This
year will be our 4-year anniversary doing Jai Bhim International projects in India. In
the past, we have done a lot of traveling across
India, meeting with partners, building our team, creating alliances, and
asking for support. This has been great and very fruitful. We are now part of a broader movement and our work is known and
respected in the Jai Bhim community, in North, central and
South India.
Our friends in the South need particular support, as they
are geographically, linguistically and culturally separated from the larger movement in central India. Our longest-running JBI
projects have been in the South, in Kerala and near Chennai, with the
teams of Jai Bhim Kerala and the Sakya Hostels. Our work has been building, and we are seeing the fruits of our efforts, as
our projects continue to grow and spread throughout the year.
So
this
year we will be traveling less, and concentrating time, energy,
financial resources and friendship in the South in these two communities.
This will allow us to go deeper in our friendships, and also give these teams the
opportunity to collaborate with one another across South India. Rather
than travel to Nagpur this year, the center of the Jai Bhim movement in
India, we
will be financing the travel of our Project Coordinators there in
the Spring. They will be representing South India at
the NTI Alumni Conference at Nagaloka, connecting with other
socially-engaged Buddhists themselves, advocating for their
projects and building new alliances. We are all very excited about
this transition.
On this trip, December 2011-January 2012, we will be leading our third annual 6-day
Communicative English retreat with Jai Bhim Kerala. Our team will be leading more of the workshops and using new tools to create videos and online photo albums documenting our time together. After the retreat, we will travel
to local Buddhist sites together for more intensive leadership
discussions and visioning.
The second leg of this year's trip will be to Sakya Hostels, near Chennai, for Communciative English and Buddhist Dharma workshops with the 50 young students, as we have done in the past. What is new this year
is that we will be doing intensive study skills workshops with the older
students, which they will then lead for the younger students. The Sakya team and their local Mitra Sangha will also meet for a 5-day Dharma Study, which they will then lead with the older students, who will
then lead with the younger students.
In Hungary, The Jai
Bhim Network continues to grow, inspired by Dr. Ambedkar's example. They are facing some serious political opposition in their
work, as the right wing grows in power in their country. Although we are not financially supporting their work this year, we are in touch with them, and are inspired by their example. Please visit our update on our website, to learn more about their movement.
Our plans are still evolving, and we will continue to post our intentions and aspirations.
May all beings benefit. Jai Bhim.
info@jaibhiminternational.org
jai bhim international -caste-free generation-
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