By Suzanne York (6degreesofpopulation.org)

With over 7 billion people on the planet, demand for water for household, agricultural, and industrial use is increasing even faster than population growth. Many areas, such as the southwestern US and northern Mexico, are already experiencing competing demands on water in a region heavily reliant on this most precious of natural resources.

Specifically, much of that water comes from the Colorado River, and at a high environmental cost. Nearly 90 percent of the annual flow from the Colorado—5 trillion gallons—goes to California, Arizona, and five other states in the Colorado River basin. And while it used to reach the Gulf of California, today the river no longer makes it to the sea. Mexico gets a paltry 500 billion gallons a year, per a treaty with the US.

Colorado River Delta

Amidst a lot of doom and gloom about water scarcity, there is a sign of hope for the Colorado River Delta, as recently reported by the New York Times.

Minute 319 is an agreement with Mexico that guarantees that water flow from the Colorado empties into the Gulf of California and calls for more water sharing between the US and Mexico. It is being lauded as a model agreement. Former US Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar said, “What we’re doing now in the Colorado River basin provides an international model for how to resolve water issues.”

The agreement calls for a five-year program to provide a total of 158,088 acre-feet (195 million cubic meters) of water to the lower river and its delta, which amounts to only about one percent of the river’s historic annual flow over five years. Still, it is a start, and local environmental groups believe it will help restore native habitat and revitalize the delta ecosystem, restore the flow of the Colorado to the sea, and serve as a model of binational cooperation.

According to water expert Sandra Postel, “This cooperation, which was hard won, not only binds the two nations more tightly together, it opens the door to more creative solutions for managing the limited waters of the Colorado.” Creativity and cooperation will be needed as climate change and population growth increase the urgency to get it right.

What is also needed is a new view on how people and nature interact. The New York Times article quoted Francisco Bernal, director of the Mexicali office of the International Boundary and Water Commission (which administers the treaty) as saying, “We want to conserve enough water to share with the environment.” It would be more appropriate to say that nature is sharing water with people. As the Age of the Anthropocene progresses, new ways of thinking will be needed to conserve and manage resources and to maintain a decent quality of life.

In the meantime, water conservation should be a priority. Whether this region continues to grow or whether population should decline, water needs to be conserved for future generations. Sacrifices will have to come from agriculture, municipalities, households, developers, and businesses. Policies that support drip irrigation, rainwater harvesting, wastewater treatment, switching to water-efficient crops, and local water users associations will be needed in addition to conservation.

Agreements such as Minute 319 should be given every bit of support and a chance to become a model of success, because water sharing among countries will most certainly become more common as demands on water increase and climate change impacts increase in severity. Water strategies that sustainably balance the demands of all users, including nature, will help countries better face the challenges ahead.

A comment made by Ken Salazar sums up the attitude that should guide policy: “We are connected truly as two peoples by our reliance on the Colorado River,” Salazar said. “In fact the Colorado River in so many ways makes us one people.”

Photo credit: telemetry9

Suzanne York is a senior writer with the Institute for Population Studies. Connect with her here!

To learn more about water issues, check out the World Wide Water Commons group on Wiser.org.

Meet Fidelis Balakasi, Wiser.org member and a coordinator for the WiserSouthernAfrica group! He is the Founder and Technical Advisor of uMunthu Centre for Environment and Education (UCEE), a not-for-profit based in Malawi that addresses and promotes the stewardship of the environment using uMunthu philosophy.

uMunthu (also known as Ubuntu) focuses on people’s allegiances and relations with each other and has been the subject of serious academic and intellectual inquiry by leading Malawian and African philosophers, theologians and political scientists alike. Camilla caught up with Fidelis to find out more about what inspires Fidelis, what uMunthu is all about and how Fidelis has connected with others in the Wiser.org community.

What exactly is uMunthu?
uMunthu simply means “the art of being a human being.” Steve Biko once said, “The great powers of the world may have done wonders in giving the World an industrial and military look but the great gift still has to come from Africa, giving the world a more human face.” Desmond Tutu and Nelson Mandela both embrace uMunthu thinking and its philosophy. Once we rediscover this philosophy in African countries, we will be able to treat one another with respect again. Whatever exists within us as part and parcel of our life, this thinking is currently lost. We need to rediscover it. Once we do we will be able to address the social justice and environmental issues that we face.

Nelson Mandela explains the uMunthu (Ubuntu) philosophy.

