Why We support Survival International
To give back and support the Tribal rights of the individual tribes of The Omo Valley, Ethiopia, Giovanna supports and donates monthly to 'Survival International'.
They fight for tribal people's survival. They lobby Governments to recognize indigenous land rights. They give tribal people a platform to speak to the world.
'Your generosity allows Survival to remain focused on defending self-determination and land rights of tribal and indigenous peoples around the globe' - Daniel Lavelle, Survival International
Krista, Giovanna's daughter is an Art teacher from Australia. Teaching art to the Suri children.
The Lower Omo River in south west Ethiopia is home to eight different tribes whose population is about 200,000. They have lived there for centuries.
In 2011 the government began to lease out vast blocks of fertile land in the Lower Omo region to Malaysian, Italian, Indian and Korean companies to plant biofuels and cash crops such as oil palm, jatropha, cotton and maize. It has started to evict Bodi, Kwegu, and Mursi people from their land into resettlement areas to make way for the large state-run Kuraz Sugar Project, covering 150,000 hectares but which could eventually cover 245,000 hectares. The Suri who live west of the Omo are also being forcibly resettled to make way for large commercial plantations.
Although the Ethiopian Constitution guarantees tribal peoples the right to ‘full consultation’ and to ‘the expression of views in the planning and implementations of environmental policies and projects that affect them directly’, in practice consultation is rarely carried out fully and appropriately.
The Lower Omo Valley peoples make all public decisions after extensive community meetings among all adults. Very few speak Amharic, the national language, and literacy levels are the lowest in the country which means they have little access to information about developments which affect them.
'A world where tribal peoples are respected as contemporary societies and their human rights protected'
Giovanna donates to charities around the world for non-profit fundraising.