Laici del Terzo Mondo

• Member since July 20 2012.

• Personal Background

  LTM history LTM, “Gruppo Laici Terzo Mondo”, is one of the oldest Neapolitan NGOs operating in the field of international development cooperation with projects and activities in Italy and Africa. It was born in 1972 through the encounter of several youths led by a charismatic father of the Dehonian Congregation, Padre Giusto Pala . Linked by common ideas of solidarity, they realized together a project with the aim of fighting poverty. Acknowledgment came during the following years: first in 1974, when LTM was declared as an eligible NGO by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for implementing projects in developing countries, and later on, in 1988, for the activities of Development Education, Information and Training in Italy.

  Gradually, in Italy as well as in Africa, LTM has met more and more friends with whom it has shared values and relationships, in order to preserve diversity and reciprocity. Nowadays, LTM can rely on the support of Southern partners which are: ministries, local bodies, development and cooperation organizations, NGOs, the Dehonian Congregation, Universities, the Italian NGOs Association, MOVI, COASIC, and many other organizations aiming at peace and human rights.

  LTM Mission

  Since more than 30 years LTM has been working for decreasing differences between the North and the South of the world. LTM deserves particular attention for its engagement in Africa: on one hand it is, through several projects, aiming for social and economic development in the South and on the other hand, it is conducting interventions and campaigns in the North. LTM is involved in Benin, Camerun and Madagascar where it leads integrated interventions investing in Agriculture, Water, Health, Nutrition and Education, Vocational Education and Microfinance. The key concepts of all these activities are: sustainability and partnership. Indeed, escaping from the welfarism that has dominated international politics for a long time, LTM intends to develop a process that requires the active involvement of local communities in economic, social and cultural decisions. By giving special attention to vocational education, development of local human resources and to the role of women, all projects are devised to strengthen and develop personal skills. The result is that local communities, from mere recipients step up to become protagonists who are well aware of the processes of change happening.

  LTM in Italy

  The dream of LTM is “to make poverty history”. In order to achieve this goal, besides the international development cooperation projects, “Gruppo Laici Terzo Mondo” coordinates five main activities:

  - Development Education

  - Training

  - Information

  - Immigration Services

  - Long Distance Sponsorship

  Development Education

  According to LTM, development education (DE) is a discipline and a participatory practice intentionally aimed at facilitating the awareness and the critical individual thinking linked to the values of international solidarity, development cooperation and sustainable development.

  In the process of eradicating poverty and iniquity, people’s active engagement represents the main point. This is based on the belief that every citizen’s local actions, considered in their complexity, are able to produce global changes and to affect development processes (economic, social, political) of the international system.

  DE is a medium-long term process addressed to develop and integrate people values and their emotional and cognitive dimensions, with particular regard to critical thinking in matter of international priorities, sustainable development, human rights, environmental issues, social justice and differences between the North and the South of the world.

  Through the application of several educational methodologies (non-formal and informal), DE intends to build a culture of respect, an understanding of global interdependences and an active involvement in the resolutions of contemporary issues. Development education is an active learning process, founded on values of solidarity, equality, inclusion and co-operation. It enables people to move from basic awareness of international development priorities and sustainable humandevelopment, through understanding of the causes and effects of global issues to personal involvement and informed actions. Development education fosters the full participation of all citizens in world-wide poverty eradication, and the fight against exclusion. It seeks to influence more just and sustainable economic, social, environmental, human rights based national and international policies

  Training

  “I want to go to Africa. When can I leave?!?” Almost every day we receive phone calls, emails or letters from potential volunteers: their only wish is to leave for Africa, ripping the heavy veil of hypocrisy and powerlessness in order "to do something". However, to help Africa, and all the other developing countries, it is not enough to pack up and buy a ticket. Frequently the wish to provide assistance, although highly motivated, may hide the necessity to meet a personal need. The assessment error arises from the common belief that we are able to help people even without proper capabilities or the required knowledge. That is why the training is of vital importance for departing volunteers as well as for youths, students, LTM members and all of those willing to deeply learn about volunteering and international cooperation topics. Every year we organize several courses according to the target needs. In this way we provide the crucial knowledge and technical expertise to be engaged in volunteering activities with emerging countries.

  Immigration Services

  LTM carries out linguistic and cultural mediation, advice and guidance to services for immigrants, refugees and asylum seekers, by networking with local authorities, immigrant associations and trade unions. In 2008 LTM published a new and comprehensive mapping of all the services devoted to the migrants living in Naples and around.

  Long Distance Sponsorship

  The Long Distance Sponsorship is not only a simple economic aid, but it is a commitment requiring active participation and responsibility on the part of the supporter. It works like a bridge representing a mutual understanding between the North and the South and it encourages the development of local populations in their countries of provenance.

