Other examples

Against the privatization of drinking water

In Malaysia, a broad coalition of civil society groups has been running a longstanding campaign against the intended privatization of the supply and the distribution of drinking water. The Asia working group provided € 3,000 to support trade union awareness-raising events on the government′s plans and for the upkeep of the campaign′s website.
www.monitoringglobalisation.org

The government made an about-face in June 2005 and announced that water services will not be privatized after all — precisely the decision sought by the Coalition against Water Privatisation (CAWP). The civil-society lobby is continuing the campaign and fighting for their favored model of a public-public partnership, which would increase the consumers′ bargaining power by making them shareholders of the supply system.

Sex workers act up

The vicious circle of their lives consists of "poverty - prostitution - human trafficking - Aids". None of these women has chosen to be a sex worker of her own free will. They find themselves in circumstances that often leave them with no choice but to try desparately to escape from one new dependency after another. Lena Simanjuntak, a theater therapist, has been working with Indonesian prostitutes since 1999. Together she and the women write and stage plays.

In October and November 2004 a group of sex workers from Surabaya was invited to Germany to portray their everyday life and their experiences of violence, exploitation and stigmatisation. These experiences have now been compiled in a book along with commentary by the organizers (Daughters of Matahari: Stories by and about the women of Surabaya [in German]). The Asia working group made a total of € 3,700 available to that project.

Subtitling of the documentary Greasy Loot

Every year, thousands of hectares of rainforest are chopped down to give way for oil palm plantations in Indonesia. In her films Inge Altemeier demonstrates to what extent German consumers of tropical timber and oil palm products (margarine, washing powder, animal feed) are responsible for this ongoing deforestation. Provided with huge loans and debt guarantees by European governments, oil palm producers expel the local people from their lands and destroy their livelihoods.

In order to make Inge Altemeier′s documentary on oil palm plantations in Sumatra available to the people affected in Indonesia, the Asia working group provided € 1,500 for the Indonesian translation and subtitling of the film. Since then, Indonesian environmental organizations like WALHI have been able to use the film for local awareness training and information campaigns.
www.globalfilm.de