AID Pilani Chapter

The 11th Annual AID-India Conference was held in Bangalore during 26th to 28th of December. The Conference was organised by AID-India, Bangalore Chapter.
 
The highlights of Day 1 can be summarised as:
1) Inaugural Address by Dr. Ravi and Dr. Thelma
2) AID-India General Secretary Address
3) Annual review of different activities and projects taken up by AID India chapters
4) A session on Zero waste management taken by AID Saathi C. Srinivasan
5) A session on Globalisation and Economic Crisis
 
The Chief Guests for the inauguration of the conference were Dr. Ravi and Dr. Thelma. They are the founders of the Community Health Cell (CHC) popularly known as Jana Swasthya Abhiyan. Their work was acknowledged by the Karnataka Association of Community Health (KACH) who awarded them ‘The Best Community Health Professional Award’. In his inaugural address Dr. Ravi shared his life experiences and how he was inspired to take up the community health campaign. His message to today’s generation was, "If you are confused and are not sure what to do just go and grab the first opportunity that you get”. Dr. Thelma who is Dr Ravi’s wife also shared her life experiences and also talked about the urgency of a strong public health system and the collective reflections and actions that are required. For more information on their community health cell log on to http://www.sochara.org .
 
The AID India General Secretary Balaji Sampath in his address expressed his pride in being a General Secretary of an NGO which had volunteers from different backgrounds, interests and directions but having one common interest - that of social service. He talked about the large scale work in Tamil Nadu and the small works carried out elsewhere.
 
This was followed by an annual review of different activities and projects taken up by AID India chapters. Some of the highlights of the review included the Bihar Chapter’s Flood relief work, AID Chennai’s large scale work in the field of education and health, and AID Srikakulam’s hay-box project. AID Pilani also gave a presentation on its establishment and a brief insight on its future projects.
 
The session on Zero Waste Management was taken by AID Saathi C.Srinivasan. In this session he discussed about his Zero Waste Management Plant in Vellore. It was very amazing to know that everything that we consider as waste can actually be converted in some or the other useful form and can be used for monetary gains. The fact that waste from our houses can be divided in 133 types was very startling!!! The most important thing about the project that he talked about was that the project did not involve any automation and only humans and animals were involved in it.
 
The last session of the day was on the current intriguing issue - "Globalisation and Economic Crisis" conducted by eminent economist M.R. Shenoy. In this he talked about the present recession times and the reasons behind it. He said it was mainly the greed of the banks to earn more money that has led to the current economic crisis. The session was very interesting as he explained all the difficult economic terms in layman’s terms. He ended the session on a note that the recession is just a beginning and the future may see even worse times.