[Peace-discuss] AWARE sponsorship?

[Linda Evans]

This was forwarded to me and I will bring it to the
meeting Sunday.  I thought some might want to look it
over prior to Sunday....

Start of forwarded message:

I am writing to you on behalf of the South Asian
Collective . We are
organizing a talk and were wondering if the AWARE
would like to
co-sponsor? 
More information is available below. 

Do let me know if there is someone else I should
contact regarding this
co-sponsorship. 

Talk by Dr. Sandeep Pandey

Date: 9th October, 2005
Venue: TBA
Time: 10:00 a.m.

South Asian Collective at UIUC would like to request
AWARE  to 
cosponsor
the visit of Sandeep Pandey, National Convener,
National Alliance of
People's Movements (NAPM), India.

Sandeep Pandey will be delivering a public lecture
titled - "Global
capital, local liability: Impact of neoliberal
policies on education 
and
social mobilization". We at SAC would be delighted if
AWARE  can help 
us
cosponsor this event. Co-sponsoring would involve
publicizing the event
to your membership and/or making a monetary
contribution to help us
defray the costs of bringing both Sandeep Pandey to
our campus
community. 

Please find below more information about Sandeep
Pandey. Please do let
us know of your decision at your earliest convenience.
We look forward
to hearing from you and working with AWARE  in
bringing leading 
academic
and social activists to our campus/community.

Thank you,
Tulsi
for South Asian Collective
https://netfiles.uiuc.edu/ro/www/SouthAsianCollective/

========================================================
About Sandeep Pandey
Sandeep Pandey has a PhD in Engineering from the
University of
California at Berkeley and while living in the USA
founded Asha for
Education, a very vibrant NGO that continues to do
stellar work on
education for under privileged children. Since moving
back to India, he
has been involved in setting up and running a school
in rural Uttar
Pradesh.

He has been active in empowering marginalized
communities as well as
working on issues of peace and justice. He has been a
strong voice
demanding de-nuclearization of South Asia and walked
over 1000 KM from
Pokhran - the site of India's nuclear tests - to
Sarnath - the site of
the Buddha's first teachings, creating awareness
regarding the impact 
of
nuclearization. He has  also been a strong advocate
against religious
violence and marginalization, actively working to
build an atmosphere 
of
religious pluralism. For all these efforts he was
awarded the Magsasay
Award in 2002 (one of the youngest awardees ever). The
Magsasay Award 
is
often described as Asia's Nobel Prize.

In Spring 2005, Sandeep Pandey organized a 1000 KM
march from Delhi to
Multan (in Pakistan) creating awareness through
discussions and 
cultural
programs on issues related to peace between India and
Pakistan. This 
was
the first extensive grass roots level interaction
between Indians and
Pakistanis in five decades.

In addition, he is the National Convener of NAPM and
in that role has
been active in voicing the concerns of various
communities against
exploitation by various multi-national organizations
and institutions 
in
this era of globalization.