when?

when?, originally uploaded by Tatiana Cardeal.

Indigenous peoples have the right to the full enjoyment, as a collective or as individuals, of all human rights and fundamental freedoms as recognized in the Charter of the United Nations, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and international human rights law.

This image is dedicated to the activist bishop Dom Luciano Mendes de Almeida, who passed away this week, and who fighted so much for the Indigenous Rights, respecting their own religion and traditions.

This Kayapo child picture was taken on the VI Indigenous National Party,
realized by the Intertribal Committee (ITC)
with the town hall's Bertioga City support.

A state of mind

Tatiana Cardeal © All photographs

Thank you, all of you that joined the Ceasefire Campaign.
This were words at Mundo Uno group, about how the Campaign developed. Click at this link to read.

The picture above were Mothers who had lost their children by violence of gun fire, doing a symbolic ritual during the opening
of the Urban Outcries II. A project from Chidren At Risk Foundation, CARF.

............................................................................................................

Children and young of the Sao Paulo periphery
send letters for Lebanon and Israel
16/08/2006 São Paulo -

Two thousand children between 12 to 18 years cared by the Social Center Ours Lady of the Good Childbirth ( Centro Social Nossa Senhora do Bom Parto), on to the Pastoral of the Minor, had produced correspondences for inhabitants of the same age of Lebanon and Israel. The Brazilians live in the periphery at the zone east of the São Paulo capital. In this thursday (august, 17), a group of adolescents and young - the majority of which already had assassinated next relatives and already was violence victim - will make the symbolic delivery of the correspondences in the office of UNESCO in São Paulo. The letters are part of an activity developed in the 54 centers of attendance from the project. The objective is to work the subject of solidarity daily enters the peoples from the violence, problem faced for the majority of the children and young of the Social Center Ours Lady of the Good Childbirth. The temporary representative of UNESCO in Brazil, Vincent Defourny, will direct the correspondences to the ambassadors of the Lebanon and Israel next to the headquarters of the Organization, in Paris.

World Ceasefire Vigil

Please, sign the petition:
ceasefire campaign


originally uploaded by Tatiana Cardeal. All photographs © 2003-2006.

Those are mothers who had lost their children by violence of gun fire, doing a symbolic ritual during the opening of the Urban Outcries II, a project from Chidren At Risk Foundation, CARF.

We also are needing to work for the ceasefire in my country too.

Ceasefire: No more war crimes

Join the black ribbon MUNDO UNO campaign,
wearing it as your icon.
Why the black ribbon? Here are some words.
* MUNDO UNO it's a call for peace.
* MUNDO UNO means ONE WORLD.
* MUNDO UNO is a virtual protest against
the madness of the all the wars.
* MUNDO UNO is a way for us to say:
stop the killing of civilians, in both sides.

Shall we be ONE, one world, one face,
one people to change this.

....................................



"Civilians have been targeted in Lebanon by the Israeli
Defence Forces and in northern Israel by Hizbullah
leaving hundreds dead.

After weeks of fighting, bombs and rockets continue to fall indiscriminately on women, children, ambulances, rescue workers and other innocent victims of this escalating conflict. These deliberate attacks violate international humanitarian law and constitute war crimes.

Only an immediate, full and effective ceasefire will protect civilians on both sides, but calls for the warring parties to obey the laws of war and protect civilians have fallen
on deaf ears.

Meanwhile, governments that could exert their influence to end the crisis have chosen instead to prioritize their own political and military interests over innocent lives of civilians.

We, the international community, are not powerless in the face of this crisis. We must stand up together to protect the lives of civilians and to ensure no more war crimes are commited."

What can you do? Take action now!

1. Join Amnesty International in our Ceasefire vigil on Monday 7th August, around sunset

* We call for a ceasefire;
* We demand that all governments stop the supply of arms to the conflict; and
* We stand in solidarity with the victims and survivors on both sides of the Israel/Lebanon conflict.

Read more details at the banner link, from Amnesty International.

return

originally uploaded by Tatiana Cardeal © 2006. All rights reserved .

my eyes opened
I was there again
my feet were burning
my soul dived the soil,
seeking ancestors
thirsty for sap
old roots

my eyes closed
I am here,
I am here,
I am still here.

..........................................................................

I went to this great meeting again,
the VI Indigenous National Party.
A meeting to celebrate life, culture and traditions.
I'll be publishing all of them soon,
but you will see more pictures if you click
at the image above.

