The Million Message

The Million Message March 2011 is a collaborative communication
campaign to mobilize community support and political commitment for
the Right to Health and Universal Access. It aims to reach out
globally to collect one million messages (by SMS or tweets) from
people in need of treatment and care (for HIV, Cancer, TB, Diabetes,
Hepatitis and other life threatening diseases) and their families,
care-givers and allies.

These ‘Voices’ will be amplified, disseminated and projected along the
‘March’ starting at the World Health Assembly in May, through two UN
High Level Meetings (HIV in June and Non-Communicable Diseases NCDs in
September), and other major health events. The Million Message March
will ‘arrive’ on Human Rights Day, the 10th of December, at the Office
of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) so
that the messages can ‘Speak-Up’ and be heard at the top of the UN and
its Member States.

We launched the Million Message March today from the Institute of
Palliative Medicine in Calicut, Kerala, India, The Institute, a WHO
Collaborating Center, is a global model for participatory community
based care,  and a fitting starting point from which to begin the
March. First Steps: the 2nd World OPEN Health Assembly (WOHA2011), in
tandem with the World Health Assembly, 16-24 May.

WOHA features a non-stop global 'chat' and dozens of 'Speak-Up
Sessions', moderated live by partners in Asia, Africa, Europe and the
Americas, on diverse topics they choose. these partners include the
Institute of Palliative Medicine (WHO Collaborating Center), INPUD
(International Network of People Who Use Drugs), the Lawyers
Collective, the Worldwide Palliative Care Alliance, People's Health
Movement, International Council of AIDS Service Organizations (ICASO),
Foundation for Hospice in Sub-Saharan Africa, African Palliative Care
Association, National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization (US),
Human Rights Watch, The International Community of Women with HIV/AIDS
(ICW Asia-Pacific), World Care Council and others.

The Million Message March to the UN (MMM2UN) is a civil society
initiative, spearheaded by the iMAXi Cooperative with the dynamic
participation of many partners. Together, we're forging a new tool for
social mobilization via social media. Open Minds > Open Source > Open
Health  (Open to you, too!)

Join the Million Message March to the UN.  Tweet @MMM2UN  Follow
#Right2Health
Starts May 16 with the World OPEN Health Assembly.
Tweet @WOHA2011  Follow #WOHA
SMS: +41 787597991,  +91 8129094433  FB: http://on.fb.me/gxLyzl
Blogs: http://www.imaxi.org


This 'open' and online event allows distant health experts and
activists to provide news, views and healthy commentary for launch of
the innovative MMM2UN campaign, with direct connections to leading
'actors' in Delhi, Chennai, London, Cape Town and from the World
Health Assembly in Geneva.


Twitter: @MMM2UN  #WOHA
Skype: MMM2UN
Blogs: http://www.imaxi.org
FB: http://facebook.com/MillionMessageMarch

Media contacts:
Malayalam / English:  saifsabil@yahoo.com  +91 9846690490
English/ French: gordon@imaxi.org  +91 8129094433  / +41 787597991
Hindi / Konkanni:  menezes@imaxi.org  +919673205044

Moment of kindness

 My tryst in South Africa was rather interesting. Even after being mugged, I continued walking and found myself closer to the city market. Immersing myself into the whole experience of what happened earlier, I was ‘shaken up’ by a shout.

‘Hey’

‘uh , Hi’

‘You shouldn’t be here’

Since I was surrounded by hundreds of people in the market, I asked him,

‘Why not?’

‘It’s not safe. You look innocent’.

Now, I have heard many things said about me in my life, but this was the very first time someone was telling me that I looked innocent. I smiled. Chris, who spotted me, was sitting on a crate on the footpath, selling locks and keys among several other tit bits.

‘Where are you from?’

‘India’

‘Let me drop you’

‘What?!’

‘It’s not safe. My car is here’ pointing towards a fancy Mazda parked straight in front of us.

