquake that struck Haiti in January, destroying her home and displacing her family.

Siblings not in school

Christine’s tattered notebooks, filled with detailed anatomy sketches, are a testament to her desire to become a doctor.

“I want to see with my own eyes what’s in the body and understand how my heart beats,” she says. “Like the Haitian singer named Jean-Jean Roosevelt says, if we give the world to women, the world would be marvelous, because girls have hearts.”

And Christine’s heart goes out to her siblings, who are not in school.

Her 15-year-old brother, Jean Renee, has been out of school since just before the quake, when he was forced to drop out. His mother could not afford to pay the school fees and had to make the difficult choice of sending just one of her three children to classes. Now Jean Renee goes to a family friend’s garage each day to work as a mechanic’s apprentice.

“If I cannot send him to school, I want him to at least learn a trade and stay out of trouble,” says his mother.

Meanwhile, Christine’s sister Afenyoose, 9, longs to go to school but cannot because it is simply too expensive.

‘My mother is my life’

Christine attends one of the few public schools in the country where fees are relatively affordable. But most of Haiti’s schools are private, creating a major barrier to education.

“I feel very, very sad that I go to school and my little sister doesn’t,” says Christine. “I try to teach her what I’ve learned every evening when I come home from school.”

Even for Christine, however, there are barriers to education. For example, teacher absenteeism is a reality in Haiti, because many teachers do not have the resources to get to their jobs.

“I sometimes don’t want to go to school because our teachers are not there,” says Christine. “My mother says, ‘Go to school, there may be teachers who will be in the classroom.’ She always gives me the strength…. My mother is my life.”

In the displacement camp, Christine’s mother sells second-hand tennis shoes that she gets on consignment. She meticulously cleans them with a toothbrush. This is how she supports her family and pays her daughter’s school fees. Her objective is to get out of the camp and give her children a better life.

“My mother wasn’t able to study. This is why she wants us to go school, so we don’t go through the same difficulties she did,” says Christine.

Rebuilding schools

The earthquake that shook Haiti destroyed or damaged some 4,000 schools. UNICEF’s priority in education has been to re-establish these schools as quickly as possible.

In the immediate aftermath of the earthquake, temporary learning spaces were set up in large tents with water and sanitation facilities adapted to children’s needs. These temporary tents are being transformed into semi-permanent structures.

“I went to see my school after the quake,” Christine recalls. “The primary school next to our school had collapsed on top of my school, crushing a part of my classroom and the head teacher’s office. Now we are in learning in a tent, and it’s very hot.”

It’s clear that education is Christine’s lifeline – as it could be for all of Haiti’s children.

“I want the government to rebuild our schools, because there are children who will come after us,” she says. “Without education, there is no life, because education elevates man to the dignity of his well-being.”

See the video and the original article on UNICEF’s website at : http://www.unicef.org/infobycountry/haiti_55829.html

Clown Chips is a beloved addition to birthday parties and uses his painted smile and joyful antics to get a laugh out of everyone he encounters. The three filmmakers were looking into the subculture of clowning when they met Clown Chips at a convention in Seaside Heights, N.J. “I remember filming him, and we asked him, ‘Why did you become a clown?’” Plummer said. “He broke into this story about [a past tragedy and how he] wanted to share positivity instead of bitterness. It was a stark contrast from all the other answers about loving to be around children.” Intrigued by the disconnect between Cavallo’s heartbreaking story and his profession, they set out to unmask Chips the Clown.

Through a series of interviews with clients, fellow clowns, families, and children, Patchwork gathers together the different pieces of Cavallo and Clown Chips to show that the joyful clown and the grieving man are two sides of the same person. “I hope viewers recognize the spaces between the cracks that form the narratives of our life stories,” said Toutaiolepo. “Patchwork shows these cracks and doesn’t judge or try to mend them. Big stories are great, but it’s the smaller ones that we are able to absorb.”

Even more striking than the story is the beautiful way in which it is told. We watch the intimate ritual of Chips putting on and then later removing his makeup to reveal his wrinkles and the fact that he is not always smiling. Interspersed with the footage are stop animation sequences (a specialty of Florio). All in all it is a real visual joy.

