Friends of Nowder

On Sunday 24^th January Global Footsteps members Arosh Ali, Mary Paterson and myself met at the Friends Meeting House in Cheltenham with a host of others involved in the formation of The Friends of Nowder charitable trust.

Arosh Ali has been a member of Global Footsteps for about a year now, he came to us to see how we could help him establish a UK based charity that would support the work of the HRA Foundation, a community capacity building project in Arosh’s home village of Nowder in rural Bangladesh. Since the day Arosh first walked into FootSteps we have been helping him conceptualise, organise and now formally establish the Friends of Nowder. Friends of Nowder will perform three roles. In the first instance, and most importantly, it will raise money to send as grants to the HRA Foundation to help it grow and flourish in three main areas: Education, Primary Health Care and Women’s Empowerment. Secondly, Friends of Nowder will raise awareness amongst the UK population of the issues surrounding development in Bangladesh and the wider developing world. Thirdly, it will advise start-up or emerging community projects that have similar aims and goals as the HRA Foundation. The HRA Foundation has been in operation for just over two years, thanks to the tireless work and enthusiasm of Arosh Ali, once it is well established Friends of Nowder will look for other projects to fund and support.

Sunday’s meeting was also attended by Jerry and Sue Barr from Bishop’s Cleeve who continue to provide invaluable advice and support to the project. Friends of Nowder are also tremendously fortunate to have Martin Horwood MP as a patron and he was on hand on Sunday to witness the official signatures of the first three trustees of Friends of Nowder: Mary Paterson, Tariq Rashid and myself.

Mary visited Nowder early last year and has since been very keen to help the HRA get off the ground. I will visit Nowder on a Global Venture later this year to assist in the production of promotional materials including a documentary on the work being done to cope with and eradicate poverty in Bangladesh. Tariq is also keen to visit Nowder in the near future and we hope to invite an employee of the HRA to the UK on a Global Venture later in the year as well as to Footstep 12 in Slovakia this August.

The links between the HRA Foundation, Friends of Nowder and Global Footsteps represent a fantastic step forward for our charity, it will bring with it many opportunities for improved intercultural understanding and education about many environmental, sustainability and development issues. We will do everything we can to help it flourish and grow.

by Morgan Phillips, Global Footsteps Co-ordinator

Kenyan Venturers in the Echo

Daisy Blacklock at the Gloucestershire Echo interviewed our Founder Dennis Mitchell following the recent Film screening held at Friends Meeting House. Please click on the article to read it in full.

Book Club: The White Tiger

Tina McCausland discusses another successful Global Footsteps book club discussion.

We learnt about the character Balsam who grows up in the underbelly of Indian society, which Balsam also refers to as 'the darkness'.

The story is told in Balsam's voice as we experience life in the slums of India, the caste system and the lives of those in servitude.

The group commented on the many animal references throughout the book such as Balsam being also known as The White Tiger and the metaphor of a chicken in a coop to descibe how Balsam feels about his life and the society that he lives in.

We were encouraged to discuss politics, religion and prejudice as we explored Balsam's long desperate journey from the darkness into the light of a higher 'better' society and so Balsam's apparent freedom from servitude. We commented on the the ugly sacrifices that he makes to move into the light (as he eventually believes that the key to the door of his cage was always open).

We admired the author's language such as "Every now and then an egg will crack open - a woman's hand, dazzling with gold bangles, stretches out of an open window, flings an empty mineral water bottle onto the road - and then the window goes up and the egg is resealed" (p. 134).

Everyone had lots of particularly positive things to say about this book and it also generated discussion about personal experiences of India (and the suggestion to read the book Shantaram, also a book about he slums of India).

The White Tiger opens the door on the harsh injustices experienced by the poor in India and could be applied to other countries. We found it inciteful, brutal, tender, witty and poetic.

Book for next book club session

The 5 People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom

Suggestions of books for future book club sessions

Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books by Azar Nafis

The Winter Book by Tove Jansson

Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy

Santa runs for Global Footsteps

Howard Marshall pictured here, dressed as Santa, with Ania Standish, ran a half marathon in our linked community of Torun. Glenn Standish (our man in Torun) sent this short report:

Global Footsteps member Howard Marshall successfully took part in Torun's annual Santa Claus half-marathon (today is St Nicholas Day). Howard did very well at completed the 21km route in 2hrs 33 mins (a personal best for him...which is quite a feat considering he was wearing a full Santa outfit complete with white painted-on beard!).

Howard was running in aid of Global Footsteps. Thanks to all those who have sponsored him. And for those who haven't there is still time to sponsor!

A short film has been made of his run...and once we edit the raw material...Howard will no doubt show it to you all one evening. You can contact Howard to say well done at 07slr@tiscali.co.uk.

Well done Howard!!

