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SAIH Trondheim has had its last local chapter meeting before the summer. Therefore it was decided to take a sporty trip up to Bymarka to get some exam stress of our backs.

The last oppurtunity to throw snow balls

Enjoying the sun

                                                                                                                                           Although our regular meetings are finished we have a photo exhibition and one more seminar before the summer! So take the opportunity to learn more about The forgotten conflict: Western Sahara, by looking at pictures taken of Saharawi refugee camps in Algeria  by Elisabeth Stubberud  the 15^th of May at Ila Brainnstasjon. Then to enlighten you even more about Western Sahara there will be held a Seminar about Women’s conditions in refugee camps in Algeria by Asria Mohamed Taleb the 26th of May also at Ila Brainnstasjon

For more information about Western Sahara and the events.

Hope to see you there!

The school year is almost over, which means that SAIH Trondheim had to elect a new board for next year. The new board committee that was elected for next year is:

President: Nathalie. Vice President: Lina. Treasurer: Erlend.

Secretary: Ingrid.  PR and web responsible: Nima.

The new board

This year has been truly amazing, our local chapter has gotten a lot of new members and we have managed to create a lot of interesting events and the campaign for this year has gotten a lot of attention. And at last, but least there has been a lot of social activites and a good team spirit!

SAIH Trondheim in collaboration with Amnesty arranged a debate meeting with Café Nord-Sør about the situation and the ongoing happenings in the Middle East.

Three speakers were invited to tell more about the Arabic spring and the role of religion in the geopolitics of the region:

1. Ulrika Mårtensson: She is a professor at the Department of Archaeology and Religious Studies, NTNU, Trondheim, and an expert on Islam. She talked about  the challenges of drafting new constitutions, with special focus on the Islamists (Muslim Brotherhood and Salafis). She focused on two cases within the Arab Spring, Egypt and Tunisia, which have so far been successful to overthrow their previous dictators.

2. Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam: He is a Norwegian-Iranian neuroscientist and human rights advocate and an international prize winner in both fields. As a spokesman of IHR (Iran Human Rights), he talked about the dilemmatic choice between the secular dictatorship and theocratic democracy, in the region. He gave a history of contemporary Iran and the process by which the Islamists, despite their promises, took over the 1979 revolution in Iran after removing the King.

3. Souhail Mahdi: He is a Syrian-Norwegian political economy student at NTNU. He gave a brief summary of the problems faced in three current democracies of the region: Iraq, Lebanon, and Gaza Strip and he finished by updating the people with the situation in Syria and the potential prospects, from a “ground”-perspective.

The three speakers presented different cases linked together with the Arab spring and the Iranian winter (referring to what eventually came out after the Iranian Spring in 1979) which is much less discussed.

The questions that were asked at the end of the meeting created a bit of debate between the speakers but also between the audiences. A well-established debate meeting that gave new information to the situation in the Middle East. Approximately 60 people showed up and as usual the cake is the perfect food for a hungry (for information and debate) audience.

More pictures will be added soon!

SAIH-Trondheim had been looking forward to this gathering since last fall. 12 of our members decided to go and that made the almost ten hour long bus trip worthwhile. Upon our arrival to Strandheim in Nærsnes, an idyllic place somewhere in the Oslofjord, socializing was on the agenda. Speed dating was a good activity to get known people from the local chapters, central office and student organizations a bit better. Later on Mazimba from Zimbabwe talked about the student situation in Zimbabwe and three Belrusian NGO’s presented the student situation, expressing that both countries development are in the shadow of a dictator.

Early on Saturday some brave SAIH-ers decided to take a freezing morning swim/dip before the day’s program started. The central board talked about this years campaign and the actions that are taking part. Mazimba and the Belrusians talked about what means had to be made to improve the student situations. Later on we were divided in different groups across the local chapters to learn more about what SAIH contributes to other organizations in their five partner countries. Saturday’s program ended with an intense and entertaining Kony 2012 debate, with lot of interesting viewpoints.

Sunday some SAIH-ers  swam again in the ice cold Oslofjord early in the morning for reasons unknown. The central board briefly talked about their plans for this year. To inspire and motivate SAIH members, the board assembled different lectures we could go to learn either more about how to write a publishing article, create creative events, learn more about what it is to be a local chapter leader in SAIH or learn how to speak up and express yourself in front of people/audience. The last activites constisted of stunting and make our own statements related to the work SAIH does.

It has been a very informative and interesting gathering and new ideas has been taken back to our local chapter. Thank you so much to all the organizers and the presentation holders! SAIH Trondheim had a lot of fun and can’t wait until the fall gathering! It is amazing that the spring gathering gathered about 70 members and 15 different nationalities!

