Nilda Medina-Diaz – Puerto Rico

Linked with the Restoration Advisory Board RAB.

She is one of the 1000 women proposed for the Nobel Peace Price 2005.

Nilda Medina Diaz has dedicated her life to the demilitarization of Vieques. This tiny (21 miles by 3 miles) Puerto Rican island was used by the U.S. Navy for military exercise and weapons training and testing for 63 years. Largely because of the work of the Committee for the Rescue and Development of Vieques, co-founded by Nilda, the U.S. closed its bases in 2003. In addition to coordinating the movement’s civil-disobedience-organizational center, Nilda continues to play a crucial role in the post-Navy struggle to ensure that her community is informed and involved in their homeland’s environmental cleanup … (1000PeaceWomen).

She says: « The Navy is not leaving because it wants to, but because the people have forced them out ».

She is also mentionned als Political Heroe.

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Nilda Medina-Diaz – Puerto Rico

She works for the Committee for the Rescue and Development of Vieques, for the Restoration Advisory Board, and for the Military Toxics Project.

On the morning of Dec. 21, 2000 Nilda and other members of the Committee for the Rescue and Development of Vieques, placed themselves in front of huge Navy tractors to block yet another military action. Riot police arriving at the scene were well equipped with dogs, pepper spray, and handcuffs. But when a large group of community members joined the protesters, the police withdrew. Such scenes as these were common in the battles Nilda fought with and for the citizens of Vieques. Leading the struggle for « the four D’s » (demilitarization, decontamination, devolution and development) members of the Committee often put themselves in harm’s way.

Born in 1950 in Vega Alta, Puerto Rico, Nilda is the youngest of five children. As a student at the University of Puerto Rico, she began organizing for labor rights and was regional coordinator for the Puerto Rican Socialist Party during the 1970s. Armed with a certificate to teach science – and fierce determination – she moved to Vieques in1980.

Her work has not ended with the withdrawal of the U.S. military.

As a member of the Restoration Advisory Board, she reviews and reports on military clean-up efforts. She organizes community forums to discuss the clean-up, independent expert evaluation of its progress, activities for teen mothers, and leadership opportunities for the local youth organization. She helps to resolve transportation issues for families with loved ones in the hospital or in prison, and arranges legal representation for Viequenses who have been arrested by the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service for using ex-military lands for community functions. She is a coordinator of « Radio Vieques, » a weekly radio program – a vital service for a community that has no newspaper. To help similar communities dealing with problems left by military bases, Nilda serves on the Board of the Military Toxics Project.

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Martha Isabel “Pati” Ruiz Corzo – Mexico-Jalpan

Martha “Pati” Ruiz Corzo is a recognized leader for building a bottom-up civil conservation movement in central Mexico. Located in the Sierra Gorda mountains, Pati and her husband began organizing concerned citizens for a regional rescue program based on environmental education, economic development, forestry management, and community development specifically directed to women who are the heads of household in the rural extreme poverty communities due to high rates of migration of working age men to the USA … (full text).

She is a social entrepreneur recognized by Ashoka … (full text).

In l984 she and her husband Roberto, an accountant, decided to abandon their professions and comfortable middle class, urban lifestyle in Querétaro City. They moved to Roberto’s home region, in the mountains of Sierra Gorda, to live a self-sufficient life with their two sons Roberto and Mario. « I was plagued with health problems, as was [Mario], one of my two sons, » Ruiz explains. « Through research I came to understand that the way we were living, the toxicity of Querétaro City, was literally making us sick » … (full text).

Martha Ruiz Corto has long used music and songs to educate children about the environment (scroll down).

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Martha Isabel “Pati” Ruiz Corzo – Mexico-Jalpan

Video: For a sustainable economy; tourism as a tool to empower local communities and conservation in the Sierra Gorda, Mexico, 3.07 min.

