John,

An Indigenous leader from the Kokonuko people in Columbia was just shot dead while trying to reclaim their lands from a multinational paper giant. Now the local communities are pleading for our help.

They desperately need funds to hire additional security to keep themselves safe while they re-occupy their rightful land.

Our community can wire them the money they need practically overnight – if enough of us give right now:

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This is just the latest of a string of abuses at the hands of Irish packaging company Smurfit Kappa. For decades, the corporation appropriated huge swaths of Indigenous, campesino and afro land to mass-plant the invasive species they use to make paper materials. Local communities have been fighting back for years, trying to reclaim their land.

Fearing a new progressive government won’t be as quick to crack down on community protests, the company is taking matters into its own hands, hiring private security to protect its pillaged land. Hooded men arrived with guns and a mission to protect profits at all costs.

Now one leader is dead. And the local communities sent us an emergency SOS.

Can you chip in to help?

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The Indigenous, campesino, and afro people have lived on land in Colombia’s Cauca Valley for thousands of years.

Then, several decades ago, Smurfit Kappa scooped up the most fertile land in the region. It leveled the irreplaceable forest and planted non-native eucalyptus and pine in its place, which is then cut down to use for packaging. This not only destroyed the local ecosystem, but it dried up the nearby river, leaving the local communities without the water they need to survive.

The local population has faced dozens of attacks while fighting back. SumOfUs has stepped up before to help, paying for equipment, food and shelter for a protest camp that according to the communities stopped 70% of Smurfit Kappa’s activity.

John, with your support, we can do it again – then work to stop human rights abuses by corporations across the globe.