‘But hey, please don’t bother. I am just walking to ICC and its not that far’

‘No worries let me do this’.

‘Don’t you have to do your business?’

‘It’s okay, nothing much happening. Let’s go’.

He packed all his stuff into the boot. Everyone there seems to know him. Kids were calling out to him and I heard a girl in a beige school uniform telling exaggerated stories on why she didn’t go to school last week.

When he opened the door, I wasn’t sure of what I was getting into. Guess I was either mentally and emotionally too tired with the experience I had just had a few minutes back or just wanted to go with my natural instincts about trusting another fellow human being and I got into his car.

‘Chris, How can you really afford a car like this?’

‘Oh, I work in the municipality. I close the roads here’. (I didn’t quite really understand but remained silent. He took a de-tour to show me some more parts of the city including some heritage buildings)

‘Here, the wages are quite low that I can’t lead a luxurious life I would like to. So I spent one hour everyday and the whole weekend in markets like this and earn some extra money’.

I couldn’t understand how he could lead a luxurious life by selling locks and keys. Anyways, I was too tired to think. Chris told me that being a foreigner, I should be more careful.

‘The streets here aren’t safe Gopi! You never know when you get mugged. People kill for even silly things like mobile phones. Please be careful’.

 I didn’t know how to react. I was still not sure why he was offering me a lift, and I couldn’t get myself to tell him about how the two boys conned me into giving away my phone.

Chris dropped me in front of the ICC.

‘Chris, thank you so much. I don’t know how to thank you’

‘Gopi, you take good care. May be our lives will bring us together someday.’

‘I hope so Chris. How much do I owe you?’

He paused, switched off his engine and asked,

‘You really think that I gave you a lift because I wanted to make some extra bucks?’

I walked away apologizing and thanking him at the same time. This was a moment of kindness that I don’t want to forget in my life.

People like Patrick, another driver I met during the travel made a big difference to how I understood the destination South Africa

40 Rands and more

‘Give me 40 Rands’
‘Why?’
‘We are poor. No money. You see I am eating this shit’ (holding two slices of white bread)
‘Sorry, but I can’t give you money just like that. Are you boys from Durban?’.

‘Yeah man, we are from Durban.’

‘This is my second day in Durban, actually in South Africa too. Think it’s a wonderful place’

‘He he, You are funny. So where are you from?’

‘India.’
‘Oh, You eat Chilly!’

‘He he, we do.’

‘I don’t like it man. It’s too hot for me’.
‘You have movies’
‘Yes, we have’

‘You dance’

‘Yes we do. For no reason sometimes (but only in movies)’


‘How old are you?’

‘I am 16, he is 17.’
‘You don’t go to school’?

‘No, but he studied still standard 9’

‘and then’?

‘Oh, I didn’t complete. Its shit man’
‘Are you working?’
‘Not any more. You see that supermarket (Woolsworth) over there? I was there. They asked me to leave’.
‘oh’.

 That’s when I got a call from home. I picked up the phone and we continued walking. The two boys were on either side of me, holding me, while we walked. I had met them ten minutes earlier as I was waiting for a taxi in front of Park Lodge Gardens on Berea Road in Durban. I decided to walk towards the trade fair venue where the INDABA was on. As soon as the boys accosted me and decided to walk with me holding my hands, warning bells from guidebooks to be careful while walking alone in South Africa and well meaning notices to avoid walking on freeways flashed in my head! But I guess they flashed a bit late!

As I walked with them, I tried to feel their hips to check if they were armed. I found myself smiling at the thought of how this sight might seem to the folks in the cars driving past- that of strange Indian tourist walking hand in hand, hips touching, with two black boys on the free way in gay abandon!


‘Hey, you have such a fancy camera and you won’t give us 40 Rands?’

‘Sorry?’

‘You are rich. Give me 40 Rands’

‘Boy, listen. Lets try to find a way through this’.
‘What you mean?’


