Guarani Liberty Initiative

While globalization has been a double-edged sword for many in the rural environment, it has brought a light to a group of indentured workers in the jungles of Bolivia where company stores reign and debts are carried over generations.  

A campaign against indentured servitude co-sponsored by the International Labour Organization and a Swiss development agency provided important civic education and basic human rights training to these Guaraní and campesinos.  This was the Guaraní Liberty Initiative. 

It is amazing what a motorcycle and a video camera can do.

Guarani Liberty Initiative Video

In the Memory of Dennis Avery

Dennis S. Avery, a graduate of California Western School of Law, a former Dean, and long-time supporter of Proyecto ACCESO died on July 23, 2012.  “Dennis was a wonderful man – charitable, smart, humble and interested in making the planet a better place,” expressed ACCESO Director James Cooper. 

Through the Avery-Tsui Foundation and California Community Foundation, Dennis contributed to Proyecto ACCESO over the years, supporting efforts to build the rule in Latin America.  With Cooper, Dennis also helped purchase a motorcycle for ACCESO’s Guaraní Liberty Initiative, a public education program in rural Bolivia that was also funded by the International Labor Organization and the Swiss Development Agency. 

We are most grateful to Sally Wong-Avery for her continued support to our efforts.  

Time Magazine story about Guaraní

That's admirable, but there's a competitive complication: "It's no secret that agribusiness has been buying up swaths of South American rain forest," says James Cooper, an assistant dean at California Western School of Law, whose specialty is Latin American development. Keeping one step ahead of cash-rich conglomerates isn't Guayakí's only headache.

Go here for the story

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