Strengthen the World Project

2009-11-05T21:13:00.001-05:00

HOPE

2009-01-15T19:00:00.003-05:00

http://www.nyc.gov/dhs

On Monday, January 26 2009, I will join HOPE-Homeless Outreach Population Estimate, which is a cause to help homeless people. Homelessness is one of the social causes that intrigues me a lot, and I am very interested about doing something for them. If you want to join me please don't hesitate about contacting me, there will be plenty of people in need waiting for your help.

2008-12-03T00:29:00.003-05:00

Thanksgiving at Food Pantry

2008-11-30T23:47:00.002-05:00

Letter to my fellow peers

2008-11-24T08:05:00.002-05:00

"Revolution is not only necessary, but an obligation in some circumstances"
John Keates

Dear Comrades,

As fellow CUNY friends, and asking for your support. Today, Monday, Nov. 24th is my birthday, and there would not be better gift than having you on my side ACTING with direct-action politics during the rally campaign against tuition raises and budget cuts to CUNY. Please do some time for this event, because if we want change, it got to start on us. I'm planning on making some banners saying: "Money for Schools, Not for Wars", and "Bailout the Education System, Not Financial Institutions". As I heard the other day in the Socialist conference, "sometimes you need to speak out; sometimes you need to speak up; sometimes you need to yell". Please join me in this revolutionary cause and let's all yell together, and we will be heard further away.

If you can't be there (and they must be serious reasons), you still can help giving some suggestions or sending this mail to fellow comrades!

Gracias!

Edgar Romero

2008-10-31T09:21:00.004-05:00

1st Part

2008-10-30T22:36:00.003-05:00

2nd Part

The Plight of Homelessness

2008-10-15T11:05:00.003-05:00

Homelessness is a social issue that really intrigues me. I live in New York City and every time I walk through the city I see hundreds of homeless people asking for money. I wonder if they failed and in what. Certainly, it is a hard society to live in. I am from Caracas, Venezuela and I have to say that New Yorkers are hostile people to deal with (especially during rush hours on the subway, so if you are asking for food or money is because was tough for them to fit in). I do have my very unique way of choosing to whom I give a dollar or not. One time I was on the subway and this guy came in with his dirty clothes and his old wasted copper color skin, doing an awesome performance. I just had to give him a dollar. Right after he transfered to the next car, another homeless walked in and he was just begging for money. It made me feel ashamed for him, and since that day I just keep thinking, who deserved that dollar better? Even the homeless have ability to do things, like play a musical instrument (even voice) or make good jokes.
I personally prefer to give food rather than money. So, every time I go to a restaurant and I know I'm not going to finish my food ask for a container and give the food to someone who might need it, and even if I attend a workshop at school or conference and there is food leftover. The Food Bank does the same to help feed those hungry poor people. The City should have stronger programs, as the Food Bank, to get food from so many Deli's around and have it deliver to the poor and hungry people around.

Blog Action Day 2008 Poverty

2008-10-14T00:37:00.001-05:00



                
Blog Action Day 2008 Poverty from Blog Action Day on Vimeo.

What Can One Person Do?

2008-10-14T00:35:00.002-05:00

"The Paradox of Wealth in Latin America: Perspectives on Venezuela."

2008-10-10T21:29:00.004-05:00

Click here to watch this film now

Edgar Romero is hosting an event about politics and civil liberties with an emphasis on factors influencing the growth of socialism in Venezuela. For instance, what are the most significant factors affecting the growth of socialism? And to what extent does the distribution of wealth have to be relatively equal to sustain socialism in Latin American nations?

In order to answer these many questions, Mr. Romero decided to proceed with a project to examine the impact of wealth distribution, crime, and civil liberties in Venezuela both before and after Hugo Chavez took office. To what extent is the case study of Venezuela a model for other political and economic restructuring ?

The forum is entitled, "The Paradox of Wealth in Latin America: Perspectives on Venezuela." We will host the event at LaGuardia Community College. The keynote speaker is Carol Delgado, the Consul General of the Venezuelan Consulate in New York. Ms. Delgado will provide information about Venezuelan foreign relations.

Joining Consul General Delgado is Dr. Ana Maria Hernandez, professor of Education and Language Acquisition. Dr. Hernandez has studied Venezuelan arts and cultural projects. Mr. Jose Orengo, Esq., who is the Executive Director for Government Relations of LaGuardia Community College, will moderate the conversation between Consul General Delgado and Dr. Hernandez.

