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August 31,
2009
PRESS RELEASE
Contact: Ira Simmons, President of Oneworld Works @
1-310-572-1090
Contact: Gabriel Lindén sommarvägen 1 182 74
Stocksund Sweden Tel + (00) 46 70 447 03 54
Oneworld Works, a Venice, CA
based 501 © 3 non-profit organization in collaboration with Kinshasa,
Democratic Republic of the Congo based Espoir Pour Tous is proud to
announce that Gabriel Lindén, a Swedish citizen will leave from
Stockholm for the DRC on September 11, 2009.
He will spend two months in Kinshasa working with our Mobile
School Program for street children and former child soldiers.
Gabriel will instruct the children on how to operate Flip video
camcorders and digital cameras. They will document their daily lives in
the streets of Kinshasa. Our goal is to produce a raw video documentary
for a DVD and to publish photographs taken from the perspective of the
students. The proceeds from the sales of the documentary and the book
will provide scholarships for the participants and any additional funds
raised will go to the program to assist more students.
Upon completion of his
assignment in Kinshasa, Gabriel will travel to Kibeti, in the jungles of
the Bandundu Province. There he will assist Jatukik Providence
Foundation and Earth Rights Institute (our partners in the Los Angeles
based Coalition for a Sustainable Africa) with their development of the
DRC’s first Eco Village.
Gabriel Lindén graduated
from Viktor Rydberg Gymnasium, located in Stockholm Sweden, on May 28,
2009. Last year he lived in Kenya for ten months where he encountered an
environment characterized by cultural wealth and overwhelming poverty.
During his time in Kenya he combined his studies with travel, voluntary
work in the slums and wrote freelance articles for several Swedish
newspapers. The post-election violence after the 2007 elections
presented him with the opportunity to write a newspaper article for
which he received a scholarship of 10,000 Swedish kronor ($1000.00 US
dollars). Gabriel has also traveled in other African states, including
South Africa, Ethiopia, Madagascar, Rwanda and Egypt.
Generally he is driven by a
desire to interpret reality in sensitive ways. His ultimate vision is to
take action to bring about change and influence the environment and
human living conditions.
Gabriel will provide us with
eyewitness news from Kinshasa.
You can support Gabriel and
Oneworld Works’ programs by making a tax-deductible donation of any
amount to the organization. Visit our website at
www.oneworldworks.org and
you will find the instructions regarding making a donation.
2138
Penmar Avenue Suite 3 Venice, CA 90291 Tel: 310-572-1090 URL:www.oneworldworks.org
January 27, 2009
After School Music & Arts Program proposal available by email.
"The proposal for Oneworld Works After School Music & Arts program is
available by email. Please send your request to:
info@oneworldworks.org".
Press Release July 10, 2008
Oneworld Works is pleased to announce that our website will
be graced with the music of one of our International Advisors, the renown
composer/poet Alexandros Hahalis from his latest CD "Dynameis" recorded
with Rakesh Chaurasia playing flute. For more information about Alexandros,
go to
www.apollotemple.com and
www.myspace.com/apollotemple
For further information contact:
Ira Simmons, President, Oneworld Works
1-310-980-4686
irasimmons@oneworldworks.org
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Press Release April 18, 2008
Oneworld Works is pleased to announce that we have entered
into a partnership with
Espoir Pour Tous (Hope For All) a Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo
NGO. In July 2008, one of our advisors, Carsten Korfmacher, a philosophy PH
D candidate at Oxford University will be volunteering as a street educator
with the Mobile School program for street children and former child soldiers
in Kinshasa. After three months, he will travel to the Eastern Congo to work
with a first responder program.
For further information please call: 1-310-980-4686
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Press Release - March 19, 2008
What's New.
Oneworld Works has become a member of the Coalition for a Sustainable
Africa. CSAfrica is a coalition non-profit organizations working in
Africa.
One of our projects is Trees for a Sustainable Africa (planting the
Jatropha tree in the northern Cote d'Ivoire in West Africa).
For a complete list of projects and coalition members, click to this
link csafrica.org |
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From Germany to
the Congo, via Maxwell’s |
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Terence Lyons, Mirror Staff Writer |
Carsten Korfmacher is a German
student from Dusseldorf and a doctoral candidate in metaphysics at
Linacre College at Oxford who is in the Los Angeles area this week
as part of a 25-state walking and hitchhiking tour of the U.S. to
publicize and raise money for the street children of the Democratic
Republic of the Congo (formerly known as Zaire or the Belgian
Congo). Monday morning, June 18, Korfmacher sat down with the
Mirror at Maxwell’s Café on the edge of Venice to talk about
volunteerism, the Congo and the present state of hitchhiking in
America.
Carsten explained that it is not uncommon for European students
to take some time just before, during or just after university
studies to volunteer their efforts for a worthwhile purpose.
Perhaps in part because his girlfriend is Tanzanian, his own
interests tended toward Africa. He said that a lot of people from
Europe go to Ghana or Tanzania, which are relatively safe, but
Korfmacher wanted to go where others didn’t.