Julie Florio has been an intern with Shine Global since January and is currently using her skills at putting together beautiful and heartfelt stories to create a series of webisodes for Shine Global featuring migrant child farmworkers. Stay tuned for news on when this series will premier. Florio is certainly a filmmaker to watch.

Patchwork is now available online for download at Indie Pix. Please visit http://www.indiepixfilms.com/film/4543 to watch this touching and beautiful story.

“We envision a country that treats all people within its borders with the same standards of respect and social justice. We work to see that all people living in Uganda, as specified under national and international law, are treated with the fairness and consideration due fellow human beings.”

Larissa Russell NY, NY–For decades, refugees from several African countries have been forced to abandon their homes, jobs, friends – and in some cases, their families – in order to save their own lives and seek asylum elsewhere; namely, Uganda.  While several failed asylum seekers have been deported violently, those that remain in Uganda continue to exist in a sort of “legal limbo,” facing discrimination, cultural alienation and unemployment.

Ten years ago, Dr. Barbara Harrell-Bond and Dr. Guglielmo Verdirame conducted a joint, three-year research project and came to the conclusion that the refugees who sought asylum in Uganda were too often denied basic human rights because of their legal status.  Out of their research came the Refugee Law Project (RLP), initially meant to provide aid to the refugees by tackling the legal nuances underlying their hardships.  According to director Chris Dolan, the RLP remains “the only civil society organization in Uganda providing legal aid specifically to forced migrants in Uganda.”

A community outreach endeavor of Makere University (Uganda) that also has an international focus, the RLP brings about internal change in the country by providing free legal assistance, language training and psychosocial counseling to refugees.  The company also advocates for domestic legislative changes with regard to refugee policy and universal human rights.

As the RLP has grown and developed, however, it has expanded its scope of interest far beyond refugees and asylum seekers.  “With global shifts in asylum policy and practice and a corresponding increase in the numbers of Internally Displaced persons,” writes Dolan, “the Refugee Law Project has increasingly found it necessary to confront issues of internal displacement alongside its ongoing work with those who have crossed international boundaries.”

The RLP is also dedicated to protecting the rights of refugee/forced migrant children within Uganda.  Currently, neither the Government of Uganda nor the UNHCR have a suitable procedure to care for lone children seeking asylum:  Some are placed under foster care, but their security and livelihood are not monitored effectively.  Others are left to fend for themselves, risking abuse from strangers.  For all forced migrant children, RLP advocates for a fast-track Refugee Status Determination process, a social support system, post-trauma counseling, and access to education and medical services.

The RLP is currently working on establishing a memorial to commemorate the “internally displaced” Ugandans – including the children – who made sacrifices as a result of the war in Northern Uganda.  Proudly, Shine Global has donated copies of War Dance and War Dance Returns to be presented at the memorial, helping to inspire change and raise awareness about child soldiers and their families who have been denied basic human rights for too long.

For more information about the Refugee Law Project, please visit

http://www.refugeelawproject.org

http://www.beyondjuba.org

Don’t miss out on the opportunity for you and a guest to attend the 31st Annual News and Documentary Emmy® Awards in New York City at the Frederick P. Rose Hall, Home of Jazz at Lincoln Center, located in the Time Warner Center. Visit CharityFolks.com to bid on this once in a life time experience!

Start out your special evening at the cocktail dinner reception before the Awards Ceremony, where you will mingle with media industry executives and talk with Sean Fine and Andrea Nix Fine, the directors and Susan MacLaury and Albie Hecht, the producers of the documentary film War/Dance. The film has been nominated for two Emmy Awards for Best Documentary and Best Cinematography. War/Dance was nominated in 2008 for an Academy Award. Following the reception, you will join the filmmakers in orchestra seats for the Awards Ceremony.

War/Dance was Sean and Andrea’s directorial debut at Sundance. The husband and wife team has filmed in more than 30 countries to bring powerful human stories to the screen. They met while directing films for National Geographic and formed Fine Films in 2003. Honors include an Emmy, a Chris Award, and honorable mentions at the New York Film Festival and the Missoula Wildlife Film Festival. The Fines live in the Washington, D.C., area with their two-year-old son.

