AID News for May 12 2004
aid...@aidindia.org
AID News for Wed May 12 2004
AID News for Wed May 12, 2004
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AID News for Wed May 12, 2004
Good afternoon everybody
Today's Headlines
1) Chalo Austin : Annual AID Conference (May 29-31)
2) AID conference session on relating spirituality to
development : A survey
3) Balaji Sampath & Kalpana Karunakaran Bay area talk
4) Interesting Article
Today's News
1) Chalo Austin : Annual AID Conference (May 29-31)
We have requested, persuaded, cajoled and pleaded you to attend the
annual conference. So the fact that all - Rajendra Singh, Chennaiah,
Aravinda, Balaji, Kalpana, Dilip D'Souze and Bob Jensen - will be
there does not impress you. How about 150 attendees from 22 chapters
including Delhi, Mumbai and Chennai? No? All right. Lets see
then. Volunteers from Austin came up with 9 reasons that might help
change your mind.
Here goes. (drums roll...)
9. Cool t-shirts, warm hosts, hot weather and sizzling debates.
8. Lunches feature exotic saunf specially imported from India.
7. If you are not 100% satisfied, your chapter is automatically
short-listed to be the next host.
6. Great live music on sixth street....if you accidentally stroll to
the wrong venue between sessions.
5. A retreat room to escape the sessions by Kiran and Mokshay.
4. If an actual CSH in AID Austin is like the one portrayed in the
skit at Pittsburgh, how much fun could a conference be.
3. There is a rumored Austin EB position for a hookup
coordinator. Could there be a parallel AID matrimony cell session as
well?
2. Find out how seva, sangarsh, nirman, skits, movies and shayaari
are indeed interconnected.
1. What happens when you combine the energy from the Cincinnati
conference, variety of the Boston conference, profound discussions
at the Maryland conference, professionalism from the Bay Area
conference and the emotional experience at the Pittsburgh
conference? Yes, you get the upcoming Austin conference.
For details and to register: www.aidaustin.org/conf2004
Chalo Austin!
AID Austin Volunteers
-- Nishant Jain <ni...@umich.edu>
2) AID conference session on relating spirituality to development :
A survey
One of the parallel sessions on issue cells at the AID conference this
year is a session on ``Relating spirituality to development''.
The philosophy of holistic and sustainable development that is at the
heart of AID's work reflects deeply spiritual goals that have often been
advocated in various religions. This session will focus on two issues of
interest-- the 'economic' implications of a spiritual worldview, and the
distortions of religions (used to justify violence, for example) which
represent a social problem.
We have also put together a survey as an attempt to understand where we
stand as volunteers on our basic beliefs. The results of this survey
will be presented at the conference.
Please take the survey at the website below -- we hope you have as much
fun participating as we had in creating it!
http://www.zoomerang.com/survey.zgi?p=WEB2HHUWBXU5
Thank you for your participation.
Regards,
Arun Sripati (JHU)
Amit Basole (Duke)
Prasad Boddupalli (Arizona)
Hrishi Shinde (Dallas)
-- Contributed by Arun Sripati <spa...@jhu.edu>
3) BALAJI SAMPATH & KALPANA KARUNAKARAN Bay area talk
Uma is a bright young girl from a small village in Tamil Nadu. Too
poor to go to college after 12th grade, this bubbly 18-year old
started a support center for children in her village who go to
school but cannot read or write! Every evening Uma spends 2 hours
with about 20 children helping them learn to read and write, add and
subtract.
Can 100's of Umas be organized to lead a People's School Movement?
**************************************************************
AID, Asha, ILP, CRY, Vibha
invites you to meet
BALAJI SAMPATH & KALPANA KARUNAKARAN
Talk and Discussion
HOW BIG IS A 1000?
Expanding micro-level efforts to a 1000-village scale
... and going beyond
WHEN: May 22 (Saturday), 3PM (2.30PM-3PM Reception)
WHERE: Campbell Public Library
77 Harrison Ave. Campbell, CA
*************************************************************
Reading Materials: http://www.aidindia.org/hq/misc/balaji.htm#balaji
Directions: http://www.santaclaracountylib.org/campbell/CAdirections.html
Balaji Sampath is an AID JeevanSaathi, who returned to India in 1997
after a Ph.D. from Univ of MD and a crucial role in building AID
chapters across the US. He has been working full-time with AID-India
and Tamil Nadu Science Forum (TNSF). A captivating speaker, Balaji
is on a short visit to US to share his experiences. Kalpana has
worked with TNSF for several years, playing a key role in the
women's savings movement MALAR, with 7000 members in Kanyakumari
district.
Spreading village-level efforts to a 1000 villages is beyond the
scope of most NGO efforts. The challenge is to organize the
expansion while maintaining the quality at village level. Arogya
Iyyakkam has inspired 1000 people like Uma to work on children's and
women's health in Tamil Nadu. Now, the health program is spreading
to 800 villages in Bihar through Hundred Blocks Plan.
Balaji and Kalpana will share many stories and experiences that form
part of these remarkable initiatives. Each village's story of action
and commitment is behind the statistics and achievements.
And then: While 1000 villages is big, how does it compare with the
750,000 in India? Can we go beyond this?
For more info on Hundred Blocks Plan of AIPSN and AID, go to:
www.aidindia.org/aipsn/
Association for India's Development (AID) is a non-profit volunteer
organization dedicated to promoting sustainable development in India
by working with over 100 grassroots groups and movements.
http://www.aidindia.org
Asha for Education is a non-profit volunteer organization working
towards socio-economic change in India through the medium of
education. For more info, please visit whttp://ww.ashanet.org.
CRY America is Child Relief and You America, Inc., a non-profit
organization registered in the USA that works towards restoring
basic rights to underprivileged children, especially from India.
http://www.america.cry.org .
Vibha is a volunteer organization working to ensure that every
underprivileged child attains his or her right to education, health
and opportunity. Among others, Vibha funds 'People's School
Movement', a project by Tamilnadu Science Foundation. For more info:
http://www.vibha.org
-- Rajesh Veeraraghavan <raj...@microsoft.com>
4) Interesting Article
a) US Asians domestic abuse woes
The South Asian community in the United States is fast-growing and
prosperous. While its emergence as an important economic and
political sector is lauded by many, the fact that this group is also
experiencing an upsurge in cases of domestic violence against women
is often ignored.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/3589899.stm
-- Contributed by Arun Sripati <spa...@jhu.edu>
Thats all for today
Sid
P.S. The AID News archives are available at AID News website
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expressed by others do not necessarily reflect those of the editor.
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