AID News for Mar 4 2004

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AID News for Thu Mar 4 2004

AID News for Thu Mar 4, 2004
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AID News for Thu Mar 4, 2004
Good Afternoon
Today's Headlines
1) Hazardous waste committee visits pollution sites
2) Holi invitation
3) GREEN Foundation recognised with the Equator Prize 2004
4) AID in the News

Today's News
1) Hazardous waste committee visits pollution sites in Gujarat
Latest update from Michael Mazgaonkar regd PSS work on hazardous waste.
Hello All
Some of you know that recently a hazardous waste monitoring committee of
the supreme court visited Gujarat from 23rd to 25th Feb. Some info and
photographs about the PSS submission to the committee have been uploaded at
http://pssindia.net/scmcvisit/. We hope to upload a report of the visit
soon as well.
Please forward this mail to relevant lists and other friends.
Regards
Michael
Contributed by Kirankumar Vissa and Tarun Jain
2) Holi invitation
Dear all,

It's good to be alive and to know that ur home shd. still be
around next Holi !!!
But come join the Adivasi celebrations in the Narmada Valley
with those whose spirit still celebrates spring - despite the
ever threatening submergence and destruction. With the
people, who have fought the police and the waters in the past
in order to save their homes and their way of life.
Your presence with them on this momentous occassion will not
only make them feel loved and supported, but it will open up
ur mind to new vistas that u will remember for a lifetime and
inspire u in times of personal crisis.
Come share the drums, the music and dance , the hospitality
and friendship on this Holi with the folks in the Narmada valley.
U SHD. REACH BARODA ON THE 6TH MARCH, EARLY MORNING AND THEN
PROCEED TO HAPESHWAR BY BUS / VEHICLE. THE BOAT WILL MAKE 2
TRIPS AND PICK U UP FROM HAPESHWAR AT 2 PM AND 6PM.
CELEBRATE HOLI IN DOMKHEDI ON THE 6TH NIGHT AND THEN PROCEED
TO CHIMALKHEDI ON THE 7TH MARCH.
U WILL RETURN VIA THE DAM-SITE ON THE 8TH, VIA BARODA. CARRY TORCHES,
WATER, SHEETS,STRONG FOOT WEAR, MOSQUITO REPELLANT. DO NOT CARRY
VALUABLES PLEASE.
PLEASE INFORM US IN ADVANCE ABOUT UR PARTICIPATION SO
ARRANGEMENTS CAN BE FACILITATED.
REPLY TO THIS E-MAIL OR
PH BARODA ; 0265 - 2282232 PERVIN - BOMBAY - 022- 22184779 / 5832
SHASHI - 022 - 22029296 
Medha Sanjay Joe  Arun Yogini Shashi
Maju Philip Gitanjali Ashish Suku and all the
friends from the heart of the valley.
Contributed by Pervin Jehangir
3) GREEN Foundation recognised with the Equator Prize 2004
We are happy to announce that GREEN Foundation, one of the groups
that AID-Bay Area supports, has been recognised with the Equator
Prize 2004 for it's outstanding achievement in the reduction of
poverty through the conservation and sustainable use of
biodiversity.
The prize awarded by United Nations Development Programme's (UNDP)
Equator initiative was given to seven community intiatives from a
pool of 340 total nominations and 26 finalists.
From UNDP's website:
Over its eleven-year history, GREEN Foundation has harnessed
traditional knowledge of agricultural practices and seed diversity
to create highly successful seed and gene banks throughout the
state of Karnataka. Working primarily with a network of women's
farming groups called sanghas, GREEN Foundation has improved food
security through the creation of a farmer-based community seed
supply system and through establishment of home gardens. In doing
so, the foundation has forged a number of valuable partnerships
between farmers and scientists. To date, GREEN Foundation has
helped establish 31 community seed banks and, as a result, the
number of farmers in Karnataka conserving indigenous seeds has
grown from 10 to over 1,500.
For more information, visit
http://www.undp.org/equatorinitiative/
Contributed by Karuna Muthiah
4) AID in the News
Here's an article that recently appeared in a Mumbai-based glossy magazine.
It was written by me (volunteer, AID Penn State), and may be of interest to
AID News readers.
On a cold spring morning, some students are hanging up a banner outside a
chemistry lab at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. ``Run for your life'',
the banner exhorts passers-by. The air is thick with excitement. ``Run
For Your Life isn't a fundraising race; it's a spectacle of dark humour,
a mad caper that tells a sordid story. When ''toxic`` vapours waft from a
barrel outside the lab, participants dash for the university hospital.
''Death`` (a student in a black hood, wielding a pick-axe) may hand them a
pink slip on the way. Those who reach the hospital ''alive`` receive ''toxic``
medals representing lead and mercury. The race's purpose is to highlight
the fact that, 19 years on, thousands of residents of Bhopal still suffer
the consequences of December 1984, and that the environmental damage has
never been cleaned up.
http://www.personal.psu.edu/users/u/x/uxa100/article/grassroots
Uma
[I hope other volunteers will also start sending submissions, articles to
AIDNews... otherwise the next excuse for infreuency of AIDNews will be lack
of material:). Ed.]
That's it for the day
-Hema

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