International humanitarian Daphne Nederhorst speaks in Nanaimo Nov. 18

Humanitarian Daphne Nederhorst will visit Nanaimo November 18 as part of the new "What's Going On?" international speakers series sponsored by Vancouver Island University Global Studies program and Global Village Nanaimo.

Nederhorst will discuss a non-governmental agency she founded called SAWA Global and their latest project, The 100 Heroes, 100 Solutions campaign.

She is described as a "truly an inspiring woman who is focusing on positive change in the global world through positive action." Her talk would be of interest to students and members of the community concerned with global issues and hearing and learning more about development practice.

Nederhorst was born in the Netherlands and grew up in Tanzania, East Africa. She visited remote communities in some of the most poverty stricken areas of the world, and was deeply touched with the problems in these areas while being mesmerized with the strength of the local people to find positive and innovative solutions to meet their basic needs. Nederhorst felt a strong sense of responsibility to help these communities. She wanted to create a more equal world for all citizens and made a conscious decision, at the age of 8, to make this her life's mission.

Nederhorst has since visited, studied and worked in over 38 countries. She has traveled to remote villages in India to film community projects; worked with nomadic tribes in Kenya to study the impacts of aid project; developed innovative tools to select sustainable water supply for urban slums in Tanzania and South Africa; collaborated with international organizations such as the World Bank and World Health Organization (WHO), worked with abused an neglected orphans in Colombia and conducted video workshops in the remote islands of the South Pacific.

During the last 25 years, Nederhorst has met hundreds of extraordinary people and organizations that offered powerful solutions to the global problems of extreme poverty, abandoned children, major diseases and environment degradation. She felt that the global media needed to play a stronger role to tell these "stories of change", a new media that would empower unknown heroes in the world's poorest nations and inspire all citizens to instantaneous actions for global change to assist these leading initiatives.

Nederhorst wanted to see a media that would broadcast millions of ideas to solving the urgent global challenges and connect millions of people worldwide to work together to implement these. And from this passion, the SAWA Global non-governmental agency was born.

Nederhorst will speak about SAWA, what it does. As part of the100 Heroes, 100 Solutions campaign, SAWA Global will profile 100 of the most inspiring people from the 50 most impoverished nations by 2010.

You can hear more about Nederhorst and SAWA at the free public lecture Nov. 18, 7 to 9 pm., at Vancouver Island University's Nanaimo campus, Building 355, Room 203. Admission is by donation. For more information, please contact gvnanaimo@gmail.com.