You're Invited to a film screening and fundraiser!!

BE THE CHANGE...

You're invited to come and watch the Academy award winning for Best Documentary feature film in 2005 "Born into Brothels- Calcutta's Red Light Kids" as a fundraiser for the new Hope House in India!

Film Synopsis- In 1997, photographer Zana Briski was assigned to capture female images of brothels in Sonagachi, Calcutta, India. While the women were reluctant to let her into their lives, the children quickly responded and Briski became a resident of the brothel for five years. During that time, she provided the children with point and shoot cameras, set up classes in photography, and trained them to document the harsh reality of their daily lives. The result is the inspiring Oscar winning documentary "Born Into Brothels," a film that takes us inside the squalid brothels and allows us to see the world through the eyes of some of its most vulnerable residents, five girls and three boys, ages ten to fourteen. Shot in dazzling color using a digital camera, we get to know the children through their photos.

This worldwide Oct. 2nd screening is a fundraiser for the new Hope House current planned in India. How can you help to break the cycle of poverty and make a difference in the lives of more children like those portrayed in Born into Brothels?

Kids With Cameras (started by Briski) plans to break ground in late 2009/early 2010 to construct Hope House (Asha Niwas). This will be a nurturing safe haven where up to 100 GIRLS from Calcutta's red light district can come to live and develop the strength and skills to change their own circumstances while remaining connected to their families.

The children who live in Hope House will receive a free, first-rate education through high school, courtesy of the Buntain Foundation, which owns and operates 100 schools in India. The Buntain Foundation will also manage and staff the home. For more information and future plans please visit:
http://www.kids-with-cameras.org/school/

We are accepting all donations for the Hope House and do encourage about $10-30 per person at entry. There will be wine, popcorn, giveaways and other treats will be available. Please come early for a set chair or bring a low seat/chair for the floor. We hope to pack the house...India Style!

The auspicious date is the 140th Anniversary of Ghandi's birthday... as way to "Be the Change we want to see in the world!"

Please RSVP on Facebook and invite generous friends...
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=138028995414&index=1

This Aussie Baby town don't want the Bottle!

Bundanoon Bans the Bottle....YEAH!!!



The small town of Bundanoon, New South Wales, Australia has taken the revolutionary forward thiking step of simply banning all bottled waters in their town. They have instead sold reusable bottles and created town public drinking fountains all over the small area. I feel that bans allow for choice still, as long as the choice is a more sustainable one.

AP Wire- " An Australian town pulled all bottled water from its shelves Saturday and replaced it with refillable bottles in what is believed to be a world-first ban.

Hundreds of people marched through the picturesque rural town of Bundanoon to mark the first day of its bottled water ban by unveiling a series of new public drinking fountains, said campaign spokesman John Dee.

Shopkeepers ceremoniously removed the last bottles of water from their shelves and replaced them with reusable bottles that can be filled from fountains inside the town's shops or at water stations in the street.

"Every bottle today was taken off the shelf and out of the fridges so you can only now buy refillable bottles in shops in Bundanoon," Dee told AFP!!

San Francisco banned the plastic bag and now we have paper bags being used and sold. I wonder which will have a longer lasting effect on the town and the environment?

Way to go BUNDANOON!!!

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20090926/wl_asia_afp/australiaenvironmentwater

Kids will change this World!

It may take a child's point of view and perspective to change our environmental issues. The real point is to connect viscerally and feel the movement... that is what creates lasting change of habits and patterns. Please watch this video and pass it on to others that may inspire youth, adults and all change agents!

This is the purest example of Aspiring to Inspire before Expiring... even at a tender young age! The youth can speak for itself...



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TQmz6Rbpnu0

Intense Coal in the Water- Slideshow

http://video.nytimes.com/video/2009/09/12/us/1247464506260/toxic-waters-coal-in-the-water.html


Toxic Waters: Coal in the Water
Jennifer Hall-Massey of Prenter, W.Va., explains how water pollution, which she believes is caused by nearby coal companies, has impacted her family and community.

To see what is in your water check out this website from the EPA.
http://www.epa.gov/safewater/dwh/index.html

The Community Clean Water Institute for water rights.
http://www.ccwi.org/issues/waterrights.htm

We have established programs for Africa and India for Clean water but what about here in the USA:
http://thewaterproject.org/getinvolved.asp?Ref=T