‘I told you that I won’t give you money for nothing. I also come from a poor country. I also work with kids who find it difficult to study, earn. If I were you, I would be doing things in a different way. I told you that I am here for the first time and know nothing about your city. You seem to be knowledgeable and speak good English. So why not offer a walking tour for me, show me places and who knows may be I will be happy with your service and might even pay you more than 40 Rands’!



‘haha, you are funny man. Things don’t work like that here’.

During this whole conversation, I recalled the many discussions I had about 'Our Responsibility to Children' with Vijayan IPS, the ex-Police Commissioner of Calicut, and Dr. Suresh Kumar of Institute of Palliative Medicine where we offered to train some of the juvenile delinquents the police department arrested for stealing smart phones and motorbikes. They wanted to rehabilitate them to mainstream through socially innovative projects. The Blue Yonder had offered to provide training and capacity building for these students to become guides and interpreters. 



‘That has a camera?’
‘Yes. It has’

‘Can you take a photo of ours’?

‘Yes certainly. Let the three of us be in it’

‘Nice, it’s really looking good. Can I see?’

‘Sure, here you go’



He looked at it and shared it with his mate and gave it back to me. We continued walking and talking about India, and they kept telling me they don’t understand how Indians could eat so much chilly! 

By now we were closer to an area I was a bit more familiar as I had been there on a ‘City Walk’ with Doung, a Durban based architect and artist in the previous days.

‘Can I see that photo again?’

‘Sure’.

And that was the beginning of tension. The moment he had the phone in his hand, the boy who looked innocent and curious transformed into a beast. His eyes were so fearsome. His body language was making me uncomfortable. He slid the phone into this back pocket and asked his mate to walk fast to the right of the pedestrian bridge. I held them both in arms and said,


‘Guys, let’s talk’

‘There is nothing to talk. You walk away now’.

‘I am not walking away anywhere. We are going to talk’

‘Give him the phone man, let him go’ said his mate.

‘You shut up’ (or I presumed this is what he said in Zulu)


I kept on walking together with them and this time, both of them weren’t comfortable any more with the physical proximity. 



‘Why you walk like this? Go away.’


Confident (or being stupid as many said later) that they weren’t carrying any weapons, I continued talking to them. The boy with my mobile phone came towards me, came so close that I could smell his breathe on my face, said,



‘Take your wallet out’

‘You think I dare to walk around here with wallet in my trouser’ (stupid tourist blabbering !)


‘Are you going to fight with me?’
‘Yes’ and I went towards him. He ran towards the left of the bridge. The other boy looked apologetic, and even said sorry. He very slowly retracted his steps and walked away to ‘Doungs’ territory. 

I felt super foolish to have let this happened. I laughed at my own stupidity. I laughed again when I remembered that I was also a tour operator.

It took a while for me to realize that I had actually been conned so cleverly. In fact, I couldn’t figure out who had the phone finally! The boy who ran away quickly or ot the one who walked away apologetically? 

I sent an email from the other phone to Doung,



<< I just got mugged and the kids ran into the same street where we came walking with you. In case you manage to see a fancy HTC Desire HD, well, that could be mine :) If your connections with the community can help you recover it, you may as well use it for your projects. Quality is quite good for voice,video and visuals. 8mpixel camera and video is  HD.>>


to which he immediately responded 

<<Oh no this is terrible. I hope that you didn't get hurt. I will definitely put a word out there. Do you know which road it happened? Anyway yes lets do keep in touch and India is in my heart and I have been longing for her as soon as I left.>>

To let go the fancy phone was not so easy. But I continued walking feeling good about how I handled the situation. I didn’t panic, I didn’t become aggressive, I didn’t get shot at (I still do believe that they didn’t carry any weapons)

What surprised me the most was that I didn’t feel angry at all towards the boys or Durban or South Africa. Most of the time I was trying to put myself into the shoes of these kids with delinquent behaviour in Calicut and on how we could work creatively to bring them to mainstream. I felt even more connected to the idea of ‘compassionate city.’