For us to move forward, I believe that we need to raise public awareness for the uMunthu philosophy and the values that it holds. I am very much hoping that this thinking can be included in our country’s (Malawi’s) environmental education. Once we have this, we can start tackling difficult issues like climate change, for example, as the philosophy not only respects fellow human beings but also the environment around us. Other countries have integrated cultural and philosophical thinking into their education. For example, I am passionate about how countries like Japan and China have approached education from a cultural point of view and have developed their high-level thinking.

Our organization, UCEE, was registered in December 2012, so it is brand new. There are three of us and a few others who work with us and support the sharing of the uMunthu philosophy in Malawi. Once we have created content about the uMunthu approach, it can be used in schools and can be used as a resource in teaching and shared with rural people. In fact, we are currently looking into how it can be shared and integrated into Malawi’s educational curriculum. We have recently written a formal letter to the Ministry to see if they will support our initiatives, so we will have to see. But we face several challenges. The first being to get the government on board. New (and bringing back old) ideas take time.

Photo credit: Fidelis Balakasi

How can members of the Wiser.org community support you in your work?
The members of the Wiser.org community are already doing a lot, but there are other things that could be done. We are currently looking to get connected with potential funders or donors in the areas we are working on, so we would be grateful for any help with this.

Fidelis, you became a member of WiserSouthernAfrica after finding Wiser.org while you were looking for funding and doing research for organizations who might be able to support your project in Malawi. Has it been valuable to be a member of the Wiser.org community?
It’s so amazing because our organization is connected to so many organizations around the world. I’m able to interact with you and lots of people all over the globe. To me, this goes without saying that Wiser.org is tremendous. I believe that knowledge and education is not only about going to class, but also through interaction—the more you interact with people who have experience and have made a difference, the better. Being one of the members of this forum gives me the chance to learn from others and share what I am doing in Malawi. I also believe people have come to learn more about Southern Africa and the issues that are taking place in the region.

Connect with Fidelis on Wiser.org, and find out more about uMunthu and his organization here.

You can also get in touch with Fidelis through the WiserSouthernAfrica group.

Candia Lea Cole is an artist, poet, eco-visionary and eco-lifestyle educator, as well as a whole foods cookbook author specializing in eco-sustainable cuisine. She founded a business called Eco-Learning Legacies that provides educational resources to people who want to live eco-intelligently and become feminine eco-leaders in their homes and communities. She explains, “My work highlights the value of eating whole, practicing preventative healthcare, and living a life of simple abundance, but it also goes much deeper to explore the ‘eco-relationships’ that lie at the heart’s core of ecological well-being.” She was nominated by Wiser.org member Hanna Meiners from Germany.

Tell us a little bit about yourself. How did you become interested in promoting eco-lifestyles and what inspired you to found Eco-Learning Legacies?

As a young woman growing up in the world, I struggled with complex health challenges that doctors could not figure out or treat. Eventually, it became apparent to me that I was dealing with the symptoms of environmental illness—illness resulting from exposure to too many chemicals, hormones, antibiotics, and what have you, that are a part of our industrial system, food system, and healthcare system.

After missing my high school graduation due to illness, I made a decision along with my mother to make a departure from the world of conventional medicine. With her help and guidance, I embarked on an independent path of study in the realm of preventative healthcare and I was inspired to take total responsibility for my health and well-being. I had the opportunity along the way to meet many practitioners of natural medicine who both inspired me and believed in my power to self-heal. I learned not only about the importance of taking care of my body, but the emotional and spiritual value of living in harmony with the natural world.

The natural world became a teacher, and the lessons it inspired in me about my relationship with life served as the rich and fertile compost for my work as an eco-lifestyle educator and eco-visionary. Eco-Learning Legacies is the natural outgrowth of my self-healing journey and the many discoveries I made about the inextricable link between personal and planetary health. Through Eco-Learning Legacies, I now share the wisdom I gained in the form of books, audio, and other items that comprise my signature product: Bring Back the Earth! Eco-Learning Legacy & Eco-Mentor Feminine Leadership Training.

Ecofeminism, which connects the need for gender equality with the need for environmental stewardship, is becoming quite popular in social justice. Do you feel that you are a part of this movement? In what ways do you think green living and women’s empowerment intersect?

I’m probably more a part of the ecofeminism movement than I give myself credit for. I definitely see my work and mission as being aligned with the aims of ecofeminism because it addresses the need during today’s eco-challenged times to get more in touch with the feminine wisdom for living well, which I believe is essential to healing ourselves and the earth. It also addresses the suppression of the feminine in ancient times past, which happened because of a power struggle between men and women that culminated in man’s desire to dominate the natural world, rather than cooperate with it.