Where she lives: Martha Isabel “Pati” Ruiz Corzo, Address: Jalpan MexicoCategory: Activists, Used in the following map: WGGAN Global Map – Martha “Pati” Ruiz Corzo is a recognized leader for building a bottom-up civil conservation movement in central Mexico. Located in the Sierra Gorda mountains, Pati and her husband began organizing concerned citizens for a regional rescue program based on environmental education, economic development, forestry management, and community development specifically directed to women who are the heads of household in the rural extreme poverty communities due to high rates of migration of working age men to the USA. (Community Walk).

Find her living place on this google-map.

… The Grupo Ecológico Sierra Gorda, which she and her husband founded, addresses the survival needs of the 100,000 men, women and children living in this biosphere by promoting alternative economic approaches while preserving the area’s endangered ecosystem. As a result of its visible success, in 1997, the Mexican government designated the area as the first federally protected reserve in Mexico.
(full text).

Document ID: C25112 – Education and communication for conservation: co-management of the Sierra Gorda Biosphere Reserve, Mexico.

Pati Ruiz and a citizen effort spearheaded by the Sierra Gorda Ecology Group (Grupo Ecológico Sierra Gorda) have, through a long process of negotiation, created the one-million acre (383,567-hectare) Sierra Gorda Biosphere Reserve to protect Mexico’s most eco-diverse region. Thanks to their leadership, this unique environmental treasure is protected, and damaged areas are beginning to recover … (full text).

Google download-book: Communicating protected areas, 311 pages, 2004; also on IUCN;

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Gareth Porter – USA

Linked with Antiwar.com, and with Consortium News.com.

Gareth Porter (born June 18, 1942 in Independence, Kansas) is an American historian, investigative journalist and policy analyst on U.S. foreign and military policy. A strong opponent of U.S. wars in Southeast Asia and the Middle East, he has also written on the potential for diplomatic compromise to end or avoid wars in Vietnam, Cambodia, the Philippines, Korea, Iraq and Iran. He is the author of a history of the origins of the Vietnam War, Perils of Dominance: Imbalance of Power and the Road to War in Vietnam … (full text).

Among his books are Perils of Dominance: Imbalance of Power and the Road to War in Vietnam (University of California Press), Vietnam: A History in Documents, Vietnam: The Politics of Bureaucratic Socialism (Cornell University Press), and A Peace Denied. Dr. Porter’s many articles on international affairs, including the mass killings and mass starvation of Cambodians under the Khmer Rouge, have appeared in such publications as The Guardian, The Nation, and Foreign Affairs. (full text).

He says: … « that US House Res. 362 suggests the use of force with new bill … « , (video on the real news, 5 min, July 2, 2008).

Pentagon blocked Cheney’s attack on Iran, June 10, 2008.

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Gareth Porter – USA

POLITICS: Official Says Iran Accepts P5+1 Talks Proposal, July 2, 2008.

Clawson and Eisenstadt conclude that a military strike against Iran by the United States could be successful, but they acknowledge that such a strike « might cause Iran’s leadership to conclude that the country needed nuclear weapons to deter and defend against the United States » … (full text, July 2, 2008).

He says also: … « that aggressive policy towards Iran from both the US and Israel is partially responsible for the rising price of oil ».

… This is, I think, very important for the simple reason that it does provide a kind of smoking gun evidence, if you will, that this whole unfolding threat to Iran has not been simply a psyops, simply an intimidation operation. We know now for a fact that Dick Cheney did, in fact, propose within the Administration that they attack Revolutionary Guard bases in Iran that were supposedly connected with supplying or training the Iraqi Shiite militiamen coming back to Iraq to fight U.S. occupation forces. And this would be done if and when they could get some kind of concrete evidence that would basically convict the Iranians of some direct involvement in the fight in Iraq … (full interview text, June 27, 2008).

US pushes Iraqi Shi’ites closer to Iran, June 26, 2008.

