John Alvarez, a native of Miami, FL, has been working with Bridges Across Borders (BAB) since it’s initial founding in 2003. He has served in several areas of the organization, starting off as a Student Intern, to his most recent positions as a Technology Consultant and Advisory Board Member. He was also the Layout and Design Editior for the premiere edition of Between the Lines, BAB’s newsmagazine.
John works for Miami Dade College as the Instructional Assistant of The Law Center, where he provides academic advisement and counseling support services to students from all over Miami-Dade and Broward counties.
CHICAGO ENCUENTRO: COMMUNITIES IN RESISTENCE TO GLOBALIZATION: A Bridges Across Borders USA contingent, along with our Wayuu friend, Debora Barros Fince, participated in the 6th Encuentro on Globalization of Environment, Territory, and Justice, which was organized by the Colombian group Justicia y Paz and hosted by the 8th Day Center for Justice. Groups from all over the Americas and as far away as Spain and Italy sent representatives to work on building a global network of solidarity for the struggles of civil society and people’s movements of the Americas — the indigenous, Afro-Latinos, and the rural poor, in particular. Participants included representatives from the Brazilian Landless Workers Movement (MST), Argentina’s Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo, the Poor People’s Economic Human Rights Campaign, and activists from the 6 Nations Iroquois Federation, among many others. We came away from this meeting awed and inspired, with many new friends and contacts, and with a trengthened and renewed commitment to help build international networks of cooperation and mutual aid.
Meet Paula
Dear Sponsors,
First of all I hope you are doing well. Second, I want to express all my gratitude for all the support and help. I am finishing high school successfully and I am looking forward to graduating here in Guasca. I have had a lot of new experiences all this year. A lot of challenges have occurred. New events have taken place and I have had to learn new responsibilities. I just can say that it 
isn’t easy to grow and that it takes time to learn and be able to make a difference. I am learning… and growing. I am planning to visit my town (Chocó) during vacation. I haven’t
been able to talk to my mom and that is one of the main reasons I want to go there. I am also planning to spend some time in Cacarica after my graduation. Cararica is also a small town in Chocó [which has declared itself a Peace Community] and I would like to go there to help to teach children. I am very grateful for all your help and support. I have been able to do and reach a lot of goals thanks to your kindness. I want to be a Psychologist and I hope to be able to go to university for this. Paula’s Story
Thank you very much for all your help, support and care.
Most grateful,
Paula Florez (Colombia)
Eco-artist Ana Tierra (Ana Maria Vasquez) uses her art to express the wonders of life on Pacha Mama (Mother Earth). They depict the micro and personal aspects of life, as well as the grander connection to everything in the universe.
The sale of these reproductions helps to fund the projects of Bridges Across Borders. Commissioning of original paintings is also available upon request. If you wish to order reproductions or an original painting for yourself, please call, write, or email us (office@bridgesacrossborders.org) with your request. Suggested donation of $10 per reproduction is requested.
At BRIDGES ACROSS BORDERS we set about dissolving the imagined and imposed borders between us. At BRIDGES we:
- Weave relationships between the US and war torn nations
- Give slide and video presentations
- Lead workshops and discussion groups on a host of topics
- Teach skills for peaceful conflict resolution
- Seek assistance for communities in need of basic services and sustenance
- Help to initiate projects in Colombia, Panama, Mexico, and the United States
- Working to provide educational opportunities
- Promote Fair Trade cooperatives and localized economies
We ask you to join with us in creating this global tapestry. Please help us to lay the foundation on which to build a more just and compassionate world.
We recently initiated an anaerobic digester project in order to facilitate the processing of organic wastes as a part of a comprehensive municipal solid waste management plan for the region of the Darien in Panama. The anaerobic digester transforms any biodegradable waste (basically anything that was once living such as animal and plant scraps) into quality compost (fertilizer) for the farms 
and biogas that serves as a substitute for propane fuel. The developing solid waste management plan for the area requires that no debris that could attract scavenger birds would be permitted to be collected anywhere near the airstrip due to the possible hazard for small planes. Presently, the organic wastes are burned, buried and/or fed to the dogs and crabs. The burning is believed by the local health officials to contribute to the high rate of respiratory illness, while valuable plant nutrients are lost to the atmosphere. Much wood is cut unnecessarily from the forest each year to burn for water boiling and cooking purposes as well. The use of biogas can help reduce this deforestation.
