Re: Uttarkhand: A RACE AGAINST TIME
Dhwani Shelat
Given the urgency of situation, we have decided to go ahead with this call for tonight. It would be great if most of you can attend the call in next 30 mins. Let's understand what's going on and see if we can get in touch with Swami Divyanand in next few hours to understand what else is needed from our side.
Tomorrow morning is face 2 face with Sri sri at 10 AM Est.. And after that, we will have a follow up call about this Uttrakhand Relief Fund Raising.
Hena and Sujan- Have a great evening/night! We will surely bring you to up to the speed tomorrow. I do understand that it was a very short notice, apologies.
Conference call details:
9:30 pm EST
Host Access Code: 864032*
Participant Access Code: 864032#
Conference Dial-in Number: (712) 432-1500
Subscriber PIN code: 427284#
I also have plans for tonight ... Can we do this tomorrow?
Sent from my iPhoneI really want to be able to join the call but I have prior dinner commitment for tonight .. If it can be done tomorrow morning that would be great
Sent from my iPhoneHey Team,
In last few hours, lot of facebook posts about Uttarkhand damages, death tolls and donation links have been posted. Every center, every local group is looking for direction on how to help.
It's great that Birjoo has agreed to lead this relief project for the impacted. Time is of essence, so how about we come together tonight ( 9:30 pm EST) for a quick - half hour- conference call to discuss how we can help
Conference call details:
9:30 pm EST
Host Access Code: 864032*
Participant Access Code: 864032#
Conference Dial-in Number: (712) 432-1500
Subscriber PIN code: 427284#Agenda:
-- VBI Volunteers are on ground and have started relief work under the guidance of Swami Divyanand
- Tax exempt donation link has been set up (https://secure.iahv.org/donations.aspx?project_id=123)- How to fund raise partnering with local communities to fund raise in limited time? ( This news has made it to CNN and other world news, so let's not limit the relief fund raising project to only Indian community)
- Understand what other help is required on the ground at impacted site
Please confirm your availability for tonight's call. Apologies for such a short notice.
Dhwani Shelat
On Sat, Jun 22, 2013 at 6:38 PM, Anil Sharma <sharm...@gmail.com> wrote:
Birjoo is ready to lead this project to raise money for Uttrakhand.
Sujan/ Hena/ Dhwani can you people arrange a conference call in few hours so OVBI supporters can take it forward.
On Sat, Jun 22, 2013 at 5:14 PM, Anil Sharma <sharm...@gmail.com> wrote:
pls call me at 732 910 8110
On Sat, Jun 22, 2013 at 4:24 PM, Sujan Gmail <sujan....@gmail.com> wrote:
Hey Anil
Is it possible to identify how many funds are collected from US for this purpose. This will help to give credibility to oVBI
Sent from my iPhone
On Jun 22, 2013, at 11:02 AM, Anil Sharma <sharm...@gmail.com> wrote:IAHV/ AOL has already sent out
Prathima is creating a newsletter for OVBI that will send the appeal
On Sat, Jun 22, 2013 at 10:31 AM, Gita Bhatia <masan...@gmail.com> wrote:
Dear All, Please see below.
Anil, Madhu, Madhavi - please correct as needed.
Uttarkhand: A RACE AGAINST TIME
Uttarkhand, a state in northern India and is known for as natural beauty of the Himalayas, is often referred to as ‘Land of Gods’. The two important rivers of the world, Ganga and Yammuna originate in this region. The four main places of pilgrimage for Hindus, Gangotri, Yamunotri, Badrinath and Kedarnath are visited by tens of thousands of people every year. Uttarkhand is also known for Jim Corbett National park, the oldest national park in the Indian subcontinent and the Valley of flowers, a UNESCO world Heritage site. As every year, this year too more than 100,000 of people were visiting.
On June 17, 2013 the Indian states of Uttarkhand, Himachal Pradesh, their adjoining areas of western Nepal, and parts of Haryana, Delhi
Dhwani Shelat
Quick Recap from our call:
- IAHV is a certified charity where, the funds actually are going towards the cause.It's a very safe, secure and tax exempt way to donate to a valuable cause. If people are reluctant in donating through OVBI platform, please tell them about the credibility of IAHV. Share the accomplishments of IAHV in the past. Red Cross and United way gives medical support and funds. But ultimately, we ( IAHV) provide wholesome relief - trauma relief, emotional support, empower the devastated area and impacted individuals to get back up.
- VBI Volunteers are already on the ground doing relief work.
- How can OVBI platform be used to create awareness, raise funds and offer other relief work?
- Reach out to Indian Communities , Organizations and AOL community for fund raising
- Set up stalls/booths in local cities and show what work is being done by our volunteers and then ask for monetary contributions
- Can we send out a team of volunteers from here to the ground?
