Visitors from around the world

March 5, 2010

Dear friends,

It has been an exciting two weeks at ELAW!  Our current ELAW Fellow Agnes Gajdics from Hungary was joined by (left to right): Francis Colee from Liberia, Merab Barbakadze from Georgia, and Kwesi Instiful from Ghana.

All three Fellows have dedicated their lives to seeking justice for the world's most impoverished communities.

Kwesi, a lead attorney at the Center for Public Interest Law in Accra, represents residents living near gold mines in western Ghana.  Gold has been mined here for 100 years, but the villagers reap few benefits.  "There is no tap water, the roads are terrible, and all homes have cracks from the explosions.  You have your crops and the next day trucks move in and everything is gone," says Kwesi.

Francis works at Green Advocates, Liberia's only public interest environmental law firm.  Green Advocates is calling on Firestone to clean up polluting rubber processing facilities on the Farmington River.  They are also working to strengthen laws protecting forests and other natural resources.

Merab serves on the Compliance Committee of the Aarhus Convention, a European body that ensures public participation in environmental decision making.  Merab and all of our ELAW Fellows participated in the 28th Annual Public Interest Environmental Law Conference and met one-on-one with many national and international environmental leaders, including ELAW partner and Goldman Environmental Prize winner Rizwana Hasan from Bangladesh and Goldman Prize winner Marc Ona from Gabon.

Merab flies home today.  Kwesi, Francis and Agnes return home next week.  Merab shared a common sentiment: "I feel myself charged with new positive energy, skills, and knowledge!"

Many thanks to the U.S.  State Department Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs and the Trust for Mutual Understanding for supporting ELAW's Fellowship Program.

Sincerely,

Maggie Keenan
Communications Director
Environmental Law Alliance Worldwide

P.S.  ELAW is working with partners around the world to protect communities and the environment.  Learn more about our work by visiting our blog: ELAW Spotlight.  We're on Facebook and Twitter.