Our team came up with a series of questions based on current events in South America. We thought that the event might be better focused if we start by talking about the creation of Las Misiones (The Missions) and different cultural programs. Utimately, the goal of the forum is to discuss the political situation in the region in order to better understand the appeal of leftist ideas throughout Bolivia, Ecuador and, in a certain way, Chile. In addition, we would like to close by addressing transnational perspectives. Therefore, we hope to address the significance talks between Venezuela, and China and Russia as well as Venezuela’s relations with the U.S.

Click on the image to enlarge

You can check any of these essays to get more information related to the event. If you click on the name of the author you will go to their biographies; if you click on the link you will go to the articles:

By Lee Sustar,

http://www.isreview.org/issues/54/venezuela.shtml

By Mario Vargas Llosa,

http://www.the-american-interest.com/ai2/article.cfm?Id=366&MId=17

By Prof. James Petras,

http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=9475

Event Coordinator:
Edgar Romero
STW Project Director

The Role of Afghan Women in the Development of Their Nation

2008-09-29T23:07:00.004-05:00

The Role of Afghan Women in the Development of Their Nation

by Edgar Romero

In this segment of "POW: The Plight of Women," Edgar Romero invites you to participate in a discussion with Ms. Manizha Naderi, Executive Director of Women for Afghan Women (WAW), and Ms. Tahera Shairzay, the organization's Advocacy Program Manager. Ms. Naderi, who resides in Kabul, Afghanistan, and Ms. Shairzay, who is based primarily in the non-profit's location in Flushing, New York, will share their work experiences in Afghanistan, the challenges and problems Afghan women face in their country, and the impact WAW has on the lives of these women.

Volunteering dynamo Favors non-profits and ‘good causes’

2008-09-11T00:03:00.004-05:00

Christina Heiser, who writes for the Queens Courier, interviewed me and wrote an article about some of the activities I have been doing with my project. You can click on the picture to read it.

Women For Afghan Women Summer Camp

2008-09-08T00:54:00.004-05:00

For all of you that have been wondering, why have I been missing in action during the whole summer? Click on the slide show and you will see at a glance what I did during July and August:

Make a Positive Impact in the World

2008-08-31T16:16:00.006-05:00

American Express launched the Members Project for its second year. It aims to support people's ideas and dreams by giving financial assistance in order to see their dreams realize. The 5 following projects where selected to represent the categories STW Project voted for:

Keep a child with AIDS alive for just $1 a day

#13 in Diseases and Disorders

Keep a child with AIDS alive for just $1 a day

The project is an urgent response to the AIDS pandemic ravaging Africa. With more than 25 million dead, the disease continues to wipe out whole societies, threaten economic infrastructure and devastate the family structure. The project provides children and families with life-saving AIDS drugs and support for survival where, without it, they would die. The project offers individuals the chance to pay for this treatment directly, and to really save a life -- for just $1 a day.
Marine Conservation & Awareness- Pacific Solo Row

#2 in Environmental Protection & Restoration

Marine Conservation & Awareness- Pacific Solo Row

An inspiring and daring solo row across the Pacific Ocean to maximize opportunities to explain and publicize a broad range of environmental issues that affect our ocean. The Pacific Voyage project is a 3-stage challenge – launched in May 2008, covering 7,600 miles from California to Australia, with stopovers in Hawaii and Tuvalu. The row will document the challenges our ocean faces and produce a series of inspirational videos and materials to educate the public and begin a ripple of change.
People Ending Their Own Hunger

#4 in Microfinance & Economic Development

People Ending Their Own Hunger

End hunger in Africa! Not by sending food or other handouts, but by harnessing the innate knowledge & creativity of millions of Africans, particularly women, as they are the ones who grow most of Africa's food. Studies show that when women & men work together as part of a holistic development program, they become sustainably self-reliant in key areas (health, water, income generation, etc.). Let's ignite a global revolution, starting in Africa, to end hunger and build a better world for all.
Lessons From Rwanda: A Forgiveness Film's Outreach