On our earth today, we stand in the midst of our eco-disintegration. This disintegration has come about as the result of living out of touch with our feminine instincts and essentially living separately from our own selves and nature. It’s time, now, for us to come together and heal this disintegration so we can create a state of true eco-integration. Eco-integration is a state in which we have learned to live in harmony and balance with the earth because we have learned the value and necessity of integrating our personal needs with the needs of our planet.

Women and men alike possess both a feminine and masculine side, each of which serves to create a balance of humanity within them. I think it’s vitally important these days to be conscious of how these parts of our humanity are working together within us, as well as working together with the opposite sex. We need to forgive ourselves for undermining the opposite sex. We need to appreciate the value of the feminine and masculine energies working together to achieve what each cannot achieve on its own.

Tell us about a woman who has inspired or deeply influenced you.

My mother has inspired me and deeply influenced my life. She was there for me when I was sick and she provided the tools for learning that shaped my journey to wholeness. She was a person who planted seed ideas in my mind and heart that I then nurtured and grew. My mother essentially encouraged my creativity to blossom.

What is one piece of advice you would like to share with other women?

I don’t particularly like “advice giving,” because I don’t think women need advice as much as they need to give themselves permission to tap into their intuition and their inner authority. Being in touch with intuition is, in my thinking, all about being open on a heart level of our beings and remaining innocent in a sense. It’s not about assuming we know everything there is to know in life and acting as if we do. Rather, it’s about being open in any given moment to what may be needed by one’s self or others and quietly honoring that need.

We all possess an inner authority. We can feel good about giving this authority power in our lives by being willing to be the authors of our reality. When we are living life in a way that connects us to our authentic needs, we are being given the perfect circumstances for our learning and growth.

Photo credits: Carly Allen Tice (headshot), Tom Suttle (Candia with educational materials)

Connect with Candia on Wiser.org and visit eco-mentor.com as well as its sister website, ecointelligenteating.com, to explore the wealth of resources she has developed.

Click here for several deliciously healthy recipes from Candia’s culinary scrapbook!

Do you want to nominate someone for Wiser’s Women of the Week? Tell us here!

All around the world, members of the Transition movement are taking up the call to combat climate change and free their communities from oil dependency. Nowhere is this more apparent than on Wiser.org, which hosts dozens of groups created by Transitioners all around the world who use the platform to coordinate their efforts.

This spring, Wiser.org is getting involved with the Transition movement in a new way by spreading the word about an initiative organized by Transition US. During the month of May, join thousands of people across America taking action to rise to the challenge of food, water, and energy independence through the Transition Challenge! This challenge is an opportunity to get your hands dirty, create something beautiful, and participate in the growing movement toward community resilience in the face of rapidly changing climates and our continuing need for fossil fuels.

Last year, Transition US registered over 4,000 actions in communities across the country. Whether it was constructing rainwater harvesting systems, installing solar panels, converting abandoned spaces into green oases, or teaching children how to plant tomato starts, participants showed that individual actions can collectively lead to change on a larger scale. When we energize and engage our communities, we show the world what is possible.

To participate in this year’s challenge, you can create your own project or volunteer on a community project in one of four areas: food, water, energy, and community. Transition US has plenty of ideas and how-to guides listed on their website, but the possibilities are endless. Whether your “something beautiful” takes the form of a community garden, a compost pile, or a graywater system, it brings us one step closer to the world we want to live in.

Make sure to register your project to be counted, and send updates and photos to the Transition US team to inspire others with your ideas!

Photo credits:
agrilifetoday, T*C*W*, The Neenan Company, Wonderlane, Melinda Seckington, nualabugeye, Mary Scheirer

With International Permaculture Day coming up on May 5th, it is only fitting that our next Woman of the Week is an expert in the field! Meet Stella Strega, a permaculture designer and teacher, activist, and Wiser.org member who works with Nodo Espiral, a permaculture academy. “I do everything I do because I decided at around age 6 that the most important job for me to do is to work for justice, so that all creatures can thrive and we can have more of the amazing party that we’ve all come here to have, evolving ever more interesting forms of Consciousness on this beautiful blue-green planet.”

Interview by Emma De Masi

Stella is a permaculture designer and social activist working and living in La Palma, Spain. She recently organized the EcoNova Conferences that united experts and activists in the sustainable economy to talk about solutions and new models for creating a more just and sustainable world.

