Hasta La Gadget!

Every day, along with a group of nearly 50 other people, I have the privilege of making seed grants to up and coming social change leaders around the world. The Pollination Project helps this community of daily givers identify new grantees. Here are the extraordinary people and projects that we supported this past week.

Art for Refugees on the Thai/Burma Border. Based in Mae Sot, on the Thailand border, home to over a hundred thousand refugees and migrants, Kick-Start ART is a community-based group that provides art classes and creative platforms to displaced children. Founded by Sara Rosen,
Kick-Start ART provides art lessons to children from migrant and refugee families in the community who are excluded from Thailand’s formal education system. Kick-Start ART sends a a small team of art teachers -who are refugees themselves- into local migrant schools to execute lessons that focus on creativity, self-expression, experimental learning, and play. They also offer career support to local artists who would otherwise be forced to seek work in factories and day labor positions. In addition, they strive to engage the community to encourage creative thought.

Alternatives to the Caste System in India. Sivakamavalli Ramachandran is a social worker based in Pothanur, India. She is turning agriculture waste into useable plateware to eliminate the use of coated plastic disposable plates. Her project also provides an alternative livelihood for exploited Arunthathiyar young women, teaching them skills to sustain employment and income, ending their dependency on abusive caste landowners.

Peacemaking through Sports in South Sudan. Charles Milla is a social innovator, development trainer and footballer living in South Sudan. Tribal conflicts and wars have been raging in South Sudan for more than two decades, and to many, peace has never been an option. His project, Sports for Life, offers sports clinics in Kajo-Keji County, South Sudan, assisting disadvantaged youth with health and fitness training. Charles sees sports as a tool for peace and conflict resolution. Through sports activities, youth from different tribes will be in position to play together also encouraging social integration.

A School on Wheels in California. Cory Brown & Marika Ramsden are environmental educators from Sebastopol, California wanting to transition human systems to be more resilient, sustainable, and in harmony with the planet. Their project, Schools of Sustainability [SOS], is a touring educational project, cycling the coast of California and visiting schools to give interactive and engaging student workshops on what sustainability means and how schools might be able to implement more sustainable projects into their community.

Addressing Police Violence through Art in Charlotte, North Carolina. Juan Logan is an African-American artist who examines race and power, both economically and socially through his art. He is initiating the Waiting Project, as an interactive, traveling installation that creates a platform for public dialogue on police violence. The piece consists of twenty-eight pillars representing the twenty-eight African-American men killed in 2014 by police, and platforms for those who wish to stand with these men, or people they know as an expression of their concern. This traveling installation will be mounted in various communities around the Country. During the run of the installation, public dialogues will be facilitated at each site in partnership with local people. Juan explains, “We must all use our skills and passions to create a broader forum for conversation and action. This project is important, relevant, and means so much to millions of Americans who care about the outcome of police violence against African-Americans, and Americans as a whole.”

Reproductive Health in Kenya. Paul Omweri, in partnership with the organization, RWAYDO, are working in Nyamira County, Kenya, to raise community awareness on reproductive health rights of girls and women, including addressing the legal and health implications of female genital mutilation (FGM). After establishing 7 FGM awareness and education clubs in primary schools in Nyamira County, 210 girls have already taken on the role of health advocates, spreading anti-FGM messages and contributing to the reduction of the practice locally. This expansion of his project will reach an additional 200 girls in the community.

Kindness to the Elderly in Houston, Texas. Leina Betzer is a high school student in Houston, Texas. Over the summer, Leina visited her 93 year old great-grandmother and wasn’t able to communicate with her due to her grandmother’s limited English. However, when Leina brought her guitar, they were able to truly connect for the first time. Singing and dancing lifted her spirits, and seeing her grandmother so happy gave her the idea to start her organization, Young at Art. Their mission is to provide entertainment for retired or nursing home residents.
Leina enlisted the help of fellow students at her Performing Arts High School, and they recently held their first performance.

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NEW YORK (AP) — A New York City man who made his political name over the claim that “the rent is too damn high” may soon not have a place to live.

Jimmy McMillan says he’s facing an eviction notice that says he has to leave his rent-stabilized Manhattan apartment on St. Mark’s Place.

McMillan, who ran for governor in 2010, filed papers in federal court in Brooklyn seeking a stay of the eviction notice.

His attorney has filed with an appeals court as well, seeking a stay of the eviction order.

McMillan says his landlord wants him out to be able to charge market rent to someone else. He says he pays $872.96 per month.

A call to the landlord company and an email to its attorneys were not answered.

BEIRUT (AP) — Japanese officials were tightlipped Wednesday as secret talks in Jordan sought to secure the freedom of a Japanese journalist and a Jordanian pilot captured by Islamic State extremists and purportedly threatened with death within 24 hours.