#13 in Education & Outreach

Lessons From Rwanda: A Forgiveness Film's Outreach

I recently produced a student documentary about two Rwandan genocide survivors on a journey to forgive the neighbors who slaughtered their families. I plan to launch an international screening tour, hosting discussions on the power of forgiveness and presenting the movie on hundreds of university campuses as well as in areas needing reconciliation such as East Africa, Northern Ireland, South Africa and the Middle East. The goal is to stir an international reconciliation movement.
6,000 Girls' Scholarships in the Developing World

#9 in Achievement Gap
6,000 Girls' Scholarships in the Developing World

My wife and I want to fund primary and secondary school scholarships for 6,000 young women in the developing world. $250 is all it costs to open the doors of education for a young girl in the developing countries through a holistic one-year scholarship. By enabling girls to go to school and get an education, we can help them break the cycle of poverty not only for themselves, but ultimately for generations to come.

Barbaric Yawp

2008-08-31T15:25:00.001-05:00

Check out our job on Alpha Theta Phi, a Phi Theta Kappa chapter at LaGuardia Community College. In this blog you will find essays and slide shows of pictures from our recent projects.

http://ptkbarbaricyawp.blogspot.com/

Children of Women for Afghan Women Summer Program

2008-07-11T12:53:00.003-05:00

Me and the Kids

Strengthen the World Project started a Summer Camp for poor children of refugee Afghan women. STW Project, is reaching out to the community with this service to help the mothers of the non-profit organization Women for Afghan Women (WAW). The free time afforded to the mothers will open up opportunities for them to further their own education. Many of these women are learning English and increasing their literacy for the first time. Our objective is to provide the children ages 10-18 years with a 9-week program that includes soccer, basketball, swimming and 2 field trips to a museum and zoo. The activities will engage the children with culture and education, friends and team work, responsibility and fun! This in turn will strengthen the dialogue between communities that seldom interact.

Playing basketball at Corona Park

Bibi, Andrea and Geizel

Supporting Children in West Africa

2008-06-01T21:01:00.008-05:00

http://www.internationaleducationalservices.com/

A piece of Ghana in Park Slope. I was walking around this Brooklyn neighborhood, and I met Dr. Natalie E. Gray and Augustin Djan in the local market where they sell cloth and knit bags that are handmade in Ghana. This activity helps them collect part of the funds sent to a small village called Mafi Dadoboe. I was impressed by all the work Dr. Gray is doing in this village. At 66 she looks so passionate and strong that makes her looks as if she were in her 20's. She sends out of her paycheck $170 weekly to sustained the breakfast of a whole week for 30 kids.
Strengthen the World Project contributed with $50 buying products, and will commit to travel in 2010 to Ghana to outreach this community.

Exploitation State: Nike

2008-05-25T00:07:00.003-05:00

Child Labor made in Nike

I am a paradox. Some of my actions could be someone else’s suffering or delight. The same exact thing happens with decisions some people make or even worse when more than a person (corporations) take steps that can give them a really bad reputation. So you may wonder, how can a behavior determine that a corporation is a paradox of its affluences, being judged by their choices, challenges and consequences?

Child labor is one pertinent issue regarding humans rights. It’s a violation towards children who are exploited and work instead of obtaining an education. The issue have been cited by Marx on his Communist Manifesto as one of the problems that needs to be end: “Abolition of children's factory labour in its present form”, and is still a point at issue in our present day. By exploitation we need to include not only the fact of being paid too little by working too many ours, but maybe they are not even getting pay, that they might suffer physical abuse or even worse when pregnant girls as young as fourteen years old sewed shoes for Nike during their scandal of child labor during the mid 90’s.

While all human rights institutions including non-gonvernemntal, international organizations, trade unions and other interest groups are commited to child labor prevention, is still a matter of enormous controversy. As I mentioned on the previous paragraph, the multi billion dollar corporation Nike was utilizing capitalism as its tool to benefit from child labor to make huge profits. After a series of media attacks and harsh critics, they started to create a better philanthropic profile and join groups like Mercy Corps, a non-governmental organization which mission is to alleviate suffering, poverty and oppression by helping people build secure, productive and just communities. The partnership of Nike and Mercy Corps was formed in 2004 and since then more than $16 million in donated goods have supported programs led by Mercy Corps and other collaborating agencies.