The Econova group chose Wiser.org for the interactive parts of their conference because as Stella says, “What I love about Wiser is that it starts from the “WE” picture. It is about collaboration and creating together, and we share the same values and the same ethics.”

Stella was born in Italy and her father was an engineer. With her family, she traveled and lived all over the globe. She says that living among people from different countries and cultures gave her an awareness of social injustice and prejudice. Moved by this early consciousness, she started volunteering as a teenager, working toward poverty relief and environmental justice in the UK where she then stayed and lived for 21 years.

Passionate about science and the arts, she found the perfect way to combine them through permaculture design, which models sustainable man-made environments after natural ecosystems. She says, “At school and at university, I was passionate about science and the arts but I could not do both because our system separated them so much. Design, especially permaculture design, is a brilliant unification of many things. It’s just so rational, and I love it because it is about building a new world by building the alternative instead of just protesting.”

She started studying permaculture design in London while working in education and in public schools. In 1993, she and a group of girlfriends created Green Adventure, an NGO dedicated to urban regeneration using permaculture design.

She moved to Spain almost by chance, and it was there she realized that a more structured method for permaculture education was needed. Since then, she has been working on two big projects: setting up an innovative node of the Nodo Espiral Permaculture Academy through teaching and writing the Integral Permaculture Designers Manual and setting up an EcoVillage on the land she has been living on since 2006. As she says: “The Integral Permaculture Designers Manual is a project big in purpose because it aims to give a much more holistic base for permaculture practice by studying and sharing tested permaculture models that have been shown to work well in the real world. The manual provides both a wider and more detailed account of the science of permaculture.”

Stella is a person who makes things happen. Her EcoVillage in Spain aims to be a place where the local community can create a sustainable system inspired by the conscious application of all the models outlined in the Integral Permaculture Manual: “The system that we have designed together is an unjust one designed to perpetuate injustice. We need to redesign it starting from ourselves by testing different alternatives and by detoxifying ourselves of a destructive pattern that pushes us to look at the problem instead of at the solution. We get very negative about problems instead of thinking, ‘This is an interesting problem—how do we solve it in the best possible way?’ I see this destructive pattern coming in at a personal level in my community, which is identical to the one that causes damage on the global scale.”

Many women inspired Stella in her work and mission: “I am inspired by so many women that I cannot name just one. For example, Donella Meadows is a big inspiration, and we honor her as the mother of Integral Permaculture. As well as her decades of work as a very talented educator of systems thinking, she is the lead author of “Limits to Growth,” a milestone report that alerted the world to the unsustainable course of Western development back in 1972. It went on to inspire Rio and the international sustainability agenda, as well as the birth of permaculture design.”

She continued, “There is a brilliance that I see often in women who have the ability to see a more holistic picture, who display huge compassion combined with a great intelligence in terms of really understanding how complex systems work. The Integral Permaculture Designers Manual is full of amazing women like this—we honor and give a voice to women who did amazing things but often were not given due credit for their brilliance, like Hazel Henderson who we’re thrilled to have in the EcoNova Conference, whom we honor as the Mother of EcoEconomics.”

Stella is an active member of our Women Empowered group. When asked if she had a message to share with other women, she commented: “Feminism has always been about social justice first and foremost, but the system really beat it down. Propaganda made it all about being against men, and it seems like they managed to get away with it because now most young women are ashamed to say that they are feminists. So I think for any woman to keep her integrity and her spirits, we need to know our history and we need to support each other. Every time you support another woman you are supporting yourself and living in a more balanced way.”

Photo credits: 8thlife.net

Want to learn more about Stella and her work with permaculture? Connect with her on Wiser.org and visit her website.

The team that brought you the EcoNova Conferences is running the “live” online events for International Permaculture Day. Check it out!

Would you like to nominate someone for Wiser’s Women of the Week? Tell us!

Photo credit: Saad Faruque

By Laura Ross-Perry

This year, Earth Day celebrated it’s 43^rd anniversary on April 22^nd. Across the globe, people gathered to pay respect to the planet, discuss the current state of the earth, and talk about ways in which we can improve how we treat it in order to also improve the lives of all its inhabitants.

Wiser.org’s WiserLocal program was able to support organizers from five different cities around the world to facilitate Earth Day events. These dedicated volunteers spent that Monday speaking passionately about the planet and how to prevent further damage and decay of our natural resources, beautiful landscapes, and biodiversity.

