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The Advocacy Project (AP) recruits students to help marginalized communities tell their story and claim their rights.

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World Peasants / Indigenous Organization

The World Peasants/Indigenous Organization (WPIO) advocates to stop all socio-political, economic discrimination and all kind of slavery against the pygmies or indigenous communities. It reaches, mobilizes, empowers and links indigenous and rural communities through capacity building, lobbing and  advocacy for community development.




WPIO was founded in 2003 to promote democracy, advocate for the cessation of discrimination against indigenous peoples, and stop corruption and exploitation of the pygmies and their lands and resources. Such exploitation stems from an age-old tradition of enslaving pygmies, and in accordance with a social hierarchy structured such that pygmies are treated as "animals without tails." Many indigenous people are caught in the forests and and forced to work seven days a week for food or the equivalent of one dollar a week. Moreover, sexual abuse of pygmy women is "rampant." 

In addition to working directly with indigenous populations to empower them and help them gain access to public services, the WPIO has been lobbying with individual slave owners to change practices and attitudes and gain support for the indigenous populations' cause. 

• WPIO carries out sustainable life, peace, civic & health education programs for indigenous communities and the surrounding communities.
• Conducts seminars to train indigenous community leaders in empowerment and awareness.
• Launched a civic education program in the Democratic Republic of the Congo with the help of the UN.
• Denounced and condemned human rights violations against indigenous people.
• Conducts civic and sustainable life education for indigenous people.
• Discourages all forms of slavery against the indigenous population.
• Conducts civic human rights education among the peasants and people who live near indigenous populations.
• Conducts peace education among indigenous and peasant people through cultural and social exchanges and understanding based on mutual dialogs for common developments.

• Newsletters

WPIO Newsletter #3

WPIO Newsletter #4

• Reports

Human Rights Violations And Massacre Committed Against Pygmy Family Gathering In Eastern DRC

Case Study of Video Documentary "Global Warming a Concrete Experience with Pygmies Lives"

• Advocacy Project News Bulletins: AP has published bulletins about WPIO through the news service, AdvocacyNet.

March 6, 2008
Advocates Draw on Communities to Free Enslaved Pygmies in Eastern Congo

Contact:
C/o Amnesty International Regional Office for Africa
Plot 20A Kawalya Kaggwa Close, Kololo
P.O. Box 23966 Kampala/Uganda
Tel: +256 712 11 7438
Email WPIO

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