The global efforts to free Japanese freelance journalist Kenji Goto and Jordanian Lt. Mu’ath al-Kaseasbeh gained greater urgency with the release of the apparent ultimatum from the Islamic State group. In the message, the extremists say the two hostages will be killed within 24 hours — late Wednesday night Japan time — unless Jordan frees Sajida al-Rishawi, an Iraqi woman sentenced to death in Jordan for her involvement in a 2005 terrorist attack on a hotel that killed 60 people.

The pilot’s father, Safi al-Kaseasbeh, made a last-ditch appeal for Jordan “to meet the demands” of the Islamic State group.

“All people must know, from the head of the regime to everybody else, that the safety of Mu’ath means the stability of Jordan, and the death of Mu’ath means chaos in Jordan,” he told The Associated Press.

About 200 relatives of the pilot demonstrated outside the prime minister’s office in the Jordanian capital of Amman, chanting anti-government slogans and urging it to meet the captors’ demands.

A member of Jordan’s parliament said the country was in indirect talks with the militants to secure the hostages’ release. Bassam Al-Manasseer, chairman of the foreign affairs committee, told Bloomberg News the negotiations are taking place through religious and tribal leaders in Iraq, adding that Jordan and Japan won’t negotiate directly with IS and won’t free al-Rishawi in exchange for Goto only.

Manaseer’s comments were the strongest suggestion yet that authorities in Jordan and Japan may be open to a prisoner exchange, something that would go against the policy of the kingdom’s main ally, the U.S., which opposes negotiating with extremists.

Japan’s Deputy Foreign Minister Yasuhide Nakayama was in Amman to coordinate hostage-release efforts with Jordan, but refused comment on details of the talks early Wednesday.

In Tokyo, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe also did not comment when asked while on his way to a meeting on the crisis. Abe will likely face questions about the crisis in parliament Wednesday.

Goto’s mother expressed hope for his release, but also desperation.

“What has my child done wrong?” she said. “There’s no more time.”

The hostage saga involving the two Japanese nationals has stunned Japan and triggered criticism of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe over his government’s handling of the crisis. The militants have reportedly beheaded one Japanese hostage, Haruna Yukawa.

The video matched a message released over the weekend, though neither bore the logo of the Islamic State group’s al-Furqan media arm. The weekend video showed a still photo of Goto holding what appears to be a photo of Yukawa’s body. It retracted a demand for $200 million in ransom for the two Japanese, made in an earlier online message.

The AP could not independently verify any of the videos. However, several militant websites affiliated with the Islamic State group referenced the latest video and posted links to it Tuesday.

The message holds the Jordanian government responsible for delaying the release of al-Rishawi and says that unless she is freed within 24 hours, the pilot, followed by Goto, will be killed, adding that this would be the group’s last message.

“I have only 24 hours left to live and the pilot has even less,” according to the audio, purportedly from Goto.

It is unclear why the group released only audio from Goto. Messages from other Western hostages held by the group have been read by the captives on camera.

After the video’s release late Tuesday, Japanese officials held emergency meetings. Government spokesman Yoshihide Suga said he had seen the video, but did not comment on its authenticity.

“In this extremely tough situation, we are continuing as before to request the cooperation of the Jordanian government to work toward the immediate release of Mr. Goto,” Suga said.

Mentioning the Jordanian pilot for the first time, on Monday Nakayama expressed hopes the two hostages would return home “with a smile on their faces.”

Mu’ath al-Kaseasbeh has been held by after his Jordanian F-16 crashed near the group’s de facto capital of Raqqa in December. It wasn’t immediately clear when the pilot’s possible release had entered into the negotiations.

The 26-year-old Jordanian is the first foreign military pilot to fall into the extremists’ hands since an U.S.-led coalition that includes Jordan began its aerial campaign against the Islamic State group in August.

This is the first time that the group has publicly demanded the release of prisoners in exchange for hostages. Previous captives are thought to have been released in exchange for ransom, although governments involved have refused to confirm any payments were made.

Goto, a freelance journalist, was seized in October in Syria, apparently while trying to rescue Yukawa, 42, who was captured by the militants last summer.

Japanese officials have indicated they are treating the video released over the weekend as authentic and thus accepting the likelihood that Yukawa was dead.

Securing the release of al-Rishawi would be a major propaganda coup for the Islamic State and would allow the group to reaffirm its links to al-Qaida in Iraq.

The mother of another Jordanian prisoner, Ziad al-Karboli, told the AP on Tuesday that her family was told that the Islamic State group also was seeking his release as part of a swap. It was unclear whether it was related to a possible deal involving the Japanese hostage.

Al-Karboli, an aide to a former al-Qaida leader in Iraq, was sentenced to death in 2008 for killing a Jordanian citizen.

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Kageyama reported from Tokyo. Associated Press writers Omar Akour in Amman, Jordan, Jon Gambrell and Maamoun Youssef in Cairo, and Kaori Hitomi in Tokyo contributed to this report.

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Follow Zeina Karam on Twitter at www.twitter.com/zkaram. Follow Yuri Kageyama at www.twitter.com/yurikageyama.

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