On Tuesday SAIH-Trondheim had our last local chapter meeting before Easter. This was celebrated with a big easter egg full of delicous candy and an ever so long quiz.

SAIH-Trondheim did however not take a break after this meeting,but followed on with another meeting collaborated with Café NordSør,Changemaker and FN-studentene. Corporal Social Responsibility (CSR) was the title of this debate meeting and involves the ethical and social responsibility clothing companies have in the third world.

Even though the event was moved twice right before it started many people still showed up. SAIH had together with the other organizations invited three interesting speekers to the meeting. It went very well with an exciting discussion after the absorbing presentations that led the event ten minutes on overtime.  Cake was also served and made this meeting even more succesfull.

SAIH-Trondheim wants to wish everyone a Happy Easter!

SAIH-Trondheim has been busy with different events lately. As a contribution to Amnesty’s Human Rights Week we helped them set up a meeting called “Restrictions on a questioning mind.” The meeting dealt with education and how many students are restricted or denied access to higher education. The audience seemed quite interested and asked many questions to the three different speakers (look two posts further down for info about the speakers).

Briefly a week later there was a launch of the SAIH-report “Language of the Police Batons”that disclosed the results of the abuse against students and teachers in Zimbabwe. Innocent Sibanda, a teacher from Zimbabwe and former national coordinator of the Progressive Teachers Union of Zimbabwe (PTUZ) held the presentation of this launch. His gift to convey the information of the abuse and having experienced it close by, gave the audience a true reality check. Again a lot of questions were asked and Innocent Sibanda reminded us to follow the Zimbabwean 2012 election.

“The Language of the Police Batons”

Dragvoll Tuesday the 20th of March. Auditorium D5 at 16.15

Elections in Zimbabwe are getting closer, and the teachers and students are preparing for the violence that have affected them so many times before. This report will present the results of the monitoring of human rights abuses in the education sector done by PTUZ (The Progressive Teachers’ Union of Zimbabwe) and SST (Student Solidarity Trust).

Innocent Sibanda will hold an interesting lecture. Innocent is a teacher from Zimbabwe, and former national coordinator of the Progressive Teachers Union of Zimbabwe (PTUZ). He has experienced first-hand the personal sacrifices that comes with working for a better education in Zimbabwe.

Welcome to this launch

Open meeting at Coffee Annan, ISAK Wednesday the 14th of March at 19. Some may take it for granted that they have access to free education and that they can share their own opinions and meanings at their campus,but this is not the case for students in many countries.

• During this meeting Kari Lindemann (SAIHs Program adviser for Zimbabwe) will talk about the Zimbabwean student prosecution by the state, simply because they are trying to improve their country.

• Gonzalo Chirinos is a Peruvian student who will talk about the situation for students in Latin American countries, such as Peru, Chile and Colombia. The governments in these countries are restricting the access to public education by privatizing the universities. This makes it difficult for many to get higher education.

• The last speaker this evening is Mahnaz Parakand is a member of the Defenders of Human Rights Centre, founded by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Shirin Ebadi, which handled the defence of the seven leaders of the Baha’i religion. They have been imprisoned in Iran since 2008. Iran views the Baha’i Faith as a heretical sect of Islam, and has been persistently limiting the freedoms of Baha’is, making it difficult for them to get an education, jobs, or even a place to be buried without fear of desecration.

We will open for questions after the presentations.

This Tuesday nights documentary screening of Tambogrande: Mangos, Murder, Mining managed to attract a great amount of people. We both had free popcorn and soda, but also our great Gonzalo that knew quite well of the mining situation in Peru and how mining companies both Peruvian and foreign ones, tend to ruin the environment and the community where the mining sites are located. There was also a bit of discussion going on after the film was over. And we even managed to get a few new people on our mailing list. To conclude, a very succesful evening for SAIH Trondheim.

Gonzalo answering questions

SAIH Trondheim invites you to a documentary evening on the 21st of February at H1,Gløshaugen,NTNU starting at 19.00.

Tambogrande: Mangos, Murder, Mining (2006),85 min.

Tambogrande, Mangoes, Murder, Mining

The documentary film is about the population of a small village in Peru and their struggle against big mining companies. After gold is found in the region, the government grants mining permits to Manhattan Minerals. The inhabitants of Tambogrande view this as a threat to their agricultural way of life. The fight is on!

We will serve free popcorn and soda!

The event at facebook: http://www.facebook.com/events/372013449492618/