CARES - Centre for Alternative Research and Studies on Economic, Social and Environmental Issues

CARES has been founded in 2010 by activists coming themselves from various social, trade union, left and environmental movements. The aim of CARES is not to replace existing social, peoples’ and grassroots’ movements, but to provide analytical tools and build movements, counter power, based on the understanding of the root cause of human and nature exploitation. CARES aims at building capacity for emancipatory and alternative policies, through movements, political education, campaigns, to bring structural and systemic transformation of society. In this endeavor, CARES aims at not only to operate at local level, but also to organise activities and collaborates with similar movements in our region: Indian Ocean, Southern Africa, and Africa and Globally. Since its foundation in 2011, CARES has organised several activities: • Yearly Labour and Political Educations courses (at least once a year) intended to trade union delegates. • Summer University for some 100 social movements activists in 2012, 2013, 2014. • Producing Technical-Research Papers. • Building a Coalition of Sea People, to include Fisherfolks in 2013 which have then organised several activities. • Build Coalitions to stop a coal power plant (which we won) and setting the basis for a Peoples’ Renewable Energy Cooperative. • Build Coalitions against the Beach grabbing and laying the basis for alternative peoples’ led eco-tourism in Mauritius. • Since 2015, organised Regional School of Ecology in 2015, 2016 and 2017, 2018 & 2019 for social movements from the Southern African and Indian Ocean Region. • In 2020, addressing Covid issues, CARES contributed to platform of social movements, which became the voice of all the ‘confined’ citizens, leading to the first big street demonstration (10,000 demonstrators) in Mauritius for many years. • In 2020, CARES was the co-initiator, together with eco-socialist movement Rezistans ek Alternativ, of a unique action-mobilisation against the oil spill caused by the Shi