DS and YPSA are delighted to announce the launch of Phase 3 of our One House, One Family at a time project in Bangladesh where we raise funds and build permanent homes for some of this country's most vulnerable climate displaced families.  If you have you ever wanted to do something directly about climate change, now you can. During the first two phases of OHOF we built nine (9) high quality, safe houses providing permanent, lifelong housing solutions for more than 50 people who through no fault of their own have been displaced because of the ravages of climate change Once Phase 3 is completed, OHOF will have built 20 homes and provided much needed housing to some 120 Bangladeshi citizens With your help we are planning to build eleven (11) more homes and assist up to 70 more climate displaced people. As is well-known, Bangladesh is one of the countries hardest hit by climate change. Every year tens of thousands of people across the country permanently lose their homes to rising sea levels, violent tropical cyclones, devastating floods and other effects of climate change. Most have nowhere else to go. Solving this problem starts with land. Displacement Solutions has worked on…...

To everyone who is a parent and to those who are yet to become or may never become parents, what is one of the first things that parents seek to teach their young children? What life lesson does every parent notwithstanding their culture, religion, level of wealth or any other distinction, seek to impart to every child as a cornerstone of being a good person, doing the right thing, living as a kind human being? Of course, that first life lesson all across the globe is simply to do no harm, do not kill or hurt another human being. And close behind that basic part of what it means to be human is this: Do not steal. Do not take what is not yours to take. But in a world where in every culture, every legal system, every religion, every set of moral principles, everywhere stealing is seen as wrong, a crime and something for which people should be punished, there sure is a lot of stealing going on. And very much as is the case with the murder of another human being if you murder one other person you will likely go to prison for life no matter where…...

Longstanding DS associate, Prof. Daniel Fitzpatrick of Monash Law School in Melbourne, Australia, has published a new book – Law, Property and Disasters : Adaptive Perspectives from the Global South, with co author Caroline Compton. Analysing the challenges posed by natural disasters and the mass movement of people, the book demonstrates that state-centred property law is ill-adapted to circumstances of mass human mobility. In a world affected by catastrophic disasters, the book develops a vision of adaptive governance for property in land. This book will appeal to a broad readership with interests in legal theory, property law, international development, refugee studies and natural disasters. It's a great book. Give it a read!...

[caption id="attachment_1322" align="alignright" width="150"] Nauti Primary School grounds, Funafuti, Tuvalu[/caption] One of DS' latest projects - Coastal Kids - will be starting in earnest in early 2012. The Coastal Kids Project will initially bring schools and students living in coastal areas in Bangladesh, Kiribati and Tuvalu into direct contact with schools and students in Australia who are also themselves coastal dwellers. Using communications technology such as Skype and other forms of internet-based connections and learning, the Coastal Kids Project will bring children from these four countries into direct face-to-face contact during which time they can discuss the reality of climate change, learn how climate change is affecting them and what kids in all of these countries can do to better understand the needs and wishes of coastal kids everywhere. Check here soon for further updates!...