Aid Delhi Newsletter June 2008

                 

 

 

Contents Editorial

2

Project Updates: Tara    

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

3 

 

Prayas  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

        3‐4 

 

Parichay    

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Eureka  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

        4‐5 

 

Aashayein    

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

AID Gurgaon  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

         5‐6 

 

Environment Cell   

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

4 

 5 

  6 

Issue Explained

7-9

Friends of AID

10

Photographs for the month Feedback

11-18 19

Editorial

Dear Volunteers / Donors and Supporters, Its really great to get back in touch with you people through editorial after quite some time. One more month with lots of activity passed just like that. Unfortunately we couldn’t have two CSH’s in the last month as I was out of station on the CSH due. This month started with event and went on full with more and more events. AID Delhi celebrated environment week on the first two weeks of the months by conducting life size environment impact assessment games at different corporate offices. This time we got a tremendous response from all the office where we conducted the game. The game was an immense tool to spread environment awareness mixed with lots of fun. Hopefully AID Delhi environment cell would take up more activities in the future. This issue has a FAQ on Bhopal Gas Tragedy. As Bhopal survivors are sitting at Jantar Mantar on an indefinite hunger strike and protesting against DOW chemicals, we thought it’s the right time for more people to know about it. AID Delhi also conducted a candle vigil to show its solidarity towards bhopali’s and also participated in Global Action Day with a lot of AID Delhi volunteers having solidarity fast for the support of the bhopali’s campaign. The event day also saw children from Aashayen making heart for the Prime Minister. We would really expect our volunteers to visit the dharna site sometime and interact with the survivors and show solidarity. We had a night walk on the roads of Old Delhi along with Jamghat and it was really an eye opening experience where we could literally feel and relate to a life on road. We will be organizing more night walks to awaken more volunteers. Aashayen children went on a picnic to Rail museum and Nehru planetarium where they had a very good time. It was a great experience for the children at Nehru planetarium and they were exclaiming after they came back. There will be now 5 parallel classes held at AID Prayas according to the profile of the children. There would be two Eureka Classes in which around 30 children will be benefitted. After a lot of crisis at Aagaz, and after a lot of debates and brainstorming we have decided to close the project Aagaz as we felt that “we are not needed there at the community”. It’s high time we pay attention to our funds status as AID Delhi meal a month is an all time low in this year. I request every volunteer to come forward and contribute towards meal a month and also to spread the word across. Without bothering much of your time I sign off from this edition Happy Reading!! Selva

Project Updates

Tara This month again was not a favourable month for TARA. • •

•

•

The Volunteers were out of town, affecting the regualrity of the classes. 12 children admitted in near by MCD School. Parents have agreed to admitted these children and bear the expenses,but some expenses have to be borne by us as it is not possible for them to bear all the expenses themselves. This month a small picnic was planned but due to change in the weather & lack of volunteers it could not take place. Instead the kids were taken to a volunteer's (Kulsum's) house, there the kids played and enjoyed the whole day We are continuously facing the volunteer crunch at TARA. Those who are interested in volunteering at TARA, Please contact Sanjeev @9911029806.

Prayas Month of June was really very fulfilling in terms of setting target for Prayas. Earlier we had achieved to get admitted 5 kids in Nayi Disha School .But we have to set the larger goal for the community and for this we completed one Survey in the community to find out the actual needy kids who can be probables for next session in Nayi Disha. We did the survey for the whole community and now we have very nice and relevant database about the information of the families and kids. After compilation of all the data we distributed all the kids in two groups 1. Probables for class 2nd and 3rd next year. 2. Probables for class 1st in next year. We had a very nice session with the parents of First group, it was fruitful and now I (Darshan) & Kannan are taking classes for these kids at 8:30 at night on Tuesday and Thursday. Those 5 kids already going to Nayi Disha will be taught by us ( Me & Kannan ) on Monday & Wednesday @ 8:30 PM ,this class will be called Pratham-1 and rest alternative day class will be called Pratham -2 AID Fulltimer Nikunj, with Charu is taking class at 6 PM for small kids (probables for class 1st next year) on alternative days basis. This class will be called Eureka-1 class. And Eureka -2 class will start soon on rest of the alternative days. Weekend classes will be taken by Sugandha & rest of the volunteers. Our next target is to admit 20-25 kids into Nayi Disha or any better school from the next session and we all will work for the cause. We had a meeting (CSH) on 29th June and atleast 15 volunteers were there. Movie screening by Abhinav was successful event apart from our Prayas & Aagaz discussions. It is nice to see the motivation of all the volunteers and I can really see the CHANGE we have created from June 2007 to June 2008.