Dirk Janczewski

"I caught you smiling at me - that's the way it should be

Like a leaf is to a tree
So fine" - Led Zeppelin

Yesterday evening I went into Hall 4.1 to set up our stand at the worlds largest travel show. This place is so special for me because it’s in this one hall in Messe Berlin where I have met several wonderful innovators and people whom I thought could change the world we live in with a smile.

One such person was Dirk. We met Dirk Janczewski last year during the ITB-Berlin. An energetic, wheel-chair-bound, Dirk had a twinkle in his eyes every time he shared his vision with us about a barrier free world. Sunil, my colleague from Spiti Ecosphere and I spent hours listening to the man and decided to work together to explore the possibilities of setting up a ‘barrier-free-tourism’ business in India. We introduced him to many people including Andreas Heinecke of Dialogue Social Enterprise and fixed up an appointment between the two. Andreas is an innovator who has dedicated his life and work to make a difference to differently-abled people and we saw tremendous synergy in each others work.

Two weeks later, we were supposed to meet up again in Hamburg and he didn’t return the call. After all the discussions in Berlin and after finalizing dates for Derek’s visit to India, we were quite surprised that Derek never stayed in touch with us there after. On another call to Andreas, we came to know that he hadn’t met him either.

Before I left Germany, I made attempts to reach him several times. All messages went to his voice mail. Since emails weren’t bouncing back I was even more frustrated not to see a response from him. By then I had talked to several people and were already exploring opportunities to bring in Dirk as a consultant on some of the projects we were planning to start in India. He never responded.

Yesterday I went looking for Dirk as one of his friends had written to me asking for an appointment telling that he got my coordinates from Dirk’s business partner and would like to catch up. ‘Didn’t you know that he died two weeks after last ITB”, was the question I heard from a friend working at the fair ground. Dirk apparently fell sick immediately after ITB Berlin and passed away before achieving his dreams.

Hope one day, we will able to give colours to the dream of this man who inspired us so much.

Inspiring stories: Potters of Aruvakode in Nilambur

Unrated

'Kathakali depicted on terracotta. Designed by artisans and potters trained by social entreprenuer Jinan

My journey into the world of the rural artisan communities was not with the intention of ‘developing’ them or educating them. I went to them to regain that which I had lost in the process of getting educated; to learn from them. Having escaped ‘education’ and ‘development’ they were still original and authentic and were holding on to the culture and world-view, which sustained them for centuries. I perceived the rural / tribal communities as being wise and evolved; and recognised that only by learning from them could we lead sustainable lives.”

This is the story of Jinan, a rebel, activist, designer and a wonderful human being. More over this is the story of all those people’s life that he touched and changed positively for ever. Read more here

Being Responsible

One of the first TBY-Vayali micro-credit beneficiary

Last year at the World Travel Market in London, one of the leading destination management companies from Cochin asked us this question. “All your talk about responsible tourism is fine. It’s easy for a property to be more responsible than a tour operator like us. They can make simple changes like install energy saving bulbs or setup rainwater harvesting in their property. They might purchase local produces. Even if we had aspirations to be a responsible tourism operator, frankly we don’t know how to do this. Do you have some suggestions?”

This kept me thinking and here are some observations posted on The Blue Yonder blog

Social enterprises redefining sector boundaries?

“I am investigating the possibilities of creating awareness of non -malignant palliative issues among various communities and to encourage community participation, and would like some ideas and advice. Thank you very much”


We are quite certain that not many travel companies will receive enquiries that are unrelated to holiday planning! Especially something like the one above. This was a message The Blue Yonder team received from a pathologist in South Africa recently. For us, this is a proof of what an impact a maturing relationship between two social enterprises can create. One- working to spread the community owned palliative care to rest of the world (Institute of Palliative Medicine) and the other- a sustainable tourism operator using tourism as a tool to bring attention of the world to successful and inspiring initiatives like Kozhikode model of Palliative care (The Blue Yonder).



