By now, we all know how social media has sown division in societies around the world — creating echo chambers that elevate tensions and give platforms to those spouting hate speech. In areas of extreme political division, these echo chambers have led to violence: from the January 6 insurrection in Washington, D.C., to the genocide …
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The first thing you notice in Esperancita del Rio — a tiny farming village in northern Guatemala’s lush Alta Verapaz region — is the quiet. The gentle bubbling of the nearby San Roman river, the whinnying of a family of horses… and that’s about it. But every 15 minutes, a massive truck roars down the …
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Good design stays with you, from viral social media infographics to bumper stickers. Pro-democracy activists in Thailand — fighting to establish essential freedoms — put this fact into practice. No one has done as much to create the look of this movement’s look as Patcha “Phar” Chaimongkolsub; the Bangkok graphic designer has catapulted her talent …
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AJWS grantee Isaan Land Reform Network (ILRN) is the epitome of ‘grassroots’ — a coalition of 36 Thai communities of small-scale farmers, banded together to support each of their struggles for land rights. Thousands of farmers across Thailand have been forcibly evicted from their ancestral lands by the state or private corporations; ILRN gives them …
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When Ana Elizabeth Pop Jor was growing up outside Chisec in rural, northern Guatemala, violence was never far away. The oldest daughter in a family of 11 children, Ana still remembers the day that the low ceilings of their small home saved her mother’s life. “My father lunged at my mom with a machete and …
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The Guatemala City office of AJWS grantee Bufete para Pueblas Indígenas (BPI), or the Indigenous Law Firm, may look like most law offices: stacks of client files, a large conference table, bustling energy and coffee and tea perpetually brewing. But at BPI, there is more than meets the eye. “At other law firms, you’re not …
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Burma’s humanitarian crisis has reached staggering levels of suffering — with millions of people fleeing their homes and resettling across the border in Bangladesh or in camps within the country, while a civil war between the Burmese military and resistance armed militant groups rages. But a movement of passionate activists continues to operate under the …
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For decades, Aon Changnam has dreamt of the open waters of his childhood. Aon was born into a community of Urak Laroi people, traditionally nomadic people that have populated Thai and Malaysian islands for countless generations. He grew up swimming and exploring, enjoying freshly seafood, and hiking through the dense forests of Koh Lanta, his …
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Isabel Chen Ical and her husband, Agustín Chocooj, live with their two children and members of their extended family on a lush, fertile plot of land in Cerro Alto village, in rural Guatemala. They are members of the Q’eqchi Indigenous community — one of Guatemala’s 24 distinct ethnic groups. There’s one family member she speaks …
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