AID-BayArea Newsletter Apr '02 - Jun '02 INTRODUCTION PROJECTS 1) Schools in Koondh, AP 2) Support for Green Foundation 3) Communal Relief Work by Anandi 4) Support for Communal Harmony Advertisements 5) HBP Update EVENT REPORTS 1) 4th Annual AID Conference 2) "Varayo Vasanthame - A Spring ConcertO in Tamil Major" 3) Talk by Kalpana Sharma 4) Communal harmony fund-raiser 5) Walkathon UPCOMING EVENTS 1) Ekta fund-raiser for Gujarat Victims 2) Jugalbandhi Concert 3) National Gandhi Day of Service OTHER ACTIVITIES BY VOLUNTEERS LETTERS 1) A newbie's ushering into the AID family THANK YOU INTRODUCTION Any developmental organization like AID that receives support from community members has an obligation to clearly and succinctly convey information about the work that it does. While we have been doing this in an ad-hoc manner, a regular newsletter detailing the work that we did every three months would, we hope, get greater participation and support from the community; this would in addition serve as a good tool for introspection and improvement from our side. To this end, here is the first edition of the AID-BayArea Newsletter. PROJECTS 1) Schools in Kondh AID bay area approved a project to set up schools in ten Kondh tribal villages in the Madugula mandal of the Vishakhapatnam district of Andhra Pradesh. Kondhs are a primitive tribal group, originally from Orissa. The Kondhs of Andhra Pradesh are a very marginalized community, their villages are remotely located, most of them have no voting rights, lacking access to schools, government programs, and even basic amenities. The NGO Praja Chetana is planning to set up these schools with the overall goal of fostering leadership in the community so that the Kondhs will be able to organize for their rights. The teachers of the school will also be community organizers and health workers. The project duration is three years with a budget of $5300 per year. This project is being jointly supported with Asha Silicon Valley. - Neerja Bhatt (neerja.bhatt@o...) 2) Support for Green Foundation GREEN Foundation, a grass roots organization working with small and marginal farmers in and around the Thally block in the border of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, was formed a decade ago. It's main objectives are Conservation of biodiversity, Enhancement of food security & Promotion of sustainable livelihoods. Forming of farmers groups and community seed banks, popularization of kitchen gardens, scientific evaluation and documentation of traditional agricultural practices, research into seed varieties, training for farmers, formation of women's groups and raising awareness and interest in conservation of the local diversity through publications in vernacular languages are some of GREEN's activities. For more information about them, please visit http://www.greenconserve.com/ AID-BayArea decided to support the work of Green Foundation for one year (Results of Vote in a CSH: Yes - 18 No - 0 Abstain - 4) The amount approved is 5000$ for one year. Please contact the project's coordinators - Gokul (gjanga@y...) or Savita (savita@c...), for more details about the project proposal. - Gokul Janga (gjanga@y...) 3) Support for ANANDI The communal violence that occurred in February-March of this year in Gujarat saw some of the worst incidents occurring in the Panchmahaal district in eastern Gujarat. AID is supporting our NGO partner, Area Networking and Developmental Initiatives (ANANDI), to provide relief and rehabilitation to survivors. ANANDI along with other agencies has supported food and non-food needs in nine relief camps in the district, counseling to the survivors, and has been providing help for restoring livelihoods, educational materials for school going children and support for temporary housing. Based on reports available, help from the government has been severely wanting and difficult to procure. In the last two weeks the situation has become more challenging with the arrival of monsoons and the closure of all but two relief camps in the district. The Bay Area chapter of AID reviewed and approved support for ANANDI's relief and rehabilitation efforts. ANANDI is planning to use bulk of $15000 from AID for repair and reconstruction of about 160 homes in Boru village in Panchmaahal. - Aniruddha Vaidya (aniruddha.vaidya@i...) 4) Support for Communal Harmony Advertisements AID provided a monetary support of 200$ to the Indians for Collective Action (ICA) advertisement campaign promoting tolerance and communal harmony in the leading English and vernacular newspapers of India. 5) HBP Update HBP - block level programs in basic health, education and empowerment of women - is a major project of AID in partnership with the the All India People's Science Network. AID-BayArea is supporting this program in 14 blocks in Tamil Nadu and Bihar. A state level camp was conducted in mid-March at Vaigai dam in Tamil Nadu to train and motivate the volunteers. Training was given on women's health, pregnancy care, child health care including treatment of common diseases, malnutrition and correct feeding practices. 90 people comprising state and district resource personnel, and block co-ordinators participated in the camp. In Bihar, a similar state level camp was held at Jehanabad from June 21st to 24th. Apart from the state level camp, field camps were also conducted in all 33 blocks in Tamil Nadu and field work has begun in all of them. Recently, a team from UNICEF visited the HBP program sites & selected it as one of the ten best programs in the world. To learn more about HBP, it's progress and read detailed visit-reports by AID volunteers, please visit http://www.aidindia.org/aipsn - Ally Malar (ally_malar@y...) EVENT REPORTS 1) 4th Annual AID Conference The fourth annual conference of AID, held at Stanford University from May 25 to May 27, was attended by around 150 volunteers from throughout the US. The highlight of the conference was Aruna Roy and Shanker Singh's inspiring keynote address. They explained the importance of common man's access to government records and how MKSS, the organisation they founded, has fought for this right through innovative public hearings and participatory democracy. AID fellows Ravi and Aravinda