Read the complete blog here

Revisiting River Nila in search of music...

Picture:A plaque announcing the inauguration of the foundation laying ceremony by David Stott from Australia.

David is a frequent visitor to India. It's a country that he calls home. Two years ago, David had to 'agree' to 'lay the foundation' of an innovative experiment in Kerala. He inaugurated the construction of the campus dedicated to the memory of legendary musician and spiritual nomad, 'Njaralathu Rama Poduval' who is credited for bringing out the temple related devotional singing style of 'Sopana Sangeetham' out to the public.

When The Blue Yonder designed a musical trail with young musical prodigy Harigovindan, the idea was to give voice to many unconventional musicians of lower strata of the society along river Nila. This half a day experience became an instant hit among travellers from around the world. Conde Nast traveler called our trip one of the '8 Great Trips' that give back to destination based on the content of this experience. As Harigovindan, who took up the role as a key interpreter says, "This initiative gave self-respect to our musicians in the region. It was a wonderful experience to have music-loving travellers coming to enjoy the unique music style of River Nila and its people'.

Harigovindan was 17 years old when his father, Njeralathu Rama Poduval died. Hari used to accompany his father occasionally during his travels and performances at various temples and public arenas in Kerala. Troubled that the “Idakka” that was his father’s life, lying unused after his death, Hari taught himself how to play the instrument to keep the memory of his father alive.

Soon he realised that his father's name and devotional songs were fading away from the public memory. He came across many other musicians whose voice were not even recorded in their whole life time. He had the foresight that a generation might live without ever experiencing all those magical voices. He approached the Government and many cultural stalwarts of the state proposing to build musuems and art school to preserve their voices digitally and give recognition to up coming artists. Other than hollow promises and unnecessary controversies, it didn't result in any thing productive. However Hari fought the system, got attention from the public and international travellers like David Stott.

Lecture demonstration of various drums including Idakka and Chenda at the Kalasramam

Exactly after two years of laying foundation for the music campus, David Stott along with a group of travellers interested in music and yoga came back to River Nila to see the developments in the location. Seeing a fully functional music school and museum with an open air auditorium and audio library, all David could say was "WOW"! This is solely an achievement of Harigovindan though he humbly acknowledges the generous support he received from ordinary public and travelling community for providing inspiration and energy to go after his dream.

"I didn't set this up because I wanted to do something selfish related to my father. I wanted to do something like this precisely for the reason that many such artists memories were fading away from our memories. For those people who spent their whole life dedicated to music and enriching our traditions, this is the cruelest thing to happen. Representing this generation, people like us have a responsibility to respond to our surrounding. This was mine and I am glad I didn't give up'  Hari says.

Picture above:
David Stott and a group of music loving Australian travellers in front of the newly constructed temple dedicated to music. Instead of a conventional idol of God or Goddesses, the temple has the 'Idakka' which was favourite musical instrument of Njaralathu Rama Poduval. What better way to pay respect to a man who spent his life dedicated to music, especially devotional songs?

Networking in Palliative care

18th International Conference of Indian Association for Palliative Care just concluded in Lucknow with a call to explore adopting social media as one of the tool to network amongst peers and share knowledge to bridge islands of excellence.

Delegates from Australia, Bangladesh, Belgium, Singapore, UK and USA along with their Indian colleagues attended the conference organised by Cancer Aid Society. Two sessions ran by n i i t i consulting on the importance of social media networking for promoting palliative care across the world received enthusiastic response. Except for the handful of delegates using twitter or facebook, rest of them were mostly using email as a tool for communication.

