Redemption Song Foundation
I’ve been around Daily Kos as a commenter for a few years, and I consider it a go-to source for political diaries/ stories, and well informed discussions about US and world politics from a largely Democratic point of view. I try and comment with some regard for respect of others, although I can get carried away trying to justify my ideas. Sorry to anyone I’ve irritated! But, this is not about me.
I have a daughter named Wendee, a biologist with a Master’s degree in conservation biology from Texas A&M, who, after graduation, carved out a way to make a living as a (very qualified – my bias!) science writer. In 2014 she got an assignment from a conservation publication to write about the impact of conservation ‘displacement,’ in this case in Uganda, when conservation areas, through government policies, result in displacements of indigenous peoples. These groups are often those who had previously occupied these areas with histories of having lived there for long periods of time, and with few or no resources other than their ability to carve out a living from the land, in this case, the forest.
After doing some research and photography in the Bwindi Impenetrable National Park in southwest Uganda, where the species being protected is the mountain gorilla, she then went to a nearby area where one group, the Batwa people, had been ‘moved’ to. Seeing the living conditions of the Batwa really moved her, and this has resulted in her establishing the Redemption Song Foundation, with the name coming from Bob Marley’s “Redemption Song.” In her words:
I was visiting a community in Uganda where the Batwa forest pygmy people now live; the Batwa are "conservation refugees" — evicted from the forests of Bwindi Impenetrable National Park where these indigenous people had lived until 1992. I have seen poverty all around the world, but the despondency in the young children in this community stunned me. I went back to my lodge and cried.
I can tell you that she just dug in, and has lived among the Batwa in their living conditions for months at a time. No charity at a distance for this girl!
So I am hoping that this will touch some here, and that you will, after looking at both the cause, and the results of her and others efforts since that fateful writing assignment, will consider making a donation to Redemption Song Foundation (RSF), and thus to the Batwa people. Her main goals, so far, have been furthering the education of the Batwa kids, and improved water resources and nutrition for all of those in the village.
I worked in private non-profits for 25 years, in Oregon, before retiring in 2012, and I can tell you that RSF is run in a very lean fashion. Wendee even sold her home in the Houston area a couple of years ago in order to help to finance these efforts, in part.
Any recs will be much appreciated, not for me but for those for who I am advocating - admittedly at a distance, but that’s about all I can do with a retirement (SS) income. I can at least write a bit about the issue, and seek donations for the cause, but the RSF website, largely designed by Wendee, speaks volumes. Many thanks, and blessings to all.
Tom Finlay - Paz3
Redemption Song Foundation