I personally congratulate everyone behind the small success whatever we got for the kids & the community.O Our team of Prayas was joined by few new volunteers i.e. Meghna, Shubham & Abhishek, and we welcome them for this association.

Parichay 1. For the first time ever, students of NF3 conducted the classes for NF1 and NF2. 2. Vijay Bhaiya is helping the children prepare for a musical drama. Children of NF1, 2, and 3 would be participating in the drama. 3. We have started computer classes for children . Two groups of 3 children each have started attending computer literacy classes. 4. Sale at STM crossed Rs. 11,200. 5. Parichay participated in Craft Bazaar organized by Corporate Executive Board, Gurgaon on July 5.

Eureka This report has the following contents 1. Introduction 2. Present status 3. Present targets 4. Future plans My name is nikunj, full timer of AID Delhi. I am working on eureka kit and taking class in prayas noida as to experiment with eureka. Present status of eureka is that I have made a team and finalized the entire plan of executing eureka. I have spoken to various people at Chennai regarding eureka. And the communication between me and members of Chennai Eureka project is still going on .Two B.Ed graduates Chesta and Deepika will be helping me with eureka model's analyzing , making class lessons on the basis of non formal education activities and with its process of implementation at various places . I am taking class with an intern Charu. As Charu would leave this month as her college opens I am looking for more volunteers to join our team. I will first work with activities eureka model in prayas and see its results. Than after this July in middle of august I will work with activities of eureka in other centers of AID Delhi. Then with the help of other volunteers and members of AID delhi I will approach government schools. I have developed some basic activities for basic level 1 of letters and still exploring other new methods for teaching basic letters. Now after this level we will be working on other levels one by one. Presently we are planning to start one more eureka class. That class will start form next week .Till now I

was trying different methodologies and other activities of eureka to teach and developing new methods and activities which I can include in future. Status of eureka classes: - which we r taking in prayas noida is that at this time now we are ready to move to level 2 of words from level 1 of letters. I have taught them vowels and in middle of letters The new eureka class will have same process with step approach of non-formal teaching.

Aashayein The following activities took place at Aashayein this month: 1. The classes started for the children came to an end on 14th June, but they will resume from July and since the schools will be starting we are planning for afternoon classes for the kids. 2. Two new volunteers have joined us this week - Kriti - Rohit 3. After the classes the kids really wanted to go to an outing so we decided to organize it for the children. A picnic was organized for the kids and 23 kids plus 2 members from the community plus 7 volunteers went to places like • • •

Rail Museum- Children were taken on a joy ride and later they explored the different engines kept in the museum and had a really nice time. Nehru Planetarium- Here the kids had their lunch and were shown the movie prepared by the staff of the place concerned and really enjoyed the experience. Jantar Mantar- The kids were taken to the Bhopalis sitting on protest at the place and they were told about the tragedy, the kids were really concerned and made out hearts for the Prime Minister with their messages written on it.

The kids were also shown places like Rashtrapati Bhawan, Parliament House, India Gate and Teen Murti Bhawan from the bus itself.

AID Gurgaon The monsoon arrived early in June and as always it had a direct bearing on the attendance in Unnati school. The average attendance has gone down from mid-fourties to high-thirties. Out of the four bastis, one has shifted its base to Sector 54 so we are on a look-out for more kids from new bastis. The schools were closed intermittently for a day or two due to heavy rains but apart from that the attendance has been steady (although slightly on the lower side). Besides Unnati students, the four kids from private school have been coming to Unnati school during their summer vacations. This has helped us to keep a track of their holidays homework.

As far as relocating the school is concerned, since we haven't been able to find a place which takes care of all our concerns, we have thought about using the Govt. school as an option. Efforts are on to seek the necessary permissions and find out if it would be feasible to hold classes in the school premises. Nishank was in India after a long time so we had a volunteers meet where a lot of ideas were discussed from the lack of progress on GPTC, volunteer management and nutrition program.

Environment Cell AID Delhi chapter planned to celebrate environment week in an innovative and informative manner. Accordingly we thought of conducting life size games on environment issues. The theme we picked up was water conservation and air pollution. We designed a life size snake and ladder game for both the themes. A few of our volunteers took the responsibility of designing the game. The game goes on as follows. • • • • • • •

A Life size snake and ladder board will be made with colorful ribbons Green boxes indicating Ladder boxes Red boxes indicating Snake boxes White / Yellow boxes are safe ones. Each box would be 2 x 2 feet. The entire snake box would carry a message which affects environment and as per the effect of the message he gets negative points and move to the snake tail. All ladder boxes would carry a message which saves environment and as per the effect of the message the person gains positive points and move up the ladder.