Case studies show-cased on the power of social media ranged from :

• Recent campaign to oust Hosni Mubarak in Egypt  and the role of social media in accelerating the downfall
• How sustainable tourism companies used facebook as a tool to network and raise funds online during the crisis of Cyclone Aila in 2009
• How footprints initiatives get support from innovative micro-funding model of worldnomads
• Real time results of how users of #IAPCON11 manage to network with peers in Australia, US, UK and rest of the world.
• Max Coop - a network promoting 'Open Health through Open Source
• Ushahidi platform on how effectively it was employed during Kenyan riots of 2008
• Nila foundation facebook campaign crowd-sourcing sketches for its publication

While the sessions ignited interest amongst novices to social media, many 'I-have-twitter-but-I-don't-use' delegates were urged to explore the potential of social media, while the 'converts' were urged to build up a palliative care wiki to encourage collaborative content creation about various experiments going around in different parts of the world.

Will be interesting to see some of the recommendations given to set up the next conference in Kolkatta is implemented.

Second part of the workshops specifically involving student volunteers and core team of Institute of Palliative Medicine will be on 19th Feb in Kozhikide. 

Touching the chords of your inner life

pic: @Alvin Vimal

'Kumbhar' in Sanskrit means 'the one who creates'. You see 'Kumbhars' all over India. They create magic out of clay.They are potters of the country. Various reasons including droughts and the urge to travel led many 'Kumbhars' from Andhra Pradesh come and settle down on the banks of River Nila in Kerala several hundred years ago. Like many cultures that blessed the banks of this auspicious river, Kumbhars brought along their rich legends, folklore, skills, lifestyle, language and festivities to this river.

We take travellers from all backgrounds to interact with some of the few remaining potters' communities along the river. Travellers mostly leave exclaiming how magical the experience was! Some of them go into silence as if they are meditating, some of them request if they could try their hands on creating 'something' out of the clay. Once the wheel starts turning, and their hands feel the earth and water, many commented that they are touching the chords of their inner life. They are guided by the 'Kumbhars'- the creators.

The paradox of all this is how 'Kumbhars' are perceived in the Kerala society. 'Kushava' is how a potter is known in Malayalam and it's also used in our day to day life in quite a 'de-meaning' or derogatory way. As a kid, I remember being called a "Kushava" by relatives, when I used to do something really stupid. I am not a historian, nor do I have the knowledge to trace the history and perception of languages and colloquial usages. Wonder how such a beautiful word in Sankskrit meaning a creator, transformed into a derogatory 'Kushava' in Malayalam. Or at least the word 'Kushava' came to be understood.

What prompted to write this much is the news that one of the first potters that we engaged in the village of Arangottukkara stands a risk of not being able to use his hands as efficiently and skillfully as he could earlier. He had a stroke and left side of body including his arm and thumbs are finding it difficult to respond to his 'commands'. From a struggling potter to be someone who could earn a decent living out of local work orders and sustainable tourism initiatives, Gopalan potter has come a long way. However, the recent hospitalisation and lack of ability to work makes his future livelihood uncertain. The Blue Yonder along with it's partner Vayali Folklore Group in Arangottukkara within its constraints are supporting the artist by engaging him in running workshops where some of his relatives are guiding those wanting to learn the art and skill.

Rather than giving a donation or raise funds from well-wishers to support the artists, we are attempting to create an income generation for Gopalan and some other artists by providing them employment opportunities through sustainable tourism.

We are launching a series of 'skill based workshops' in River Nila to highlight the skills and creativity of artists like Gopalan. Please write /call us if you are interested.

Venue : Arangottukara village, Thrissur district in Kerala

Dates : 29-30 Jan 2011

Intake: max 10

Activities: learning workshops in pottery, bamboo weaving and indigenous hand-crafts.

Extra: One can also combine this as a weekend holiday that would include legend trails and folk expressions. Longer duration workshops are also possible.

Contact: info@theblueyonder.com | +91.80.4115.2218 or +91.98860.53286

posted by GP