ARGHYAM
Arghyam is a public charitable trust setup with an endowment from Ms. Rohini Nilekani and working in the water sector since 2005. Our mission is "Enough water, safe water ….. always and for all".
Arghyam supports efforts to address equity and sustainability in access to water for all citizens. We do this through a combination of project grants to grass roots organizations, knowledge building and sharing through the India Water Portal, participatory action research and grassroots advocacy. Our main thrust is on domestic water where we are looking at quantity, quality and access issues through the multiple lenses of social, technological, institutional, environmental and financial sustainabilities. As a funding agency, we work primarily through partnerships – with Government, NGOs and various types of institutions – for impact and scale.
Over the last three years, Arghyam has supported more than 30 projects in 11 states, working with NGOs in hundreds of villages for the cause of safe and sustainable water for the poor and the marginalized. Our project areas include water quality management, rainwater harvesting, water purification, waste water treatment, sanitation, water body restoration and ground water management.
We developed and launched an open knowledge platform called the India Water Portal to share information, experiences and data on the water sector. Working with many partners and individuals we have grown this to a large website with applications, tools and services with 500 visitors daily. We are now developing such Portals in Kannada and Hindi too.
For more information please visit www.arghyam.org, and www.indiawaterportal.org
SVARAJ- SOCIETY FOR VOLUNTARY ACTION REVITALIZATION AND JUSTICE
SVARAJ- the Society for voluntary Action Revitalization and Justice took up in 1978 as a part of the services of Oxfam Great Britain with a mission against the causes and consequences of up healing poverty in the society. Formerly known as Oxfam India Society, the organization began to emerge as SVARAJ, an agency independent of Oxfam Great Britain from the mid-nineties. SVARAJ is a secular organization that aims at fighting out the tragically molded lives, with a distinct Indian identity and a global vision.
Where Voluntarism is the root objective of SVARAJ, it crucially holds all spheres of society together reviving the spirits of commitment and responsibility among the common people where they can contribute their talent, time and energy to the existent crusades they strongly feel about. With each step towards shielding the suffered ones, SVARAJ has been building up an expertise in disaster relief and rehabilitation, livelihood programs that includes basic rights-to clean and safe water, food security, access to justice and fighting against causes of poverty in India. But now with an added context of working together in India where there is much intelligence in an ability to invent solutions to complex problems, SVARAJ is keen to build alliances with civil society institutions and other stakeholder groups. These surveys include the public, private, individuals and institutional sectors to increase the collective knowledge about the current status and then work towards eradicating the seeds of poverty.
Our mission involves:
- Food security
- Water conservation
- Disaster rehabilitations
- Environment protection
- Action research
- Policy development
- Advocacy and Communication
- Campaigns on basic human rights over the natural resources
The Society has been mobilizing resources from the Indian public since 1996.Their unique attempts are nurtured under partnerships with the common people to bring about social change and development in the existing era. Over the last nine years, the partner base of SVARAJ has expanded to over 7,000 individuals who have supported in their mission towards an equitable and just society free from hunger, exploitation and destructive results of poverty. As the name demands, SVARAJ, it is hoped, will epitomize their beliefs and values, and encapsulate all Indians.
For more information please visit www.svaraj.in
BANGALORE FILM SOCIETY
Bangalore Film Society (BFS) is a 30-year-old film movement comprising of like-minded film enthusiastic individuals committed to evolving a Bangalore Film Society, new perspective for film appreciation - an attempt which seeks to transcend the popular conceptions of cinematic entertainment from neutral, value free flights into the realism of the fantastic and the illusory to that of a purposeful voyage into terrains of the real and immediate concerns of human experience.
In 30 years of active involvement, BFS has been instrumental in screening outstanding films of famous directors from various countries, initiating a process of intercultural dialogue and creating avenues for divergent aesthetic experience-films from Poland, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Germany, American theatre Film series, to mention only a few.
Deep Focus is a film quarterly being brought out by the BFS, where it features critiques of cinema's masters, socio-cultural and political significance of popular cinema, writings on the generation of meanings through cinematic signs and so on. BFS's regular activities:
- :: Screening of feature films, short films, and documentaries from India and other countries.
