Minutes of Asha Seattle meeting on 03/12/08 Venue : RTC LWSD No 414, Sammamish B Room, Redmond, WA Attendees: Jyothi, Vinay, Harish, Arvind, Srijan, Vibhavaree, Shilesh, Binay, Ken, Megha, Deb, Nagendra, Raghav, Rajiv, Nisha, Aruna, Subhasish, Sukanta, Tapoja, Eera, and Pooja.. Update on National Association for the Blind (NAB) , Karnataka Chapter -- Presented by Megha Report on the site visit which as done on December, 2007. Visited the Karnataka chapter of NAB. Facility located in Jeevan Bima Nagar. The premises is clean and well maintained.  Funding sought to support adults with multiple sensory disorders. The project will fund 10 adults, for 1 year, and will provide boarding, lodging, and training for adults with multiple sensory disorders.  NAB, Karnataka's organization structure consists of a Director, Project Coordinators, Special Educators, Assistant Educators, and Female Assistants. Project Coordinators report to the Director, Special Educators report to a Project Coordinator and so on.  Rehabilitation of adults happens at mental and psychological level including training in mobility, and reading. Ultimate goal is to reach a self sufficient individual.  Funding is available for a similar project with children. This project will support adults. Right now, 5 adults have been recruited. 2 adults commute, and 2 adults stay at the hostel.  A detailed budget proposal for "this" year was presented. The budget was itemized and expense of each item was presented.  Questions that were raised -- # of adults supported per the # of funded staff working on the project. It was felt that more adults could be supported given the # of staff being funded.  Why haven't 10 adults been recruited till now? Are all the funded resources 100% dedicated to the project? Questions about the exact time period in which the funds will be used? Asha, Seattle has already contributed to this institution before. Questions about how that money is related to this project? Questions about unspent money from the previous years contribution.  Request to endorse the Letter to the Prime Minister, of India, from the Bhopal Padayatris -- Presented by Raghav A rather detailed discussion of events starting from the Bhopal gas leak, and the subsequent legal cases.  In 2006, survivors of the Bhopal gas leak undertook a padayatra, from Bhopal to Delhi, to meet the Prime Minister of India. 6 demands were made to the Prime Minister, of India, and he agreed to 4 of them.  Survivors of the Bhopal gas leak feel that certain promises that were made during that meeting with the Prime Minister haven't been met. So, they are undertaking another padayatra to press their demands. Specifically, they feel that the current coordinating committee should be replaced by a national commission. A coordinating committee has no power to implement its recommendations. A national commission can; hence the demand.  The padayatris have drafted a Letter to the Prime Minister of India. The presenter placed a proposal, for consideration by Asha Seattle, to endorse this letter. To give some context, Asha Seattle endorsed a similar letter, by the padayatris, in 2006. Questions that were raised -- Questions specific to the wording of the letter. It was not clear whether the demands are fresh or they were unsatisfied demands from previous meeting with the prime minister in 2006.  Questions about what was exactly promised / accepted by the Prime Minister. Is there a written agreement between the Prime Minister and the padayatris. Objections to certain claims in the letter which seemed to be in accurate.   Vote: Do you support this letter? Yes – 2, No – Rest, Abstain – 0 · Recommendation for online vote. It requires 2/3 majority with at least 15 votes Marathon Update -- Presented by Megha Rajiv and Jyothi will be the coordinators of the marathon.  Contract with Seattle Marathon. Asha Seattle marathon website and publicity material should mention its association with Seattle marathon. Call for a volunteer to work on the marathon website.  Chapter Update  -- Presented by Deb Geetanjali will be April. Need 6 - 8 volunteers for flyers. Need more volunteer for the event. Sign in sheet, for volunteers, was passed around.   Srijan -- Talk by Father Cedric Prakash, coming Friday, 03/14/08, at 5:00 PM in Bldg 40, Microsoft's Redmond Campus.  Update about the recently conducted work shop for volunteers.  AHEAD Project Update  There was no time left to present an update on this project. Interestingly, all the details were presented in couple of previous meetings and the project was discussed in detail. Only the voting was not conducted. Discussion about whether the project should be represented as no one could recollect all the details. Option was given to the project coordinators to hold an online vote.

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