In recent years, many advances have been made to improve healthcare, hygiene, and education. However, malnutrition, disease, and the large economic divide between well-paid workers and low-paid workers have hindered some of this progress. In addition, the population in Ghana has been growing more quickly than facilities to provide proper social services can be created. One way that Ghanaians have used to tackle these issues is to create community NGOs to help provide the basic social services that residents need.

Cross-Cultural Solutions is a recognized leader in the field of international volunteering, founded in 1995. CCS has a worldwide staff of over 200 people and has been profiled in more than 500 news outlets.

It emphasizes responsible and ethical tourism by active participation with the local communities and by disseminating information on the benefits to the community and the wildlife that surrounds them.

Camps International already has sustainable development and conservation projects running in Kenya and Tanzania and is about to expand with similar ventures in Borneo. The CIT charity will direct funds to support these projects and ensure every penny is carefully spent. It important to stress that, unlike large international charities, CIT will avoid local government or other non-governmental agencies directing with how the money is distributed.

PEPY primarily works in Siem Reap Province in the northwestern part of Cambodia. The majority of PEPY’s educational programs are in Chanleas Dai Commune, a rural area about 65 km outside the city of Siem Reap. The city, home to the temples of Angkor, is a burgeoning tourist destination and generates millions of dollars in tourism revenue each year.

Because of the extensive research begun by Dr. Dian Fossey in the 1960s and since carried on by the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund International, the mountain gorilla is perhaps the best understood of all wild gorilla populations.

The Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund International closely monitors several groups of mountain gorillas in Rwanda’s Parc National des Volcans. Staff at the Karisoke Research Center visit the mountain gorilla groups daily and report on their activities, as well as conducting anti-poaching patrols. Other gorilla groups designated for eco-tourism are also regularly monitored.

In the area near Dubluq, Borena clans have wells with earthen ramps leading their cows down to flat areas with mud troughs so their animals can drink water passed up, bucket by bucket, by teams of men in a vertical chain, all singing to keep rhythm. These traditional eela wells, also called singing wells, are crucial in the dry season, and the clans have a schedule for which herds can access the wells on different days.

A well provides water, and song, for cows in Ethiopia’s dry season. Check out this video to see how Oxfam America helped one clan optimize their well to make it more efficient.

People living in poverty hundreds of miles from the nearest town find it nearly impossible to get hold of, or afford, the necessary spare parts. WaterAid research has shown that only 10% of Afridevs are mended within a week. This can have dire health consequences as most communities with a broken pump revert to collecting drinking water from risky sources such as unprotected traditional wells, swamps or rivers. Some take off the handpump and fetch water with a bucket and rope. This exposes them to the risk of potentially fatal water-related diseases such as typhoid and cholera.

To get around the spare parts problem, WaterAid Mozambique has been piloting the use of simple rope pumps in its projects since early 2003.
The most common problem in a rope pump is a broken rope, and even in the remotest areas rope is fairly to easy to find and cheap enough for communities to afford.

In its latest briefing paper on the country, Amnesty International details US shipments of arms, including mortars, ammunition and cash for the purchase of weapons to the Transitional Federal Government (TFG).

These transfers were made despite substantial risks that such types of weapons could be used in indiscriminate attacks by TFG forces, or diverted to armed groups opposed to the TFG, who also commit gross and widespread abuses

SnagFilms is a leader in documentary exhibition and filmanthropy. At this Weds One you will learn how you can take advantage of their platforms to promote your work.
SnagFilms is committed to finding the world‘s most compelling documentaries, whether from established heavyweights or first-time filmmakers, and making them available to the wide audience these titles deserve.

SnagFilms.com is a website where you can watch full-length documentary films for free, but we’re also a platform that lets you “snag” a film and put it anywhere on the web. With a library of over 850 films, and rapidly growing, you’re bound to find films that resonate with your interests. We make it easy for you to find a film that shines a light on a cause you care about. You can then open a virtual movie theater on any web site, so any one can watch your favorite SnagFilms for free.

SnagFilms can be summed up in four words: Find. Watch. Snag. Support.

FIND. Whether using our custom search tools, browsing by topic, or tuning into one of the great channels provided by our partners, with a few clicks you’ll be able to find what you’re looking for.

WATCH. By streaming films worldwide, on-demand, 24×7 and with no software installation or downloading required, we have radically expanded the audience for documentary films. All you need is a decent broadband connection. Just click play, go full-screen, and lean back and enjoy our films.

SNAG. Widgets let you take your favorite SnagFilms with you wherever you like to go online. Open a virtual movie theater right in your webpage, blog, Facebook or MySpace page, or just about any other place online you can think of.

SUPPORT. At their best, documentaries don‘t merely entertain us, they engage and inspire us to action. We provide a link for you to a charity related to the topic of each film (many of them selected by the filmmaker) so you can get involved, immediately. And just by embedding our widgets, you’ve donated your pixels and helped support independent film.

Confirmed Panelists:
Ross Koenig, Snag Films
Davin Hutchins, NomadLands LLC

RSVP to membership@wifv.org
$10 WIFV Members; $20 public

BIOGRAPHIES
DAVIN HUTCHINS is a filmmaker, producer and social entrepreneur specializing in news, documentaries and new media with a emphasis on international social issues and online delivery platforms. In addition to running NomadsLand, he is also the Director of the Independent Digital Distribution Lab at PBS & ITVS, where he strategizes with independent filmmakers, PBS and ITVS about acquiring new audiences through partners like iTunes, Amazon, NetFlix, Roku and Hulu. Hutchins has fifteen years experience in television journalism and has worked with CNN, BBC World, TechTV, Witness, Internews, SnagFilms, the U.S. State Department and The Huffington Post. In 2008-09, as Managing Producer at American News Project in Washington, D.C (now the Huffington Post Investigative Fund), he produced investigative video reports on immigration, the environment and the 2008 U.S. presidential race which appeared on outlets such as The Huffington Post, Al Jazeera English, CNN and Talking Points Memo. His online video reports have tallied more than two million views and tens of thousands of comments. Hutchins directed “The Art Of Flight”, his debut feature documentary which featured at AFI Fest Hollywood, International Documentary Festival Amsterdam and Bangkok International Film Festival.

Date(s): March 3, 2010
Time: 6:30 PM
Sponsor:
Location: Interface Media Group 1233 20th Street, NW Washington, DC 20036 Dupont Circle South METRO
Web Address:
Email: membership@wifv.org

If current warming trends continue unabated, scientists believe that polar bears will be vulnerable to extinction within the next century. WWF provides funding to field research by the world’s foremost experts on polar bears to find out how climate change will affect the long-term status of polar bears.