… The assumption that the United States should exploit its military dominance to exert pressure on adversaries has long dominated the thinking of the US national security and political elite. But this central tenet of conventional security doctrine was sharply rejected last week by a senior practitioner of crisis diplomacy at the debut of a major new centrist foreign policy think-tank. At the first conference of the Center for a New American Security (CNAS), ambassador James Dobbins, who was former president Bill Clinton special envoy for Somalia, Haiti, Bosnia and Kosovo and the George W Bush administration’s first special envoy to Afghanistan, sharply rejected the well-established concept of coercive diplomacy … (full text).

Cheney, Lieberman and Iran War Conspiracy, August 16, 2007.

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Eric Alterman – USA

Eric Alterman is a Distinguished Professor of English, Brooklyn College, City University of New York, and Professor of Journalism at the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism. He is also “The Liberal Media” columnist for The Nation and a fellow of the Nation Institute, a senior fellow and “Altercation” weblogger for Media Matters for America, (formerly at MSNBC.com) in Washington, DC, a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress in Washington, DC, where he writes and edits the « Think Again » column, a senior fellow (since 1985) at the World Policy Institute at The New School in New York, and a history consultant to HBO Films. Alterman is the author of seven books, including the national bestsellers, What Liberal Media? The Truth About Bias and the News (2003, 2004), and The Book on Bush: How George W. (Mis)leads America (with Mark Green, 2004). The others include: When Presidents Lie: A History of Official Deception and its Consequences, (2004, 2005). His Sound & Fury: The Making of the Punditocracy (1992, 2000), won the 1992 George Orwell Award and his It Ain’t No Sin to be Glad You’re Alive: The Promise of Bruce Springsteen (1999, 2001), won the 1999 Stephen Crane Literary Award, and Who Speaks for America? Why Democracy Matters in Foreign Policy, (1998). His newest book is Why We’re Liberals: A Political Handbook to Post-Bush America, (2008). (on FORA.tv).

Termed « the most honest and incisive media critic writing today” in the National Catholic Reporter, and author of “the smartest and funniest political journal out there,” in The San Francisco Chronicle, Alterman is frequent lecturer and contributor to numerous publications in the US, Europe, and Latin America … (full text).

His blog at the Huffington Post.

His personal website on FORA.tv.

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Eric Alterman – USA

Video, authors at Google: Eric Alterman, 57 min, April 21, 2008.

One of the many (many) salutary aspects of Barack Obama’s impending presidential nomination is the sea change his victory marks in the battle for the mind-set of the American foreign policy establishment. Not only was Obama unambiguously opposed to the American invasion of Iraq back when it mattered but – in marked contrast to the Clinton campaign – so were most of his advisers and supporters. Indeed, without this essential distinction from his opponent, coupled with her unwillingness to repudiate or apologize for her vote for George W. Bush’s war, the Obama campaign would likely never have found the base of support it needed to mount a serious nomination fight … (full text, June 29, 2008).

Is Obama a Conservative or a Progressive Realist, June 30, 2008.

He writes: … Taking its place, of course, is the Internet, which is about to pass newspapers as a source of political news for American readers. For young people, and for the most politically engaged, it has already done so. As early as May, 2004, newspapers had become the least preferred source for news among younger people. According to “Abandoning the News,” published by the Carnegie Corporation, thirty-nine per cent of respondents under the age of thirty-five told researchers that they expected to use the Internet in the future for news purposes; just eight per cent said that they would rely on a newspaper … (full text, March 31, 2008).

Out of Print, the death and life of the American newspaper, March 31, 2008.l

Blowhards and windbagsUS elections 2008: The media’s myopic obsession with campaign narratives over events of real significance does a disservice to the public … (full text, January 11, 2008).

The Ideological Crossroads: Will Americans Choose Liberalism, Conservatism, or Something Different in 2008, June 16, 2008.

As Eric Alterman pointed out in a recent New Yorker article, “In the Internet Age,… no one has figured out how to rescue the newspaper in the United States or abroad.” Print circulation is at its lowest level since records have been kept and online revenue from advertising and subscriptions are nowhere close to making up for those declines. It is well known that journals and scholarly presses are also struggling to adapt their business models … (full text, June 26, 2008).