Albie Hecht oversaw production at Nickelodeon Movies, where he has produced films such as Lemony Snicket’s Series of Unfortunate Events starring Jim Carey and Meryl Streep, The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie and The Rugrats Movie. Hecht was nominated for an Oscar in The Academy’s inaugural Best Animated Feature category, as the Producer of Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius, which was a Golden Globe Nominee as well.

For television Hecht discovered and developed SpongeBob SquarePants, guiding the franchise into the multi-billion dollar cultural phenomenon it is today. For Nick Jr., he oversaw the production of breakthrough hits like Blue’s Clues and developed the successful Dora the Explorer franchise. Hecht is currently serving as Executive Producer of Shine Global’s second feature length documentary, THE HARVEST.

Susan MacLaury is a professor and the Executive Director of the non-profit film production company Shine Global and Hecht has spent over twenty years as a top film and television producer and network executive.

The Emmys will be attended by more than 1,000 television and news media industry executives, news and documentary producers and journalists. Emmy® Awards will be presented in 41 categories, including Breaking News, Investigative Reporting, Outstanding Interview, and Best Documentary, among others.

“From the ongoing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, to the struggling American economy, to the inauguration of Barack Obama, 2009 was a significant year for major news stories,” said Bill Small, Chairman of the News & Documentary Emmy® Awards. “The journalists and documentary filmmakers nominated this year have educated viewers in understanding some of the most compelling issues of our time, and we salute them for their efforts.”

Visit: http://charityfolks.com/cfauctions/auction_bid.asp?auctionid=19522&catname=Celebrity+%26+Hollywood&mcid=18204

It takes just minutes for the unit to confront the first of many hidden targets: a muddied 20-year-old land mine buried a few inches beneath the ground.

“This is an active land mine made from Russia. [If] we step on [it] … it explodes and cuts the leg off,” says Aki Ra, leader of theCambodian Self Help Demining team. He and his group are working to make their country safer by clearing land mines — many of which Aki Ra planted himself years ago.

Aki Ra, a Cambodian native who does not recall his birth year, was a child soldier during the communist Khmer Rouge regime, a genocidal crusade responsible for the deaths of an estimated 1.5 million Cambodians during the 1970s. He was raised by the army after being separated from his family during the internal conflict.

Around age 10, Aki Ra estimates, he was given a rifle that measured his own height. Soon after, he was taught to lay land mines.

For three years, Aki Ra worked as a mine layer for the Khmer Rouge. He then did the same job for the Vietnamese army that overthrew his village.

“I maybe planted 4,000 to 5,000 land mines in a [single] month,” said Aki Ra, who says he’s about 40 years old now. “We planted them all over the place.”

Watch a slideshow of the some young landmine victims whom Aki Ra has helped

According to the Cambodian Mine Action and Victim Assistance Authority, an estimated 4 million to 6 million land mines were laid in Cambodia during three decades of conflict. The mines were planted to defend strategic military locations, target warring opponents and deny the use of roads.

“I had [bad] feelings, because sometimes we were fighting against our friends and relatives,” Aki Ra said. “I felt sad when I saw a lot of people were killed. A lot of people were suffering from land mines. [But] I did not know what to do, [because] we were under orders.”

Approximately 63,000 civilians and soldiers have been in accidents involving land mines and other explosive weapons, according to the Cambodian Mine Victim Information System. Nearly 19,000 of them were killed. Today, Cambodia reportedly has one amputee for every 290 people, one of the highest ratios in the world.

When the United Nations came in the early 1990s to help restore peace to Cambodia, Aki Ra saw an opportunity to begin undoing the damage he and others had done. He started training with the U.N. and helping them clear mines.

It was around this time he got the name he goes by today. He was born Eoun Yeak, but he was so skilled at clearing mines that his supervisors began comparing him to AKIRA, a heavy-duty appliance company in Japan. One reportedly commented, “He works just like an AKIRA.” The name stuck.

Aki Ra estimates that he and his group have cleared more than 50,000 land mines and unexploded weapons.

In 1993, one year after working with the U.N., Aki Ra decided to begin clearing mines alone.

“Some of the areas I was clearing were places where I used to plant mines before,” he said. “I didn’t have any equipment. … I clear by knife, by stick.”

