Calendar of Events

It’s a Dam Shame: A Community Defends its Home (Social Justice Workshop Series)To register, please visit: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/sjworkshopsLunch provided.Winner of the 2012 Goldman Environmental Prize, and fresh from her appearance as a keynote speaker at the Earth Day celebration on the National Mall in Washington, Kenyan-born activist Ikal Angelei will discuss her fight against a mega-dam that threatens her remote community on the shores of Kenya’s Lake Turkana. Ikal Angelei is a 31-year-old Kenyan born activist and Executive Director of Friends of Lake Turkana. Through her organization, she works to defend land and natural resource rights of poor and marginalized people, and advocate for their inclusion in governance and decision-making about development of territory. She has been recognized internationally for her organization’s courageous fight against the Gibe III Dam, which would have cut off water supply for a half million farmers, herders and fisherman, forever altering her community’s way of life. Angelei brought together Lake Turkana’s divided and marginalized indigenous communities to fight against the mounting environmental and social implications of the Gibe III Dam.  Ikal Angelei holds a Master’s in Public Policy from the Department of Political Science at SUNY Stony Brook, and a Bachelor’s degree from University of Nairobi. She is currently pursuing a PhD in Environmental and Natural Resource Economics. Born in Kitale and raised in the violent region of the Lake Turkana Basin, Ikal Angelei was taught at a tender age to protect herself amid ethnic conflict between the indigenous communities of Kenya and Ethiopia. Please join us as Ikal discusses her experience as a young environmental and social justice activist. We are pleased to present this event in partnership with the American Jewish World Service.