Monday, June 29, 2009

Fundraising

So, why indeed am I running. It all started with a goal to raise some money for Asha for Education. The achievement of raising $1000+ was even bigger than actually finishing the marathon. So this year when I decided to run the full 26.2 miles, I also decided that I am going to put 100% effort in fundraising. This is especially important because of the way economy is going, most non-profits are in a cash crunch.

This year I was torn between 2 causes. Recently I got a chance to attend some International Campaign for Justice in Bhopal (ICJB) programs and also got to meet with couple of people visiting from Bhopal, including a 14 year old girl who is heading the Children for Bhopal campaign in India. This got me really thinking about the cause and I wanted to get involved and help.

I am sure most of us know that nearly 25 years ago, a Union Carbide (now Dow Chemical) pesticide factory in Bhopal sent a cloud of poisonous gas over a sleeping city and killed thousands in one night. It is one of the biggest industrial disaster to date. What is harder to imagine is that, after all of these years, second and third generations of Bhopali children are still being poisoned by toxins left at the factory that have been steadily seeping into their water supply.

* International Campaign for Justice in Bhopal is a organization working in US, India and several other countries to spread the awareness, build pressure on Indian government and Dow Chemicals to fulfill the basic demands of the victims.
* Sambhavana clinic is a free medicial clinic working to treat the victims.

I have set a goal to raise $2620 for the cause. Help me reach my fund raising goal by donating for my marathon. The donations can be made by:

* Check made to "Pesticide Action Network North America" with ICJB in memo. Check is preferred as it saves the organization 3% credit card fee. They can be mailed to me.
* Online credit card donation from PANNA's secure site - https://www.panna.org/system/give/onlineDonationICJB.php. Please add "Tulika Agrawal" to comments in Section 2.

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