Follow-up to Desmond D'Sa visit

Last Thursday's Thoreau Center Brown Bag speaker was Desmond D'Sa, the chairperson of the South Durban Community Environmental Alliance (SDCEA) in South Africa who was here to talk about the work of the alliance and its plans for the future. His visit to the San Francisco Bay Area was hosted by the International Development Exchange (IDEX), which promotes sustainable solutions to poverty by providing long-term grants and access to resources to locally run organizations in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. D'Sa helped found the SDCEA in 1995 as an alliance of community organizations addressing the environmental and human rights issues caused by the largely unrestricted expansion in Durban of industry and oil refineries. Through vigilant pollution monitoring, information sharing, education, community empowerment, and government lobbying, the SDCEA has had numerous success over the years, although major problems remain, namely climate change and the need for grassroots mobilization to strengthen the movement for climate justice. For a full rundown of his visit to the area, see this report prepared by IDEX.

Thoreau Center Brown Bag - Rights-Based Approach to Environmental Justice

Presenter: Desmond D’Sa
Wednesday, June 22, 12:30P to 1:30P
Pacific Room at Tides, Thoreau Center for Sustainability

The South Durban Community Environmental Alliance (SDCEA) is organizing across the historic racial divisions of its communities to speak out for environmental justice at local, national, and international levels. Begun in 1995, SDCEA is a democratic coalition of members of communities who have come together to bring higher environmental standards to the industries and communities that cohabit South Durban.

SDCEA takes a rights-based approach to environmental justice and works to empower community members, especially women and youth, to engage in environmental issues and fight against man-made climate threats.

Desmond is currently the SDCEA Coordinator, and a coordinator of the Right2KNOW Campaign, a national campaign against the draft secrecy laws such as the Protection of Information Bill and the Media Appeals Tribunal. Desmond is a tireless campaigner and also serves as the Coordinator for the Durban Social Forum and sits on a number of activist boards and church organizations. As a key organizer and leader of the South African climate justice movement, Desmond is uniquely positioned as a spokesperson for grassroots organizing currently taking place in Durban to protest the upcoming UN summit on climate justice, in November/December 2011.

Brown Bag Events are free informal mid-day learning sessions hosted at Tides. Friends, neighbors and colleagues are welcome. Visitors, please sign in at the front desk.

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