- Can we offer medical supplies, dry food packages, blankets etc ? Great Idea, however things are moving so fast, it would be too late to set up collection booths and send disaster relief stuff.. However, let's hold on to that thought.
- Put on facebook and really use social media platforms to fund raise ASAP.
- OVBI has two aspects: Activism and Socialism. So let's create awareness about the inefficiency of government
- Best Practices of disaster relief from Red Cross Society and other organizations in USA .. is there a way, we can learn from them and get our volunteers trained for such further event?
- Our aim is to create collaborations and not to create competition with other similar organization
- Let's create an email template (consisting what is this cause, pictures from tragedy, donation link, tax exempt and how we will use their funds) which can be sent out to everyone
- Create Awareness of what we are doing, collaborate with other organizations who are doing same kind of work, create immediate and long lasting relief.
- First and foremost thing is to empower our volunteers on the ground by providing cash flow.
- Birjoo and Dhwani will reach out to Swami Divyanand ji and understand the need of fund generation, Anil Sharma and team will come up with an email template tomorrow, let's start reach out for this donation tomorrow and have a deadline of first set of goal collection by June 28th..
We will be in touch with more details shortly.
Sujan Gmail
Sent from my iPhone
Dhwani Shelat
As Guruji is speaking about how we should offer help to Uttarkhand region on facebook, let's look at what we have.
Birjoo and I were in touch with Darshak Hathi, and also got some updates from VBI Volunteers on ground. Please take a moment to check out the links below:
Here is the link for the pictures from Uttarakhand. http://www.sendspace.com/file/qo8fs5
Updates are happening at this link: http://www.artofliving.org/in-en/uttarakhand-floods-immediate-call-relief-action
Appeal for Uttarakhand Flood Relief http://www.iahv.org/appeal-for-uttarakhand-flood-relief/
Please show your support by donating here today: https://secure.iahv.org/donations.aspx?project_id=123
Contributions are tax-deductible
So what needs to be done now:
- Putting the content from above link, come up with a newsletter, email template which can be sent to mass distribution list. Who can help with this and can we target to get this done by today? It's weekend, the news are fresh and people are looking for a way to donate.. Let's not lose time..
- Can we create a goal tracker on OVBI/ IAHV where we can set a goal and with every contribution, the fund raising tracker is automatically upadted?
( http://www.youcaring.com/ is one way to go about it)
- How many Volunteers do we have to do this mega out reach in short time span? I know OVBI Team is tied up with Darshak Hathi's national tour.. So who is available to support this immediate need of fund raising?
- Also, one thought:
Do we have want to use IAHV platform to focus for this fund raising? Just highlighting the impacted areas, devastation and relief being offered by us?
Or we want to use OVBI platform and focus on the crippled system, make public aware of the inefficient measures taken by govt as a response to this tragedy?
Or should both go side by side?
On Sun, Jun 23, 2013 at 1:29 AM, Birjoo Vaishnav <birj...@gmail.com> wrote:
Madhubhai
wow that's awesomely prompt!
Hope you get some shut eye!
Jai Gurudev
B
Sent from my iPhone
On Jun 23, 2013, at 12:39 AM, "Madhu Kadari" <ma...@iahv.org> wrote:
Here is the link for the pictures from Uttarakhand.
http://www.sendspace.com/file/qo8fs5
Updates are happening at this link: http://www.artofliving.org/in-en/uttarakhand-floods-immediate-call-relief-action
Madhu Kadari
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
International Association for Human Values • 2401 15th Street, NW • Washington, DC 20009
Tel: 301.806.7983 • Fax: 202.747.6543 • Web: www.iahv.org
From: Dhwani Shelat [mailto:shelat...@gmail.com]
Sent: Saturday, June 22, 2013 11:52 PM
To: darsha...@yahoo.com; Madhu Kadari; Birjoo Vaishnav; resha...@artofliving.org; Anil Sharma, AOL
Subject: Re: Uttarkhand: A RACE AGAINST TIME
Awesome!!!
Madhu ji-
Darshak ji mentioned that you have lot of info on what is happening at
ground work. It would be great if you could share that with us, so we
can use it for our out reach email/newsletter
Resha-
Would you be able to share the link of Indian site where you are
collecting all the data and info about relief work happening through VBI
Volunteers at Jharkhand?
Anil ji- Can
we have a small web section on OVBI website/ page highlighting our
relief work, and also setting a fund raising goal ( thermo meter/
Tracker)
Birjoo and I will put the highlights for the newsletter together by tomorrow morning. We will try to collect pictures, statistics, etc..
Appeal for Uttarakhand Flood Relief http://www.iahv.org/appeal-for-uttarakhand-flood-relief/
Please show your support by donating here today: https://secure.iahv.org/donations.aspx?project_id=123
Contributions are tax-deductible
On Sat, Jun 22, 2013 at 11:37 PM, <darsha...@yahoo.com> wrote:
Pl be in touch with Resha as she is collating all the data and up loading on indian site.
resha...@artofliving.org
Sent from my BlackBerry® Smartphone on Loop Mobile.
