Source International is a non-governmental organization that works with communities dealing with environmental pollution and health problems principally caused by extractive industries.
Source International provides high-level technological and scientific support completely free of charge to the communities with whom it works, helping them to assess the damage to the community’s resources and enabling them to promote restorative actions.
In addition, Source International trains local leaders, called promoters, so they can develop and promote their own environmental and social monitoring systems. Promoters are responsible for training other promoters in their region, therefore guaranteeing greater efficiency and the sustainability of the model.
“When I was 23 years old, I attended a conference in Italy where a Guatemalan activist was talking about problems linked with mining pollution, but without any data her story was purely emotion based. At the end of the conference I challenged her for the absence of scientific data in her statements. She replied that she did not have data because nobody from the scientific and academic world wanted to work with them. I graduated in environmental science two months later, and the following month I had a one-way ticket to Guatemala. I spent the next two years conducting experiments and research to find the evidence of pollution and the human rights abuses caused by mining in Guatemala. 14 years later, I am still gathering evidence and doing research about human rights abuses caused by industries.”
