2003 Epitaph Charities Project Candidates Announced

Epitaph has announced the
non-governmental charity organizations that will be the candidates for this
year's Epitaph Charities Project donation. Last year $50,000 was split between Doctors
Without Borders ($17,241.38), Food
Not Bombs ($17,241.38) and the World
Wildlife Fund ($15,517.24). The denominations donated were based on online
voting. The current Epitaph Charities website is in the works, but for now you
can click below for the list of organizations. 

50 Years Is Enough (www.50years.org/
)
We call for the immediate suspension of the policies and practices of the
International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank Group which have caused
widespread poverty, inequality, and suffering among the world’s peoples and
damage to the world’s environment. Substantial responsibility for the unjust
world economic system lies with those institutions and the World Trade
Organization (WTO). We note that these institutions are anti-democratic,
controlled by the G-7 governments, and that their policies have benefited
international private sector financiers, transnational corporations, and corrupt
officials and politicians.

Nature Conservancy (www.nature.org)
Since 1951, we've been working with communities, businesses and people like you
to protect more than 98 million acres around the world. Our mission is to
preserve the plants, animals and natural communities that represent the
diversity of life on Earth by protecting the lands and waters they need to
survive.

Center For Reproductive Rights (www.crlp.org)
The Center for Reproductive Rights is a non-profit legal advocacy organization
dedicated to promoting and defending women’s reproductive rights worldwide.
Reproductive rights, the foundation for women’s self-determination over their
bodies and sexual lives, are critical to women’s equality.

Oxfam (www.oxfam.org)
Oxfam International is a confederation of 12 organizations working together in
more than 100 countries to find lasting solutions to poverty, suffering and
injustice. With many of the causes of poverty global in nature, members of Oxfam
International believe they can achieve greater impact in addressing issues of
poverty by their collective efforts. To achieve the maximum impact on poverty,
Oxfams link up their work on development programs, humanitarian response,
lobbying for policy changes at national and global level. Our popular campaigns
and communications work is aimed at mobilizing public opinion for change.

National Labor Committee (www.nlcnet.org)
The NLC views worker rights in a global economy as indivisible and inalienable
human rights, and we believe that now is the time to secure them for all on the
planet. The Committee undertakes public education, research and social activism
to empower citizens in our nations to support the brave and growing worker
movements in Asia, Africa and the Americas. As they fight for the right to come
together and create new democratic workplaces and societies in their own
nations, we will work with them to create the new global democratic institutions
that will ensure economic justice and dignity for workers and citizens
everywhere. The struggle to create a living wage and human dignity for billions
of global workers has become the great new civil rights movement of our time.

Interaction (www.interaction.org)
Interaction is the largest alliance of U.S.-based international development and
humanitarian nongovernmental organizations. With more than 160 members operating
in every developing country, we work to overcome poverty, exclusion and
suffering by advancing social justice and basic dignity for all.

Human Rights Watch (www.hrw.org/
)
Human Rights Watch is dedicated to protecting the human rights of people around
the world. We stand with victims and activists to prevent discrimination, to
uphold political freedom, to protect people from inhumane conduct in wartime,
and to bring offenders to justice. We investigate and expose human rights
violations and hold abusers accountable. We challenge governments and those who
hold power to end abusive practices and respect international human rights law.
We enlist the public and the international community to support the cause of
human rights for all.

Ploughshares for Peace (www.ploughshares.org)
The Ploughshares Fund is a public grantmaking foundation that supports
initiatives for stopping the spread of weapons of war, from nuclear arms to
landmines. Ploughshares Fund invests in a wide range of innovative and realistic
programs, from scientific research to media, behind-the-scenes dialogue,
grassroots organizing and even lobbying. It is no wonder that the Ploughshares
Fund has been called a "mutual fund for peace and security."

Gandhi Institute for Non Violence (www.gandhiinstitute.org/)
The Mission of the Gandhi Institute is to promote and apply the principles of
nonviolence locally, nationally, and globally, to prevent violence and resolve
personal and public conflicts through research, education, and programming. The
Institute, founded by Arun Gandhi (Mahatma Gandhi's grandson) and his wife
Sunanda, was established to promote and teach the philosophy and practice of
nonviolence to help reduce the violence that consumes our hearts, our homes, and
our societies.

Independent media center (www.indymedia.org)
The Independent Media Center is a network of collectively run media outlets for
the creation of radical, accurate, and passionate tellings of the truth. We work
out of a love and inspiration for people who continue to work for a better
world, despite corporate media's distortions and unwillingness to cover the
efforts to free humanity.