For Aki Ra, this bare-hands technique “wasn’t dangerous. It was easy.”

But easy didn’t mean legal. The method was not in accordance with international standards, which requires protective gear and other professional equipment. So in 2005, he went to the United Kingdom to receive formal training and accreditation.

In 2008, Aki Ra formed his nonprofit demining organization. Comprised of native Cambodians, it includes former soldiers and war crime victims. One of the workers is an amputee who lost a leg to a land mine.

“[Our] goal is to clear land mines in rural villages for the people who need the land for building houses or farming or building schools,” Aki Ra said.

Aki Ra and his organization devote all of their donated funds to clearing Cambodia’s rural “low-priority” villages. These villages, populated primarily by poor farmers, do not always receive first dibs for minefield clearance projects because of their remoteness and limited traffic. At times, they’re completely overlooked.

“Villagers report land mines every day, and they ask us to destroy [them],” Aki Ra said. “The people are afraid of mines. Whether there are a lot of land mines or only a few, [we] still have to clear the area so that the people in the village can be safe.”

Kuot Visoth, chief of Prey Thom village, was relieved when the team arrived in early July to clear his village.

“I know the area around the school has a lot of land mines, and I am afraid that when the children come to school and play, they will step on them, or the villagers’ buffaloes grazing in the area would be killed,” Visoth said.

Aki Ra estimates that he and his group have cleared more than 50,000 land mines and unexploded war weapons such as bombs and grenades. The Cambodian government says there are 3 million to 5 million mines still undiscovered.

Many of Aki Ra’s recovered land mines and unexploded weapons are on display at a museum in Siem Reap. For $2, visitors can touch defused mines and bombs as well as AK-47 rifles and war uniforms.

“I had an idea to open a land mine museum to teach people to understand about war, land mines,” he said. “Even though the war [is] finished, [these explosives] still kill people, and the land cannot be used.”

Also at the museum is an orphanage that Aki Ra and his wife, Hourt, opened about a decade ago. Roughly 100 children, some injured by land mines, have been cared for over the years. The orphanage provides food and shelter for the children and sends them to public school.

“I brought them to the museum because I could provide them with [a] better situation,” Aki Ra said. “If I didn’t help them, they would have a very difficult life.”

The orphanage’s first resident, Sot “Tol” Visay, lost a leg to a mine. He was living on the street when Aki Ra was demining in his province. Aki Ra offered Visay a home, and Visay has spent the past seven years living there.

“This place has been very good to me,” said Visay, now 21. “Mr. Aki Ra does not want anything from me. Instead, he encourages all people here to study, to gain knowledge.”

Hourt died last year from a stroke, leaving Aki Ra to care for his three biological children and 27 orphans ages 10 to 20. Aki Ra is thankful to have caretakers, teachers, a chef and a driver who help look after the children during his demining missions, which can last up to 25 consecutive days every month.

“All the children living in my center I consider as my own children. They call me father,” said Aki Ra, whose efforts in Cambodia will be highlighted in an upcoming documentary, “A Perfect Soldier.” “I have told them about my personal life. They understand all about my history. I tell the children that they should study hard, do good acts and love each other.”

Want to get involved? Check out the Cambodian Self Help Demining website at www.cambodianselfhelpdemining.org and see how to help.

To See the original article visit: http://blog.invisiblechildren.com/2010/07/a-cambodian-child-soldier/

This 10-year-old boy was abducted by the LRA in northern DRC

HRW
August 11, 2010

(Washington, DC) – The Ugandan rebel Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) has abducted more than 697 adults and children in a largely unreported campaign in the Central African Republic and the neighboring Bas Uele district of northern Democratic Republic of Congo over the past 18 months, Human Rights Watch said today. Nearly one-third of those abducted have been children, many of whom are being forced to serve as soldiers or are being used for sex by the group’s fighters.

During the abduction campaign, the LRA has brutally killed adults and children who tried to escape, walked too slowly, or were unable to bear the heavy loads they were forced to carry, Human Rights Watch found in its investigations in the region. The LRA has killed at least 255 adults and children, often by crushing their skulls with clubs. In dozens of cases, the LRA forced captive children to kill other children and adults.

