Epitaph Charities Project 2003 candidates announced!
Last year we began The Epitaph Charities Project where we donated $50,000 to selected non-governmental charity organizations. These organizations were put on-line and voted upon by all of the good people that visit our web site and receive our weekly newsletter.
This project was such an overwhelming success last year that we have decided to do it again this year! We have chosen another ten charities and are working on the next version of The Epitaph Charities web site.
Below is a list of the charities that we have selected for eligibility this year, so be on the lookout for the new web site and voting system real soon!
50 Years Is Enough (href='http://www.50years.org' target='_blank'>www.50years.org/> )
We call for the immediate suspension of the policies and practices of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank Group which have caused widespread poverty, inequality, and suffering among the world's peoples and damage to the world's environment. Substantial responsibility for the unjust world economic system lies with those institutions and the World Trade Organization (WTO). We note that these institutions are anti-democratic, controlled by the G-7 governments, and that their policies have benefited international private sector financiers, transnational corporations, and corrupt officials and politicians.
Nature Conservancy (href='http://www.nature.org' target='_blank'>www.nature.org)
Since 1951, we've been working with communities, businesses and people like you to protect more than 98 million acres around the world. Our mission is to preserve the plants, animals and natural communities that represent the diversity of life on Earth by protecting the lands and waters they need to survive.
Center For Reproductive Rights (href='http://www.crlp.org' target='_blank'>www.crlp.org)
The Center for Reproductive Rights is a non-profit legal advocacy organization dedicated to promoting and defending women's reproductive rights worldwide. Reproductive rights, the foundation for women's self-determination over their bodies and sexual lives, are critical to women's equality.
Oxfam (href='http://www.oxfam.org' target='_blank'>www.oxfam.org)
Oxfam International is a confederation of 12 organizations working together in more than 100 countries to find lasting solutions to poverty, suffering and injustice. With many of the causes of poverty global in nature, members of Oxfam International believe they can achieve greater impact in addressing issues of poverty by their collective efforts. To achieve the maximum impact on poverty, Oxfams link up their work on development programs, humanitarian response, lobbying for policy changes at national and global level. Our popular campaigns and communications work is aimed at mobilizing public opinion for change.
National Labor Committee (href='http://www.nlcnet.org' target='_blank'>www.nlcnet.org)
The NLC views worker rights in a global economy as indivisible and inalienable human rights, and we believe that now is the time to secure them for all on the planet. The Committee undertakes public education, research and social activism to empower citizens in our nations to support the brave and growing worker movements in Asia, Africa and the Americas. As they fight for the right to come together and create new democratic workplaces and societies in their own nations, we will work with them to create the new global democratic institutions that will ensure economic justice and dignity for workers and citizens everywhere. The struggle to create a living wage and human dignity for billions of global workers has become the great new civil rights movement of our time.
Interaction (href='http://www.interaction.org' target='_blank'>www.interaction.org)
Interaction is the largest alliance of U.S.-based international development and humanitarian nongovernmental organizations. With more than 160 members operating in every developing country, we work to overcome poverty, exclusion and suffering by advancing social justice and basic dignity for all.
Human Rights Watch (href='http://www.hrw.org/' target='_blank'>www.hrw.org/> )
Human Rights Watch is dedicated to protecting the human rights of people around the world. We stand with victims and activists to prevent discrimination, to uphold political freedom, to protect people from inhumane conduct in wartime, and to bring offenders to justice. We investigate and expose human rights violations and hold abusers accountable. We challenge governments and those who hold power to end abusive practices and respect international human rights law. We enlist the public and the international community to support the cause of human rights for all.
Ploughshares for Peace (href='http://www.ploughshares.org' target='_blank'>www.ploughshares.org)
The Ploughshares Fund is a public grantmaking foundation that supports initiatives for stopping the spread of weapons of war, from nuclear arms to landmines. Ploughshares Fund invests in a wide range of innovative and realistic programs, from scientific research to media, behind-the-scenes dialogue, grassroots organizing and even lobbying. It is no wonder that the Ploughshares Fund has been called a "mutual fund for peace and security."
Gandhi Institute for Non Violence (href='http://www.gandhiinstitute.org' target='_blank'>www.gandhiinstitute.org/>)
The Mission of the Gandhi Institute is to promote and apply the principles of nonviolence locally, nationally, and globally, to prevent violence and resolve personal and public conflicts through research, education, and programming. The Institute, founded by Arun Gandhi (Mahatma Gandhi's grandson) and his wife Sunanda, was established to promote and teach the philosophy and practice of nonviolence to help reduce the violence that consumes our hearts, our homes, and our societies.
Independent media center (href='http://www.indymedia.org' target='_blank'>www.indymedia.org)
The Independent Media Center is a network of collectively run media outlets for the creation of radical, accurate, and passionate tellings of the truth. We work out of a love and inspiration for people who continue to work for a better world, despite corporate media's distortions and unwillingness to cover the efforts to free humanity.