Volunteer opportunities in the Democratic Republic of the Congo
are very limited; “there are many NGOs [non-governmental
organizations], but few allow volunteers in the Congo” because of
the dangers posed by the continuing aftermath of violent conflict
following the Second Congo War which officially ended in July 2003.
Korfmacher sent a lot of emails to a lot of websites searching
for volunteer opportunities in the Congo, and the only positive
response came through His Excellency Atoki Ileka, the Congo’s
Ambassador to the Permanent Mission to the United Nations, from a
U.N. website established by Ira Simmons and his humanitarian
organization, Oneworld Works, Inc., based in Venice, California.
The Second Congo War claimed an estimated 3.8 million lives
between 1998 and 2003 “making it the single worst humanitarian
disaster since World War II,” said Korfmacher. Today, there are
three million Congolese displaced and in need of immediate
assistance, and more than half of these are children, he added. In
the capital city of Kinshasa – the second-largest French-speaking
city in the world, on the verge of overtaking Paris – there are
16,000 “street kids” who he and Oneworld want to help with mobile
school and computer lab programs.
Carsten traveled to the Congo last year and will return to work
with a first responder organization based in Kinshasa, where he will
be assigned to a team that assists refugees escaping the unrest in
the east of the country with food, medical care, housing and
clothing.
For the present, he is in awareness-building and fundraising
mode. “I needed a project that was media-intensive and one in which
I could meet a lot of people,” hence the 25-state walking and
hitchhiking tour. Korfmacher started in Canada’s Vancouver Island,
and made his way down the Western States. He will be in the LA area
this week before continuing on through the Southwest, the South and
up the Atlantic Coast to New York City.
Carsten has covered about 3,500 miles of his 9,000-mile trip. He
says he “thought the fundraising would be easier” but that he feels
he’s now “getting into a rhythm” and hopes it will become smoother.
The hitchhiking, on the other hand, has been smooth from the
beginning. “I have met a lot of open-minded people and have not had
one bad, or even awkward, experience.” His longest wait for a ride
has been two hours, and “in populated areas it has been very easy.”
Interestingly, he has found his transportation benefactors
wanting to talk about “the poor perception of America” in other
parts of the world. “I do not think that people anywhere in the
world do not like American people,” he observes.
To make donations to support Carsten Korfmacher and the projects
of Oneworld Works, you can email oneworldworks@msn.com or send
contributions to Oneworld Works, 2138 Penmar Avenue, Suite 3,
Venice, California 90291, (310.980.4686). Contributions are
deductible to the extent provided by law for a 501(c)(3) foundation;
EIN is 20-0542322. To follow Carsten on his 25-state
walking/hitchhiking adventure you can download his route map from
his website at carsten-korfmacher.com. |
“For Immediate Release”
Date 5/11/07
Dear News Director:
My name is Ira Simmons, I’m the President of Oneworld Works, a Venice
California based 501 (c) 3 charitable foundation developing several
projects in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
One of our volunteers, Mr. Carsten Korfmacher, a philosophy Ph d
candidate from Oxford University will be stopping in Bozeman on Monday
5/14/2007 on his walking hitch hiking fund raising tour of 25 States to
publicize his plans to work with Oneworld Works’ Mobile School and
Computer Labs programs for Street Children and other students in the
Democratic Republic of Congo.
Carsten is determined to serve as a volunteer in the Democratic Republic
of Congo, a country of 62 million people. Over 4 million people have
died from war, hunger and disease. During the last six years. Carsten
hopes that his work will to help alleviate some of the suffering in the
DRC.
Oneworld Works, a Venice, California based 501 (c) 3 charity was
contacted by the His Excellency Atoki Ileka, the DRC’s Ambassador to the
Permanent Mission to the United Nations and asked to assist Carsten in
finding projects that he could work on in the DRC.
Carsten will also work with a First Responder organization based in
Kinshasa, DRC. He will be assigned to a team that assists refugees
escaping the unrest in the east of the country with food, medical care,
housing and clothing.
The Democratic Republic of Congo has its first elected government in 40
years. The GDP is $800 per year. The people are very poor.
The country is very wealthy in natural mineral resources producing 80%
of the world’s Tantalite (Coltan) an essential part of every cell phone,
diamonds, gold, Cassiterite (Tin) and copper among other minerals. It
has through the Congo River 40 to 50% of Africa’s Water Reserves. The
newly elected government has pledged to turn things around and be
transparent. The world is waiting and watching to see if the people will
finally benefit from the country’s valuable resources.
To make Donations to support Carsten and the projects of Oneworld
Works, email us at: oneworldworks@msn.com
or send your contributions to Oneworld Works at 2138 Penmar Avenue Suite
3, Venice, California 90291, Telephone - 310-980-4686. Contributions are
deductible to the extent provided by law for a 501 (c) 3 foundation. The
EIN is 20-0542322. The URL is www.oneworldworks.com.
To follow Carsten Korfmacher on his 25 state walking/hitch-hiking
adventure you can download his route map from his website
www.carsten-korfmacher.com
To interview Carsten, call 504—875-9022.
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