AID-Bay Area Newsletter Jan '03 - Mar '03 NEW PROJECTS 1) WATERSHED PROJECT IN JUNA MOZDA 2) RAJASTHAN DROUGHT RELIEF PROJECT COMPLETION REPORTS 1) ANANDI: DROUGHT MITIGATION IN PANCHMAHAL DISTRICT 2) ANANDI: REBUILDING RIOT-DESTROYED HOMES IN BORU PROJECT UPDATES 1) KONDH SCHOOL PROJECT 2) SAKTHI 3) HBP EVENT REPORTS 1) WORLD CUP CRICKET TELECAST FUND-RAISER 2) ONE FOR INDIA 3) NATAAK PLAY OTHER NEWS 1) AID-BAY AREA SUPPORTS STRUGGLE BY BHOPAL GAS VICTIMS 2) ATTENTION KHADI SHOPPERS ... BLUE LIGHT SPECIAL! 3) TMIA and DISHAA NEWS THANK YOU *----* *----* *----* *----* NEW PROJECTS ------------ 1) WATERSHED PROJECT IN JUNA MOZDA Our chapter recently approved a watershed project in the Juna Mozda area in south-Gujarat. This area in the Satpura mountain range is forested with an undulating landscape, few roads and many dirt tracks and footpaths, and very little infrastructure. Vasava adivasis(tribals), a sub-tribe of the Bhil adivasis have settled the area. The project is to support building bunds (earthen structures) in 12 villages in Mozda area to improve the soil and water conservation. People migrate seasonally to look for work that will pay cash as the food produced is not sufficient for the entire year. This mainly occurs in the winter and summer months, exactly when maintaining land/houses was done traditionally. Michael and Swati, our saathis (AID fellows) have been involving the people in bund making as food for work program. Food grains are based on cubic feet of bunds raised. They have been working on this for the past several years and our chapter supported their work in 2000. The farmers that built bunds in the earlier program are now seeing 2 crops instead of one and this is also leading to reduced migration and sustainability of the village. The village youths are trained to supervise and measure the bunds, leading to empowerment of the village youth. Our chapter decided to fund $5000 for this year and other chapters of AID are looking to fund more as well. For more details, please visit the projects section in www.aidsfbay.org *----* *----* *----* *----* 2) RAJASTHAN DROUGHT RELIEF Rajasthan has been under a severe drought for the fifth consecutive year and this year the situation is really acute as seen by the numerous reports of mass migrations and starvation-deaths in the media. AID has approved $10,000 from common pool funds (a portion of funds raised by all chapters) for immediate relief by BGVS-Rajasthan, an organisation that AID closely works with. In 2 blocks (Shahbad and Kishanganj) in the Baran district, the approved funds will be used to provide 1. Gratuitous relief to the most vulnerable, especially children and women. 2. Organize Health camps and train village health volunteers to follow up with the patients. 3. Transportation of the sick and invalid to hospitals. We have request for more support from other areas in Rajasthan as well as Madhya Pradesh and we request caring individuals to donate generously for this. For more information, write to Karuna (karuna_muthiah@y...) *----* *----* *----* *----* PROJECT COMPLETION REPORTS -------------------------- 1) ANANDI: DROUGHT MITIGATION IN PANCHMAHAL DISTRICT Continued drought conditions have been affecting livelihoods in parts of Gujarat for past 3 years. The problem has been further aggravated by the earthquake and communal carnage that ensued in this period. At such times, the poor are at their most vulnerable as they subsist on rain-fed farming, forest produce and agriculture-based wage labor. Area Networking and Development Initiatives (ANANDI) --- a group working for capacity building amongst adivasi and rural women in the Panchmahal and Dahod districts of Gujarat --- came up with a plan to mitigate some of effects of the drought. Mahila Mandals (women's groups) set up by them formed a committee of eight women to survey about 100 wells in the Sehera taluka in the Panchmahal district towards the end of 2001. In the following year this committee short-listed 83 wells for deepening and 67 wells for recharging in various hamlets of 12 villages. Well-owners and neighboring families in groups of 8-10 persons blasted sub-surface rock, cleaned the rubble and repaired wells in 3-4 days each and their work was supported and supervised by the women's committee. In a survey conducted in November 2002, about 70% of these wells continued to have water including water for additional fodder and vegetable needs in some cases. One roof-based rainwater harvesting structure of 10,000 liter capacity was also constructed for demonstration purposes. ANANDI's work was supported in most part by AID Bay Area chapter's grant of about $4000. *----* *----* *----* *----* 2) ANANDI: REBUILDING RIOT-DESTROYED HOMES IN BORU From an earlier newsletter, you might recollect AID support for rebuilding and repair of houses destroyed in the village of Boru in Panchmahal district of Gujarat during the communal rioting and violence that occurred in Feburary-March 2002 period. When the 190 Muslim families that had fled to some makeshift camps in nearby Kalol decided to return to their home village and restart their lives, Anandi along with Citizen's initiative decided to support them. ANANDI organized dialogue between the affected families and the rest of the village community to facilitate the process. A "Bandhkam Samiti" (construction committee) was