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Dear Earth Keeper,

 

In all things of nature there is something of the marvelous.

- Aristotle


During the month of February, we celebrated our love for creation. Now, as we move towards the end of the first quarter of the year, we celebrate the change of seasons, and make time for reflection and gratitude.

We hope that our Hindu friends had a happy Maha Shivaratri yesterday, and would like to wish our Christian friends a blessed Lenten season. 

In this month's newsletter we share photographs from our Earth Keeper Day celebrationsobjections to Mineral Sands Resources' plans to expand mining along the West Coast without any consultation; re-launch of the global campaign against animal cruelty in Starbucks’ global egg supply chain, and the upcoming film screening of Sisters of the Wilderness.

We also share our comments on the 2019 Budget Speech, photographs from the Center For Sustainable Development Kenya's Green Campaign, photographs from the Diocese of Cape Town Land Conference, and more news that made headlines last month. 

Look out below for upcoming environmental days and events taking place this month. 


The SAFCEI Team

 

EARTH KEEPERS 

On 14th February we hosted a multi-faith Earth Keeper Day in Cape Town to celebrate our love for Earth and all of Creation.

As part of our celebrations, we held an Earth Keeper Council for Faith and Indigenous Leaders, which provided us with a chance to reflect on how we as faith leaders relate to the earth and its living creatures, and an opportunity to pledge a new way of caring for living Earth.

View the photo gallery here.
 

ENERGY JUSTICE 

On Friday 8th February The West Coast Food Sovereignty and Solidarity Forum and the communities of Koekenaap and Lutzville on the West Coast protested at a meeting between Minister of Mineral Resources, Gwede Mantashe and a mining company, Mineral Sands Resources (MSR) because of their plans to expand mining along the West Coast without any consultation.

Despite not honouring the past commitments when it applied to mine more than 15kms of coastline, Mineral Sands Resources (MSR) – a South African subsidiary of Australia’s Mineral Commodities Resources (MCR) – wants permission to mine up to ten additional beaches. MSR is the same company trying to mine titanium on the Wild Coast at Xolobeni, where the community sought legal action last year in a landmark case on their #RightToSayNO to mining.

Read the press release here.
 

CAGE-FREE EGGS CAMPAIGN


After a 9 month moratorium, SAFCEI and the Open Wing Alliance (OWA) have re-launched the global campaign against animal cruelty in Starbucks’ global egg supply chain. We paused the campaign when Starbucks promised to work with its international offices on a comprehensive cage-free policy. It then released an inadequate commitment that excludes millions of hens from the improvements Starbucks promised. Starbucks’ commitment to ending extreme animal cruelty only applies to certain regions of the world, even though hens are suffering for Starbucks everywhere. 

More details about the campaign available here.
 

SISTERS OF THE WILDERNESS
FILM SCREENING


 

Join us for the screening of Sisters of the Wilderness at Erin Hall, Rondebosch on 19th March.

The screening will be followed by a Q & A session with producer, Ronit Shapiro.
 

Date: 19 March 2019

Time: 6 PM

Venue: Erin Hall, 8 Erin Rd, Rondebosch, Cape Town, 7700

Duration: 1.5 hours

Cost: Tickets are free, but paces are limited. 

Ticket bookings: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/sisters-of-the-wilderness-film-screening-at-erin-hall-tickets-56547194180
 

About the film:

Set in the iMfolozi wilderness, South Africa, in the oldest game park in Africa, Sisters of the Wilderness tells the story of five young Zulu women from underprivileged backgrounds going into the wilderness for the first time in their lives on a self-discovery journey, which offers them an opportunity to grow and heal, and serves as a reminder that we are intimately linked to nature and what we do to her we do to ourselves. The film also explores the plight of the primordial iMfolozi wilderness which is severely threatened by an open-cast coal mine on its border, and the dire rhino poaching, in this park, with the highest rates of poaching in more than a century.

DATES TO DIARISE

 

MORE NEWS 

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