- :: Conducting film festivals and retrospectives of outstanding film directors followed by symposia and discussion around films.
- :: Publishing film analyses on occasion.
For more information please contact bangalorefilmsociety@gmail.com
The Alliance Française de Bangalore
The Alliance Française is a non-profit, educational organization with a goal to promote the vivid images of the French culture in the worldwide spectrum of varied heritages. For over a century and at over a thousand locations among 138 countries around the world, Alliance Française has offered opportunities to different people to discover French and the European culture. The most prominent among these are dance, theatre, music and art exhibitions. Alliance Française constantly seeks to enhance the experience of cultural diversity and intellectual freedom for their participants and visitors. It's a platform where various civilizations from the world come together to introduce and revitalize with the French culture and heritage. While providing information from different aspects of France, the network of information resources on disciplines such as literature, theatre, linguistics, social sciences, tourism, arts, architecture, lifestyle in France and a section dedicated to comics and books for children. There are 15 Alliance Françaises' in all the important cities under the aegis of the Délégation Générale de l'Alliance Française de Paris en Inde which in turn reports to the parent body, Alliance Française de Paris.
The goals and motivations are experimented thoroughly and this long-lasting experience and outstanding vitality are the results of tight links woven between the citizens and patrons in the various countries and the French State.
For more information please visit www.afindia.org
The Goethe-Institut / Max Mueller Bhavan Bangalore
The Goethe-Institut/Max Mueller Bhavan Bangalore (GI/MMB), (founded in 1960) is part of the Goethe-Institut, which is the Federal Republic of Germany's cultural institution operational worldwide. The Goethe-Institut encourages international cultural exchange, promotes the study of German abroad and fosters knowledge about Germany by providing information on its culture, society and politics. In Bangalore, the GI/MMB fulfils these objectives through wide-ranging cultural events, German language courses and the German Resource Centre.
In the cultural arena, the main areas of interest are determined in consultation with Indian partners from the fields of art, science and media, from NGOs and select companies, with whom appropriate programmes and projects are jointly developed. Activities range from film screenings, exhibitions, theatre performances and concerts to workshops and conferences. With a direct line to current cultural and artistic trends in Germany, the latest information about the country is also on offer in the German Resource Centre. Internationally-recognised German language courses span all levels and are designed to meet all requirements.
GI/MMB has always been very active in the field of cinema, bringing quality German films, both classic and contemporary, to eager audiences in Bangalore. Besides supporting festivals organised by film societies and clubs in the City, the institute was instrumental in organising 3 highly acclaimed Indo-German Film festivals in 2003, 2004 and 2006. GI/MMB has also always engaged with pressing urban issues, among others with the theme of Water. A multi-faceted water Festival was organised along with several NGOs and civic bodies in 2002.
For more details contact info@bangalore.goethe.org or visit
www.goethe.de/bangalore
MOUNTAINFILM IN TELLURIDE
Mountainfilm is dedicated to educating and inspiring audiences about issues that matter, cultures worth exploring, environments worth preserving and conversations worth sustaining. Cut down to 30 years back the history, as it started off with a notion inspired by 'Tejada-Flores' trip to a film festival in Trento, Italy, to screen his newly minted Fitzroy and Kees' idea that Telluride's historic Sheridan Opera House would make an ideal setting for an American version of a mountain-related film festival.
The Mountainfilm fest is six-sense experience of art, adventure, culture and the environment, attracting the filmmakers, photographers, conservationists, mountaineers and explorers from around the world. These full-day events have different topical themes each year that is explored, debated and discussed by a panel of world-class experts drawn from many and varied disciplines. A water-crisis symposium was recently held, where many scientists and social observers said that the looming water crisis is the most critical issue facing humans and the environment. Freshwater and saltwater sources are threatened by overuse, misuse and pollution. The Mountainfilm symposium on water highlighted the enormous risks with the most precious resource of the nature and offered solutions on how to best take actions.
Mountainfilm's Green Revolution
'Mountainfilm has always been committed to preserve our fragile environment. We actively reuse or recycle everything that we can to minimize our waste output and we collaborate with other organizations that share our belief, but this year we've stepped it up a notch'.