established and women's participation and leadership was encouraged to supervise the construction, encourage transparency and a community oriented approach and finally the work was completed. In all 176 homes were either reconstructed or repaired --- 89 requiring complete reconstruction, 51 needing partial repairs and 36 additional needing minor repairs. This included 5 homes of adivasis and 3 hindu families whose homes had also been damaged. The Bandhkam Samiti is evolving now as an "Aman samiti" (peace committee). The work in Boru is also being looked at in terms of a model for how some other riot affected families can be resettled; the work has also received a favorable response from some in the administration, the press and from other voluntary agencies. AID-wide support for ANANDI's efforts in Boru was $15,000. This was about one fourth of the total needed for the reconstruction effort. The balance of the amount included local contributions to ANANDI, support from Citizen's Initiative and contributions of money and labor of Boru villagers themselves. *----* *----* *----* *----* PROJECT UPDATES ---------------- 1) KONDH SCHOOL PROJECT AID Bay Area, along with Asha, Silicon Valley, has been supporting 10 schools in the Kondh tribal villages in Vishakapatnam district of Andhra Pradesh since August 2002. Kondhs are a primitive tribal group, amongst the most marginalized communities in the region. The non profit group Nisarga began running these schools with a long term goal of developing leadership in the community and organizing the Kondh people for their rights. Project Update: We'd like to share with you updates on the project which has been progressing quite well. The schools have been functional since Sept 2002. The teachers, two of whom are women, were selected from the girijan youth in the region with an intermediate education. They underwent a short training program in August 2002. All of them reside in the villages they teach in. The people of the villages came forward to construct the schools and all the schools were completed by January 2003. The schools are held five days a week from 9-4 with a break for lunch. The Ngo has been organizing a bimonthly training workshop for all the teachers, where they take stock of the progress, identify problems and look for solutions. In June, the school teachers will be attending a teaching workshop organized by Asha in Andhra Pradesh. The project envisions the teacher to be a community organizer, so that she can be an instrument to bring about change. The ngo has been encouraging the teachers to get involved in their communities and has been providing them support in solving the village problems. AID Bay Area volunteers are collecting toys and books for the school children and one of our volunteers will be visiting them in May. If you have would like to assist in this, please contact Neerja Bhatt (nbbhatt@h...) Details: http://www.aidsfbay.org/projects/kondh/kondh.html *----* *----* *----* *----* 2) SAKTI: AID Bay Area approved a 2 year project for empowering the Chenchus from an NGO called SAKTI (Search for Action and Knowledge for Tribal Initiative) in March 2002. The Chenchus are marginalized tribal people who have been living in the Nallamalai hills of Andhra Pradesh (currently part of the Nagarjuna Sagar Tiger Reserve) for hundreds of years. The government of Andhra Pradesh is initiating a massive eco-tourism program in this area. The project aims to facilitate the Chenchus to participate in the eco-tourism initiative as field guides and tour operators using their intimate knowledge of ecology of Nallamalai hills. As per the original proposal this was to be done in two steps: 1) Make the Chenchus document their knowledge of the ecology, their history and culture. This information would be entered into a GIS database and also compiled into books. This would not only increase the Chechus confidence in themselves but would also serve to convince the government about the capabilities of the Chenchus to participate as field guides. 2) Impart training to Chenchus that would relate their knowledge to the external knowledge and educate them about the government rules, regulations and guidelines. Considerable progress has been made in the project with regards to step 1 over the last year. SAKTI volunteers have worked closely with the Chenchus to gather a lot information about tribal knowledge, history, culture, NSTR management plan, information on water resources in the Nallamalai hill ranges etc.The information is yet to be edited and compiled into books. Part of the information collected has been compiled into GIS maps. SAKTI managed to get a grant from the A.P government's tribal welfare department for step 2 of the project. SAKTI will be conducting a training course for Chenchus soon using the government grant. *----* *----* *----* *----* 3) HBP Our chapter volunteers had a detailed phone conversation with the Virudhunagar HBP district coordinator of the project and here are the highlights. For more information on the project, please visit www.aidindia.org/aipsn Main activities in the blocks: 1) Vembakottai - Makkal Palli Iyakam going on very well, also has savings and health. Government has adopted a very similar scheme based on Makkal Palli Iyakam called Nila Palli which has also taken off quite well. 2) Sivakasi - Has Thuligal, NFE and Health, but no Makkal Palli Iyakkam. In Sivakasi health is progressing very well and they have completed "edai eduppu". In M.Pudupatti the women organized themselves and managed to get a regular doctor at the PHC. In Salwarpatti village they petitioned the collector and managed to get land allocated for their community center and construction has begun. 