My favorite soccer club is FC Barcelona from Spain. Their club has become an institution, hence the motto More than a Club. Barcelona stood up for their rights as an independent state to speak their own language and have their own rights, when Franco had his fascist state in Spain. Soccer clubs around the world are financially supported by companies with huge names like Samsung, Red Bull or Coca-Cola, wearing their names on their jerseys. FC Barcelona was never sponsored by a major corporation to wear a brand name on their shirts so the team could be benefited economically. When they finally decided to be find a partner, they choose to put on their shirts UNICEF that stands for United Nations Children's Fund. The agreement will see FC Barcelona donating $1.9 million per year to UNICEF (0.7 per cent of its ordinary income) to the FC Barcelona Foundation, and rejecting significant money offers to be the first shirt sponsor of the football team. The club has done this in order to set up international cooperation programmes for development, supports the UN Millennium Development Goals and has made a commitment to UNICEF's humanitarian aid programs through the donation of one and a half million euro for the next five years. The paradox of this is that the FC Barcelona jersey is Nike.

The paradox of affluences, which could mean in simple words the contradiction of the wealthy. How a muti billion dollar business chose to make profits from child labor exploitation instead of thinking about human needs. They had the challenge of facing their inmoral behavior so they partnered with different causes to clean their image and the consequences were positive, but were decided for negative actions. Nevertheless, we will remain with unaswered ethical questions about these events. Were Nike choices doing any benefit to these children when they were being paid less than $2 a day and their adequate living standards required $3 a day? What would this children had been doing instead? Prostitution or nothing? Is it then injustice what Nike was doing? The thing we know we can’t do is applaud those decisions.

Feeding a homeless with a $225 meal

2008-05-01T23:29:00.003-05:00

I just fed two homeless with food that was sold for $225.00. I work in a restaurant, and when I was serving the food at the restaurant I wonder how many people can be fed with $225.00? It was a private dinner for 50 people, and each of them had to pay that amount to had their bellies fulfilled tonight. $11,250.00 dinner for 50 people! I don't even going to mention how many things can be done with that, you name them.
Every night when I finished working I walk five blocks to the subway station. I've seen a homeless sleeping at the same spot every night. They cooked so much food at the restaurant, that even after the staff ate, there was food left. I thought about the homeless and grabbed two containers with chicken from a farm upstate New York that had been cooked in duck confit to get the amazing qualities of balance spring flavors for a millionaires fest. The most paradoxical situation is that some people ate it for free, while others didn't even know that the total amount paid for that fest could've paid my rent for two years.
I thought he was not going to be there because it was raining. Nonetheless, more faithful than a statue with a pegion at a public square. There he was, trying to conceive the pleasures of Morpheus under the rain. I said, "excuse me" and he looked at the container with food and slowly grabbed it. I don't know if he felt good about it. I tried to see if he looked at me, but probably he thought it was just a dream, so I just left.
A block ahead I saw another one that I had not seen before. I woke him up, "excuse me". He looked and I said, "chicken". He replied nicely with a thank you. I felt so good and bad afterwards. I helped someone, but I was so close to understand how hard is for them. I did not change anything, but that is what life is made of: small things. You can always be amaze how much you can do with those little abstract things called: details.

Beijing 2008

2008-04-30T23:58:00.003-05:00

Free Tibet

Kids living in poverty in Ecuador get goods to study.

2008-04-27T19:25:00.000-05:00

Adopt-a-School

Strengthen the World Project in collaboration with Green Project, helped to get goods for kids in extreme poverty in El Limoncito, Guayaquil, Ecuador. The goods included 300 Lbs. of notebooks, pens, crayons, art & crafts.
After having collected all the goods, Green Project got stuck with the material, when they couldn't find a fair price to send the stuff to Ecuador. UPS was charging $6,000.00 and Postal Service $1,800.00. I talked to the Ecuadorian Consulate, got the numbers of different local agencies that ship to Ecuador, and arrange a deal with one of them, to finally shipped the boxes for $367.00.

Head Committee of Recycling Program at 590 Flatbush

2008-04-27T19:11:00.004-05:00

Recycling of 544 Apartments

I live a residence composed of two buildings. Each tower has 16-floors and in each floor they are 17 apartments. Concerned about if recycling was being done in a building, where obviously a lot of waste is produced, I approach the President of the Association of Neighbors and asked him how the recycling program works here. He said that the owners prefer to pay the fee of non-recycling because is cheaper than having a environmental program. After had shown my disagreement, he came to me a few weeks later to assign me as the Head Committee of Recycling Program which I will definitely bring back to our Neighbors and local community if possible.

http://www.nyc.gov/html/dsny/html/contact/requests_decal.shtml

A meeting was arrange with sanitation to come and speak to the tenants about recycling techniques.