For more information please visit www.mountainfilm.org
WATER JOURNEYS
'Water is another matter, has no direction but its own bright grace,
runs through all imaginable colors, takes limpid lessons from stone,
and in those functionings plays out the unrealized ambitions of the foam.' - Pablo Neruda
Water Journeys –A Campaign for the Fundamental rights of Water is a platform where commoners, with an intense concern about the increasing scarcity of water come together. Mustered from different groups and organizations across South Asia, water journeys have pragmatic approaches towards the issue, which have serious consequences for the preservation of life and the environment in the immediate future.
The paucity of drinking water, both in urban and rural areas has escalated to an acute level in the last five years, especially heightened by drought and privatization of water. This Water campaign is an attempt to bring back the sacredness and purity of water in the dailyness of our lives, while securing heirloom of the ancient rivers and streams, which have been firmly safeguarding and swearing our heritage from centuries. The thorough approach of this comeback starts with screening films on water issues, water struggles, water conservation and the related issue in schools, colleges and communities to start a dialogue on the issue of control and use of water.
The other objectives are:
- :: To redefine water, as a natural right to all species and not a personal asset to any proprietors.
- :: To network and cooperate with agencies involved in the protection and preservation of lakes, rivers and other water bodies.
- :: To create awareness and engage students and youth in the conservation of water by directing them water harvesting and environmental protection approaches.
Water Journeys is a journey with a positive hope to change the cynic mindscapes, enlightening knowledge source of action and preserve the sovereign of nature- The Blue Gold Water.
For more information please contact waterjourneys@rediffmail.com
CHARTER of HUMAN RESPONSIBILITIES
New challenges: new dimensions of Responsibility
At present, international life is underpinned by two agreements: the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which focuses on the dignity and entitlements of people as individuals and on the defence of their rights, and the Charter of the United Nations, which focuses on peace and development. These two agreements have been a framework for undeniable progress in the organisation of international relations. But the last fifty years have seen radical global changes. Humankind now confronts new challenges; in particular, the imperative to safeguard the environment for future generations has come into view. It is clear that the two initial agreements need a further dimension to respond to current and future challenges of survival. 'Responsibility' is proposed as an ethical concept which builds on Rights and Peace as well as the emergence of a relational worldview that ensures the viability of planet earth and its peoples.
Preamble
Never before have human beings had such far-reaching impacts on one another’s social, political, economic, and cultural lives. Never before have they possessed so much knowledge and so much power to change their environment. In spite of the immense possibilities opened up by these ever-increasing inter-relationships, and in spite of the new skills which humankind has acquired, unprecedented crises are emerging in many areas.
The growing interdependence among individuals, among societies, and between human beings and nature heightens the impacts of individual and collective human actions on their social and natural environments, in the short and long run.
And yet, the social institutions which should enable the new challenges of the 21st century to be met are increasingly ineffective. The pervasive power of international markets is undermining the traditional role of states. Scientific institutions, pursuing specialized interests, are less likely to confront the global issues which challenge humanity. International economic institutions have failed to turn the rising tide of inequality. Business has often pursued its profit goals at the expense of social and environmental concerns. Religious institutions have not adequately fulfilled their role to provide responses to the new challenges faced by our societies.
In this context, every one of us must take up his or her responsibilities at both the individual and the collective level. New possibilities are opening up to play a role in the new challenges that face humankind: every human being has a role to play in redefining responsibility and has responsibilities to assume. The feeling of being powerless can be lessened and even overcome by linking up with others to forge a collective strength.
Although all people have an equal entitlement to human rights, their responsibilities are proportionate to the possibilities open to them. Freedom, access to information, knowledge, wealth, and power all increase the capacity for exercising responsibilities and the duty to account for one’s actions.
Responsibilities are related to the present and the future, as well as to past actions.
The burden of collectively-caused damage must be morally acknowledged by the group concerned, and put right in practical terms as far as possible. Since we can only partially understand the consequences of our actions now and in the future, our responsibility demands that we must act with great humility and demonstrate caution.
Principles to Guide the Exercise of Human Responsibilities:
- 1. We are all responsible for making sure that Human Rights are affirmed in our ways of thinking and in our actions.
- 2. Every person's dignity involves contributing to the freedom and dignity of others.