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Index June 2008

Sebastian Chuwa – Tanzania

Linked with Stockholm Challenge, and with the African Conservation Foundation ACF.

Sebastian Chuwa is a man with a vision for his country, his people, and the future generations who will inherit their legacy. For 30 years he has been actively studying environmental problems in his east African homeland of Tanzania and the solutions he has found offer results that benefit not only the land, but all the populations that depend on it for life and sustenance. His methods are based on the two primary objectives of community activism – organizing people to address their problems at a local level, and youth education – influencing the teaching of conservation in schools, beginning at the primary level … (full text).

Who is Sebastian Chuwa?

Sebastian’s interests not only lie with his botanical studies, Seba has a wide and in depth knowledge of his countries natural history and ethnic culture accompanied with a charming personality … (full text).

Video: Sebastian Chuwa Wins Top Arbor Day Award, 9.47 min, added June 8, 2007.

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Sebastian Chuwa – Tanzania

The blog: Africa Unchained, on Sebastian Chuwa, the tree planter.

When Sebastian Chuwa left his childhood home on the southern slope of Tanzania’s Mount Kilimanjaro 30 years ago to work as a conservator at the Ngorongoro Crater, he couldn’t have predicted that he would one day be back on the legendary mountain, helping both Kilimanjaro and its people. And yet, since 1991, that’s exactly what he has been doing. The million-plus residents of the agricultural area surrounding Africa’s tallest peak have for centuries relied on the mountain’s generous rainy seasons and glaciers, but severe climate change has led to decreased rainfall and a receding glacial cap … (full text).

Mpingo trees back on slopes of Mount Kilimanjaro.

Chuwa has achieved his success in replanting largely by using Tanzania’s national tree, the African blackwood (Dalbergia melanoxylon) as a flagship species in the fight against deforestation. Usually referred to by its Swahili name, mpingo, this remarkable tree once dotted the entire African dry savannah. Today it is estimated that less than three million mpingo trees remain, with most stands confined to Tanzania and Mozambique … (full text).

His picture.

… Sebastian’s interest in botany led him to discover a completely new plant species in the Ngorongoro Highlands, and this has been named after him. He has also been nominated for the prestigious Rolex Award for his work in propagating indigenous tree species on the slopes of Mount Kilimanjaro. In February 2002 the Olympic Committee honoured his conservation efforts by presenting him with the Spirit of the Land Award in person during a visit to Salt Lake City, USA … (full text).

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Chris Hedges – USA

Linked with truthdig.com.

Christopher L. Hedges (born 18 September 1956 in St. Johnsbury, Vermont) is a journalist and author, specializing in American and Middle Eastern politics and society. Hedges is currently a senior fellow at The Nation Institute in New York City and a Lecturer in the Council of the Humanities and the Anschutz Distinguished Fellow at Princeton University. He spent nearly two decades as a foreign correspondent in Central America, the Middle East, Africa and the Balkans. He has reported from more than fifty countries, and has worked for The Christian Science Monitor, National Public Radio, The Dallas Morning News and The New York Times, where he spent fifteen years. Hedges was part of The New York Times team that won the 2002 Pulitzer Prize for the paper’s coverage of global terrorism. He received the 2002 Amnesty International Global Award for Human Rights Journalism … and: He … describes war as « the most potent narcotic invented by humankind » … and: he says (about Iraq): « We are embarking on an occupation that, if history is any guide, will be as damaging to our souls as it will be to our prestige and power and security » … (full text).

Videos with Chis Hedges:

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Chris Hedges – USA

Welcome Home, Soldier: Now Shut Up, June 28th, 2008.

Six months ago, veteran war reporter Chris Hedges and I embarked on an intensive project to answer these questions. We wanted to document and reveal the ugly, under-acknowledged underbelly of the occupation. To do this, we interviewed more than 50 Iraq war combat veterans on the record about their experiences with Iraqi civilians. Many of them described witnessing, and even participating in, atrocities against unarmed Iraqis. Chris and I discovered that war crimes against Iraqi non-combatants have been far more widespread than is commonly known … (full long text, June 12, 2008).

