Profile — Survival International

Survival International

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Member since: 23/08/2010

survivalinternational.org

Survival is the only international organization supporting tribal peoples worldwide. We were founded in 1969 after an article by Norman Lewis in the UK’s Sunday Times highlighted the massacres, land thefts and genocide taking place in Brazilian Amazonia. Like many modern atrocities, theracist oppression of Brazil’s Indians took place in the name of ‘economic growth’. Today, Survival has supporters in 82 countries. We work for tribal peoples’ rights in three complementary ways: education, advocacy and campaigns. We also offer tribal people themselves a platform to address the world. We work closely with local indigenous organizations, and focus on tribal peoples who have the most to lose, usually those most recently in contact with the outside world. We believe that public opinion is the most effective force for change. Its power will make it harder, and eventually impossible, for governments and companies to oppress tribal peoples. Survival’s education work Our educational programmes aimed at people in the ‘west’ or ‘north’ set out to demolish the myth that tribal peoples are relics, destined to perish through ‘progress’. We promote respect for their cultures and explain the contemporary relevance of their way of life. Survival’s educational work takes various forms, both inside and outside schools, for children and for adults. We provide free educational materials for teachers and students, and inform the interested general public through, books, conferences, photographic exhibitions and so on. Visit Survival’s bookshop and order our free education pack. Survival advocacy We provide a platform for tribal representatives to talk directly to the companies which are invading their land. We also disseminate information to tribal peoples, using both community radio and the written word – telling them how other tribes are faring and warning them about the threats posed by multinationals. In this way, we give them access to the information they need to make their voices heard. Survival also plays a major role in ensuring that humanitarian, self-help, educational and medical projects with tribal peoples receive proper funding. A good example is the Yanomami medical fund, which succeeded in virtually eliminating malaria in some Indian areas.