“The LRA continues its horrific campaign to replenish its ranks by brutally tearing children from their villages and forcing them to fight,” said Anneke Van Woudenberg, senior Africa researcher at Human Rights Watch. “The evidence points to Joseph Kony, the LRA leader, as the author of this atrocious campaign.”
Human Rights Watch called on the affected governments and their allies to strengthen their protection of civilians and to put greater emphasis on efforts to rescue the abducted children and others.

A month-long Human Rights Watch research mission to the Central African Republic (CAR) and the Bas Uele district of northern Congo from July 12 to August 11, 2010, in which over 520 civilians were interviewed, including 90 former abductees, in individual and focus group interviews, found that the LRA’s abduction campaign was similar in both countries and is having a devastating impact on affected communities.

In southeastern CAR, the LRA began large-scale abductions on July 21, 2009, and to date has abducted 304 people, including many children. The LRA first attacked the villages surrounding Obo, before moving west toward Rafai, Guérékindo, Gouyanga, Kitessa and Mboki, along the Congolese border, and north toward Djema, Baroua, and Derbissaka. Most recently, on June 12 and 13, 2010, the LRA abducted 16 people in farms surrounding the town of Rafai, including a mother and her 2-year-old daughter, both of whom the rebels later killed.

A similar LRA abduction campaign is under way in the remote Bas Uele district of Congo. On March 15, 2009, the LRA attacked the town of Banda, abducting some 80 people. In the months that followed, the LRA progressed westward, conducting raids on the towns and villages of Dakwa, Bayule, Disolo, Esse, and further north in Digba, Sukadi, and Gwane, among others.

On May 27, 2010, the LRA attacked numerous villages near Ango, the territorial capital, abducting 23 people, including 16 children. Some abductees who later escaped told Human Rigths Watch that the LRA questioned them about the location of schools in Ango, indicating the rebels may have been seeking specifically to abduct children. The LRA advance was halted when they encountered Congolese soldiers less than 15 kilometers from Ango, forcing them to change direction.

During the LRA’s campaign in Bas Uele between March 2009 and June 2010, the rebels abducted at least 375 people, at least 127 of them children, most ages 10 to 15. More recent information indicates that there have been more LRA attacks.

There has been very little reporting of the LRA’s numerous abuses in the region because it is so remote and communications are so poor. Few humanitarian agencies are working there, and there is only a small United Nations presence.

Tens of thousands of people have fled the area. In southeastern CAR an estimated 15,000 to 20,000 people have sought refuge in the main towns, leaving entire villages abandoned. In the last few months, the government has deployed about 200 troops to the area to help protect civilians, too few to provide adequate protection. The Ugandan army has made some troops available to help protect civilians in the area.

Civilian protection concerns in Bas Uele district are even greater. An estimated 54,000 civilians have been displaced in the district or have sought refuge across the border in CAR. The Congolese army has deployed an army battalion to the area, but it is ill-equipped and has little or no transportation and communications equipment.

The UN peacekeeping mission in Congo, MONUSCO, with 19,000 peacekeepers across the country, has only 1,000 in the LRA-affected areas of northeastern Congo – far too few for the scale and geographical breadth of the problem. No peacekeepers are based in Bas Uele district. In the past two months, the MONUSCO base in Dingila, Bas Uele district, was closed and new MONUSCO bases expected to open in Dakwa and Digba have not yet been established.

“The protection of civilians under LRA attack across central Africa is woefully inadequate, with some communities receiving no protection or humanitarian aid at all,” Van Woudenberg said. “National governments, the Ugandan army, and the UN need to take urgent steps to protect people from these LRA attacks.”

To Read More Please visit the Human Rights Watch report: http://www.hrw.org/en/news/2010/08/11/cardr-congo-lra-conducts-massive-abduction-campaign

SAN CARLOS, Ariz. — He cuts a tiny figure in the vastness of the upland desert, the expanse of scrub and brush and saguaro cactuses and red ragged mountains. He is a red-headed boy with a sunburned nose and sunglasses, and he moves with a step not graceful, nor terribly fast, but steady and determined, his mouth set in a hard line.

