Arising from the 2020-21 BenchMarks Foundation Community Monitors Activist Training Programme, three awareness raising booklets and two videos have been produced, with a fourth booklet and report still to be completed.
The completed booklets are as follows:
The first two publications above are accompanied by a brief video. A fourth booklet not yet completed is on dealing with food insecurity and making food gardens. A report on the challenges and learnings of carrying out remote electronic surveys of community members is also in the pipeline. These will be out in mid-May.
The target groups to reach are the mining communities themselves, including young women and learners. A secondary target group are people in authority, such as school principals and teachers, mines, government departments, including the Department of Basic Education, and organizations such as the Commission for Gender Equality.
The Community Monitors Activist Training Programme was re-orientated at the outset of the first lockdown in March 2020 in response to the challenges posed by the Coronavirus pandemic and the harsh impacts on communities living near mines.
Activists through a process of discussion in their local communities identified key issues for action to be dealt with in Issue Groups as part of their capacity building process. The booklets and videos document, in the voices of community members involved, the work done in the different Issue Groups.
Save Our Education During COVID – Voices of School Students in Mining Communities
Activists in the Bench Marks Monitors School 2020-21 spoke to school students on the feelings about the disruption of the schooling programme due to COVID19 restrictions. School students in poor rural mining communities were concerned that this was more than a disruption but a serious set-back in their school programme.. The views of the students are documented in this booklet through essays, poems and posters.
To download the report go here:
SAVE OUR EDUCATION DURING COVID booklet Download
Young Women and Men in Mining Communities Speak Out – we dream of a future free of violence
http://communitymonitors.net/2021/04/young-women-and-men-in-mining-communities-speak-out/
In this edition, activists in the BenchMarks Community Monitors School 2020-2021 spoke with young men and women in mining communities about the rise in Violence Against Women in the COVID Pandemic. They document their writings poems and posters in this booklet.
To download the booklet go here:
Young Women and Men in Mining Communities Speak Out BOOKLET Download
Community Voices on Food Prices during the Covid-19 Pandemic
http://communitymonitors.net/2021/04/community-voices-on-food-prices-during-the-covid19-pandemic/
Activists In the BenchMarks Community Monitors School ( 2020-21) investigated the food prices increases during the COVID lockdowns and how it affected poor communities living near mines . This is their report Community Voices on Food Prices during the Covid 19 Pandemic.
To download the report go here:
Community Voices on Food Prices during the Covid-19 Pandemic booklet Download
These series of reports are about how community monitors reflect their world. Read and share widely and remember their message TUNATAZAMA
The Fair4All programme is implemented across 13 countries: Brazil, South Africa, Mozambique, Ghana, Nigeria, Kenya, Uganda, Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT), India, Vietnam, Indonesia, Cambodia and Myanmar.
The programme seeks to support civil society organisations (CSOs) to play their diverse roles as educators, mobilisers, creators and watchdogs in critical areas, which will enable global value chains to serve people and the planet before profit. At a regional level, the Southern Africa Resource Watch (SARW) is in a consortium led by the Third World Network (TWN). At the country level, it leads the South Africa programme interventions. In South Africa, the programme is implemented with other partners, which include the Bench Marks Foundation (BMF), Business and Human Rights Resources Centre (BHRC), Centre for Applied Legal Studies (CALS), and World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF). Project activities are implemented based on a contextual analysis of mining in Southern Africa
The project focuses on research, dialogue, capacity building, and advocacy aimed at building a more responsible private sector, strengthening regulatory frameworks to prevent human, labour and environmental rights violations, and advocating for fiscal and trade reforms in the mining sector that benefit communities, empower women and youth and promote local content procurement.
The project highlights the gendered impact of mining activities and aims to improve women’s economic empowerment in the sector. This research report is a result of SARW’s partnership with CALS to generate knowledge and information that can be used by the Fair4All programme.
Bench Marks Foundation is committed to providing leadership and advocacy on bench marking of good corporate governance, ethical and socially responsible investment as well as linking people and institutions committed to these ideals
