Bonnie Ora Sherk recently traveled to India, where she was invited to present A Living Library in two different cities – Udaipur in Rajisthan, and Ahmedabad, in Gujurat – by two different ecological groups: Big Medicine Charitable Trust in Udaipur, and in Ahmedabad, by the Center for Environment Education.
Scenes from Haveli, (Old City), in Udaipur, Rajisthan, India
The Big Medicine Charitable Trust in Udaipur led by Rita Kubiak Dixit, Premilla Dixit Nag, and David Kubiak is undertaking large scale projects to help green this beautiful old City and bring it back to its more ecological roots. They are looking to A Living Library and Life Frames, Inc. to help them in this effort and would like to bring A Living Library to Udaipur. One of their strategies to engage more local residents and organizations around ecological issues and opportunities, is to present Shakti Sundays, in which diverse artists perform, and others present work to a large group of interested citizens from the area. Shakti means energy in Hindi.
On the evening of March 2, as part of Shakti Sunday, Bonnie Ora Sherk presented A Living Library, translated in Hindi by Premilla Dixit Nag. A.L.L. was very well received. There is now great interest in developing a unique, place-based, Udaipur Living Library & Think Park in the area. Funds will need to be raised to realize this exciting opportunity.
Bonnie Ora Sherk traveled next to Ahmedabad in Gujarat, India, to the Center for Environment Education (CEE), directed by Kartikeya Sarabhai, whom she met in Beijing in 2009, where they were both presenting at the 4th International Conference on Education for Sustainable Development (ESD), sponsored by UNESCO, People’s Republic of China, and Beijing Academy of Educational Sciences.
CEE, the largest environmental group in India, has school programs and interpretation centers all over India and in other parts of the world. Their Main Campus in Ahmedabad, shown below, was originally a sand dune !
Bonnie Ora presented A Living Library to the large CEE Staff introduced by Pramod Sharma, Director of CEE’s School Programs, and met with staff and later, Kartikeya, to discuss ways of working together to promote ecological thinking and doing in India, the USA, and other parts of the world. As a way to begin our collaboration, Life Frames and CEE will be linking A.L.L. students from San Francisco and New York City with those from different cities in India, so they can learn about their diverse cultures and ecologies. Kartikeya Sarabhai is also directing the global, Earth Charter initiative underway now.
And, after the Presentation, all enjoyed a delicious, vegetarian Indian lunch !