Guantánamo is no joke - Tear it Down

2008-04-23T12:43:00.000-05:00

Sunday, April 27, 2008

This coming Sunday me, Hannah (she is a writer and Amnesty International activist, who has done a lot of writing and research about Guantánamo) and Andres Valbuena, will be in Union Square educating people about what happens in Guantánamo. We willl have posters about facts, quotes and Q&A regarding Guantánamo Bay. As you may know the comedy movie "Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantánamo Bay " will be in theaters April 25, so I want to act. In reality, detention in Guantánamo is no joke. From presumed guilt to unfair trials, from ill-treatment to indefinite detention without charge, Guantánamo has become a global symbol of injustice. Amnesty International is calling on the U.S. government to charge detainees and give them fair trials or release them.

We will collect as many signatures as we can and we will make people sing online for Tear it Down Project - http://www.tearitdown.org

Achieved:
It was a cloudy and chill Sunday. Hannah, Andres an me met at Tea Lounge in Brooklyn, and then headed to Union Square. I had printed 400 flyers about Guantanamo is No Joke, and we had posters with information regarding Guantanamo. Once in Union Square we quickly set ourselves in a place where we all agreed it could be a nice place to collect signatures, hang the posters and talk to people. In 2 and half hours we collected like 45 signatures. Then we moved to another place which I thought it could be better place and in fact in 1 hour we doubled our numbers to 106 signatures.
The sociological behavior of the human being in a city was really appreciated from the point of view of doing something as an activist. Some people don't care at all, they are just self absorbed in their world, some of them wanted to learn about Guantanamo (some knew little bit, some didn't know about, which we were glad to shared our knowledge), and some others were so thankful that we were doing that. We could heard people asking if this was being done because of the new movies, which it was the reason. As we "taught", we or me, "learned" too. Hopefully sooner than later I will be doing more for a good cause. Just tomorrow I am going to be collecting the whole week at my school 1000 signatures for Women's Rights.

Pictures, facts, Human Rights poster, and more @ Union Square.

Anthony Barnes the 101th signature. Hannah Tennat-Moore holding the folder.

Andres Valbuena.

Edgar Romero.

1000 signatures for the International Violence Against Women Act in collaboration with Amnesty International

2008-04-23T12:02:00.000-05:00

Documentary "Beyond Belief". Official selection Tribeca Film Festival. Two American women who lost their husbands on September 11, 2001, as they set up humanitarian programs for Afghan widows in Afghanistan. Speaker Tahera Shairzay, advocacy Program Manager of the Non-profit Organization Women for Afghan Women will speak about her real experiences from Afghanistan and current situation there. Powerful exhibition of photographs of Afghanistan pre- and
post-9/11. Edward Grazda who has made repeated visits to Afghanistan over the years, and Steve McCurry, who took the famous picture “The Afghan Girl”.
The project will collect 1000 signatures for the International Violence Against Women Act in collaboration with Amnesty International.
April, Tuesday 29, 3:30PM. LaGuardia Community College Room E-242.

Quil Lawrence, Middle East correspondent for BBC will discuss his new book, Invisible Nation: How the Kurds' Quest for Statehood is Shaping Iraq and..

2008-04-23T11:51:00.000-05:00

Thursday, April 24
International Reporting Project (IRP), Middle East Studies Program, SAIS Middle East Perspectives Club and the SAIS Journalism and Media Career Club:
"Invisible Nation: How the Kurds' Quest for Statehood is Shaping Iraq and the Middle East"
12:30 to 2 p.m. - Rome Building Auditorium
Quil Lawrence, Middle East correspondent for BBC and PRIâ€™s "The World" and former IRP fellow, will discuss his new book, Invisible Nation: How the Kurds' Quest for Statehood is Shaping Iraq and the Middle East. Camille Pecastaing, assistant professor of Middle East Studies, will make introductory remarks. For more information and to RSVP, contact 202.663.7761 or irp@jhu.edu.
http://www.theworld.org/node/94