Birds Of Same Feathers !

Birds of same feathers flock together. Well if this is true for the birds, this can also be true for the different groups/organizations working for a common cause i.e. to help those who need help.  There is a large population of groups/organizations/individuals out there working relentlessly towards their respective goals and missions. While they strive for success in their efforts, there are many hardships that come in the way. This could be financial, time, people and many other such similar constraints that restrict an individual/group/organization to be fully effective and successful in their efforts and also in some cases limit their reach.

But what if such similar organizations work together, share resources, share their efforts, share their expertise, learn from each other, gain from each other, communicate with each other, coordinate with each other.

This was the concept behind Birds Of Same Feathers. The concept soon turned into a reality and now there are close to 50 birds in this group. Oh by birds I mean members. All the members are addressed as birds.

The birds certainly liked the idea of working together and so when the idea was proposed they agreed to fly together. BOSF has now it’s reach in Chennai and Bangalore. While BOSF is still in it’s early stages and there is still a long way to go, with some guideliness and simple rules of communication in the group, the coordination  efforts have begun.  Again the key here was that all the birds had a liking to this concept, so guideliness was only for any new birds to join the flock.

So once all the birds new what roles they are going to play, how they would fit into the group,  it was just a matter of time before they jumped into action. While BOSF is still in it’s early stages there has been some significant progress made already.

Another interesting way BOSF is serving it’s members is by providing a platform for everybody to broadcasting their efforts, soliciting help for their efforts and also keep each other well informed. Communication, coordination, discussions and debates are the key elements for any such activities and BOSF offers itself as a perfect platform for that. Although at times, there is too much of that resulting in a somewhat chaotic situation, but then the birds are mature enough to deal with it. 

Thus far, BOSF has started it’s work in the fields of Education and Environment. As part of the education groups, they have started ( or in the process of starting )

• Employable skills training program.
• Sponsoring Education
• Adopting government schools.
• Tutoring school kids.

That’s just to give an idea. Another interesting aspect of BOSF is the way important discussions and debates about important issues are carried out. One bird starts a discussion with a <tag> in the subject line of the email and other interested birds contribute to the discussions and debates.

Like everything else, there are also some short comings of BOSF.  But for now, it’s not so bad that it’s hurting BOSF.

To follow all the discussions: http://groups.google.com/group/birdsofsamefeathers

When technology meets humanity !

I intend to write about an organization/group/individual on a regular basis whom i’ve either interacted with or learnt about, who through their extraordinary work have helped others to live a better sustainable life.

It was purely an accident that i stumbled upon Akshaya Patra ( the rice bowl ) , an organization who started out with feeding a few thousand government school kids have now the reach to feed 100’s of thousands of school kids. It’s not just any food,  it’s a nutritious food, the kind of food a mother would want to feed her child.  Once the child is fed, he/she feels more at ease as they don’t have to go places to find the next meal for the day and are more willing to accept the education system as part of their life.

What is also very interesting about this is that it’s a Public Private Patnership in the Mid Day Meal sector, a government run program. This also goes to show that, the policies/programs proposed by the government are very good , the problem with them is the implementation. So instead of re-inventing the wheel and trying to find a new/alternative solution to an existing problem, if we can ensure or help these programs are implemented effectively, the results can be dramatic. This is proven by Akshay Patra.

Ofcourse, a major contributor to Akshaya Patra’s success is the usage of technology. From cleaning utensils to cooking rice to making chapaati’s to packaging to transporting , there is a heavy usage of technology. While they still need lot of volunteer (paid staff ) support to run the program, technology makes it easily scalable and more reachable and sometimes more affordable.

Take a look at their kitchen operations, the video tells the entire story and is convincing enough to prove that technology if used effectively can play a major role even in Not for Profit efforts.

Bhopal Gas Victims

Bhopal and Victims are often mentioned in the same sentence.  One tragic night changed the face of Bhopal and it’s people forever. So much so that even after 25 years of the disaster , people still continue to suffer, continue to struggle and continue to fight.

The tragedy and the generations of people affected by the disaster reminds us that there is a strong divide between the powerful rich and the helpless poor; that the judiciary is for sale; that no one cares for the poor except for the poor and a few good people.

It’s been more than 25 years since the disaster struck, but the memories of it are still very fresh. Because nothing has been to erase the memories.

1.  The disaster site hasn’t been cleaned up with tons of harmful chemicals still lying around
2. The ground water hasn’t been cleaned/purified.
3. The new generation of kids are born with respiratory diseases, with physical disorders.
4. The affected people, their familes, their kids have not been compensated for their loss.

So nothing has changed, the memories are still fresh. The victims are the ones who have led the fight, continued the fight and are still fighting against one of the biggest corporate giants and also one of the biggest corrupt. From the next generation kids of the victims to the most elderly victims, everybody is part of the long struggle.

With the help of a few select groups/individuals/organizations , the victims have managed to take the struggle forward and together were able to get some of their demands mets. But it took 20 years. 

20 Years is a very very long time to have spent fighting for the mere survival. Hope the campaign run by the victims creates more awareness about the situation and bring the attention of the government of India, the Dow chemical company.

As for me, I’m playing my role in the campaing, hope you can join too !

visit http://www.bhopal.net for more information regarding the campaign and how to get involved.

24×7 news

There was a time when the television news had it’s importance and it’s prominence.  It was only on for 30 minutes in Hindi from 8:30 to 9:00pm and then again from 9:30 to 10:00pm in English. I remember as a kid, my dad used to wait for the English news and within 30 minutes he would know the important national and international news. For everything else he would read the news paper next day.

And I would only be interested in sports, so i would watch just the last 5 minutes of the news. Doordarshan news was the best !

I don’t exaclty remember how this transformation happened or what triggered this to happen, but over the past decade and more importantly in

 

 the past 3-4 years, there seems to be a mad rush for the 24X7 news channels.  Just imagine, from a modest couple of hours a day to 24 hours a day, that’s just mind boggling.  Obviously it can’t be all news , so the news channels started featuring debates, discussions,campaigns, documentaries etc to make it worthwile. 

The 24×7 news has become very powerful, so much so that it can make the most powerful the most helpless and vice-versa. But somewhere in the mad rush of being the number one news channel, the channels seem to have got their priorities all mixed up. In an effort to make every news a breaking news and every news a sensational one, so that they can get better rating than their contemporaries.  This has also meant that no news will be reported unless the news channel thinks it can get some mileage by reporting it.

While I completely understand that at the end of the day, the news channels are nothing but another business trying to survive the rat race and so can report what they want and how they want, what i don’t understand is when everyother business has some sort of regulations, restrictions, the media seems to have none or even if it’s there, nothing seems to be enforced.

• Why is the media allowed to show dead bodies when a bomb blast happens ?
• Why is the media allowed to negotiate with terrorists ?
• Why is the media allowed to do live telecast of an army operation ?
• Why is the media allowed to play the role of judiciary ?
• Why is the media allowed to do sting operations ?
• Why is the media allowed to use foul language in their debates, discussions ?

And there are obviously a lot of issues, incidents that the media conveniently chose to ignore, should they be reported, then the impact media can have will be tremendous and long lasting.

I only wish the media realizes it’s more than just business. They have a moral and a social responsibility to fulfill just like any other citizen.