The boy, Zachary L. Bonner, has walked nearly 1,950 miles from his home outside Tampa, Fla., to this spot in the desert, and he intends to walk another 500 miles or so to the Pacific Ocean, all to raise money for homeless children.

At 12 years old, he is something of a prodigy among do-gooders. This is the third and longest trek he has organized to raise money for the Little Red Wagon Foundation, the charity he started when he was 6 to help get water to people after Hurricane Charley hit Florida in 2004.

“He’s just like every other kid, except he likes to do community service work for some odd reason,” said his mother, Laurie Bonner, who walks with her son, taking turns with a family friend. “He likes doing it. It’s weird.”

Zachary acknowledges that his determination to walk 2,478 miles is a little out of the ordinary for a boy his age. Many of the children in his neighborhood back in Valrico, Fla., he says, do not understand it. His mother said that since he started his charity work, he had made few friends his own age; the people closest to him are college students and adults who admire his work.

“Some kids are really into baseball, and that is what they do seven days a week,” Zachary says as he takes a water break in the 100-degree heat. “This is what I enjoy doing.”

His efforts have not gone unnoticed. Some Hollywood producers have bought the rights to his life story so far and this summer started shooting a feature film, directed by David Anspaugh of “Hoosiers” fame and produced by the Philanthropy Project. His mother declined to say how much Zachary was paid, but she did say that he gave it all to the Little Red Wagon Foundation.

He counts among his fans and supporters Elton John, who has pledged $50,000 if Zachary makes it to Los Angeles.

Zachary barely cracks a smile when he talks about being invited to Mr. John’s concert in Tucson this week. Asked about the future, Zachary says he would like to go to Harvard and become a prosecutor. “It seems like a career I would really enjoy,” he says.

The trek is a family affair. Zachary, his mother and a family friend, Matt Chesney, 20, sleep in a donated R.V., rising about 3:30 every morning. Zachary says he usually eats a bowl of cereal and tries to start walking by 5 a.m., before the heat becomes unbearable. His mother and friend take turns following him in a Volkswagen Beetle with his sponsors plastered on the side and a red wagon affixed to the top. One walks beside him while the other drives behind.

He tries to cover at least 20 miles a day, and has worn out five pairs of shoes since he started in late December. The main enemies, he says, are boredom and fatigue. “You get bored walking down the road for hours at a time,” he says as he trudges in the high desert dust here along Highway 70. “You can only listen to so much music.”

To pass the time, he listens endlessly to Elton John, Owl City, Lady Gaga and Mika on his iPhone. He also sends messages over Twitter to more than 1,600 followers. He snacks on apples and granola bars, but waits until the afternoon to eat a large meal, usually donated by restaurants like Chili’s.

Still, as he crosses the great deserts of West Texas, New Mexico and Arizona, his mother has grown concerned about his health. “He’s lost a lot of weight,” she said as she walked behind him. “He’ll take off his shirt and you can see his ribs.”

Ms. Bonner, 43, a real estate agent and investor, said she had been hoping for years that her son would grow out of this charitable phase. Every year, she asks if he would like to take a break from his mission and go to a local school with children his own age.

But he prefers to study online, through a company called K12, because he can finish his classes quickly and have more time for charity work.

“I have parents that ask me all the time: How do you get them involved?” she said. “I don’t think you can. Unless the kid loves that thing they are doing, there is no way. I used to think it would end, but now I think maybe this is what he’s supposed to do.”

The Little Red Wagon Foundation mostly provides school supplies, food, clothing and toys to homeless children. In 2008, tax records show, the organization raised about $53,000 and spent $5,600 to feed about 800 homeless families during the holidays and to provide the children with toys. It also spent $2,200 on teaching supplies in a poor district and backpacks for orphans. It ended the year with $50,000 in the bank.

This year, Ms. Bonner said, Zachary has received pledges of cash or in-kind donations of about $120,000 from various sponsors.

Along his trip, he has held special events for homeless children, including taking a group to an amusement park in Dallas.

“I feel we should meet their basic needs but take it a step further and meet their kid needs,” he said as he slogged across the desert. “I feel it’s important for everyone to have the opportunity to just be a kid.”