- 3. Responsibilities include ensuring the fulfilment of human potential, inclusive of material needs and non-material aspirations, as well as obligations to support the common good.
- 4. Lasting peace can only be expected from freedom, justice, and processes for reconciliation which are respectful of human dignity and human rights.
- 5. Development and consumption of natural resources to meet human needs, and the quest for prosperity must be backed by a commitment to sustainability and the principle of precaution, assuring pro-active protection of the environment, careful management of its diversity, and equitable sharing of wealth.
- 6. The full potential of knowledge and know-how is achieved through valuing different knowledge systems and ways of knowing, sharing them, and applying them in the service of unifying solidarity and a pluralistic culture of peace.
- 7. Freedom of scientific research implies being guided by ethical criteria such as enhancement of biodiversity, respect for human dignity and non-human forms of life, and regard for the limitations of human knowledge.
- 8. The exercise of power is legitimate where it serves the common good, and if it is accountable to those over whom it is exercised.
- 9. In reaching decisions about short-term priorities, evaluation of long-term consequences must concur with ethical priorities of justice and inter-generational environmental stewardship, taking into account both risks and uncertainties.
- 10. To face the challenges of today and of tomorrow, uniting in action must be balanced with respect for cultural specificities.
For more information please visit http://www.charter-human-responsibilities.net
IRCSA - International Rainwater Catchment Systems Association
The International Rainwater Catchment Systems Association (IRCSA) aims to promote and advance rainwater catchment systems technology with respect to planning, development, management, science, technology, research and education worldwide; establish an international forum for scientists, engineers, educators, administrators and those concerned in this field; draft international guidelines on this technology and update and disseminate information; collaborate with and support international programmes.
It was founded August 1989 at the 4th International Rainwater Cistern Systems Conference in Manila and officially launched in August 1991 at the 5th conference in Taiwan. The association has since run conferences every two years; in Kenya 1993, Beijing 1995, Iran Islamic Rep 1997, Brazil 1999, Germany 2001, Mexico 2003, India 2005 and Australia 2007. The next conference will be held in 2009 in Malaysia.
The primary objectives of IRCSA are:
- 1. The promotion and advancement of Rainwater Catchment Systems Technology with respect to planning, development, management, science, technology, research and education world-wide.
- 2. The establishment of an International forum for scientists, engineers, educators, administrators and all others who are, directly or indirectly, concerned in rainwater catchment system programs to link all those working in this field so that information and experiences can be shared.
- 3. The drafting of international guidelines on the use of Rainwater Catchment Systems technology and the updating and dissemination of this information.
- 4. The collaboration with and support of International Programs in the field of Rainwater Catchment Systems including co-operation with other organizations having activities in common.
- 5. The support and continuation of the International Rainwater Catchment Systems Conference series.
For more information please visit http://www.ircsa.org/
FINGER LAKES ENVIRONMENTAL FILM FESTIVAL AT ITHACA COLLEGE (FLEFF)
Launched in 1997 as an outreach project from the Center for the
Environment at the Cornell University, the Finger Lakes Environmental Film
Festival at Ithaca College explores the multi-layered zones for the
environmental sensualities. With an initiative taken by UNESCO on
sustainable development, the festival has redefined and expanded the
environmental issues to investigate the global interconnections between
war, disease, health, genocide, land, water, air, food, education,
technology, cultural heritage and diversity. Through film, video, new
media, installation, performance, music, panels and presentations, FLEFF
engages interdisciplinary dialogue and vigorous debate.
The festival embraces and interrogates sustainability across all of its
forms: economic, social, political, ecological, cultural, technological,
and aesthetic, showcasing Ithaca College as a regional and national center
for thinking differently about the environment, in new forms and
interfaces. FLEFF links the local with global to save and to sustain the
environment.
FLEFF explores water as an essential element and probes its sustainability
from the perspectives of art, humanity and science, focusing on the global
politics surrounding nature's blue gold. Examining the conflicts between
human and natural systems and emphasizing the interconnections between
environment, people and ideas, FLEFF participates again in a collaborative
partnership with the 'Voices from the Waters 2008'
For more information contact patty@ithaca.edu or visit: www.ithaca.edu/fleff/
