Drop the Debt, Invest in People Tour

International Activists Address Global Debt Crisis:
Activists Draw Links Between Debt and Global Poverty and Women's Lives

WHAT: Local students learn from international activists from Kenya and Indonesia how to raise awareness of the debt crisis and why 100% debt cancellation is needed for all impoverished countries in order to achieve the Millennium Development Goals.

WHO: Florida Atlantic University’s Women’s Studies Graduate Student Association & College Democrats, the UN Millennium Campaign and Jubilee USA Network

WHERE: Florida Atlantic University (Boca Raton) University Center ¬ Live Oak Room

WHEN: Thursday, October 20, 2005 at 7:00pm

FREE & OPEN TO THE PUBLIC


Speaker Biographies


Wahu Kaara is the Millennium Development Goals campaign program coordinator at the All Africa Council of Churches in Nairobi, Kenya. Ms. Kaara is the former director of the Kenya Debt Relief Network where she led campaigns for debt cancellation and economic justice. A 2005 Nobel Peace Prize Nominee, Ms. Kaara has written extensively on the problems of global poverty and economic injustice and has been a featured speaker at the World Social Forum. Ms. Kaara is a teacher by profession and has taught History and Kiswahili language in various high schools in Kenya. Ms. Kaara retired from teaching in the 1990s to concentrate more on human rights, governance and gender issues. She has a long history in building solidarity locally, continentally and globally for economic and social justice. Kenya, though impoverished and heavily indebted, has been excluded from the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries Initiative and thus will not benefit from the recent G-8 agreement on debt cancellation.


Kusfiardi Ardi St. Majo Endah is the Coordinator of the Anti-Debt Coalition (KAU or Koalisi Anti Utang) in Jakarta, Indonesia. Founded in 1999, KAU is a network of trade unions, religious groups, womens’ organizations, farmers, fisherfolk and students whose mission is to free Indonesia from dependency on foreign debt and to stop harmful economic conditions imposed by creditors on Indonesia¹s economy. KAU engages in public education, serves as an information clearinghouse on Indonesia’s debt, publishes policy analyses, advocates with the Indonesian parliament, and organizes popular mobilizations. Kusifiardi has led recent campaigns by KAU to highlight the need for debt cancellation for Indonesia in light of the December 2004 Tsunami which was so destructive to the Aceh region of Indonesia. Kusifiardi is also a member of Jubilee South and speaks on the odious nature of Indonesia¹s debt dating to the era of the Suharto dictatorship. Indonesia is an impoverished country that is not part of the IMF/World Bank’s HIPC Initiative, and thus did not benefit from debt cancellation as part of the 2005 G-8 deal on debt cancellation.