With this game we approached a lot of corporate offices to conduct the game in their office as a part of their CSR cell activity during the environment week. We started to perform the game from 3rd June and still performing. The following are the companies which we’ve conducted the game so far. • • • • • • • • •

ST Microelectronics, Greater Noida with employees of 2000. TCS, Gurgaon office with number of employees more than 2000. HCL, Sec – 125, Noida with number of employees more than 700. Freescale Semiconductors, Sec – 16, Noida with number of employees more than 600. TCS, Sec – 3, Noida with number of employees more than 250. TCS, Noida Phase II with number of employees more than 600. Evalueserve, Sec -29, Gurgaon with number of employees more than 2000. Corporate Executive Board, Gurgaon with number of employees around 225. Newgen, Sec – 62, Noida with number of employees around 800. [Game yet to be performed].

When we approached the companies, we got help from the volunteers of the company in setting up the game. We divided 4 teams in one round in which each team would have maximum of 3 people. One person would throw the dice and the others move on the board. Whenever a person reached the snake / ladder box, they would take the message and read out loudly and keep it back, then move down / up respectively. The team which ends in the finish box [ 8 x 8 boxes, 64th box is finish], wins. We also had a streetplay performance on the issue of Global Warming by our partnering NGO Jamghat at ST Microelectronics and Freescale Semiconductors, Noida.

Issue Explained The Bhopal Gas Tragedy 1.) What is Bhopal gas tragedy? The 'Bhopal disaster' was an industrial disaster that occurred in Bhopal, The incident took place in the early hours of the morning of December 3, 1984, in the heart of the city. A Union Carbide subsidiary pesticide plant released 40 tonnes of methyl isocyanate (MIC) gas, killing approximately 3,800 people, according to the Indian Supreme Court. A more probable figure is that 8,000 died within two weeks, and it is estimated that the same number have since died from gas related diseases. However, testimonies from doctors who provided medical assistance during the tragedy claim over 15,000 were dead in the first month alone. 2.) How did this happen? The Union Carbide India, Limited (UCIL) (now DOW chemical’s) plant was established in 1969.It produced the pesticide carbaryl. Methyl isocyanate (MIC), an intermediate in carbaryl manufacture, was used instead of less toxic but more expensive materials. In 1979, a plant for producing MIC was added. The plant was located close to a densely populated area, instead of on the other side of the town where UCIL was offered an area. MIC was stored in a few large tanks instead of several small tanks. The safety systems were inadequate from the start. The alarms did not direct the inhabitants. The management soon deteriorated in order to cut down expenses, During the nights of 2-3 December, large amounts of water entered tank 610. The resulting reaction generated a major increase in the temperature of liquid inside the tank (to over 200°C). The MIC holding tank then gave off a large volume of toxic gas, forcing the emergency release of pressure. The reaction was sped up by the presence of iron from corroding non-stainless steel pipelines.

3.) What effects did the disaster have on the human population? The initial effects of gas exposure were coughing, vomiting, severe eye irritation and a feeling of suffocation. The next day, thousands of dead bodies were lying on the streets. The corpses were collected and dumped into Narmada river. There were mass funerals and mass cremations. 170,000 people were treated at hospitals and temporary dispensaries. A total of 36 wards were marked by the authorities as being "gas affected", with a population of 520,000. Of these 200,000 were below 15 years of age and 3,000 were pregnant women. In 1991, 3,928 deaths had been certified. Independent organizations recorded 8,000 dead the first days. Other estimations vary between 10,000 and 20,000. 4.) What effects did the disaster have on the environment? 2,000 buffaloes, goats, and other animals had to be collected and buried. Within a few days, leaves on trees went yellow and fell off. Business stopped and food did not get into town, as the farmers did not dare to come close. Fishing was forbidden. 5.) What was the company's reaction?

