Today was a day of registering our Brahma Kumaris (BK) delegation which consisted of eight members including two youth representatives from Sidney. From New York were our regular NGO representatives, Julia and Tamasin, and from Melbourne were Jacqueline Russell, Christine Westbury, and Pamala Donnellan. Our two youth representatives from Sydney were from Kim Wainer and Nithya. Charlie Hogg also joined us as a speaker for our workshop which will be held on Wednesday, September 1 from 2:30-4:00PM
On arrival at the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Center, having registered we went to set up our Exhibition Stand which was on ‘Spiritual Resilience and Health’. Our stand was to be in collaboration with Indigenous Australian artists; under the curation of Tjanara Goreng-Goreng, a BK and Aboriginal Elder. However, because of one ill health of a family member she was not able to attend. So with the cooperation and enthusiasm of the BK Melbourne Family we created a simple exhibition which focused on our work at the J Watumull Global Hospital and Reserch Centre (GHRC) in Rajasthan India, and showed a beautiful film set to music of the wonderful work and outreach programs to the local tribal communities, the Global Hospital undertakes. Reflecting that health and well being refers to the physical, social, emotional and spiritual well being of the entire person. We had plenty of space to display our information which included our written statement called Spiritual Resilience: Achieving Global Health our new booklet describing our work at the UN and how we integrate the spiritual with the secular, a postcard with an aboriginal rendition of the Supreme Being with a quote on spiritual resilience from Dadi Janki on the back, and a news letter from the hospital together with their annual report for 2009-10.
The Melbourne convention Center is an excellent venue for such a conference, with plenty of modern technological large meeting rooms for workshops, a huge plenary hall and exhibition space all in the same area, so that everything is in easy reach allowing for opportunities for networking with other conference delegates.
The Rural Development Wing of Brahma Kumaris has worked with farmers across India and have developed a yogic farming technique by incorporating ancient Rajayoga Meditation. Using this technique farmers bestow positive vibrations to the crops along with other organic inputs. Over the last 5 years this technique was adopted by a large number of farmers who have benefited significantly.
“Yogic Kheti” is a sustainable technique of agriculture where the farmers employ meditation as one of the key ingredients in every stage of farming. This can be practiced by farmers as they go through their daily chores in the field. When combined with methods of organic farming this resulted in significantly lower cost of inputs and improved productivity with better nutrition content.
Today I attended the launch of Global Voices, an exhibition by “What moves you? of photographs and oral histories that transformed a drab construction fence into a vibrant expression of civil society views on the UN’s Millennium Goals to eradicate poverty, achieve universal primary education, and protect the environment. What moves you? is an initiative which our friend and UN colleague, Shamina de Gonzaga co-founded. Shamina is also part of our Call-or-the-Time network.
We met our city officials, including Councilman Dan Garodnick, and environmental leaders. We learned about green initiatives. Heard about how we need to push back NY State’s development plan that will imperil our water supply by allowing the gas industry to drill in the Watershed, and learned how to support our parks and green spaces. It was very aptly held on a Wednesday when the Greenmarket comes to the park, so on a sunny if somewhat windy day UN people, families and their dogs filled the park. I was very touched by the community feeling and inspired by how even though our city is big, even in Manhattan, there can be a sense of a neighborhood. A wonderful group called “Friends of Dag Hammarskjold Plaza” were also there informing us how to volunteer our time and resources in helping the community’s long-term commitment to the parks preservation and upkeep. The Brahma Kumaris office is just off the park and we often walk through it on our way to and from the office and its natural elegance and community feeling is welcoming and refreshing. In the summer we sometimes meditate as children play and adults amble on their way home.
Gail Bindley-Taylor Sainte, Information Officer at the NGO Relations Cluster, in the Department of Public Information, started off the briefing highlighting the concept of Millennium Villages as a model for getting extremely poverty stricken areas in Africa lifted out of these situations.
