Around the world indigenous nomadic peoples are deprived of their livelihoods and way of life; driven from their land by conflicts, logging, settlers and mining; flooded by dams or forcibly relocated to make way for cattle ranches, bio fuels or game parks.

Nomad Action is a new organisation working towards a world where indigenous nomadic peoples' diverse ways of life are understood and accepted, oppression of them is not tolerated and they are free to live their own ways of life in peace, freedom and security.

We're just in the process of setting up. We've registered for charitable status and await approval. A website is being constructed and the core pages should be live later in July (the site is going to be fairly visual so images would be very welcome - a holding page is at www.nomadaction.org). We anticipate the site becoming a resource in addition to what you'd expect from a charity site.

At this stage we're simply letting people know we're here and inviting anybody interested to submit information about specific issues and any urgent needs (we're looking for three or four initial areas of focus where we can make an impact). One of the central roles of Nomad Action will be to link and connect all the different people interested in mobile peoples, particularly mobile people themselves, using the most suitable channels.

In due course, we'll send out a more detailed briefing about where we've got to and the role the organisation can play. In the meantime, do feel free to contact us via info@nomadaction.org

by Nick Crowley