Fundraising:

HRDC summer positions: Jeni Rosenthal and I have been working on this, it is do next week and we are almost done, just some finishing touches

Gov't Proposal: This is somehting Nikisha secured and I wrote a few months back, so I spruced it up and it is ready to be sent out.

Budgets: Got my budgets finished and I am waiting for everyone else's which I am hoping to get today. Then we can have a big strategy/fundraising meeting with Andy :)


Volunteer Program:

Lots of new volunteers, which is great

Working with a few great volunteers who are helping with research

Finished recieving responses from volunteers intersted in helping MAria, so I think she has them all organized and working hard now....if anyone else needs help with anything let me know and I can work to find the volunteers you need!

hoping that everyone has a chance to also think of the volunteers that will help in their "departments" (tee hee) this will help Sush and I plan for the volunteer program.

TakingITLocal:

Working to get everything ready for the site..which has been quite a bit or work. All the descriptions and resources.

TakingITLocal new Team Guide is finished, which is exciting

Working on Jen's Action Plan to make it a bit longer

working with lots or youth reps on their individual initiatives...i try to post most major conversations in the relationship manager..and with the new tool, this will get easier, i hope.


Other:
worked with Sush and Martin to help Lan Anh with her award application

Working on a few partnerships, with particular TIG teams and individuals interested in working with TIG

:P

This has been a crazy week for me! I was away the end of last week and over the weekend for a War Child confrence and on Tuesday and Wednseday in the WC office. I have been at TIG Monday, Thursday, Friday. This is raising new challenges for me as I have less time to work on TIG things then I am used to. SO I have started to answer most of my TIG emails in the evening so my time in the office is cleared up.

So what I have accomplished in the last few days:

.I have been answering quite alot of responses to youth reps who have been replying to the individual progress report I sent out to all 40+ of them. if you want to read their responses they are in the admin section.

.I have been approving the tons of new volunteers we have been getting and trying to get about 8 others to help with the fundraising research

.working with Jeni, a volunteer, on the HRDC grants for summer positions

.working on the documentation for the TakingITLocal sight including, responsibilites of a youth rep, fundraising, becoming a youth rep, starting a local team and encouraging Martin to work on a guide to using the new admin site. this is a lot of work, becuase most of the docuemnts need to be re-written to account for the manual. I also want improve the resources to make being a youth rep a lot easier!

.working with Andy to plan out the fundraising stuff for TIG, including getting all TIG core team to prepare budgets and project goals for the next year.

.preparing the budgets for the areas I am responsible for

.speaking with lot sof people over email about differnt initiaives, including CIDA, an organizaiton from Kenya etc.

.working with Susheela on the volunteer program

.working with Maitreyi, a youth rep from India, on her IBelieve project.

Thats all I think...accept for the million other things that aren't mentioned here.
Super excited for a break this weekend! Yeah Amanda's birthday!!

:)

For Immediate Release
March 8, 2002

Three Die in Protests Against Canadian Oil Company Project in South America

(Toronto) Today, Canadian environmentalists called on the Alberta Energy Company to halt construction of their controversial pipeline in Ecuador following the death of several protestors, including children.
“People should not be killed to protect oil company profits” said Keith Stewart, climate change campaigner for the Toronto Environmental Alliance and personal friend of some of the some of the environmentalists under attack in Ecuador. “We are calling on the Alberta Energy Company to withdraw from this project before more people are killed or wounded.”
Local newspapers report that three children have died by asphyxiation from tear gas and dozens are wounded after demonstrators erected roadblocks and occupied over 60 oil wells and five refineries - halting all construction on the pipeline and bringing oil production to a near standstill. The blockades were part of a general strike called by workers, residents, and local government leaders in two Amazonian provinces.
Ecuadorean President Gustavo Noboa, who has warned that he will "bring war" to anyone in the way of the pipeline and fight them "trench by trench," initially declared a state of emergency for both provinces-- suspending basic civil rights and giving maximum power to the military to break up the demonstrations. The state of emergency was lifted March 5, but tensions remain high.
The Alberta Energy Company is the largest shareholder in proposed 450,000 barrel-per-day oil pipeline would double oil production in the ecologically-sensitive Amazon basin and result in new encroachments upon indigenous lands and ecological reserves, as well as more contamination of water and air in the region. Once pristine rainforest, Sucumbios and Orellana are now the largest oil producing provinces in the country, but they have not benefitted from the oil revenues. Communities surrounding oil operations have the highest rates of cancer in the country due to three decades of chronic contamination of their rivers, ground water, soil, and air, while larger towns still lack basic health services and infrastructure such as sanitation and potable water.
In July 2001, the Toronto Environmental Alliance, Greenpeace Canada, the Sierra Club of Canada and the David Suzuki Foundation called on Alberta Energy to withdraw from the project, but the company has yet to respond to their letter.

- 30 -

For more information:
Keith Stewart, tel. (416) 596-0660

If anyone would care to join me in calling on Alberta Energy to withdraw from this project, e-mail me at keith@torontoenvironment.org, or give me a shout at 416-596-0660.

For more info, see www.amazonwatch.org

Keith Stewart, Ph.D.
Smog and Climate Change Coordinator
Toronto Environmental Alliance
30 Duncan St., Suite 201
Toronto, Ontario M5V-2C3
tel. 416-596-0660
fax 416-596-0345
e-mail: keith@torontoenvironment.org
webpage: www.torontoenvironment.org