Tuesday, December 15, 2009

Jamghat's Night Walk

Dear Friend

The streets of Delhi are homes to lots of children. These children are forced to live in harsh health-impeding conditions. You can help raise awareness and bring Delhi a step closer to eradicating this issue by working with or aiding Jamghat. Jamghat is a NGO in New Delhi which works for the rehabilitation of street children into the mainstream. Founded in 2003 we have a shelter housing 15 children, where we have rehabilitated more than 35 children till now. A day care facility is also available to the children. It offers the children a chance to use sanitized washroom facilities, weekly checkups from a doctor, and a chance to play. Jamghat uses the street and stage theatre as a medium to build self confidence in their children and also build awareness in the society on key social issues related to the lives and stories of children, especially street children.

Every month Jamghat organizes a walk into the life of street children around JAMA MASJID and OLD DELHI AREA.  The aim of the project is to generate awareness about street children living in Delhi and to help them in living a life of their choice in a healthy way. The program is undertaken during the night when most of the people finish off their days work and recede back to their secure homes and these
children are left alone on the streets to battle through the evils of night. Their night life offers them many difficulties rendered through their exposed surrounding. It is then that their true nature of surviving in such a non conducive environment is brought to life. We interact with them and increase our awareness about them and their life. The main objective is to understand the difficulty of being a street child.

Winter has almost set in and we will again be layering in clothes to go outside and pulling out all our extra blankets to stay warm through the night.
As you are well aware, many people in Delhi do not have extra blankets, or even one. We cannot provide blankets to everyone in need, but we urgently want to provide for the children that have become close to our hearts at the Outdoor Day Care Centre in Jama Masjid and also to those homeless people living on the streets nearby. We are concerned about their well-being through these winter nights and want to give one blanket per person.
Each participant will carry several blankets and when we see someone sleeping with no cover, we will lay the blanket over them.  An invisible donation to those that truly need it.

We would like you to join us on this Night Walk on December 18, 2009 from 8pm onwards at Golcha Cinema, Daryaganj.
Your participation in this walk will do a great deal in helping the street children of Delhi. So please join on this evening and help support a great cause.

 Essential Points:
 1) The group is not allowed to carry cameras
 2) If a girl/ woman is a part of the group, she is requested to dress in an India suit, or jeans with a full sleeved top. This is to ensure safety.
 3) It is prohibited to give money to any children seen on the streets.
 4) Have dinner and come!

It would be really great if you could pass this message to your friends and bring them along as well so that we can create awareness amongst masses.

Hopefully some of you can come, as we will need many hands to carry lots of blankets!

Please send me confirmation asap.

 

If you have any further queries feel free to call or email us.

 

Warm Regards,

Priyanka


Programme Head

Phone: +91 11 29522112

Mobile: +91 9811656740

Web: www.jamghat.in

 

 

Join our google group for constant updates about jamghat - http://groups.google.com/group/jamghat/

 

Monday, December 14, 2009

Lok Chetna Padyatra (on GM foods) in Old Delhi by Zakir Hussain College & Youth for Safe Food

Padyatra for awareness against GM foods

LOK CHETNA PAD YATRA

IN THE WALLED CITY OF DELHI

TO SPREAD AWARENESS ON GENETICALLY MODIFIED FOODS


In the light of the fact that India is standing on the verge of the Union Government’s permission being granted to the first Genetically Modified (GM) food crop in the country – Bt Brinjal – there is a more urgent need than ever to create an informed and democratic debate on this issue pertaining to all of us.

GM crops are created by the unnatural insertion of foreign genes into host DNA of a plant, which leads to numerous unpredictable changes that are potentially dangerous for health. There are a host of other concerns too, centred around this technology and its deployment in our food and farming systems. Bt Brinjal has been artificially created by insertion of a bacterial gene (Bacillus thuringiensis-Bt ) to produce a toxin 24X7 inside the plant to target one pest-the Brinjal Fruit & Shoot Borer (it has to be noted that while many pests and diseases attack the crop, this technology is claimed as a solution to one such pest).

All the decision-making on Bt Brinjal happened based on the crop-developer's (i.e. Monsanto/Mahyco's) data, without any independent and long term studies.  What's more, independent analyses of the crop developer's biosafety data concluded that this Bt Brinjal is unsafe and unfit for human consumption.

On the other hand, a majority of Indians are still not aware of fundamental changes being made to their food, their right to know what they are eating and to be able to make informed choices is at stake here. They would also not be able to distinguish between GM and non-GM foods because they will look the same.

It is in this context that a Lok Chetna Padayatra is being proposed. This padayatra, i.e, journey on foot, is a collaborative effort of Zakir Hussain College and Youth for Safe Food. The main purpose of the walk is to create an informed debate on the issue of GM (Genetically Modified) foods, for the sake of ordinary citizens of India, to enable them to make informed and democratic choices about their food. This is to invite you to join us in large numbers in this Padayatra.

Padayatra beginning point: Zakir Hussain College
Date: December 17, 2009; Time: 9.30 am

Contacts:
Nayani Nasa - +91-9999-778-674

Ankit Kumar - +919313-537-417


Sunday, December 13, 2009

Web Volunteering -- proactive information disclosure by government agencies

Dear Friends,

The Right to Information Act of 2005 mandates the disclosure of certain kinds of information by all government agencies. We have an opportunity to review government websites and make suggestions about the information gaps on government websites.

Central Information Commissioner Mr. Shailesh Gandhi has agreed to consider these suggestions for recommendation with the respective Public authorities for implementation.

If you would like to volunteer or encourage others to volunteer in the effort to increase the information disclosure by government agencies, kindly let us know by emailing veena@indiagoverns.org. She would provide details on how to proceed with the same. The time required to make a meaningful contribution could be as little as a one-time 5-6 hour effort or much more depending on your interest.

Please feel free to share it with your friends as well.

Regards, Veena

Veena Ramanna

Executive Director

IndiaGoverns Research Institute

New Delhi, INDIA

www.IndiaGoverns.org

 

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