See the original article at the New York Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/28/us/28walkingboy.html?_r=1

On his latest album, Seu Jorge and Almaz, 40-year-old Brazilian singer Seu Jorge dares to cover Michael Jackson’s Rock With You, and turns the King of Pop’s sunny disco celebration into a sultry, enigmatic statement so much his own that it’s almost unrecognizable.

“When we decided to make this album, we decided to represent the whole world,” says the gravelly voiced Jorge from his home in Sao Paulo. “It is very hard to make a cover of Michael Jackson . . . but I took the challenge.”

The challenge is one for which Jorge, who opens a United States tour Friday at the Fillmore Miami Beach, feels both he and his country are ready. “There’s a new movement, a new concept in Brazil,” he says. “Everything is starting to change. . . . Brazil has the opportunity to earn a following in the world. I make Brazilian music, but this music has a great community around the world. I want to make music that is less traditional, more universal.”

As Brazil, headed by former factory worker Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, takes an increasingly influential place on the world political and economic stage, one of the most compelling and original artists to emerge there in the past decade is a product of the appalling slums that represent the country’s most stubborn problems. As intrinsically and proudly Brazilian as Jorge is, his career owes as much to international recognition as national fame. And to Jorge’s own confidence in his music, his culture, and the drive and creativity that has lifted him up from the depths. “Getting out of the favelas is everyone’s aspiration,” Jorge told The Miami Herald in 2005. “How you do it is up to you.”

Jorge Mario da Silva (Seu means “Mr.”) grew up in a grinding ghetto on the outskirts of Rio de Janeiro. He had an affectionate family and a percussionist father who inspired him to be a musician. But after Jorge’s younger brother was killed in a drug-gang shootout, the family was driven onto the streets. As a teen, Jorge became homeless and addicted to drugs. He was saved after he began sleeping outside a theater, which eventually took him in, and began training and using the teenage musician in their productions. At the same time, Jorge began playing an adventurous mix of samba, funk and rock, making two records that were hits in Brazil.

His breakthrough came when he got the role of the menacing gangster Knockout Ned in the critically acclaimed 2003 film City of God, about the Rio de Janeiro favela of the same name. His performance so impressed director Wes Anderson that he cast Jorge to croon David Bowie songs in Portuguese in The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou.

Read more: http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/07/23/1741921/seu-jorge-brings-universal-change.html

CATA has made a great impact in the lives of the tens of thousands of migrant workers who have lived and worked in the area over the past 31 years.  By providing education on workers’ rights, building leadership capacity, and organizing the community to provide testimonies and coordinate immigrant marches, CATA’s work continues to advance farmworker issues in solidarity with others so policies affecting all workers are improved.

CATA has advanced based on the belief that only through organizing and collective action can farmworkers achieve justice and fullness of life. CATA’s programs actively involve farmworkers in the process of social change and the analysis and proposed actions come directly from them. CATA’s mission is to empower and educate our membership through leadership development and capacity building so that they are able to make informed decisions regarding the best course of action for their interests.

In the 1970’s and 1980’s, workers fought for the Right to Know laws, enabling them to know the dangerous chemicals they work with on a daily basis.  They fought for the Right to Access laws so they would not be isolated on farm labor camps and receive visitors, like CATA staff, to educate them on their rights.

In the 1990’s, workers organized unions throughout the mushroom industry in Pennsylvania, with the Kaolin Workers Union’s experience as the example for others to pursue better wages and safer working conditions.  CATA, along with others, created the Farmworker Health and Safety Institute that provides training and research on farmworker health and safety issues.  Thousands of farmworkers have been and still are trained by CATA in the Worker Protection Standard to reduce their risk of pesticide exposure, and in HIV Prevention to improve their health and that of their families.

In the last decade, CATA has pressed for a just food system by working with partner organizations across the country to establish social justice standards in organic agriculture.  The Agricultural Justice Project and the Domestic Fair Trade Association have become significant endeavors in the national effort for food justice.  During this time, CATA received ECOSOC status at the United Nations and works on migration issues on a global level.

Currently, workers are organizing to push for just immigration reform, in solidarity with others.  Other areas of work include food security, health and safety, and workers’ rights. CATA strategically positions itself to influence these and other policies that not only benefit the immigrant community, but the larger community, as well.

For more information, please visit  www.cata-farmworkers.org.