From: Dhwani Shelat <shelat...@gmail.com>
Date: Sat, 22 Jun 2013 23:32:32 -0400
To: <darsha...@yahoo.com>
Cc: Anil Sharma, AOL<sharm...@gmail.com>; Birjoo Vaishnav<birj...@gmail.com>
Subject: Re: Uttarkhand: A RACE AGAINST TIME
Thank You so much for your valuable inputs Darshak ji!
We will get started right away with creating awareness about it.
Our action plan for next few days is:
-
Create an awareness of what has happened, why has it happened, govt's
response towards it, IAHV/ VBI/ AOL approach towards it via social media
like facebook, emails, newsletters, booths, community events
-
It would be great if we can connect with one of our volunteers in India
who is at action site, who can provide us pictures/sound byte/video
clips of work happening there. ( Picture is worth thousand words. You
know how people don't read emails, but they stop to check out pictures
and videos)
- Setting up a cash flow for relief program and having first milestone of funds collected by next weekend ( June 29th- 30th)
-
Creating collaborations with other organizations who are working
towards this relief campaign, so we can form a long lasting partnership
with them for further OVBI Projects.
On Sat, Jun 22, 2013 at 11:13 PM, <darsha...@yahoo.com> wrote:
Dear Dhwani
Jgd.
Nice to here from you. Hope you r in touch with madhu.. Yesterday we
have send lots of info thru email to him regarding our disaster relief
work.
As far as governance issue is concern. Following r my input.
http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2013-06-20/india/40092568_1_flash-floods-power-projects-river-water
1.
Tough it happen due to cloud bursting, it could have been avoided if
govt wd have taken precaution regarding unauthorised construction on
mountain, providing proper infrastructure like roads, medical, security,
communication network, disaster management plan etc. aforeststation due
to hydro energy plants.
2. Even after disaster there was total
lack of coordination between different state and central govt agencies.
Govt was trying to hide facts and figures of casualties, and reason
behind mishap. Govt even tried to politicise the whole issue by accusing
opposition for the mishap.
3. Basically there was total inability, preparedness to handle any disaster of such magnitude.
4.
AOL has proposed to make shrine board like amarnath & Vaishnodevi
for char dham yatra. And many reforms in organising yatra.
Jgd
Sent from my BlackBerry® Smartphone on Loop Mobile.
From: Dhwani Shelat <shelat...@gmail.com>
Date: Sat, 22 Jun 2013 22:42:34 -0400
To: <darsha...@yahoo.com>; Anil Sharma, AOL<sharm...@gmail.com>; Birjoo Vaishnav<birj...@gmail.com>
Subject: Re: Uttarkhand: A RACE AGAINST TIME
JGD Darshak ji,
We,
the volunteers of OVBI movement are coming together to fund raise for
Jharkhand relief fund. We have already created an IAHV link (http://www.iahv.org/appeal-for-uttarakhand-flood-relief/) for people to donate to this relief campaign.
Swami
Divyanand ji is leading this effort at the impact site with VBI
Volunteers. We are trying to get in touch with him about what kind of
work is being done by our volunteers, so we can project that here,
during our fund raising.
Along with that, We would very much
appreciate your guidance on how to proceed further in this matter using
OVBI platform. Would you able to throw some light on the inefficiency of
the government system there and other issues which tag along with this ?
We would like to create that awareness as well during our fund raise
campaign.
Thanks and kind regards,
Dhwani Shelat
Sujan Gmail
Sent from my iPhone
alisha arora
Department of Computer Science,
State University of New York, Stony Brook
www.jgdlovetolive.blogspot.com
Arun P Ganesan
God bless!
Arun Ganesan
Dhwani Shelat
Conference call : 3 pm EST , today!!!!
Participant Access Code: 864032#
Conference Dial-in Number: (712) 432-1500
Subscriber PIN code: 427284#
Updates from Media team on newsletter, appeal letter
Arun Ganeshan's inspiring collection of already $1000 by door to door knocking
Team formations and assignments..
On Sun, Jun 23, 2013 at 2:13 PM, Birjoo Vaishnav <birj...@gmail.com> wrote:
Thanks for sharing this. Please share on Facebook and on OVBI page too...it is inspiring!
On Sun, Jun 23, 2013 at 2:11 PM, Arun P Ganesan <arunpr...@gmail.com> wrote:
Dear ones,
The Princeton NJ chapter for OVBI reached out door to door campaigning for help. Please see the attachment of $1000 in the last 2 days of door to door campaign which i submitted yest . Happy to announce and be blessed to be a part of this massive campaign. Still 17,000 stranded and lot of people without food.