In India, WiserLocal celebrations took place in two different cities: Kolkata and Delhi. Namrata, the WiserLocal Kolkata facilitator, brought established therapists to speak about various healing modalities, with the idea that when the personal mind is at peace and reverberating love, the Earth’s healing process is aided as well. The gathering, entitled “Know Yourself,” ended with a gift-giving session that included herbal and environmentally cleansing plants for each participant.

Photo credit: WiserLocal Kolkata

Yatin, the WiserIndia director, chose this Earth Day as a chance to revive the WiserDelhi local group around the theme of rural organic farming. Co-organizers from other local meet-ups and partner organizations came together to discuss environmental initiatives and WiserLocal plans for the year.

Adib and Apu, WiserBangladesh organizers, hosted a very special Earth Day event in Dhaka. Not only was it a chance to talk with other students at the local university about climate change and biodiversity, but it was also the 1^st anniversary of GreenMagz, Bangladesh’s first online environmental magazine, which was started by these two young men.

In Africa, two more WiserLocals took place on April 22^nd in honor of Earth Day. New organizer Edwin, founder of the Integrated Rural Community Center for Agriculture (IRCCA), held his second gathering that day and took it as an opportunity to include the youth in Kumbo, Cameroon in the discussions around climate change. Edwin and his team met for 2 hours and then traveled to schools in the surrounding area to educate children about the dangerous effects of CO2 emissions, which concluded with the students pledging to join in the fight.

Photo credit: WiserLocal Kumbo

Finally, Francis used Earth Day as a chance to talk to the community in Ghana about the danger of forest fires and collapsed buildings, as well as the prevention of tragedies that result from these events. In his locality, Kumasi, collapsed structures have been an ongoing hazard. This Earth Day, Francis decided to facilitate an event to bring this issue to the table.

Photo credit: WiserLocal Kumasi

Across the globe, from India to Bangladesh to Africa, WiserLocal organizers celebrated the Earth, shared plants and ideas with one another, and came together to combat environmental degradation and improve the quality of life for all living things.

By Laura Ross-Perry

WiserEarth is blessed to have an amazing international team of volunteers, Editors, and WiserLocal organizers who dedicate themselves each day to social activism and the Wiser community. The week of April 21-27, 2013 has brought us three very important occasions: International Earth Day, Wiser.org’s 6^th birthday, and National Volunteer Week in the United States. What better way to celebrate these three significant events than by honoring WiserEarth’s incredible global family of volunteers and contributors with our own Volunteer Appreciation Week!

WiserEarth’s volunteer program officially launched in 2011 and has since grown exponentially with each passing year. At the start, our nonprofit was graced with 57 total volunteers, which increased to 208 the following year, and an incredible 99 have already joined the team in 2013. Over the past three years, these passionate Wiser.org members have completed major projects and initiatives to grow the network’s resources, increase visibility, and create change in their local communities.

Photo credit: Martin Weller

Thanks to WiserEarth’s team of contributors…

• The site has launched in 8 languages: English, French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, German, Chinese, and Bahasa Indonesian
• Thousands of sustainability and social justice events have been added to the online calendar
• Wiser.org’s database of NGOs and nonprofit organizations has become the largest on the Internet, and it is continually being updated
• WiserLocal face-to-face gatherings have been organized and held in 33 different cities around the globe

Here some volunteer highlights from the past month!

• Erin from Ohio is working on our “Wiser’s Women of the Week” blog series
• Edwin has just hosted his second WiserLocal gathering in Kumbo, Cameroon
• Allyn in our San Francisco office is updating organizations on our database
• Organizer Namrata is celebrating the 1^st anniversary of the launch of WiserLocal Kolkata in India
• In Casentino, Italy, Carolina is planning a Wiser.org presentation at a local festival
• Maria, Yulia, Hanna, and Yana are translating the website into Russian, while Müge, Olcay, and Alican are working on Turkish

From the beginning of the program in 2011 through today, April 26, 2013, our superb volunteer team has donated 20,960 hours of their time to the Wiser community and our organization would not be what it is today without them. Thank you is simply not a strong enough phrase—to everyone who has contributed, you are all stars and we are forever indebted to you!

***A special thank you to the volunteers who were able to come out to the San Francisco office,either physically or virtually, for our celebratory lunch yesterday. It was wonderful seeing all your faces, some for the first time, and you made the day so much brighter!

Back row: Allyn, Edward, Peggy, Frank
Front row: Laura, Alex, Jane, Patricia

If you are interested in volunteering with WiserEarth, please take a look at our available opportunities and contact apply@wiserearth.org!

