Grassroots

Grassroots

A grassroots movement is one driven by the politics of a community. The term implies that the creation of the movement and the group supporting it are natural and spontaneous, highlighting the differences between this and a movement that is orchestrated by traditional power structures...

 Projects is a Dutch

Netherlands

The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...

 international charity organisation

Charitable organization

A charitable organization is a type of non-profit organization . It differs from other types of NPOs in that it centers on philanthropic goals A charitable organization is a type of non-profit organization (NPO). It differs from other types of NPOs in that it centers on philanthropic goals A...

 that helps the oppressed poor. Grassroots Projects started in July 2005 when several social globalists wanted an alternative to the current international charity work. The organisation tries to build up a social alternative

Global Justice Movement

The Global Justice Movement is a network or constellation of globalized social movements opposing what is often known as the “corporate globalization” and promoting equal distribution of economic resources.-Movement of movements:...

. Therefore instead of defending the free market, Grassroots Projects ideology is to show direct solidarity with the people they are helping.

Projects

• In Morelia, Chiapas, Mexico
  Mexico
  The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
  
  , Grassroots Projects financed and worked on two water projects. These water projects have connected two Zapatista
  Zapatista Army of National Liberation
  The Zapatista Army of National Liberation is a revolutionary leftist group based in Chiapas, the southernmost state of Mexico....
  
   communities with a water system.

• In El Petén, Guatemala
  Guatemala
  Guatemala is a country in Central America bordered by Mexico to the north and west, the Pacific Ocean to the southwest, Belize to the northeast, the Caribbean to the east, and Honduras and El Salvador to the southeast...
  
  , Grassroots Projects is financing indigenous farmers who are against Plan Puebla Panamá
  Plan Puebla Panama
  The Puebla-Panama Plan is a multi-billion dollar development plan formally initiated in 2001, which is intended to "promote the regional integration and development" of the nine southern states of Mexico with all of Central America and Colombia...
  
   which is trying to open southern Mexico and Central America to foreign investment.

• They financed several organisations in the Mexican state of Oaxaca
  Oaxaca
  Oaxaca , , officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Oaxaca is one of the 31 states which, along with the Federal District, comprise the 32 federative entities of Mexico. It is divided into 571 municipalities; of which 418 are governed by the system of customs and traditions...
  
   that have been involved in the Oaxaca protests
  2006 Oaxaca protests
  The Mexican state of Oaxaca was embroiled in a conflict that lasted more than seven months and resulted in at least seventeen deaths and the occupation of the capital city of Oaxaca by the Popular Assembly of the Peoples of Oaxaca . The conflict emerged in May 2006 with the police responding to a...
  
  . The money went to Indymedia Oaxaca, CIPO and prisoner support for the demonstrators.

Solidarity tour 2006

In October 2006 a group of nine volunteers of Grassroots Projects went on a solidarity tour to Mexico. In co-operation with Catas a water containment system was built to collect rainwater. During the Project several Zapatistas where trained by Catas to build their own tanks in the future. The team members also visited the rest of Chiapas

Chiapas

Chiapas officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Chiapas is one of the 31 states that, with the Federal District, comprise the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided in 118 municipalities and its capital city is Tuxtla Gutierrez. Other important cites in Chiapas include San Cristóbal de las...

.

In October and November 2006 the solidarity groups also visited Oaxaca. The people in Oaxaca are currently embroiled in a lengthy conflict that has resulted in at least seventeen deaths and in the occupation of the capital city

Oaxaca, Oaxaca

The city and municipality of Oaxaca de Juárez, or simply Oaxaca, is the capital and largest city of the Mexican state of the same name . It is located in the Centro District in the Central Valleys region of the state, in the foothills of the Sierra Madre at the base of the Cerro del Fortín...

 of Oaxaca by federal police. The conflict emerged in May 2006 with a strike involving the local teachers' union and then grew into a broad-based movement pitting the Popular Assembly of the Peoples of Oaxaca

Asamblea popular de los pueblos de Oaxaca

The Popular Assembly of the Peoples of Oaxaca , or simply the APPO, is an organization that was assembled in response to the political situation in the Mexican state of Oaxaca, first meeting in June 2006.-History:A public demonstration and a teacher's strike in May of every year had occurred every...

 (APPO) against the state's governor, Ulises Ruiz Ortiz

Ulises Ruiz Ortiz

Ulises Ruiz Ortiz is a Mexican politician and former governor of the State of Oaxaca. He took office in 2004 as a member of the Institutional Revolutionary Party .- Election Controversy :...

. Protesters are demanding the removal or resignation of Ulises Ruiz, whom they accuse of corruption and acts of repression. Grassroots Projects went there as a group of independent media to write about the Oaxaca conflict

2006 Oaxaca protests

The Mexican state of Oaxaca was embroiled in a conflict that lasted more than seven months and resulted in at least seventeen deaths and the occupation of the capital city of Oaxaca by the Popular Assembly of the Peoples of Oaxaca . The conflict emerged in May 2006 with the police responding to a...

 for Indymedia.