NYHETSBREV 2001
Ur Nyhetsbrev från Jagriti Vihara 8 maj 2001
Kära vänner!
Vårt sedan länge omhuldade hopp att regeringen för vår nybildade delstat, Jharkhand, ska vidta effektiva åtgärder för att lindra fattigdom och lidande hos folket har inte blivit infriat ännu. Våra så kallade politiska representanter tycks vara mycket upptagna med att säkra sin egen position, makt och bekvämlighet. De tycks ha ingen eller mycket lite tid att intressera sig för folkets lidanden som grundar sig i brist på mat, dricksvatten, tak över huvudet, mediciner osv.
En stor majoritet av barnen är fortfarande berövade möjligheten att ens få den grundläggande skolgången. Inte undra på att ett så stort antal av ungdomarna på landsbygden har börjat uttrycka sin ilska mot administrationen genom att ta till vapen. De har utvecklat strategier och färdigheter för att driva sin egen underjordiska regering i opposition mot den demokratiskt valda regeringen i delstaten. De oskyldiga människorna ute i byarna dödas också i stor skala i den väpnade konflikten mellan polisen och extremisterna. För ca 3 veckor sedan dödades 14 bybor brutalt i Beltu, en by i Jharkhand. Det har också kommit skrämmande nyheter om att några högt uppsatta polisbefäl har dödats av "ultras".
Kära vänner, det är mycket svårt att arbeta effektivt med utvecklingsarbete p.g.a. bristen på fred och säkerhet i våra områden. Men ändå, man får inte ge upp hopp och tålamod. Jagriti Viharas volontärer och representanter har inte förlorat modet att besöka projektplatser belägna i avlägsna och svåra områden. För bara några dagar sedan fick vi meddelanden från våra volontärer som arbetar på de nya "Watershed development"- platserna. Alla de föreslagna vattentornen har blivit uppförda och arbetet med att installera dieselpumpar har gjorts klart. Vi ska nu göra upp planer för att spåra och studera några fler naturliga avrinningar för regnvattnet under den kommande monsunen. Bönderna väntar monsunregnen i slutet av juni.
Birsanagar, platsen för nybebyggelse och stöd till de människor som tvingats flytta p.g.a. expansionen av gruvområdena i trakten, är fortfarande i behov av vår sympati och vårt stöd. Vi har nyligen format två självhjälpsgrupper med kvinnor i Birsanagar. Några kvinnor från byn har fått lära sig att väva och några andra har utbildats i tillverkning av taktegel. Det är nu vår uppgift att finna marknader för att sälja varorna som producerats av självhjälpsgrupperna. Vi har för närvarande en mycket varm och torr sommar med brännande sol och stekande värmevågor. Under åtminstone 4 timmar mitt på dagen finner man arbetarna på Jagriti Vihara i skydd i skuggan under de lövrika träden i vår mangodunge. Vi arbetar i 2 skift, från 7.00 till 11.00 och från 15.00 till 17.00. De som vattnar växterna måste arbeta ytterligare en timme framåt kvällen.
När värmen gör oss rastlösa och när vi klagar tröstar Jaya oss genom att visa oss foton över de snötäckta fälten och sjöarna i de nordiska länderna.Vi önskar, kära vänner, att ni kunde dela med oss den milda, friska brisen som blåser i era länder under sommaren.
Ur nyhetsbrev från den 28 augusti: /../ Monsunen har varit tillfredsställande så här långt men vi behöver mer regn till början av oktober. Under monsunen har många människor lidit av malaria, gulsot och tyfus. Några av oss på Jagriti Vihara har också varit sjuka i malaria men vi är friska igen och har kunnat organisera "medicine camps" som vanligt /.../ Med många varma hälsningar Suman
För Jagriti Vihara
Ur Nyhetsbrev från Jagriti Vihara 1 augusti 2001 This morning we received the guidelines for SIDA's support sent by Olaji. Thanks to the extremely slow service we receive from our Post Office. We suppose all of you have resumed your work after the summer holidays and we can take the opportunity to contact you as usual.
We will soon collect information from different project sites and will then send you a news letter for you to circulate among our supporters.
We are thinking of planning a project with a view to get financial support from SIDA, but before we decide the size of the project we would like to know the financial limit of the project. We suppose SFIB has to contribute 20% of the total amount needed to be spent to carry out the scheme. Can the amount usually paid to us by SFIB be taken as the contribution to the budget? Please let us know the closing dates for receiving applications by SIDA.
