TITLE: An Integrated Approach for the Mitigation of MDGs 1, 4, 5, and 8 in Kenya by Flag IntraGlobal

The session will be presented in English with comprehensive handouts in English and Spanish, no interpreter. The participants will be engaged in an interactive process designed to replicate the dynamics of building a bridge with a foundation representing knowledge, horizontal supports representing cooperation among groups, and vertical supports representing cooperation among individuals. The participants meet each other through this meaningful process in a more personal and intimate way than simple verbal introductions. A bridge is actually built in the 2 hr. session as knowledge is "put together." At the session's close, the bridge is dismantled; and each participant takes a piece home as a reminder of their several contacts with the others and a personal souvenir of the session.
Each participant takes home a complete volume of information and experience, equivalent to about 200 hours of research, about the Thousand Daughter Plant with its immensely high content of vitamin A (Vitamin A deficiency is not limited to Africa but exists elsewhere in Asia and South America where there is high childhood mortality.); about Micro-Publishing (how to start and operate a M-P Team in any community, how to support M-P from Africa in one's local community); and about the Flag of Synthesis and Heart of Humanity projects. In a four hour session the participants will divide into groups of ten, representing a complete Micro-Publishing Team, and each M-P Team will actually produce a sample issue of FIG Leaves, based upon their own community stories, hand cut and hand decorated using the same techniques, templates, and artistic supplies that are currently being used in Africa.
The biggest challenge facing Flag IntraGlobal in Africa is the high degree of corruption that exists at all levels of business, government, and even within the social structure amongst friends and acquaintances. This should not be an obstacle or a challenge at the US Social Forum. The are basically four concrete alternatives that will be presented at this session, one concrete alternative for each of the four main projects of Flag IntraGlobal. One, the Thousand Daughter Plant will put an end to high childhood mortality all around the world with the potential to achieve this as early as the year 2010. Two, Micro-Publishing has the potential to mitigate poverty in thousands of local communities in Africa, with expansion into Asia and South America planned for 2008. Three and four, the Flag of Synthesis project and Heart of Humanity project are two grass roots projects that can help to build a stronger and more unified civil society movement, involving groups and organizations of all sizes from individuals and families to school classrooms, businesses, and organizations with small or substantial memberships.
How this session relates to the Social Forum's cross cutting themes is a voluminous report in itself. Grass roots solutions that displace big business, big banking, and big government comply with the motives of the Social Forum; and these solutions help to identify the root causes of high mortality and poverty, consistent with Albert Einstein's comment that problems cannot be solved from the same level of thinking that created them. Specific proposals to reduce poverty, to reduce high mortality in women and children, and to increase economic opportunities in poorer communities everywhere meet many of the cross cutting themes face to face.