The Chaos Within - Unconfined Joy.
On the 5th of July Deep Griha celebrated 31 years of service.
The Deep Griha family came together at the YMCA to celebrate: Project staff, administration, trustees and board members and of course volunteers.
It was a day of letting go, a day of reflection, and albeit that you may be tired of what some call my obsession - it was a day of dance.
But before I get to the very real dance that happened at the 31st celebration, I want to speak of a dance of togetherness that occurred that very day between four organizations.
1. Project Concern International (PCI) that run HIV/AIDS intervention projects (Pathway), much like DISHA right across the city of Pune.
2. Muktaa (Making U Know & Talk About AIDS) HIV/AIDS help-line that is Pune based and anonymous, helping and directing thousands who have concerns about HIV or have contracted it.
3. Sahara Aalhad Residential Care and Rehabilitation Centre that never turn away HIV+ client.
4. Deep Griha's DISHA project.
We've come together as part of the 'Wake Up Pune' campaign that will run in 2006 leading up to World AIDS Day on December 1st.
In the NGO climate organizations working so closely together is rare. NGOs are very protective of their limited funding and possessive of the communities they serve. Often the beneficiary (in this case those living with and affected by HIV/AIDS) and the cause or issue (HIV/AIDS) is secondary to the agenda of the NGO.
I speak through experience. I have said before that there is a lot of money in poverty, and currently there is a lot of money in HIV/AIDS. Projects have sprung up overnight in the hope of accessing these funds, yet the intervention projects that are run are sadly all too often organization based, i.e., the funds are a means to employing their staff and sustaining an organization rather than genuine intervention.
This is not a very popular view. Yet there is more than enough evidence that points to this in the Indian NGO sector in particular. Corruption is endemic. Let's not pretend any different. WHO's decision to freeze funding to India a few months ago was a result of the misappropriation and general mayhem that rules!
The comprehensive approach to the battle against HIV/AIDS that PCI, Muktaa, Sahara Aalhad and DISHA hope will result from our tie up covers all aspects of the pandemic. Education and awareness as part of the prevention and control components and rehabilitation, treatment of opportunistic infections (OIs) and qualitative palliative care in context of the care component.
An example of this is the proposed tie-up in the urban slum community of Yerewada. Sahara Aalhad have an existing office here but no funds to run a sustained intervention programme. With DISHA providing the education and awareness including psycho-social support; Muktaa the helpline; PCI offering their mobile clinic for treatment of OIs; and Sahara Aalhad rehabilitation and residential care, we can make a difference for PLWHA and the affected in this community.
After the meeting Paul, Smiler, Errol and Malik joined me at the YMCA to celebrate Deep Griha's 31st anniversary.
We arrived just in time for lunch.
The entertainment programmes began soon after.
The volunteers danced. Emily, Sharon, Sam, Tess, Shazma, Esther, Stevie, Nicola, and Katie did a beautifully choreographed dance in their colour coordinated skirts to a popular Hindi song. There were immediate calls for an encore.
The DISHA team then danced. Madhuri, Maya, Rani, Deepa and Lata. HIV an end to life? I sat there and watched them lose themselves in the rhythm, the music, and I have never felt so alive!
The volunteers then all got together, Link and independents and they sang 'Let It Be.' What does one do? What does one say? Nothing. Words are often so fucking superfluous.
And then they danced again. They heeded the calls for an encore and everyone rushed forward to get a closer look at a team that has so embraced Deep Griha like no team has done before.
I cannot of course forget David Lyon's solo performance. The boy is dance. Manic, unconfined dance!
"Let your joy be unconfined" Twain said... Aye, our joy was unconfined.
The Deep Griha family came together at the YMCA to celebrate: Project staff, administration, trustees and board members and of course volunteers.
It was a day of letting go, a day of reflection, and albeit that you may be tired of what some call my obsession - it was a day of dance.
But before I get to the very real dance that happened at the 31st celebration, I want to speak of a dance of togetherness that occurred that very day between four organizations.
1. Project Concern International (PCI) that run HIV/AIDS intervention projects (Pathway), much like DISHA right across the city of Pune.
2. Muktaa (Making U Know & Talk About AIDS) HIV/AIDS help-line that is Pune based and anonymous, helping and directing thousands who have concerns about HIV or have contracted it.
3. Sahara Aalhad Residential Care and Rehabilitation Centre that never turn away HIV+ client.
4. Deep Griha's DISHA project.
We've come together as part of the 'Wake Up Pune' campaign that will run in 2006 leading up to World AIDS Day on December 1st.
In the NGO climate organizations working so closely together is rare. NGOs are very protective of their limited funding and possessive of the communities they serve. Often the beneficiary (in this case those living with and affected by HIV/AIDS) and the cause or issue (HIV/AIDS) is secondary to the agenda of the NGO.
I speak through experience. I have said before that there is a lot of money in poverty, and currently there is a lot of money in HIV/AIDS. Projects have sprung up overnight in the hope of accessing these funds, yet the intervention projects that are run are sadly all too often organization based, i.e., the funds are a means to employing their staff and sustaining an organization rather than genuine intervention.
This is not a very popular view. Yet there is more than enough evidence that points to this in the Indian NGO sector in particular. Corruption is endemic. Let's not pretend any different. WHO's decision to freeze funding to India a few months ago was a result of the misappropriation and general mayhem that rules!
The comprehensive approach to the battle against HIV/AIDS that PCI, Muktaa, Sahara Aalhad and DISHA hope will result from our tie up covers all aspects of the pandemic. Education and awareness as part of the prevention and control components and rehabilitation, treatment of opportunistic infections (OIs) and qualitative palliative care in context of the care component.
An example of this is the proposed tie-up in the urban slum community of Yerewada. Sahara Aalhad have an existing office here but no funds to run a sustained intervention programme. With DISHA providing the education and awareness including psycho-social support; Muktaa the helpline; PCI offering their mobile clinic for treatment of OIs; and Sahara Aalhad rehabilitation and residential care, we can make a difference for PLWHA and the affected in this community.
After the meeting Paul, Smiler, Errol and Malik joined me at the YMCA to celebrate Deep Griha's 31st anniversary.
We arrived just in time for lunch.
The entertainment programmes began soon after.
The volunteers danced. Emily, Sharon, Sam, Tess, Shazma, Esther, Stevie, Nicola, and Katie did a beautifully choreographed dance in their colour coordinated skirts to a popular Hindi song. There were immediate calls for an encore.
The DISHA team then danced. Madhuri, Maya, Rani, Deepa and Lata. HIV an end to life? I sat there and watched them lose themselves in the rhythm, the music, and I have never felt so alive!
The volunteers then all got together, Link and independents and they sang 'Let It Be.' What does one do? What does one say? Nothing. Words are often so fucking superfluous.
And then they danced again. They heeded the calls for an encore and everyone rushed forward to get a closer look at a team that has so embraced Deep Griha like no team has done before.
I cannot of course forget David Lyon's solo performance. The boy is dance. Manic, unconfined dance!
"Let your joy be unconfined" Twain said... Aye, our joy was unconfined.
posted by Deep Griha at 6:21 am
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home