Eyewitness - The Americas

Find out more about our work in the Americas.

Brazil: women, work and equality

Partner MST is not only committed to bringing about a revolution in land rights, it is also dedicated to fighting inequality between women and men.

All work is equal

Human rights in Colombia

International support is hugely important in encouraging human rights defenders to keep working for justice for the victims of armed conflict, even putting themselves at risk of attack.

Tackling the problem

Land ownership victory for Colombian farmers in Las Pavas

Families welcome State Institute of Rural Development rulings that their Las Pavas territory is not property of the Colombian palm companies.

Latest rulings

Victory for education campaigners in the Dominican Republic

The 4% campaign, led by Christian Aid partner Centro Bono, pays off as the Dominican government announces increase in spending on education.

Budget doubled

Colombian human rights defender jailed

Updated December 2012 - Defending human rights in Colombia is a high risk undertaking. A Christian Aid partner was arrested in September 2010 and is being held alongside prisoners whose crimes he has denounced.

David Ravelo's imprisonment

The scandal of inequality in Latin America and the Caribbean

12-year-old Jacqueline Gonzalez Vicente from Guatemala

Christian Aid recently launched a report called 'The Scandal of Inequality in Latin America and the Caribbean' which seeks to identify both the progress that has been made in the region, but also to expose the areas that remain and, in some cases, are becoming even more unequal.

Scandal of inequality

El Salvador floods: a farmer's story

When Tropical Depression 12E hit El Salvador in October 2011, rain fell constantly for more than 10 days causing the most devastating floods in the country's history.

El Salvador floods

Brazil: Olympics, sport and inequality

London handed the Olympic flag to Rio, the host of the 2016 games, at the Olympic closing ceremony on Sunday 12 August. But every day in Brazil, thousands of people are seeing their rights violated as a consequence of the 2016 games.

Brazil Olympics

Education in Guatemala: a scandal of inequality

A huge inequality exists between communities in Guatemala and poverty has risen by 2% in the last five years. But tax reform could provide much-needed funds for education and health.

Education and health

The real Brazil: the inequality behind the statistics

Rui Barbosa on his farm, which he has named Paradise Place

Just 3% of Brazil's population own two-thirds of all arable land - the most unequal land division in the world. But Christian Aid partner MST has helped more than a million people get land of their own

Land rights

Bolivian partner leads HIV vigil

Every year on 22 May, countries in Latin America hold a vigil to remember the loved ones they have lost to HIV-related illnesses. In Bolivia, our partner IDH will lead the country's response.

Vigil of remembrance

World Water Day 2012: water for crops

Bolivia's glaciers are melting at an alarming rate and farming communities do not have enough water to grow the crops they need.

Water for crops

Jamaica: fighting HIV stigma in church

Reverend Stephen Henry stands in his church

Homophobia and ignorance about HIV mean that stigma and discrimination continue to hinder prevention and treatment.

Stigma in church

March across Bolivia: putting land rights to the test

Thousands of indigenous people are marching 526km across Bolivia to protest plans to build a road cutting through indigenous land.

The 123 families in Las Pavas Colombia, who were forced off their land at gunpoint two years ago, have won the legal right to return to the land.

Update

Colombian farmers return home

123 Colombian farmers forced off their ancestral land by riot police two years ago have returned home en masse, having lost patience with the legal process.

Market traders cross the river for a bi-national market on the Haiti/Dominican border.

Dominican Republic and Haiti are both situated on the island of Hispaniola. However, as neighbours their shared history over recent decades has been one of bloodshed and mistrust.

Dominican education campaigners stand with yellow umbrellas

A campaign supported by Christian Aid partner the Centro Montalvo calling for increased spending on education was very hard to miss in the Dominican Republic.

Yellow Monday

House washed away in climate floods

Seven-year-old Juan David climbed up a tree and watched as his house collapse into a river – a river that hadn’t been there just a week before.

Find out more

Colombia: Fighting for their right to the land

Jozefa, legal representative for the communities in Chocó, Colombia

September 2010 - Afro-descendant communities in Chocó, Colombia, have been fighting to obtain collective titles for their ancestral lands for 11 years.

Fighting for their land

Christian Aid partner's life at risk in Colombia

July 2010 - Colombian human rights defender Ms Judith Maldonado Mojica has been threatened and assaulted during a violent attack by two armed men.

August 2010 - The Embera indigenous people have been caught in the cross fire of Colombia's 40 year armed conflict. They endure regular battles with the army, paramilitary and guerrillas.

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Everyone has a right to clean water

Cecilia reaching for drinking water at her school in Bolivia

August 2010 - In July 2010, the UN declared clean drinking water as a fundamental human right. Thousands of Bolivians were involved in grassroot campaigns to bring about this global change.

Judith Turbyne, Christian Aid's Head of Caribbean region, gives an eyewitness account of the unrest in Jamaica's capital city.

Christian Aid's partner in Colombia, Peace and Justice, are fighting for the human rights of their communities.

Help the campaign

Peru floods

Read how our local partner, IMAGEN, is supporting communities recover from devastation.

How Rui finally got land of his own, after camping out on the roadside for eight years.

Watch video

Brazil: Million dollar students

How teenagers from the slums successfully took Brasilia city council to task about the capital’s rundown schools.

Watch video

Brazil: Faith leaders and HIV

How religious leaders are fighting stigma and discrimination in Brazil.

Silvia Castro Mendoza used to live right beside a drainage ditch and her home flooded every single year. But then Christian Aid partner MCM supplied her with building materials to relocate.