SumOfUs has changed its name to Ekō. Help us avoid ending up in spam and mark this email as safe.

John,

Brave Colombian activists have sent us an urgent plea for help.

For 18 months, 200 members of the Indigenous, Afro and campesino communities have stayed in a protest camp 24/7 to stop their land being further destroyed by multinational paper giant Smurfit Kappa.

They've successfully stopped the company from planting more invasive species to produce cheap cardboard packaging. But now they're paying a price.

Activists say the company has stepped up its intimidation tactics – flooding their camp with hooded armed private security. Attacks and killings in the area against human rights defenders have skyrocketed and protesters are afraid for their lives.

Despite extreme danger, local communities are refusing to give up until they reclaim their land, but they’re running out of supplies to sustain their protest. The heavy rain season is about to begin and they need our help – can you chip in to help them keep the resistance camp going?

Donate $1Donate another amount

For decades, Smurfit Kappa has appropriated huge swaths of Indigenous, Campesino, and Afro land to mass-plant the invasive species they use to make paper materials.

Since pine and eucalyptus are not native to the area, they have destroyed the local ecosystem, and dried up the nearby river. Left without the water they need to survive, local communities have been fighting back for years, trying to reclaim their land.

As the resistance grows stronger, Smurfit Kappa has stepped up its intimidation tactics, deploying security with guns and a mission to protect profits at all costs. And tensions have grown with company officials.

The local population has faced dozens of attacks while fighting back. Our community has stepped up before to help, paying for security, equipment, food and shelter for a protest camp that according to the communities has stopped Smurfit Kappa’s productive activity.

The activists have vowed not to give up, but their funds to sustain the resistance camp have run dry just as winter hits. Let’s come together to answer their plea for help – then work to stop human rights abuses by corporations across the globe.

Donate $1Donate another amount