I was first hesitant and people thinking twice but a lot of them contributed $10 - $50 looking at the anguish and suffering people have to undergo because of this disaster. All of them know, you might just have to reach out!.
Just want to share as a part of motivating other people to do the same. Kudos to all of you to initiate the conversation and get it rolling
God bless!
On Sun, Jun 23, 2013 at 1:20 PM, <masan...@gmail.com> wrote:
OK. Will be there.
Jgd. Gita.
Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T
From: Dhwani Shelat <shelat...@gmail.com>
Date: Sun, 23 Jun 2013 13:09:03 -0400
To: Anil Sharma<sharm...@gmail.com>
Cc: Prathima Shasthry<prathima...@yahoo.com>; Gita Bhatia<masan...@gmail.com>; Ramkumar Balasubramanian<ramku...@yahoo.com>; Amit Bhat<ab1...@gmail.com>; Hena Raina<hena....@gmail.com>; Birjoo Vaishnav<birj...@gmail.com>
Subject: Re: Uttarkhand: A RACE AGAINST TIME
Dear all,
I am sure all of you are aware of the catastrophic damages that have taken place in Northern India. AOL , as always has been working at fore fronts to provide relief ..
We are trying to fund raise under the umbrella of OVBI to empower our volunteers on the ground to continue the relief efforts.
It would be great if you could join us at 3 pm today for a call on learning how each one of us can help! looking forward to hearing from you.
Conference call : 3 pm EST .
Host Access Code: 864032*
Participant Access Code: 864032#
Conference Dial-in Number: (712) 432-1500
Subscriber PIN code: 427284#
On Sun, Jun 23, 2013 at 12:54 PM, Anil Sharma <sharm...@gmail.com> wrote:
Dhwani
pls get in touch with our core OVBI leaders if they are interested to take this project.
Prathima ji from New York
Gita from Texas
Ram from Bay Area
Amit/ Hena from NJ
----------
Forwarded message ----------
From: Dhwani Shelat <shelat...@gmail.com>
Date: Sun, Jun 23, 2013 at 12:14 PM
Subject: Re: Uttarkhand: A RACE AGAINST TIME
To:
Anil Sharma <sharm...@gmail.com>, Birjoo Vaishnav <birj...@gmail.com>,
Madhu Kadari <ma...@iahv.org>, Sujan Sreeram <sujan....@gmail.com>,
Nitin Garg <nitin...@gmail.com>, Hena Raina <hena....@gmail.com>,
"darsha...@yahoo.com" <darsha...@yahoo.com>,
Abhisek Goel <ago...@yahoo.com>
Cc: "overseas_...@googlegroups.com" <overseas_...@googlegroups.com>, "Overseas...@googlegroups.com" <Overseas...@googlegroups.com>
Sujan, Alisha- Thank You for stepping up! While the details are being worked out, please familiarize yourself with the content and links provided in this email thread and start reaching out to your personal connections for fund raising..
Abhishek / Narayan/ Pratima - Working on email content to capture of this tragedy, pictures, videos, what relief work is being done, and how can we help with fund raising .. This newsletter will be ready today evening
We need to form a structure/ teams/extended teams- for social media out reach ( Facebook, twitter, emails), calls, etc..
Birjoo and Madhuji will be guiding us on our out reach strategy.
Who has access to IAHV link, to see how much funds have already been collected?
Let's have a conference call to discuss more.. How about 3 pm today? Can everyone attend? We are short of time, so we don't have the luxury to give well in advance notices. We truly thank you all for being a sport and jumping on this initiative.
Conference call : 3 pm EST .
Host Access Code: 864032*
Participant Access Code: 864032#
Conference Dial-in Number: (712) 432-1500
Subscriber PIN code: 427284#
On Sun, Jun 23, 2013 at 11:55 AM, Anil Sharma <sharm...@gmail.com> wrote:
Abhishek Goel/ Narayan may help in writing content
i think OVBI should also raise voice so in future such events dont happen..though firstly relief should be provided but people need to ponder why it happened, what failed and what can be done to avoid in future
On Sun, Jun 23, 2013 at 11:53 AM, alisha arora <aroa...@gmail.com> wrote:
Even I am available.
On Sun, Jun 23, 2013 at 11:52 AM, Sujan Gmail <sujan....@gmail.com> wrote:
I am happy to help for Uttarakhand relief,
I am available for the newsletter as well as fund raising drive. Is it possible to have a combined fund raising drive with Seva ? So that the effort is not duplicated ...
I
have contacted one or two friends who are also interested in helping .. Please
let me know what needs to be done
Sent from my iPhone
Subject: Re: Uttarkhand: A RACE AGAINST TIME
Amit
This snowball effect brought about a realization that every Indian is interested in bringing about a change and all that was needed was an inspiring leader to guide and lead them in the right direction.