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Blog
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The Workshop
The Acorn Dharavi Project conducted a successful workshop for children of members living in the Rag pickers communities in Dharavi on 13th december, 2009. The workshop was conducted by a visiting volunteer Ekaterina Nikolova ( Katya) who used a mix of theatre, craft, games , physical activity, drawing , art and various other teaching techniques to make the children laugh, cry , shout ,learn and unlearn about their city and Dharavi.
The three hour workshop was attended by 35 students, and acorn committee members Anil, Vinod, Rafiq, Lakshmi, Sabya, Sangita, Kamble Moushi, and Fatima who assisted Katya. What is remarkable was that Katya was able to communicate with the children despite speaking very little Hindi, and the kids knew very little English.The workshop started with a introduction of all the kids to each other where they learnt their names, by shouting it out loud for all to hear, there itself the ice was broken when they all held hands and learnt their own names.This followed by a theatre session, where the children played various synchronised games i.e clapping, tom and Jerry, blind cat, Hawa chali and role reversal games. All these games were conducted in the open ground of the Xavier Institute where the workshop was conducted.The next session was the Art class which involved the children doing a collage of “My Mumbai” with waste paper, the children could not believe their eyes that they had made the collages themselves, their smiles say it all.This followed with a small lecture in English and hindi on global warming by Katya and Vinod, Recycling and the role of their parents in Rag picking and waste segregation. They also participated in a discussion on what problems that Dharavi was facing and the children came up with the burning issues i.e water, housing , electricity, schools, colleges, health etc,Finally the entire group participated in a group drawing of ” My life in Dharavi” , each group consisted of 5-6 children and they drew to their hearts content using crayons, and felt pens and plastic waste from segregation units in Dharavi which they were familiar with.The workshop ended with some impromptu dancing and singing and after a few snacks and drinks the students received their passing out gifts from Katya teacher, the kids said their goodbyes and headed back to Dharavi to their waiting mothers and fathers to report on their magical day at the acorn workshop , before leaving one small girl with crayon marks on her face asked when the next class would take place. -
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.
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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:
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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/
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