Soon after the gas leak occurred the company said that this was work of a disgruntled worker. Carbide has neither ever named this fictitious worker nor brought any charges against him. It has also not allowed public scrutiny of the report that’s supposed to have concluded sabotage. 6.) What was the compensation provided to the victims? In 1989, the Government of India negotiated a secret settlement with Union Carbide Corp. for $470 million as compensation for disaster-related damages a sixth of the amount originally demanded. On average, nearly 95 percent of the victims received a meager $500 as compensation for lifelong injury or loss of life. Over 20 years, that works out to the equivalent of one cup of tea or six US cents per day. The 1989 settlement only covered compensation for disaster-related damages. It did not cover the contamination Union Carbide left behind, which has now spread to the ground water. Neither does it cover future damages to health and property as a result of this contamination. 7.) What have been the after effects of this gas leak? Twenty years after the disaster, those who survived the gas remain sick, and the chemicals that Union Carbide left behind in Bhopal have poisoned the water supply and contributed to an epidemic of cancers, birth defects, and other afflictions. 10-15 people still die every month from exposure-related illnesses. Babies are being born with deformities and chromosomal aberrations. Teenage girls complain of the most abnormal menstrual disorders including absence of periods even at the age of 18, and young women reach very early menopause and often develop cervical cancer. Close to 150,000 people are ravaged by a wide range of multi-systemic disorders including respiratory, neurological, gynecological and mental. Unable to keep their jobs most people have been reduced to daily wage work. Some are still too sick to work. 8.) What is the company's stand now? Since its purchase of Carbide in 2001, Dow Chemical has refused to clean up the site, which continues to contaminate those near it; provide safe drinking water fund medical care or livelihood regeneration; or disclose the composition of the gas leak, information that doctors could use to properly treat the victims. Or stand trial in Bhopal, where the Union Carbide Corporation faces criminal charges of culpable homicide (manslaughter), and has fled these charges for the past 12 years. 9.) What is the current status of the court cases? Two court cases are pending: one civil, heard in the Southern District federal court in New York, the other criminal, heard before the Chief Judicial Magistrate’s court in Bhopal. The civil case was filed in 1999 by survivors against Union Carbide, seeking a comprehensive cleanup of the contaminated site and the properties around the factory, and compensation and medical monitoring for those poisoned by Carbide’s chemical waste. In India, Warren Anderson, the former CEO of Union Carbide, and the Union Carbide Corporation itself face criminal charges of “culpable homicide”, or manslaughter. These charges have been outstanding since 1992, yet Anderson and Carbide have both ignored repeated summons to appear before the court, and have both been officially declared “absconders”, or fugitives from justice, by the Indian courts. 10.) What are the demands of the survivors? 1. Authorized representatives of Dow-Union Carbide should face trial.. 2. Provide long term health care. 3. Clean up the poison, clean up toxic wastes and contaminated groundwater in and around the Union Carbide factory site.

4. Provide economic and social support.

Sources: Wikipedia & studentsforbhopal.org

Friends of AID Students for Bhopal Students for Bhopal is an international network of students and supporters working in solidarity with the survivors of the Bhopal disaster in their struggle for justice. As a part of the International Campaign for Justice in Bhopal (ICJB), we use education, grassroots organizing and non-violent direct action to pressure Dow Chemical and the Indian Government to uphold the Bhopalis' demand for justice, and their fundamental human right to live free of chemical poison. SfB also works directly to improve the condition of Bhopal's survivors. Our role is to empower and train youth as leaders in the worldwide movement to end this crime against humanity. We all live in Bhopal and we will not rest without justice in Bhopal! History of SfB Students for Bhopal is guided by the demands, campaigns and vision of the survivors themselves. SfB was originally founded as the “student wing” of the International Campaign for Justice in Bhopal (ICJB), an international coalition of organizations and institutions dedicated to supporting the campaign of the Bhopal survivors. Four grassroots Bhopali organizations form the core of ICJB - Bhopal Gas Peedit Mahila Stationery Karmchari Sangh, Bhopal Gas Peedit Mahila Purush Sangharsh Morcha, Bhopal Group for Information and Action and Bhopal ki Awaaz – and provide the guidance and inspiration for its work around the globe, including the work of Students for Bhopal. SfB is coordinated by Ryan Bodanyi, who founded the orgaCanization in 2003. SfB's Campaigns Students for Bhopal volunteers work within their own institutions and communities to build pressure on against Dow Chemical and the Indian Government to meet the demands of the Bhopali survivors. These campaigns can take a variety of forms, but often start with education and awareness-raising efforts. Students have advocated for universities and colleges which own stock in Dow Chemical to either divest from the company, or support a shareholder resolution which requests that Dow report on the threat its inaction may pose to the company. Some universities and colleges do not hold stock in Dow Chemical, but do accept funding from them. In such cases Students for Bhopal chapters have demanded that their schools should reject funding from Dow until the corporation resolves its outstanding liabilities in Bhopal. Students for Bhopal has also worked to engage Dow’s Board of Directors. As Dow’s ultimate decisionmaking authority, SfB volunteers have continued to ask Dow’s Board members to take responsibility for Bhopal through letter writing campaigns, fax and email actions, phone calls, personal visits and protests. The Government of India has also been a target of the survivors’ demands, and Students for Bhopal members have echoed survivors' requests for safe drinking water, social and economic support, good healthcare, and more through email, fax and phone actions, and protests outside of Indian offices, consulates and embassies. http://www.studentsforbhopal.org

Photographs For the month: From the Environment Week Celebrations

Pictures from the Aashayein picnic

Pictures of kids & volunteer’s – AID Gurgaon

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