The following are extracts from a news item in The Guardian newspaper on August 5th, 2016. It comes from Associated Press in Beijing:

A Chinese lawyer has been sentenced to seven years in prison in the third of a series of subversion trials demonstrating the ruling Communist party’s determination to shut down independent human rights activists and government critics.

Zhou Shifeng was director of Beijing’s Fengrui law firm that took on sensitive cases and represented people who dared challenge the party.

As with the others, Zhou was detained in July of last year amid a sweeping roundup of activists and lawyers. About 300 lawyers and activists were initially seized and questioned before most were released.

Zhou established Fengrui in 2007 and the next year took on one of the country’s biggest dairies in a scandal over tainted baby formula that the government had tried to squelch.

Read the Guardian article: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/aug/04/chinese-lawyer-who-exposed-baby-milk-scandal-jailed-for-subversion

From their website: ‘Certitude’s person-centred approach is creating a future where people with learning disabilities and mental health needs have the same opportunities and rights to a good life as everyone else.  This means being valued as equals and being in control. Ultimately, this is what all of us want.

‘We listen to the people we support about how they want to spend their time and help them achieve it. We find out what people have to offer and help them develop it. This is a partnership and we are in this together.

‘For people with learning disabilities or mental health needs – and for their carers and families – our support comes in many forms. From essential round the clock support to independent living in the community; from training and mentoring to build skills and confidence, to support in finding fulfilling and reasonably paid employment. And we provide our own opportunities through apprenticeships, work placement and volunteering roles. We encourage people to find new interests, make new friends, get out and about and have fun. For carers and families, we offer respite care and short breaks. We also work closely with local authorities, communities and others involved in delivering support.

‘We recognise the barriers that stand in the way of the people we support and we are resourceful in our efforts to work with people to overcome them. We don’t work to a formula – we find new and better ways of doing things, we don’t judge and we never give up, even when the going gets tough.

‘We see ourselves as partners and allies – working alongside people, carers and families. And ultimately, we measure our success on the happiness and richness of the lives people lead.’

Go to their website: http://www.certitude.org.uk/

Israeli Authorities have served a stop work order against the Badu Ka’abne kindergarten in Area C of the occupied West Bank, putting it at risk of future demolition.

MAP provided this kindergarten with stationery and other school supplies last year, and provides the surrounding community with health services through the mobile clinic we support in the Jordan Valley. As the headmaster recently told MAP, for children here

“education is the only way to get away from this life and to move on to something better.”

If this EU-funded kindergarten is demolished, the youngest children of Badu Ka’abne will have no place to learn.

Read more and sign a petition if you wish: http://www.map-uk.org/campaign-with-us/petition-save-the-badu-kaaabne-kindergarten-from-demolition