3) In Watrap the biggest success is their weekly meetings. The savings group meet every week and have a regular schedule .In Watrap 4 or 5 women have taken to soap making and are making 400 to 500 soaps a month 4) Thiruchuli - there is no problem with full timers and they are getting full cooperation from banks *----* *----* *----* *----* EVENT REPORTS ------------- 1) WORLD CUP CRICKET TELECAST FUND-RAISER When Mr. Narayana Swamy (owner of Komala Vilas restaurant in Santa Clara) suggested to AID volunteer Rajesh that we help him telecast the Cricket World Cup in South Africa in the big-screen TV in his restaraunt, neither he nor us anticipated the overwhelming response. Thanks to the fine performance of the Indian team which went all the way to the finals, the telecast turned out to be a successful fund-raiser. (A significant portion of the ticket proceeds from the telecast was for AID) AID volunteers including Bipin, Harish, Kaustubuh, Mathi, Rajesh and Vithal helped publicize and organise the telecast. In addition to gaining a lot of publicity through this event, AID received some contributions as well. We thank Mr. Narayana Swamy and all the attendees who helped make this a successful event for us. *----* *----* *----* *----* 2) ONE FOR INDIA Our second annual 'One For India' fund-raiser which ran from December 1 2002 to January 31 2003 AID-Bay Area raised more than 6000$ to support developmental initiatives in India during 2003. About 40 people contributed by credit-card at the campaign website http://www.oneforindia.org/ or sent in their checks to AID PO Boxes. Lots more visited the website and learnt about AID, our campaigns, the projects we support, and the work done by our Saathis. We sincerely thank all our donors as well as our sponsors for this support. *----* *----* *----* *----* 3) NATAAK play AID volunteers helped out with publicity and organisation of the Nataak play 'Suraj Kha Saatva Ghoda' on February 22nd & 23rd at West Valley College. We thank Nataak who donated $650 to AID from the ticket proceeds of the event. *----* *----* *----* *----* OTHER NEWS ---------- 1) AID-BAY AREA SUPPORTS STRUGGLE BY BHOPAL GAS VICTIMS Ninteen years since the horrible gas leak in Bhopal, justice continues to evade the victims. Between 16,000 and 30,000 people have died and more than half a million people seriously affected. The 470 million dollar settlement between the Indian goverment and Union Carbide working out to less than 500$ per victim is a travesty. The survivors demand criminal prosecution of the people responsible, environmental cleanup, compensation and economic and medical rehabilitation. In the past few years, the campaign for justice has gained momentum throughout the world. AID-Bay Area volunteers in their individual capacities have also shown support and solidarity by participating in hunger fasts, publicizing the issue, protesting in front of the Indian Consulate in San Francisco, screening documentary movies etc. In February of this year, AID-Bay Area decided that they will join International Coalition for Justice in Bhopal (ICJB), an umbrella organisation of different groups fighting for justice in bhopal. For more information, write to Rajesh Veeraraghavan (isavida@y...), visit the websites www.bhopal.net and www.bhopal.org Another good source is the book "It was five past midnight in bhopal" by Dominique Lapierre and Javier Moro. This book can be borrowed from our library by contacting Aniruddha Vaidya at asvaidya@c... *----* *----* *----* *----* 2) ATTENTION KHADI SHOPPERS ... BLUE LIGHT SPECIAL! Spring is in the air, be prepared to FALL IN LOVE with this SPECIAL OFFER on exclusive, finely-woven Khadi shirting and panting like you've never seen. limited supplies, order now... SELECT a khadi SHIRT & PANT set (2.5 m each) for $10 or Rs. 450 delivered anywhere in India. NOTE that the pant piece is suitable for tailoring skirts or blazers, as well as dress pants for women and men. To order send your name, address, email id, AND name, address & phone no. of person to receive gift, along with message for the gift card to Aravinda (aid@v...) Allow 1-2 weeks for delivery. For latest designs in khadi saris (new selections from bengal!) and full list of gift packages see http://www.aidindia.org/ecoshop *----* *----* *----* *----* 3) TMIA and DISHAA NEWS For AID-wide news, please look at the monthly TMIA and the quarterly Dishaa which are available at http://www.aidindia.org/hq/publications/tmia.htm & http://www.aidindia.org/hq/publications/dishaa.htm respectively. *----* *----* *----* *----* THANK YOU --------- We sincerely thank all our donors, well-wishers, regular volunteers, and busy-volunteers (people who have little free time but do help out with specific AID tasks). Please continue your generous contributions which help us support many groups doing wonderful work in India. For more information, visit http://www.aidsfbay.org/ *----* *----* *----* *----* *----* *----* *----* *----* *----* *----* *----* *----*