Kosimbo Women's Clinic

In June and July a team from Global Footsteps visited a volunteer run health clinic in a rural part of the Kisumu region of Western Kenya. The clinic was set up by a widow, Margaret Kawala, who wanted to make access to basic medical care easier for widows and orphans in her remote home village. Kosimbo volunteers managed to build a very basic medical centre, dig a borehole to gain access to fresh water, while also contributing to the building and running of the local school. When our team visited the project seemed to be operating well. But the need for more work and resources was clear. The health clinic needs to be open more often, the school needs books, pencils, uniforms, teachers and computers and more boreholes are needed so that people don't have to walk miles to fetch the dirty water of Lake Victoria.

Since July conditions have become more difficult for Kosimbo and life has become harder for the people of the village as a result. Crucial funds from the Kisumu Rural Community Development Fund have been diverted to other projects. Because of this and some other more troubling, deeper, cultural reasons Mrs Kawala has found it increasingly difficult to keep the project alive. She recently sent me the following email:

morgan,

how are you. i have not been myself for the last four months and was almost giving up on kosimbo widows group.
it has taken me a while to realise that this project was started with a purpose of helping the widows and our orphans.
It also took me time to realise that very few people appreciate a person interested in development and especially if the person is a woman and a widow . But this has given me the courage to be a stronger person and work hard for kosimbo to be able to improve the lives of the widows, ophans and needy in our community.
since i have not communicated for sometime, im not sure of the plans you have for kosimbo. i will give you an update after your reply.

thank you

margaret

On December 12th Global Footsteps is screening a documentary made during the June/July Global Venture. The Kosimbo project is featured and we will be giving a fuller update on the latest developments. You can get a sneak preview on youtube

Kosimbo is crying out for help and support, but more than anything it needs recognition. Kosimbo is in many ways a pioneering project and of huge value not only to those directly benefiting from its services, but also as an example for other villages to follow. Please send messages of support to Margeret and her team via: kosimbo@yahoo.com

Global Footsteps is an inter-cultural linking and sustainability charity. We very much encourage anyone who would like to travel to Kisumu to volunteer with the Kosimbo project. Whatever your skill set there will be huge amounts of things you can contribute.

Please email us on globalfootstep@googlemail.com for more details. Projects like Kosimbo need support from partners in the richer parts of the world, please offer what you can even if it is only kind words.

1st (proper) Global Footsteps Book Club meeting - 22nd October 2009

Justine chaired our first (proper) book club meeting, below she describes

what happened!

"....sexually explicit language and imagery, deep dark thoughts,

suicide, grief, mental illness, political angst.... just some of the

things discussed during GF's first book group meeting - not in a

getting to know you session with it's new members you'll be happy to

hear but in relation to the first book read by the group and up for

discussion.

Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami is a deliciously discussable book as

we found out! Murakami is a Japanese author who has written many other

books that have quite a dream like quality to them. NW is essentially

about mental illness, the Beatles and is set in 1960's Tokyo covering

the highs of lows of student life For a full review please see

http://www.murakami.ch/about_hm/bookreviews/bookreview_norwegian_wood.

html There were mixed views in the group but it had seemed to have

successfully sucked all of us in as there were some quite strong

opinions expressed as we shared our thoughts, and the evening turned

into a most enjoyable one with some new friends made..

Here are some quotes from the book, which are typical of Murakami's

poetic prose:-

"You were so nice to me when I was having my problems, but now that

you're having yours, it seems there's not a thing I can do for you.

You're all locked up in that little world of yours, and when I try

knocking on the door, you just sort of look up for a second and go

right back inside."

"If you only read the books that everyone else is reading, you can

only think what everyone else is thinking."

"There is absolutely nothing to be gained from sleeping with one

strange woman after another. It just tires you out and makes you

disgusted with yourself."

"Only the dead stay seventeen forever."

"Life doesn't require ideals. It requires standards of action."

"A gentleman is someone who does not what he wants to do but what he

should do."

"Of course life frightens me sometimes. I don't happen to take that as

the premise for everything else though. I'm going to give it hundred

percent and go as far as I can. I'll take what I want and leave what I

don't want. That's how I intend to live my life, and it things go bad,

I'll stop and reconsider at that point. If you think about it, an

unfair society is a society that makes it possible for you to exploit

your abilities to the limit."

"Don't feel sorry for yourself. Only assholes do that."

"Letters are just pieces of paper. ... Burn them, and what stays in

your heart will stay, keep them, and what vanishes will vanish."

They are also making it into a film for autumn 2010 http://www.

slashfilm.com/2009/05/14/rinko-kikuchi-starring-in-film-adaptation-of-

haruki-murakamis-norwegian-wood/ and if you want to know more about the

author look at http://www.randomhouse.com/features/murakami/site.php?

id=

Looking forward to the next meeting on 3rd Dec where we will be

reading the Great Gatsby. See you there!

'Feel' by Joshua Sanger

'Feel'

The rush kicks in.

Sound of step.

Leaves fall passed my eyes flowing rythem and wonder.

Measure life not by experience. Not by achievement. Certainly not by status.

By love.

Can you say you love?

Kissed by the most raw of moments.

I love.