The digester unit, a series of sequential reactor tanks, rests idle at a eco-high school that BAB was instrumental in helping to get established, which is in need of material to process and labor to handle the material. The school will be teaching sustainable agriculture as part of a new program to develop skills and local enterprise for youth coming of working age. The unit adjoins the school garden areas where the fertilizers are needed for food crops and the biogas is used in the school kitchen. With more collected material, the gas could fuel boilers that process waste paper in a building to the immediate east of the school. The waste paper collection has become a prospering fair-trade micro-enterprise for Jaque artisans.
The trash problem is very visible and the smell of burning trash and plastic (dioxin) is an everyday occurrence. These simple solutions of reduction, reuse and recycling involve all residents and the rewards can be readily observed. The fertilizer and biogas are immediate built-in rewards, while the public health and deforestation issues are longer-term concerns that may be alleviated.
BAB is looking to expand the Darien bio-gas project from its current experimental stage through the placement of more organic waste receptacles around the region.
Please click here for more specific details about the project.
Each adoptive parent will receive an adoption certificate and a tagua turtle.
The tagua (vegetable ivory) turtles are carved by Waunaan people of Panama.
ADMINISTRATIVE ASSISTANT
As an administrative assistant, you will be responsible for various tasks around the office. The administrative assistant will work directly with Carol Mosley, the US director of BRIDGES. Responsibilities may include but are not limited to: checking and responding to emails, filing, answering the telephone, printing and creating BRIDGES literature, and any other unforeseen tasks that may arise.
GRANT WRITING
BRIDGES is seeking a Grant Writing intern as well. During these times of economic hardship it is essential that BRIDGES is able to finance our projects even when private donations are few. If you are interested in learning about grant-writing and working on a variety of grant proposals, BRIDGES would be very happy to work with you.
TECH/COMPUTER PERSON (OR WEBSITE MAINTENANCE)
As our all-around tech person, you would be responsible for the maintenance of our new website. We have many materials and articles that need to be posted to the site, so the bulk of this internship would deal directly with that. The website is edited using wordpress, so any knowledge of that program would be nice. In addition, we would like to have someone with a general knowledge of HTML, but any computer knowledge would be great.
VOLUNTEER, FUNDRAISING, & EVENTS COORDINATOR
If you prefer hands-on experience, perhaps you would enjoy being our volunteer, fundraising, and events coordinator intern. BRIDGES puts on many events and fundraisers throughout the year and is always looking for exciting new ideas to get our name and projects out there. If you are creative, friendly, and organized, then BRIDGES would be happy to have you as our intern in this area!
BRIDGES INTERNET OUTREACH FROM HOME
The intern holding this position would work from home, for the most part. One of BRIDGES’ goals is to create and maintain relationships with other organizations who have missions similar to ours. The Outreach intern would be responsible for organizing “link swaps” with other organization’s websites. Also, perhaps most importantly, we would like to focus on using the full capabilities of the internet to gain awareness about BRIDGES’ projects and programs. We will supply you with PDF files of all relevant BRIDGES literature.
COORDINATION FOR PROJECTS ABROAD – Spanish speaker preferred
If you choose to apply for this internship, it is advised that you have prior knowledge about BRIDGES’ projects. This job would provide you the opportunity to work with any of BRIDGES’ particular projects and make recommendations to improve them or make them run more efficiently. This would require working directly with Carol Mosley, the US director of BRIDGES, and keeping close contact (through email or phone conversations) with the people running our projects on the ground.
One of our biggest goals this year is to kick our outreach into high gear. Please invite us to speak! Whether it be with a large group of interested friends, at your school, or in another group, BRIDGES can offer informative as well as interesting presentations on any of the following topics:
topic, topic, topic
If you are interested in having us speak, or know someone who may be, feel free to download our Presentations flier to post around, or email us at office@bridgesacrossborders.org
