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Member organizations of Community Organizations International (formally ACORN International) launched a grassroots campaign to reform the global remittance market today with coordinated actions in cities across India, Peru, Argentina, Mexico, Canada, Dominican Republic, Kenya, Korea, the Philippines and Indonesia.

The targets of the actions; Scotia Bank, HSBC, Western Union, MoneyGram and the Reserve Bank of India are major players in the global remittance market that in 2008 topped $300 Billion.

Community Organizations International is calling these corporations to commit to meetings with our leadership in the coming weeks to discuss proposals to reduce costs and improve the flow of remittances to the developing world.

Scotiabank, one of the institutions targeted by Community Organizations International (COI) in our recent Day of Action of remittance rates has announced they will voluntarily reduce their remittance charges.

While we applaud any reduction in costs, the pricing structure of Scotiabank remittance products remains out of line with the costs of providing the service.  Further the deepening relationship between Scotiabank and Western Union remains at the heart of this issue. 

If working families are to see the reduction in costs that would transform remittances from a predatory financial product to one that reduces poverty in the both the north and south, then banks like Scotiabank and alternative financial services providers like Western Union will need to go a lot further than these recent announcements.

For more, check COI Chief Organizer Wade Rathke’s blog post on the topic.

http://chieforganizer.org/2010/02/02/small-scotia-steps-on-remittances/

ACORN Internacional fue constituida para compartir experiencias organizativas de base con familias y amigos en sus países de origen y mejorar las condiciones de vida de la gente alrededor del mundo.

Dado que los trabajadores de bajos recursos se ven generalmente forzados a migrar por mejores oportunidades de empleo y mantener a sus familias, muchos tienen conexiones en otros países. Las corporaciones también cruzan las fronteras en busca de mano de obra más baratas y políticas gubernamentales más flexibles.Por esta razón, ACORN Internacional quiso compartir estrategias exitosas en la lucha contra corporaciones explotadoras y políticas económicas abusivas

ACORN Internacional se ha expandido a través de América e India, defendiendo a los ciudadanos y los trabajadores en este nuevo siglo. Las corporaciones generalmente en las diferencias entre las naciones para abusar de los trabajadores a pesar de las similitudes en sus problemáticas. ACORN Internacional hace foco en los desafíos que enfrentan todas las comunidades de bajos y medianos recursos, independientemente de su nacionalidad.

La historia de ACORN Internacional comenzó hace 38 años en Little Rock, Arkansas,en los comienzos de la lucha por los movimientos civiles de 1970 en Estados Unidos. Ahora, ACORN Internacional lleva esa experiencia a distintas partes del mundo

ACORN International is currently running a community education center that provides free after school homework support in english, art, theater, and dance classes to children and young adults from the low-income southern cone neighborhoods of Buenos Aires, Argentina. The center is entirely run and funded by ACORN members (families in surrounding neighborhoods) and volunteers. Every day, there are anywhere between 20 and 50 children and 5 to 8 volunteer teachers and helpers at the center.

Not only does the center function as a “safe space” where kids can attain useful skills, expand creatively, and work on their schoolwork provided, but it also does something unique that not many other educational programs provide—it provides a space where parents, children, and other neighborhood residents collaborate on projects that benefit the overall community. ACORN members who are working on ACORN Campaigns—for example our campaign to increase communication and trust between residents living in dangerous areas and local police —bring their children to the ACORN Center, where, amongst other things, they make colorful posters pertaining to the campaign that can be used as visuals in meetings or other actions. In this way, the children feel like they can contribute to an important project that their parents, and other members of the community, are also involved with.

We need your help to expand this valuable program.

Please consider volunteering, donating, and making Club ACORN International possible!

We are already a success in Argentina and we have all of the energy for Dominican Republic, India, Perú and Mexico, but we need your support.

CONTACT AT rossiacorn@gmail.com and esahores@gmail.com to learn more on ways you can share the experience!

ACORN International needs your help!

ACORN International needs your help to keep its offices abroad going strong!

We are doing great work organizing low-income members to demand improvements in their neighborhoods and to achieve improvements on important issues such as housing, healthcare, security, and education.

A dollar may not go a long way here anymore, but in Argentina, Peru, Mexico, the Dominican Republic, and India; ACORN International can stretch it to make a difference. $300 would pay half of an organizer’s monthly salary. $150 would pay half a month of rent for our office. $60 would pay for a month printing and copying at our office. Even $10 or $20 would pay for an organizer’s monthly transportation.

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