Fondation Chirac
![President Chirac (cropped).jpg](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/24/President_Chirac_%28cropped%29.jpg/150px-President_Chirac_%28cropped%29.jpg)
The Fondation Chirac was launched by former French President Jacques Chirac, after having served two terms in office between 1995 and 2007. Since 2008, this foundation strives for peace through five advocacy programmes:
- access to water and sanitation
- access to quality medicines and healthcare
- access to land resources
- and preservation of cultural diversity
It supports field projects involving local people with innovative solutions. The Fondation Chirac has also awarded the every year since 2009.[1]
The foundation's stated priorities include combating falsified medicines, deforestation and desertification, and helping to preserve endangered languages and cultures.[2][3] The "Sorosoro programme" took its name from an Araki word for "breath, speech, language". The endangered Araki language, in Vanuatu, was spoken by then by only eight people, and the programme's stated objective was to "participate actively in the struggle for the preservation and revitalisation of these endangered languages".[4]
History[]
The Foundation was officially launched on June 9, 2008 at the Quai Branly Museum in Paris,[5] with the attendance of most of its Honour Committee's members, such as:
- Kofi Annan, former UN Secretary-General and Nobel Peace Prize.
- Andrés Pastrana Arango, former President of Colombia.
- Abdou Diouf, former President of Senegal.
- Ely Ould Mohamed Vall, former President of Mauritania.
- Rajendra Kumar Pachauri, former chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
- Rigoberta Menchú Tum, Guatemalan Nobel Peace Prize.
- Youssou N'Dour, artist, Minister of Tourism and Culture of Senegal.
References[]
- ^ The Fondation Chirac Prize for Conflict Prevention Archived March 27, 2012, at the Wayback Machine
- ^ "Chirac : «Je veux réveiller les consciences»", Le Figaro, June 6, 2008,
- ^ "Chirac launches foundation 'to awaken consciences'" Archived June 7, 2013, at the Wayback Machine, AFP, June 8, 2008
- ^ "Sorosoro", Fondation Chirac
- ^ "La fondation Jacques Chirac officiellement lancée", Le Nouvel Observateur, 9 March 2008
External links[]
- Foundations based in France
- Jacques Chirac
- Organizations established in 2008