Vusi Mahlasela

South Africa

Freedom of opinion & expression, Indigenous peoples

Vusi Mahlasela is an award winning guitarist, percussionist, composer, arranger, band leader and performer, as well as an activist for human rights. Mahlasela's sound is a unique combination of world, soul, blues and folk, and his albums include "Guiding Star" and "The Voice". During Apartheid, Mahlasela used poetry and music to speak out against the goverment, and now serves as an ambassador to Nelson Mandela's 46664 Foundation, which is a campaign to raise awareness of HIV/AIDS. Vusi Mahlasela is also the founder of the Vusi Mahlasela Music Development Foundation, a charitable cultural music organization based in Pretoria, South Africa. The VMMDF is committed to promoting and preserving indigenous African cultural music in its diversity. The foundation strives to achieve this goal through their range of modern music development programs.

Culture Project

Iraq, United States

Freedom of opinion & expression, Internally displaced persons, Refugees

<p>Blending prize-winning theater with urgent moral drama, Culture Project brings the national political conversation to life on the New York Stage. <p>For more than a decade, Culture Project has told stories as timely as the morning's newspaper in a way that news articles and editorials can never match. Through brilliantly conceived, expertly staged dramas, Culture Project sparks conversation, lifts the human heart and incites political action. <p>Now through June 28, 2008 see <b> Betrayed </b> George Packer. In early 2007, George Packer published an article in <ital>The New Yorker</ital> about Iraqi interpreters who jeopardized their lives on behalf of the Americans in Iraq, with little or no U.S. protection or security. The article drew national attention to the humanitarian crisis and moral scandal. <p><b>Betrayed</b>, based on Mr. Packer's interviews in Baghdad, tells the story of three young Iraqis - two men and one woman - motivated to risk everything by America's promise of freedom. <p><b>Betrayed</b> explores the complex relationships among the Iraqis themselves, and with their American supervisor, struggling to find purpose while a country collapses around them.

Belarus

Belarus

Freedom of opinion & expression, Police brutality, Torture/ill treatment

Belarus is the last dictatorship in Europe. Let's end it together.

Liberty Coalition

United States

Oxfam

Poverty