The monsoon has been satisfactory so far but we need more rains till the beginning of October. During the monsoon very large numbers of people have been suffering from Malaria, Jaundice and Typhoid. Some of us at Jagriti Vihara have also suffered from Malaria but we have recovered from it and have been able to organize medical camps as usual. We are now going to concentrate more to our work at the Environment Study Centre at Jagriti Vihara.
Jayaji has procured some useful literature on Environment. Unfortunately we have not been able to get books and leaflets in Hindi on this subject and therefore we have to prepare our instructions ourselves in hindi a language which is understood by almost all the tribal groups in contact with us. Thank you.
Suman for Jagriti Vihara
Nyhetsbrev från Jagriti Vihara 1 november 2001
All of you who feel for us and support our ideas and actions must be waiting to hear from us. We too would like to be in frequent contact with you but we face several difficulties in sending detailed information about our progress in solving problems growing out of the hard facts of life in the villages where we work. Most of you are aware that the financial support we receive these days is inadequate and much below our needs and expectations considering the areas covered by our projects. Circumstances have forced us to reduce the number of volunteers needed to do the work undertaken by us. All of us, therefore, have to work under stress which is often very tiring. The struggle consumes much of our time and energy. In spite of that the information group of Jagriti Vihara tries to find time to note down things worth mentioning.
Good food crops but lack of medicine
We had sufficient rainfall this year. The green rice fields of this area have revived our hope to get good food crops. The villagers will certainly get some relief from malnutrition and certain diseases related with it. Heavy rainfall is very much liked by the farmers but it has its negative side effects too. This year malaria-mosquitoes thrived extremely well on the stagnant pools of water. Almost all the villages had to face malaria epidemic. A large number of people were found suffering from malaria, typhoid and jaundice simultaneously.
In response to the sad news from the villages we decided to launch anti malaria campaign very similar to what we had done last year with the help of certain doctors and nurses from the district of Palamau. We did what we could to help the sick but we could not buy enough medicines for lack of funds. We requested certain organizations for help but for some reason or other they expressed their inability to help. Even the Government seemed to be indifferent and unconcerned. The politicians in power, the so called representatives of the people, seem to have developed immunity to the sufferings of the people in the remote villages. Those who feel for the people have no means to help and those who have the means don’t seem to be concerned about such acute problems. Despite having to face certain cruel social realities we keep doing what we think is best for our fellow beings in need of our help.
Our old and rusted jeep has had several breakdowns exactly when we needed it most. A few times we hired vehicles while in haste to reach doctors living in towns and patients living in remote villages. We are thankful to some of our local friends who readily lent their motor cycles to us. At several occasions we used money earmarked for some other purposes to buy the urgently needed medicines. During the medical camps doctors found it difficult to diagnose the diseases for lack of blood test facilities in the villages. We felt that a mobile pathological laboratory could be very useful. 11th September
From one thing to another. Since 11th September the founder of Jagriti Vihara, Upadhyayji, has had very busy time in visiting villages inhabited by people belonging to different religions. His mission has been to discuss freely and frankly the reasons for which certain individuals exploit religious sentiments of the people to instigate them to commit heinous crimes including genocide.
What happened on 11th September in New York and Washington was the climax of terrorism. People of India wept in sympathy with the relatives of all those who were killed so suddenly on 11th September. Extremism and terrorism have been used for decades to destroy social harmony and national unity in Kashmir and some other parts of India. While we are worrying about the sad plight of the innocent people in our part of the world we are, at the same time, aware of the results of terror and violence in other parts of our globe such as Palestine and Israel. Should we remain passive and silent even now? Is it not everyone’s concern to question the hidden agenda of the religious fundamentalists? Are we going to wait passively till a large part of the humanity is exterminated by terrorists conspiring to use even biological and nuclear weapons? Friends, let us get together to find ways and means to fight against fundamentalism, extremism and terrorism. Let us search for the strategies to save the world from human insanity. Visits
We, your friends at Jagriti Vihara, are waiting for the opportunity to welcome a few groups of students and teachers from your countries, Norway and Sweden. We hope to discuss certain local and global issues with the visiting friends during their stay at our Ashram. Although their stay is scheduled to be very short we hope that our meetings will be fruitful and will help us to come closure with each other with a sense of solidarity. Thank you for your willingness to co-operate with us.
With very many warm greetings,
Sushil and Suman
on behalf of Jagriti Vihara Stäng fönstret |