Our interns’ accomplishments

Taking a stroll through the endless clothes racks of a Canadian mall is generally not a terribly edifying experience. For some, it’s a chance to pass a carefree day with friends, for others it’s an opportunity to update their wardrobe with the hottest brands and styles, and yet for others, it’s merely a necessary evil: a trip to buy new clothes for their children or for work.

I find myself walking down the dusty red path of Djoumanzana; a “suburb” if you will, of Mali’s capital city, Bamako. It’s nighttime and the only light available is that of the occasional passing motorcycle and the glare from between dark bodies huddled around the television set outside of the local corner store: villagers gawking over the dubbed Latin-American soap operas.

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Bangladesh receives hundreds of millions of dollars a year in foreign aid money, but much of it is ineffective due to such issues as poor project management. This video poses the question "is foreign aid really necessary ?" and takes an informal look at the current picture of foreign aid in Bangladesh —its problems and contradictions— through the eyes of four local experts : Mr. Saiful Huq, General Secretary of the Worker’s Party of Bangladesh, Dr. Anu Muhammad, Professor of Economics at Jahangirnagar University, Dr. Piash Karim, Professor of Sociology at BRAC University, and Ahmed Swapan Mahmud, Executive Director of VOICE Bangladesh.

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Labour brokers are quickly becoming common practice in the south african workforce. This system opens the door wide open for exploiting workers, sexual harassment, and intimidation. In this video, workers who are directly employed by labour brokers speak frankly about the issues and problems associated with this system.

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Wentworth community in the suburbs of Durban is the neighbour of a oil refinery own by a multinational corporation. The residents ask that the state intervenes so that they do not have to live in an environment where exposure to toxic smokes produced by the refinery happens on a daily basis.

Bangladesh has a long history with the Asian Development Bank (ADB), having received cumulative public sector loans to the tune of 11,4 billion
since 1973.

Almost half of this money has gone towards the energy and transport sectors, with less than 10 percent devoted to water supply and sanitation, public policy, health and social sectors combined. In 2007 alone, the ADB approved over 1,1 $ billion in loans, of which half is earmarked for energy infrastructure projects.

Learning is a two-way street – or so the members of Nomadic Massive experienced during a short jaunt to Brazil last November, a follow-up to a similar visit here by Brazilian hip hop artists earlier in 2008. The multi-ethnic, socially-engaged hip hop collective, based in Montreal, hit the road with more than just a few performances on the agenda – a heavy dose of musical and cultural exchange were also in the mix. They paid a visit to the
Brazilian chapter of the international hip hop awareness group Universal Zulu Nation, held an informal talk at Fundação Casa, a juvenile youth detention center in São Paolo, and hung out with legendary b-boy Nelson Triunfo. But what marked them the most was more intangible: an exposure to a society that was open to discussing hip-hop as a valid cultural phenomenon, from government officials all the way to street level.

Alternatives, in collaboration with the Ministère des relations internationales, is pleased to offer an assistantship position with our Québec Sans Frontières Program.

This placement will reinforce intern supervision for all interns participating in Alternatives’ QSF Programs for 2008-2009. The person will assist the internships programs officer to plan, organise and coodinate all activities related to these placements, including participant selection, pre-departure training, fundraising, partner organisation relations, intern contract management, pre-departure evaluations and return evaluation activities and debreifs. The person will also coordinate the arrival of overseas interns to Montreal through the project’s reciprocity agreement, including activities calendar and accommodations.

Alternatives, in collaboration with Québec’s Ministère des relations internationales has organized the ’Urban agriculture in Bamako, a public health approach’ internship project, part of our Quebec Sans Frontiere Program. You can follow our interns presently in Mali by reading our interns’ blog.

Alternatives, in collaboration with Québec’s Ministère des relations internationales ihas organized the internship project: ’Urban Agriculture in Havana, Phase II’ in its Quebec Sans Frontières Program.You can follow our interns presently in Bolivia by reading our interns’ blog.

Alternatives, in collaboration with Québec’s Ministère des relations internationales has organized the internship project: ’Arriba! A new voice for Bolivia’s llama breeders’ in its Quebec Sans Fronitères program. You can follow our interns presently in Bolivia by reading our interns’ blog.

Alternatives in collaboration with the Canadian International Development Agency and the Youth Employment Strategy is happy to offer internships in management and community development. The 6 month placements include one month of training in Montreal and a five month work component with a host organization.

It’s not every Saturday in downtown Johannesburg that one sees a crowd of kaffiyeh-clad protesters shouting slogans about Palestinian liberation. But then again it’s not every day that South Africa’s government of former freedom fighters plays host to a top official from what many now refer to as an “apartheid state”.

Central Cape Town. Known as Lie de Kaap, the Lovely Cape, in Afrikaans, and from the city centre, one can understand why: tall beautiful buildings, the sea stretching out turquoise blue and Table Mountain looming above the city. Famed for its nightlife and incredible geography, Cape Town, from this vantage point, cannot be mistaken for any other. But if you board the metro train east out of central station, you’ll roll past kilometres of shacks built metres away from the railway lines, right up until the last stop: Khayelitsha. People are shocked at my white skin, wondering out loud if I got on the wrong train

Since 1994 South Africa’s largest trade union federation COSATU, the Congress of South African Trade Unions, has been in a tripartite alliance with the African National Congress Party (ANC) and the South African Communist Party (SACP). With the ANC commanding a majority of seats in the national government and most provincial and municipal governments in South Africa, this alliance has mainly served to help legitimize the current government as being the champion of the poor and working class.

Fair Trade as an ethical consumer choice movement has grown in popularity over the last few years. Many fair trade products such as coffee and chocolate have become more easily available and common place. This increase of demand has lead to modest but real gains in the health and well being of a variety of farming communities through out the global south. Yet, this movement based on consumer trust is in danger of being seriously undermined.

Another dusty day in Orange Farm, red earth split in cracks, long dry dirt roads lead to the freeway that leads to the city. The sun above is like a grapefruit in the centre of the sky. South Africa. Nothing here, as anywhere else is more vital to life than water, and yet it is here that struggles for access to this basic service are the strongest.

Beginning at the end of September several highly placed Liberals, including Jean Chrétien, Alan Rock, Pierre Pettigrew and Paul Martin, have declared that they are in support of changing the Canadian Patent Act to allow for the Canadian manufacture of cheap generic drugs solely for export to developing nations. This follows the WTO decision on August 31st that expands the exportation of generic drugs to nations that desire them. Still, although seen as a move in a positive direction, many health experts are cautiously watching the moves of the Canadian government.