What PBI-Canada achieved in 2019 and what we hope to do with your support in 2020

Published by Brent Patterson on

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We have had a busy year in 2019 and are looking forward to accomplishing even more in 2020. We hope that you will consider supporting this work with a donation.

What we achieved in 2019

We organized a cross-country speaking tour with three Colombian human rights defenders who highlighted their concerns about environmental harm, climate change, violence against social leaders, and the need to fully implement the Peace Agreement.

We launched a new website, posted daily updates, produced a weekly e-newsletter (sent to more than 4,500 people each week), increased our social media presence (with 1,325 followers on Twitter, almost 5,000 on Facebook, and are new to Instagram), and are building the contact list for our Emergency Response Network.

We met with representatives from 5 field projects (Colombia, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico and Indonesia) and 11 country groups at a strategy meeting in Belgium, began participating on the International Operations Council (a global PBI governance body), expanded our Board of Directors (by 5 members who will join in the new year), and cut our administrative costs (by reducing our office space).

We also helped to raise almost $30,000 for the PBI field projects so they can continue the work of the physical accompaniment of frontline defenders.

What’s next in 2020?

A key outcome of our speaking tour with Colombian human rights defenders in 2019 was their proposal to send a high-level Canadian delegation in 2020 to visit areas of Canadian corporate extractivist (notably fracking) activity in Colombia.

We are planning two speaking tours. This will include a tour early in the year with a migrant rights group that is accompanied by PBI-Mexico, and later in the year with an at-risk Indigenous land defender who is accompanied by PBI-Guatemala.

We will be participating in the World Beyond War: Divest, Disarm and Demilitarize conference in Ottawa. We are also looking at producing a report and organizing forums following a visit to a PBI field project and accompanied communities.

And we plan to add a petition function on our website, continue to post daily updates and share our weekly e-newsletter, as well as increase our social media presence and build the subscription list for our Emergency Response Network.

Please support this work by making a donation, we can’t do it without you.


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