You do not have permission to delete messages in this group
Copy link
Report message
Show original message
Either email addresses are anonymous for this group or you need the view member email addresses permission to view the original message
to "ENWL-uni"
Dear Avaazers,
There's much darkness in the
world, but from democracy and media to climate change,
human rights and elephants, Avaaz is on fire!!!
Scroll down
to read all about it, but first, just look at one-year-old
Mateo, back with his parents after being torn from them by
Trump’s border guards and locked up for months. Can you
imagine how scared he was?
They’re back together because our movement funded
top-notch lawyers to fight for their freedom, giving hope to
Mateo and hundreds of children like him.
But it’s not
just Mateo -- we’re carrying the sparks of hope into the
darkest places, and setting the world ablaze! Look at what
we’ve got done together in the past few months!
We’re hammering Facebook to clean
up the lies and hate...
The spread of hate online is one
of the biggest threats we face, boosting the far-right’s
divisive agenda everywhere. Mateo was just one of millions of
victims. So when Facebook boss Mark Zuckerberg came to
Washington to answer for fake news and the fake accounts that
spread it, we launched our global call for action against this
threat to our democracies.
We installed hundreds of
Zuckerberg ‘bots’ on the Capitol lawn, and ended up as front
page news in the New York Times, and in over 500 other
outlets around the world, including CNNand The Washington Post. Our team held
dozens of advocacy meetings with governments, legislators and
Facebook executives -- we're starting to see progress!
And we beat the biggest far-right
propagandist of them all!
Global media mogul Rupert
Murdoch speaks to Donald Trump almost every day. He owns Fox
News, the US TV network that put Trump in power and whipped up
the heartless politics that saw Mateo locked up. He seemed
unstoppable when he tried to take control of Europe's largest
broadcaster, Sky -- until Avaaz got involved! Here’s what
Bloomberg said about it:
"When
Rupert Murdoch’s 21st Century Fox launched its bid for the
rest of Sky, few investors expected its progress to be held
up for long. Then Avaaz, a political advocacy group
little known in financial circles, got involved."
Murdoch's
bid for taking over Sky is in tatters
We investigated
his media empire, brought high-profile whistleblowers to Britain, took
key decision makers to court, and got Murdoch’s scandal all
over the media. And now Murdoch’s dream of turning Sky into a
global Fox News and reshaping European politics lies in
tatters -- like his reputation!
Our sparks of hope have reached the
Amazon...
When global mining giant Agnico threatened the
fragile heart of the forest with a massive goldmine, we teamed
up with indigenous groups to fight it. No one thought Agnico
would drop the project -- but after we flooded their
headquarters with letters and phone calls, it took just a few
days for them to pull out!
"We,
from Movimento Xingu Vivo Para Sempre thank Avaaz members
everywhere!"
And
that’s not all. Just a few days ago, we brought together
indigenous leaders from all over the Amazon for a summit on
creating a massive corridor of protected areas and indigenous
territories through the forest -- a giant leap towards our
goal of protecting half our planet to stop the extinction
crisis!
Indigenous
leaders gather to protect their Amazon home. ⓒ César Martínez
/ Avaaz
The news spread all over the world -- check
out what Leo DiCaprio thought about it:
And we’re lighting up the fight
against climate change...
Can you imagine opening the
newspaper to see your face splashed across a full page,
calling on you to take urgent action to stop funding the
world’s dirtiest fossil fuel, signed by over 700,000 people?
Well that’s how the boss of insurance giant Munich RE must
have felt when we took out an ad in the Financial Times
calling on him to drop coal on the day of a big industry
meeting. Coal can’t survive without insurance, and Munich RE
called up Avaaz to say "well played". Guess what happened a
few weeks later? Munich RE announced it was beginning to dump
coal insurance and investments!
Avaazers
deliver our call to dump coal to Munich RE. ⓒ Greg McNevin /
Europe Beyond Coal
And supercharging the fight to save
our beautiful elephants...
It started with a hunch that
much of the "antique" ivory sold across Europe wasn't antique
at all, and actually illegal. We knew the ivory trade was
pushing these amazing animals to extinction, so tens of
thousands of Avaaz members donated, we bought ivory across the
continent and had it tested at Oxford University ... and found
that three quarters of it was illegal ivory covering up a
bloody trade.
EU
Environment Commissioner Karmenu Vella takes delivery of our
ivory report
When we released our results in a hard-hitting report it
generated a massive wave of media coverage from theBBC, The
Independent, The
Guardian and lots more. The news ricocheted around
Europe, and when we displayed the ivory and our findings
outside the office of the Environment Commissioner, he agreed
to a last-minute meeting and promised action to protect
elephants:
"The
ivory report funded by Avaaz members is a very important and
helpful contribution as we consider how best to protect
these magnificent giants."
We’re
also on the ground in Africa! Tens of thousands of us donated
to train and equip 1000 elite wildlife rangers to protect the
continent’s amazing animals from the poaching catastrophe.
This could be a game changer -- and check out what they’ll
have on their uniforms!
We’re showing Palestinian Lives
Matter…
When Israeli troops gunned down hundreds of
unarmed Palestinian protesters in May, the world looked the
other way. But not us -- Avaaz jumped in to show that
Palestinian Lives Matter. On the eve of a key EU meeting,
Avaaz members collected thousands of pairs of shoes,
representing the lives of every single victim of the
Israeli/Palestinian conflict, and laid them all out in
Brussels. It was impossible to ignore:
The image was splashed all over the world’s media and
went viral in Palestine as a symbol that the world had not
forgotten about them. A month later, we launched a major
campaign and even brought Palestinian farmers to talk with
Irish lawmakers. Then the Irish Senate passed a groundbreaking
bill banning the purchase of products from illegal
Israeli settlements. That’s the first time it’s happened
and this could be a HUGE tipping point for justice and
accountability...other countries could follow soon!
And our light is reaching even the
darkest places…
There can be few more hopeless places on
Earth than an Israeli military prison. But that’s where
Palestinian teenager Ahed found herself, after being arrested
for standing up to troops. Her Dad was beside himself with
worry -- then he wrote a heartfelt email to the Avaaz
community, 1.7 million of us got on board, funded her lawyers,
and after 8 months in a cell, Ahed was freed. Here she is
enjoying her first taste of freedom!
Ahed
enjoys the sweet taste of freedom
When I read this
altogether, it’s breathtaking. We’re not just winning, we’re
doing it beautifully, keeping that precious flame of hope
burning bright as the darkness gathers around us. One day,
we’ll pass it to the next generation, to freedom fighters like
Ahed, and then to children like Mateo. But before then, there
are many battles for us to win. And because of this amazing
movement, I know we’ll prevail -- and light up the world as we
do it!
With pride and burning hope,
Bert,
Ricken, Joseph, Christoph, Emma, Alice, Fadi, Lisa, Oscar,
Laura, Ana Sofia, Nell, Diego and the entire Avaaz team
Avaaz is a 47-million-person global campaign
network that works to ensure that the views and values of the world's people
shape global decision-making. ("Avaaz" means "voice" or "song" in many
languages.) Avaaz members live in every nation of the world; our team is spread
across 18 countries on 6 continents and operates in 17 languages. Learn about
some of Avaaz's biggest campaigns here, or follow us on Facebook or Twitter.
