Alternatives

About us

Alternatives is a Quebec-based international solidarity organization, founded in 1994 in Montreal. We are the Canadian member of the 8-member Alternatives International federation.

Our mission is to create a world where international solidarity, environmental rights, democratic rights and human dignity are universally respected.

We achieve our objectives through:
• Projects: We implement sustainable development projects in collaboration with local partners in more than 30 countries including Canada. These projects aim to grant autonomy and self-sufficiency to communities and organizations that work to promote climate justice, struggle for democracy and/or defend human dignity.
• Interns: We train interns in Montreal to work on international solidarity and development projects related to the environment, democracy and the promotion of human dignity. We also send these interns overseas to work with our local partners.
• Education: We inform Quebeckers and Canadians about how they can act in solidarity with citizens and social movements to achieve climate justice and participatory democracy and to defend human dignity, both here and around the world.

Projects:
• Cuba and Haiti: Alternative Energy - This project is aimed to contribute to the environmental protection and improvement of the quality of life for small-scale farmers in Cuba and Haiti.
• DRC: Civil Society Internet - Officially launched by Alternatives in Kinshasa in March 2003, the Civil Society Internet Portal in DRC remains today the virtual meeting place for Congolese civil society organizations.
• Haiti: Urban Agriculture - Alternative´s Rooftop Garden Project is working in partnership with APROSIFA, the Association for the Promotion of Integrated Family Health, to install an urban agriculture initiative in Port-aux-Prince. This CIDA funded project is designed to address both the short and long term food security needs of residents of the neighbourhood of Carrefour Feuilles.
• Honduras and Nicaragua: Union Advocacy and Training - This project offers workers in Honduras and Nicaragua greater autonomy through the creation of dynamic participation.
• Iraq: Building Civil Society
• Maghreb/Mashreq: Civil Society Web Portal: E-Joussour.net
• Montreal: Employment Services: Alternatives offers free services to help newcomers in Quebec better integrate into the job market.
• Montreal: The Rooftop Gardens Project - Alternatives has been promoting the recuperation of unused spaces such as rooftops, terraces and balconies for developing new productive green space.

Michel Lambert is the Executive Director and Co-founder of Alternatives.

For other net participants we can offer an expert guidance through trained staff, give an expert opinion, procure expert information and establish new contacts in the field of our work.