As a part of an Earth Day commemoration, KFTC member Randy Wilson will discuss the connections between Eastern Kentucky, where he lives, and a region in Colombia affected by the coal industry on Monday, April 18^th at Bellarmine University in Louisville. Randy will talk about the impacts of the coal industry on people, culture, and the environment.

Randy will also give hope by presenting solutions that Kentuckians and Colombians are working towards. He'll describe organizing efforts in Lynch, Kentucky and the creation of a completely sustainable community called Gaviotas in a violent and decimated region of Colombia.

Join Randy to hear this presentation in the Hilary meeting room in Horigan Hall at 9 a.m. on April 18.

Randy visited Colombia last year on a Witness For Peace tour that KFTC co-sponsored. KFTC and Witness For Peace have joined together over the last three years to forge closer connections between coal-affected community members and miners in Appalachia and in Colombia. Foreign corporations, mainly U.S. ones, mine millions of tons of coal in Colombia every year, even though Colombia does not use coal for its own electricity. And, 80% of coal mined in Colombia is exported to the United States. To bolster this exchange, every year Colombians visit Kentucky and KFTC members visit Colombia. Learn more at kftc.org/colombia.