emphasized the importance of lending voices to struggles in India. In the session on gender issues, the attendees took the pledge "I will neither take nor give dowry". The photo exhibition by P.Sainath portrayed the hardships of rural working women. Latest on HBP, a panel discussion on the negative impacts of globalization, volunteer education workshops and administrative issues were some of the other sessions. The conference recharged the batteries and strengthened the commitment of everyone to make a difference in the lives of poor and marginalized. For more information, please visit http://www.aidsfbay.org/conf2002/ - Ally Malar (ally_malar@y...) 2) "Varayo Vasanthame - A Spring ConcertO in Tamil Major" This tamil light music concert by the local BayArea band "Thillana" was a successful fund-raiser for AID. The talented troupe members with a strong social commitment performed for free for AID. For the 950 plus audience, it was an enjoyable evening with some great music, dance and mimicry. Towards the end, many of them also joined in the revelry! The enthusiastic audience contributed over 8000$ for AID. This along with an anonymous matching contribution of 5000$ plus 5000$ from advertisements and around 5000$ from ticket sales made this one of the most successful concert fund-raisers for AID. 2) "At war - conflicting interests in Indian Cities" - a talk by Kalpana Sharma, Deputy Editor of The Hindu in Stanford on May 3rd. Kalpana explained the connection between urban planning, sectarian violence and urban poverty using Bombay as an example. Myths like slum-dwellers do not pay taxes, occupy lots of land, come in from far-off places, the root-cause of many problems and that migration is increasing are created by the dominant political parties as it suits their political agenda. In reality, slum dwellers do pay tax if they live on municipal land, pay water taxes unlike the middle classes, occupy only 8 - 10% of land (they constitute about 50% of Bombay's population), contribute significantly to the economy and most migration happens from interior Maharashtra rather than far-off places. Myths like these dispersed by the popular media without verification and internalized by the middle class densensitizes them to such an extent that they do not react when slums get bulldozed or even to gory details of violence. For a copy of the video, please contact Savita Kini (savita@c...) - Karuna Muthiah (karuna.muthiah@o...) 4) Communal harmony fund-raiser Looking at our support to the relief and rehabilitation work in Gujarat and aware of the dire necessity to do more, a concerned anonymous donor had come forward with a proposal to match up to 1000$ the amount we raised in a fifteen day period last month. In this fund-raiser, we raised a total of 2956$. 5) Walkathon The Volunteer Center of San Mateo conducted its 24th annual human race at the Coyote Point Park in San Mateo on Saturday, May 11, 2002. This state-wide community fund-raising event meant for organizations that are not big enough to organize their own walk/run attracted a huge crowd. 13 people participated in this fun-event on behalf of AID and helped raise about 400$ for AID. UPCOMING EVENTS 1) Ekta fund-raiser for Gujarat Victims AID is co-sponsoring a fund-raiser organized by EKTA, a South Asian progressive network that will be held in San Francisco and Milpitas in the Bay Area on July 13 and 14. The event will feature spoken word, performances and a screening of Gopal Menon's film "Hey Ram!: Genocide in the land of Gandhi". For tickets and further information, visit: http://www.ektaonline.org/events/gujarat2002/index.htm 2) Jugalbandhi Concert AID's next big fund-raiser is a Jugalbandhi Concert by Shri. Ravi Kiran & Pandit Vishwa Mohan Bhatt on 22 September 2002 at Smithwick Theater, Foothill College. 3) National Gandhi Day of Service To commemorate the life and philosophy of M. K. Gandhi, thousands of South Asians will participate in a day of community service on October 5. AID invites you to participate in this event and discover the joy of volunteering. OTHER ACTIVITIES BY VOLUNTEERS Last month, four activists in Bhopal undertook an indefinite fast demanding that the official land-for-land rehabilitation policy be implemented for those affected by the Maan Dam project. Many AID volunteers made phone calls and sent faxes to the Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh, various Union Ministers and other government officials urging them to immediately address the issues raised by the activists. In addition, they have begun a chain fast that will continue until proper rehabilitation for the displaced families of the Sardar Sarovar and Maan dam is provided according to the law. To learn more about this and participate in the fast, please visit http://www.aidindia.org/nba-fast/index.html Several AID volunteers helped organize "An evening with the Survivors of Bhopal Disaster" in Stanford on May 12. Satinath Sarangi and Dr. Trivedi spoke about the injustice that exists 17 years since the disaster and demanded that Dow Chemical assume the liabilities of Union Carbide, the company that it purchased. LETTERS A newbie's ushering into the AID family Having returned from my desh trip in mid-March, where I had watched in horror the Godhra incident and its repercussions on TV, I was desperately searching for a forum through which I could do something for my motherland. I stumbled upon an advertisement for a concert, which was a fund-raiser for AID. Curiosity took me to the AID web-site and I enrolled in their mailing list. For the concert, they wanted people to volunteer and I was more than glad to do so. On reaching the venue, AIDers warmly introduced themselves and immediately assigned me tasks. The warmth of the AIDers and their dedication for a better India moved me. Attending the Conference in May was again a great experience where I got to know how much one can contribute in spite of being so far away. I hope to contribute in my own little way, now that I'm part of the AID family. Thanks AID, - Jayashree (nj_jul_99@y...) THANK YOU AID-BayArea sincerely thanks all its supporters and encourages feedback, questions and participation from the community. For more information, visit http://www.aidsfbay.org/