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Eye Clinic in Dharavi
The ACORN Foundations Dharavi Project conducted a successful eye clinic spread over 2 days in Dharavi ending on 9-01-10 where over 150 people had their eyes tested. Many of the Dharavi residents were testing their eyes for the first time, they received a complete eye check-up in the hands of a team of doctors and nurses, and were given free eye glasses from the Lotus Eye Hospital which conducted the eye clinic free of cost, the mobile eye clinic ambulance was made available from Impact India.Some of the more serious cataract cases were referred by the doctors to other eye hospitals for free surgery. The mobile clinic was a much needed medical service and we witnessed long queues from 8 am onwards , two hours before the start of the clinic The clinic checked the residents eyes, and those who required high numbered lenses were told to collect their custom made eye glasses next week .
The committee members of the Dharavi Project Lakshmi, Rafiq,Sangita ,Fatima, Mangla , and other active members under the guidance of staff co-ordinator Anil Sawant were the volunteers for the program.The same day we saw a visit from a International film crew of the National Geographic Channel which is making a 50 minute documentary on Dharavi featuring a segment on the Dharavi Project. The new year has begun on the right note, more next week on the waste matters project in 22 schools in Mumbai, which is distributing bins to the schools this week, our members get to collect the dry waste in return for my training the school kids in waste management and screening Parasher Baruah’s documentary. This week also sees a day visit to our community by 30 students of the American school as part of the year long program in the school.
Kenya ACORN
Kenya ACORN launched in 2009 and is working organizing low income Kenyan’s around issues of basic health and quality of life issues. Below are some pictures of their early work:
Scotiabank takes first steps towards reducing Remittance Fees
Scotiabank, one of the institutions targeted by Community Organizations International (COI) in our recent Day of Action of remittance rates has announced they will voluntarily reduce their remittance charges.While we applaud any reduction in costs, the pricing structure of Scotiabank remittance products remains out of line with the costs of providing the service. Further the deepening relationship between Scotiabank and Western Union remains at the heart of this issue.
If working families are to see the reduction in costs that would transform remittances from a predatory financial product to one that reduces poverty in the both the north and south, then banks like Scotiabank and alternative financial services providers like Western Union will need to go a lot further than these recent announcements.
For more, check COI Chief Organizer Wade Rathke’s blog post on the topic.
http://chieforganizer.org/2010/02/02/small-scotia-steps-on-remittances/
Global Campaign for Remittance Reform
Member organizations of Community Organizations International (formally ACORN International) launched a grassroots campaign to reform the global remittance market today with coordinated actions in cities across India, Peru, Argentina, Mexico, Canada, Dominican Republic, Kenya, Korea, the Philippines and Indonesia.
The targets of the actions; Scotia Bank, HSBC, Western Union, MoneyGram and the Reserve Bank of India are major players in the global remittance market that in 2008 topped $300 Billion.
Community Organizations International is calling these corporations to commit to meetings with our leadership in the coming weeks to discuss proposals to reduce costs and improve the flow of remittances to the developing world.
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