Obama Falls into Bush’s Iran Trap, June 9, 2008.

He writes: … All governments lie, as I.F. Stone pointed out, and it is the job of the journalist to do the hard, tedious reporting to shine a light on these lies. It is the job of courtiers, those on television playing the role of journalists, to feed off the scraps tossed to them by the powerful and never question the system. In the slang of the profession, these television courtiers are “throats.” These courtiers, including the late Tim Russert, never gave a voice to credible critics in the buildup to the war against Iraq. They were too busy playing their roles as red-blooded American patriots. They never fought back in their public forums against the steady erosion of our civil liberties and the trashing of our Constitution. These courtiers blindly accept the administration’s current propaganda to justify an attack on Iran. They parrot this propaganda. They dare not defy the corporate state. The corporations that employ them make them famous and rich. It is their Faustian pact. No class of courtiers, from the eunuchs behind Manchus in the 19th century to the Baghdad caliphs of the Abbasid caliphate, has ever transformed itself into a responsible elite. Courtiers are hedonists of power … (full text, June 23, 2008).

The real consequences when America is at war, June 5, 2008.

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Lenira Maria de Carvalho – Brazil

She is one of the 1000 women proposed for the Nobel Peace Price 2005.

Lenira Maria de Carvalho (1932), in her childhood, had to take care of children instead of playing with dolls. Just like her mother, she faced a working day of twelve hours in exchange for food and a place to sleep. She did not put with that situation. Along with other young women, she took on the task of increasing awareness in the districts of Recife. (1000 peacewomen 1/2).

She says: “The Universal Declaration of Human Rights was written over half a century ago and we still see a lot of inhumanity. Most of us are not aware of the right to preserve our dignity ».

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Lenira Maria de Carvalho – Brazil

She works for the Sindicato dos Empregados Domésticos da Região Metropolitanado Recife.

In 1988, she founded a Union that provides judicial support to fifty maids per day. For over 50 years, Lenira Maria de Carvalho has pursued ideals to conquer rights for domestic workers.

Lenira was born in a sugar-cane plantation farm inside Alagoas. Her mother worked in the “big house” (the farm owner’s house). Without a father and with no house to call her own, she shared a bed with her mother and sister and she ate leftover food. “My mother worked her whole life and never saw any money.”

Lenira moved to Recife, when she was 14, to work as a maid for her mother’s boss’ son. She managed to enroll in a night school run by nuns, where she concluded elementary school. Her awakening to militancy occurred when she was 24 years old and attended meetings at the JCO – Juventude Católica Operária (a group of young catholic manual workers).

As a missionary in the JCO, Lenira helped organize state and regional meetings. In 1964, with the Military Coup, came the repression. She was taken into prison. After, she continued mobilizing maids. In the 70’s, she founded the category’s association. She traveled to other states and met many leaders to make sure that their rights would be recognized in the 1988 Brazilian Constitution. “We got the right to vacation, to receive prior warning before getting fired, to be paid a 13th salary at the end of each year and to continue getting paid during maternity leave.

Lenira and her partners inaugurated the Domestic Worker’s Union in Recife, which sees about seven thousand people a year. She was elected president of the Union. She also wrote a textbook called “The Social Value of Domestic Work”. Now, 72 years old, she is tireless. Currently, she fights to be able to give domestic workers the right to their own house and to a fair retirement.

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Ny Luangkhot – Laos

Linked with Earth Systems.

Ny Luangkhot was born in Nongbon village Chaichettha district, Vientiane in 1953. She has a master’s degree in economics from the University of Kiev and another in Sociology from the Sociology Institute of Moscow State University. She worked for the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, and was an interpreter for high-ranking officers. She lectured on Marxism to senior members of the Communist Party and worked for NGOs. Currently a consultant on development issues, she trains local workers in community development project evaluation for local and international organizations … (1000PeaceWomen 1/2).

She says: « There are two types of people in this world, the strong and the weak. We can choose to belong to either kind. But for women, I wish they would seek to belong to the strong rather than the weak ».