  Sponsor a child

  The sponsorship of a child is one of the most effective forms of aid which brings real benefits not only to the adopted child, but to his entire family. How we will use your help Every contribution is used by the Dehonian Congregation, which operates in place, to help children and their families. Firstly it will be met the needs for sustenance, such as food aid and health care, secondly it will be given a special attention for the children schooling expenses such as fees, uniforms, pens and folders.

  Sponsor a university student

  In a context where most households have difficulties in their daily sustenance, the bravest boys who decide to move from villages to cities, where universities are, have to face alone the costs to living and studying expences. This means that they often drop out or resort to gimmicks to obtain the necessary steps to continue their studies, while education and training are very important to let Africa " walk alone" with the support of technicians and professionals trained in African countries. How do we use your help For several years, with the help of the Dehonian Congregation, we have set up a college fund to help young people in their studies, that includes tuition fee payments, mandatory trainings, texts and handouts searching.

  LTM in Africa

  In Africa, LTM coordinates several international development cooperation projects focused on the following subjects: Water, Rural Development, Education, Food Security, Vocational Training, Microcredit, Nutrition and Health.

  Water: "Water means life" . This statement it may seem quite obvious but nowadays over one billion people are forced to use contaminated water. Every year, diseases linked to the use of polluted water killed 1.6 million children, most of them under 5 years. Every day millions of women travel on foot for several kilometres for water supplying. Because of this, many children, especially girls, are prevented from going to school in order to help their parents in this daily activity.

  Rural development: For a long time agriculture has been considered a marginal sector reappeared only in recent years in the agenda of development cooperation in Africa. On the one hand the actors involved in the international debate have begun to consider the importance of this sector for the sustainable development of rural communities and the African continent economy, on the other hand African governments have started to develop agricultural policies at regional and national levels. Furthermore, the construction and mobilization of farmers' organizations in West Africa are forcing all players to finally take into account the views and proposals raised by the majority of people living in rural parts of Africa. In this context, there is a need for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) to realize a strategy for the African agricultural and rural development in order to provide guidelines for the implementation of programs of the Italian Cooperation at European and International level. Eventually the last strategy, aimed at agriculture and rural development in Africa, needs to be devoted to the improvement of the populations living conditions.

  Education: Education is crucial for the political, economic and social development, because it promotes changes by offering multiple opportunities to develop the potential of every human being. In the African continent, education can be considered as the most appropriate tool to eradicate poverty and promote economic growth.

  Food Security: Food security is the capability to ensure consistently the widespread of water and food to meet the energy needs of every human being to survive. The global attention on the issue of food safety has been obtained from the World Summit on Food Security. During the summit it came out a dramatic result: the number of people suffering from hunger is increasing rather than decreasing.

  Training: Vocational training is becoming of strategic importance in world production. It meets, on the one hand the training needs expressed by companies, on the other hand the needs from young workers to acquire skills and stay abreast of the ever-changing market. The projects we have supported in Africa has been devised to provide local population of the training facilities and the proper capabilities to undertake agricultural activities, handicraft and entrepreneurship. That is necessary to limit the economic and social exclusion of beneficiaries.

  Microcredit: Microcredit is an instrument that allows access to economic and financial subjects not traditionally bankable. Our mission is to allow the territory to take up and develop economic activities going to empower the position of indigenous peoples, as well as the role of women, which is fundamental for economy of the " Black Continent. "

  Nutrition: "Food is the best cure for all of us" The old and dear Hippocrates is more timely than ever! Indeed, this is almost a paradox, but in an era of welfare as is the current one, there are still many people which are malnourished. The main causes of nutritional diseases are three:

  1. overeating or overnutrition, leading to obesity;

  2. the poor quality of food, dietary deficiency or qualitative;

  3. insufficient food or inadequate dietary quantitative which implies a state of malnutrition or undernutrition.

  Malnutrition is a pathological condition that develops when the body does not get the right amount of all the necessary nutrients to maintain healthy tissues and organic function. So, our work intends primarily to provide livelihood to the communities and then all the means of production in order to make the communities autonomous and independent.

  Health: Health has been for years one of the great victims of structural adjustment in Africa. The decay of the states and the lack of means have destroyed an area that has to face everyday diseases such as malaria and AIDS. By being demoralized and impoverished, doctors are not always able to cope with the demands of patients. However, Africans do not reject modern medicine, but expect to have more benefits and human warmth. Epidemiological data on the African continent show mortality rates significantly higher than the rest of the world. This does not refer only to specific diseases such as AIDS or malaria (usually very popular trough the media) but more generally to the overall health situation which still remains catastrophic, although in recent decades there has been some progresses. Measles and childbirth, for example, every year kill hundreds of thousands of children and mothers. They would have survived without problems in Northern countries. All this situation is made worse by degraded and devalued health public services. Under this circumstance, the almost total absence of an accessible and quality medicine is one of the biggest scandals of our time, and a crucial challenge that needs to be collected immediately.