All pictures were taken on the VI Indigenous National Party,
realized by the Intertribal Committee (ITC)
with the town hall's Bertioga City support.

silence

originally uploaded by Tatiana Cardeal. All photographs © 2006.

when my eyes open, the world will be fine

The Best of Photojournalism 2006

I send three sets with my pictures to the
Best of Photojournalism 2006 Awards,
from the National Press Photographers Association (NPPA).
Two of them are the 2nd place in two categories, of web site - Photo Blogs. There are the Web Site Winners.

My sets were the Indigenous National Party (Festival and Event category), and the Portraits set. You can click pic by pic, or click on the "view as a slideshow" of these links.
Thank you!

Prestes Maia, the fight for rights

originally uploaded by Tatiana Cardeal
All photographs © 2006.

Prestes Maia, is a colossal abandoned clothes factory that towers over central Sao Paulo, and the biggest occupation of Latin America, with 22 storeys in total, is home to 468 families; around 2,000 people from the MSTC - Movimento dos Sem Teto do Centro (Downtown Homeless People's Movement).

The community is meticulously organised and removed 200 lorry loads of rubbish and 1.500 cubic meters of sewerage from the building’s ground floor, together with all the rest, bestowing upon it the social function of a domicile as determined by the Federal Constitution.
They had organized the cleanning maintenance, the security, they had banned all the traffic of drugs and crimes from the building, making it a familiar place full of activities. The created a library, recycling program, and cultural activities with artists and partners.

The owners of the building, Jorge Hamuche and Eduardo Amorim, who do not possess the title deed, abandoned the building for twenty years and owe close to BRL$5 million (EUR$1.8 million) in taxes.
But, an injunction has been issued for the repossession of the building.
The judge of the 25th Civil Jurisdiction of Sao Paulo granted an injunction for the repossession of the property, ignoring the residential rights of the occupants and even a UN report that declares; "the municipal government of Sao Paulo, through the Secretary of Habitation and Urban Development and COHAB, should promote the renovation of the Prestes Maia building for housing and social interests, to meet the objective of the dispossession of the building by the municipality."

The authorities didn't plan a project to remove everybody, and we know that they will return to live at the streets. We are trying to stop this, and to pressure the state governor Geraldo Alckmin and the mayor from the city José Serra, to make first a project, and then remove the families.

I've created a new set to publish the pictures of the development of this story, called "Where do we go?", and a Flickr's community to support them, "The Prestes Maia Hope", with an online petition to be signed (there is a translation of the text for english and french), and much more details about this story.
Please join us.

IV World Social Forum

originally uploaded by Tatiana Cardeal copyrights © 2006.

I've started to publish the photographs of the WSF at my Flickr's page first, and day by day I'll be uploading new images from the Social Forum. Just follow this link.

> Marching for the women rights and against violence, at the opening march at Caracas, Venezuela.

the witnesses

originally uploaded by Tatiana Cardeal © 2005.

Here is former street kid Poca (Jefferson), performing a moment about our Brazilian's slavery history and the Capoeria traditions, with the Humminbird Band (Banda Beija Flor). They were playing at Diadema, to the people from the Morro do Macaco's slum, in our last brazilian Children's day.

A few weeks ago we saw in many newspapers' covers Alexandra's shadow. Alexandra, 13-years old, participated in the gang who put fire to a bus full of people in Rio de Janeiro recently, commanded by the drug's traffic. Five people died, including a one-year old baby.
As another 750 thousand Brazilian children, Alexandra isn't registered, doesn't have a birth certificate or any other document, and will never have access to any social program in the country because she and all the others don't exist, officially.
Her mother died at 42, with tuberculosis, and she had never met her father. The social welfare never looked for her all this time; she had never gone to school and is therefore analphabetic. She started asking for food on the streets at 7-years old, and was adopted by the drug gangs to be used for small services.
So she changed the alms for the drug trafficker's life.

Her story truly proves how the structures that we live are failing. The family failed, society failed, the church, the community and the State failed. It's a sad repeated story from hundreds of lost children living alone in the brazilian streets. The only alternatives those children have are: choosing the drug gangs, the prostitution, or be lucky as Poca (on the picture above) and find alternatives programs.

Poca, 23-years old now, met this program called CARF (Children At Risk Foundation) in 1993. Poca's big dream whilst he lived on the streets of São Paulo for many years, was to one day become a Capoeira instructor. Thanks to CARF's efforts, he has realised that dream now and today he teaches 250 of our kids Brazilian sporting art of capoeira.
I met then just a year ago and I got involved.
You can watch some slide show sets I did there at this links:
Urban Outcries I
Urban Outcries II
Children's day
Capoeira's batizado

If you like to join and help this project just follow the star. It's my Christmas wish-list :)