The Rural Research and Development Training Center RRDTC is an independent, non political Lao Not for Profit Association which is locally managed. We provide training, research and resources for community development in Lao PDR … (full text).

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Ny Luangkhot – Laos

She has two Master’s Degrees, one in economy from the University of Kiev, and one in sociology from the University of Moscow. She has extensive experience of work at village and grass-roots level in rural Laos within a number of professional areas, including water supply and sanitation. She is well versed with applying participatory working methods, and has extensive experience of statistical investigations and studies at village level. At the same time, she has worked with education and process facilitation at high national level, amongst other things she has participated in the development of a national strategy for rural water supply and sanitation … (geoscope.se).

Found on 1000PeaceWomen: … “I feel I am aging and am slow at times. To work with the youth, you need a lot of power. I think if I am no longer hired to work, I will attempt to do small work to share my knowledge with the youth and to give them moral support. No one rules over the other. We all simply want to share our experience and I want to continue working as a stimulant.”

Those are the words of Ny Luangkhot, a development worker who has lived for more than 50 years. She was born in 1953 to a poor farmer family in Nongbon village, Chaichettha district, Vientiane. Her mother was a rice farmer, and her father organized the first charity in Vientiane to make coffins for the destitute. From 19 siblings, only eight survived. The oldest sister among the remaining offspring, Ny Luangkhot had to take on great responsibilities. After school, she collected vegetables and fresh water crabs and fish from a rice field and sold them to earn income for her family.

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Sayed Naqi – Afghanistan

Linked with The Afghan Women’s Mission AWM, the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan RAWA, with The Afghan Women’s Network, with The Afghan Women’s Organisation AWO, with Afghan Women’s Educational Center AWEC, with Afghan Links, with Afghan Institute of Learning AIL – Creating Hope International CHI, and with The Afghan Independent Journalists Association.

She is one of the 1000 women proposed for the Nobel Peace Price 2005.

Bibi Naqi was born in 1928 in Kabul, Afghanistan and has a BA in Literature. Having worked as a teacher, headmistress and principal in many schools in Kabul since the 1950s, she has a long experience in education. Now she is retired. As a tribute to her efforts, Bibi Naqi was promoted by His Majesty crown prince Ahmad Shah, the elder son of former King Mohammad Zahir, to head of education in Kabul. Thanks to her, many orphan girls and boys were able to attend schools with her encouragement and subsistence. She has received several medals and certificates of honor … (1000peacewomen 1/2).

She says: « Despite the challenges I have faced throughout my life and in my education career, I remained steadfast so that young girls would look at me and overcome their unfortunate conditions ».

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Sayed Naqi – Afghanistan.

Sayed Bibi Naqi, was the only girl among the Sadat families who attended school. But due to economic hardship, she could not attend school after year nine. But she managed to pursuer higher education while working part-time. She went to school during a period when girls’ education and going to school was a sinful act.

Despite all these challenges, in 1950 she studied hard and obtained a BA in Literature. After her graduation she was appointed as a teacher, and later she served as vice-principle of Zarghona girl’s high school and in many other schools. Bibi Naqi was promoted as principle of Zarghona girl’s school, but due to the dominant discrimination against women’s work at that time she was fired from her post.

In 1960’s she was appointed as vice-dean of Faculty of Education. She had also served as Director of Education for the Red Crescent Society of Afghanistan. In 1960’s she was transferred to the ministry of education where she has suffered more from ethnic discrimination and was eventually forced to early retirement.

As her financial status was so constrained, she had to work as a typist in the Radio Afghanistan and Afghanistan Bank for 18 years. Despite facing discrimination, she was applauded for her significant efforts and has received some awards, medals and certificates of honor. Bibi Naqi has always been impassioned to seek knowledge and pursue education.

She traveled to France and Australia to improve her French and English languages and advance her work skill. Her works stand as a pioneering exemplum to Afghan girls who are deterred from education whether by traditional customs or by financial constraints. (1000peacewomen 2/2).

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