Barbara Olivi is the founder of the NGO Il Sorriso dei miei Bimbi as well as an activist in children’s education and empowerment in the Rocinha favela of Rio de Janeiro. She was nominated by Wiser.org’s Emma De Masi, who had the opportunity to work with Barbara in Brazil.

By Emma De Masi & Barbara Pascali

As part of Barbara Olivi’s team of volunteers, Barbara Pascali and I have often had the chance to talk with her about what brought her to dedicate her life to the kids in the Rocinha favela of Rio de Janeiro. In this interview for Wiser.org, Barbara (known to friends as Biba) once again opened up her heart and memories to us, sharing her thoughts on how to keep making the change we want to see in the world.

Barbara’s father was an engineer for an oil company, so as a child she had the opportunity to live in many countries around the world. She has lived in Africa and around Europe, and in 1998, she chose Brazil as her new home. Brazil gave Barbara’s life a deeper meaning. She managed to find happiness in a place that most people would avoid and that recent governments have even tried to erase from the maps: Favela Rocinha, the biggest shantytown in South America.

A favela is an illegal settlement tolerated by the government and mainly ruled by drug lords where there is a perpetual war between drug dealers and the police. It is an environment where children and young people become innocent victims, where they have no future. Families are often destroyed, unemployment is at its peak, and they live in deplorable hygienic conditions.

Barbara was so moved by the situation in the favela that she decided with her husband Julio to set up an Italian-Brazilian NGO to finance social and education projects for the young inhabitants of the favela. She says, “We deeply believe that education is the most powerful weapon that you can use to change the world, as Mandela taught us. We wanted our NGO to be and operate in the favela where we could build an educational path for kids and, indirectly, for their families.”

She continues, “Life in the favela is often cruel, unpredictable, and difficult, but at the same time it is exciting and gratifying. People in the favela always choose to live despite their precarious conditions and they do it with extreme dignity, energy, and joy. Here I have found peace and I have managed to combine my passion for children’s empowerment through education. This is my life and my work. I consider this a huge privilege and I am grateful for this gift I have.”

In over 10 years of activities in Rocinha and thanks to the support of Italian and international donors, Barbara’s organization has created educational projects that include the nursery “Saci Sabe Tudo,” which takes care of more than 90 kids every day, and the youth project “Projeto Jovem,” a program of social empowerment and education for teenagers at risk of being involved in drug trafficking and teenage pregnancy. The youth project offers free daily education, cultural resources, professional training, and counselling. The association also runs a literacy program called “Alphabetization and Assistance.”

(Videos about the nursery, the youth project, and the literacy program in Portuguese and Italian.)

Barbara’s dream for this year is to open the first literary cafe in the favela, the “Garagem das Letras.” She explains, “Our Garage will soon become a cultural center and a bar managed by young people from the local community, a place of culture and education as well as their refuge from the reality of the favela, which is still very violent.”

She adds, “The Garagem will be linked to our program of Responsible Tourism. With the help of our teens, we already organize beautiful tours of the favela, and by doing so we give them the opportunity to get in contact with people from everywhere around the world. It is an opportunity to show and be proud of the place they live in despite all the problems.”

Barbara was introduced to Wiser.org by her collaborator and communications expert Barbara Pascali. As a visionary woman, she immediately understood the power of the platform and the importance of connecting people who are working around the world to make change happen. She says, “I think that the Wiser.org network is extremely important for the work we do, to make sure we create synergies with other NGOs engaged in different projects in several parts of the globe. We should make sure we share experiences and ideas and bring forward our daily battles together. We need a lighthouse, a point of reference to guide us in this journey. In this way the Wiser.org community can and must give its contribution.”

It was a long and deep chat with Barbara, the kind we used to have sitting on an uncomfortable step in the favela close to our Garagem das Letras, eating an acai. We are on Skype in Milan but I can see the passion in her eyes and in her voice, the same passion that is inspiring and guiding many volunteers who help Barbara’s kids in the favela.

When asked what her hope is for women around the world, she answered with a loud voice in perfect Biba style: “emancipation, freedom, equality, and happiness… ‘you may say I am a dreamer… but I’m not the only one…’”

Photo credits: Il Sorriso dei miei Bimbi

Learn more about Barbara and Il Sorriso dei miei Bimbi by connecting with Emma or Barbara Pascali on Wiser.org! And take a look at the work of their partner organization, Sensacional.

Check out photos from photographer Antonio Spirito’s traveling photo exhibition called “Gente da Rocinha” (“People From Rocinha”).

Do you know someone you would like to nominate for Wiser’s Women of the Week? Tell us HERE!