Speakers:
Eric Kashambuzi, Liaison for Millennium Promise and Principal Advisor to the CEO of Millennium Promise, shared the history of Millenium Villages which provide a way from the ground up to form a more stable situation. This came out of wanting to reach the MDG goals in time. Secretary General Kofi Annan reviewed the progress of the MDG’s as proposed by the General Assembly with Professor Jeffrey Sachs whom he comissioned as head of the task force. Mr. Sachs came up with the Millennium Villages through consulting with Member States, NGO’s and members of the UN System. The concept was to actually get things in motion called Quick Impact Initiatives, with water, agriculture, school feeding programs, communication and transportation. Member States selected 10 African countries in 2005 to participate Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Mali, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, Tanzania and Uganda have programs going on now. An assessment was turned into the General Assembly in 2008 with positive results and more support for new Millenium Village programs are being requested. Mr. Kashambuzi asked the NGO’s to provide any new ideas to further the progress of these villages especially to help meet the MDG goals by 2015.
Patrick Haverman, Project Manager, Millennium Village, Regional Bureau for Africa, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), further explained how the Millennium Villages work. They provide resources, and necessities for empowering rural villages which enables them to get out of poverty. The programs have been set up in ecologically diverse areas and focus on four main areas, health, water and environment, infrastructure and agriculture. Mr. Haverman also noted that the programs require cooperation from different areas, and key sponsors the approach is integrated and uses the community itself to make things work and to transform the economic structure so that this can continue in the future. Sponsors of the program include UNDP, Millennium Promise, and Earth Institute with other donors to funds approximately $110 USD per villager per year which is fairly inexpensive. Successes on different levels have been achieved with the help of many partnerships and with the help of NGOs with simple affordable methods to help achieve the Millennium Development Goals.
Rebbie Harawa, Coordinator, the Millennium Village, joined us from Melawi via video conference call. School attendance has increased since children are being fed there and agricultural production has increased due to fertilizers and new farming tecniques, to beyond just the needs of the family so extra crops can be sold. This is allowing for families to buy household goods and also enabling them to be able to save money in the bank. Some health challenges are being dealt with and this is helping to restore a hopeful attitude. Also family planning clinics are educating the population to keep the population from rapidly increasing.
Philippe Poinsot, Deputy Programme, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Mali, presented the Millennium Village programs in Mali. The government and UNDP are working in cooperation for two projects there and the government is very supportive to increase the food security and would like to increase the scope of the programs.
George Ayittey, Professor of Economics, American University, cautioned that the village projects not employ too many western methods but rather focus on traditional leadership for decision making. He works with Free Africa Foundation freeafrica.org and they were able to create malaria free zones for about 50,000 farmers as well as utilize traditional palm agriculture and help augment the oil production. He stressed that development programs implemented in African countries need to be sustainable. Dr. Ayittey also pointed out that Africa is rich in natural resources but that constant political conflict struggles have undermined the ability to feed its peoples.
Millennium Villages and Free Africa Foundation are helping to renew some villages in African countries. Much more needs to be done on a widespread scale to really make an impact. Cooperation from many groups is needed for ongoing success and corruption and misuse of resources needs to be addressed in order to promote good projects like these to multiply and help so many that have such daily struggles to just survive. May the people of the world recognize the need to help one another so poverty can be eradicated from Africa and many other corners of the planet as well.
UN Headquarters Staff, NGOs and Permanent Missions gathered on the lawn in front of the Secretariat Building to help eradicate poverty 17 October 11:00am for the Stand Up Take Action for the Millennium Development Goals.
Some video of this and other programs following this event are available at the links below.
Special Event: United Nations staff, permanent missions, non-governmental organizations and students will take part in a “Stand Up, Take Action” event in front of the UN Secretariat building. The Stand Up event will feature performances from the cast of the Broadway Musical “A Tale of Two Cities”. [Webcast: Archived Video- English: 38 minutes ]
Statement by H.E. Mr. Miguel d’Escoto Brockmann, President of the 63rd session of the General Assembly
[Webcast: Archived Video- 7 minutes ]
The Day continued with more discussion to end poverty. Special Event: Observance of the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty on the theme “Human rights and dignity of people living in poverty” - Opening ceremony and round table on “Turning rhetoric into action –– Building effective partnerships to combat extreme poverty and exclusion”.
[Webcast: Archived Video: 1 hour and 18 minutes - Part 1 ]
[Webcast: Archived Video: 2 hours and 34 minutes - Part 2 ]
