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India, India 2017 Journey Blog, Kashmir 2018

Global Citizen Journey, Kashmir 2018 – A Life-Changing Journey

Global Citizen Journey (GCJ) returns to India in October 2018 with ambitious and adventurous plans to visit one of the most beautiful, diverse, and contested areas of India.   Most of us know little about Kashmir beyond a vague awareness that it is embroiled in intractable conflict.  We will be guided by our local sponsor ELFA International (Education and Livelihood for All) who will connect us with local Kashmiri leaders, nonprofits, and organizations so that we can learn, explore, and listen together. Our goal is to foster dialogue and relationship building and find bases of unity, a common purpose, and a creative process as well as a project that will be meaningful to the Kashmiri people.

 

Learn more here  (NOTE:  For those of you in the Seattle area, join us for a inspiring evening on Thursday, 8 March when we’ll share stories from last January’s delegation to India as well as talk about the situation in Kashmir and plans for this upcoming delegation.)

November 10, 2017/by Shruti Arora
India, India 2017 Journey Blog, uncategorized

Report from India GCJ Delegation to Maher in Pune

Last years TRIP to India included 24 delegates from the United States, India, Germany, Venezuela, and Spain. To learn more about their experiences, click here and scroll to the bottom of the page.

 

November 6, 2017/by Shruti Arora
uncategorized

Quote

 “One of the most sincere forms of respect is actually listening to what another has to say.”   Bryant McGill

November 5, 2017/by Shruti Arora
Kashmir 2018

Fun Fact/ Quiz

How much does 1 gram of Mongra (highest grade) Kashmiri Saffron cost on Amazon.com?

  1. $27
  2. $44
  3. $53
  4. $67
Answers 2. 44$
October 27, 2017/by Shruti Arora
Burundi, News

News from Partners – Burundi-2

Global Citizen Journey visited Burundi in 2008, but just because the trip ended didn’t mean the engagement with the community did too.  To this day, GCJ delegates are partnered with The Carama Women’s Future Association in Burundi, an organization that works with the Carama Widows Association and helps them purchase land so that these powerful women can support themselves and their families financially.  To learn more about this amazing organization, visit here or to donate to help with their next land purchase visit here. >> https://www.facebook.com/238561311217/photos/a.10150191650251218.313510.238561311217/10154498186501218/?type=3&theate

 

Donate

 

 

October 27, 2017/by Shruti Arora
India, Kashmir 2018, uncategorized

Upcoming Trip News Kashmir 2018

  • Agriculture is the main pillar of the economy in Kashmir, but tourism has been rising in recent years and now Kashmir is one of the top tourist destinations in India.  Despite this, Kashmir is also one of the most militarized zones in the world.  Learn more about the northernmost province of India here.
  • Kashmir’s most famous export is saffron.  This valuable spice is grown commercially in Iran, Spain, and India, but Kashmir’s is thought to be the best.  Harvested from the crocus flower, saffron costs about $6,500 per pound.  More pictures and information about Kashmiri can be found here.

Stay tuned for news of Global Citizen Journey’s next adventure to Kashmir, India!

 

October 27, 2017/by Shruti Arora
India, Kashmir 2018, News, Sidebar News Posts

GCJ delegation to Kashmir in 2018!

Global Citizen Journey returns to India with ambitious and adventurous plans to visit one of the most beautiful, diverse, and contested areas of India in September 2018.   Most of us know little about Kashmir beyond a vague awareness that it is embroiled in intractable conflict. We will be guided by our local sponsor ELFA International (Education and Livelihood For All) who will connect us with local Kashmiri leaders, nonprofits and organizations so that we can learn, explore, and listen together.

Our goal is to foster dialogue and relationship building and find bases of unity, a common purpose, and a creative process as well as a project that will be meaningful to the Kashmiri people.  Read more.

October 9, 2017/by Susan Partnow
uncategorized

Personal Journey -India

September 30, 2017/by Shruti Arora
News

Building the United Village – Meet a Burundi Hero – Wednesday August 2

Come learn about United Village – a wonderful local GCJ partner – for a fun and fulfilling evening! You’ll hear stories from Seattle’s inspiring international summer day Peace Camp here in Seattle, founded by Gretchen Rowe, with counselors from India and Uganda this summer.  Bernard will speak about Uganda Martyrs Orphans’ Project.  We’ll share highlights from the remarkable delegation of Global Citizen Journey to Maher Communities in Pune, India —

And then you’ll meet our featured guest Prosper Ndabishuriye, founder of Youth in Construction in a World of Destruction,  from tiny Burundi where is doing extraordinary work to build homes, spread hope, and help children go to school. We’ll top the evening off with some Bollywood dancing led by the dazzling Gaus Sayyad and Mangesh Pol – counselors at Peace Camp and delegates from GCJ Maher in India. Wow!  What an Internationally United Village all in one night!

Wednesday, August 2, 7 to 8:30 pm

Interfaith Community Sanctuary, 1763 NW 62nd St, Seattle, Washington 98107

July 29, 2017/by Susan Partnow
India, India 2017 Journey Blog, News

On a Global Citizen Journey in My Own Hometown

For someone like me – a somewhat ordinary woman – thinking globally has been a relatively new experience. Cocooned in my comfort zone, I spent most of my life commuting between work and home, until work made me travel and explore my own country, quite late, in my early thirties. The nature of my work made me more ambitious enough to even travel to the United States for an advanced degree. It was then that migration, refugees, conflict, disparity, racism sounded like real words for me; but so did globalization, interconnectedness, peace, and justice. In these past two or three years, I have oscillated several times between momentary greatness, reflecting on global issues and my comfort zone; job, home, and family. And then, I got the opportunity to embark on a global citizen journey in my own hometown as an Indian delegate.

So, this diverse crowd of strangers with unknown pasts, unknown political leanings and religious sentiments embarked on a journey to live and travel together for eight days. There would not have been a more appropriate place for our stay than ‘Maher’ – a home for mentally-disturbed women and destitute children. We lived with the inmates under the same roof, yet we were from different worlds and separated by our privileges. However, living close to those women and children gave us the opportunity to understand their lives, know a bit of their past, the ordeals they survived and witness the magical happiness they have created in their home of about 150 family members. Their enthusiasm and hopes are so contagious that one can hardly avoid being affected. We visited more such Maher homes in different villages witnessing the difference Maher made in the lives of so many children. It was overwhelming to hear of the dreams and aspirations of children who would have otherwise lived a life of destitution and neglect on the streets. Some would have begged, some abused, and some would have not lived for long.

Meena is on the far end wearing a blue scarf and Susan, Founder and Executive Director, is kneeling and surrounded by several Indian delegates.

The GCJ delegation was a motley crowd of eight American women, a young Spanish woman, a young man from Venezuela, a teen from Germany, and nine Indian delegates – six women and eight men – and a wonderful Jewish-American woman leading the team. They were of different age, profession, experience and probably the only thing that was common among them was that they belonged to the same planet, same globe. Though interacting with a person from a different country and skin color was not a new experience for me professionally, but I wondered how it would be like to interact with them on a personal level. How scary would it be to reveal our personal choices, thoughts, feelings, fears and even prejudices? Would they like me? Would I like them? What would we do for a whole eight days together? And then, very gently, we were exposed to the techniques of compassionate listening that soon bridged the distance between hearts, patched up the differences or at least expanded our capacity to accept and include thoughts and people that differed from us. For example, an intense debate on how to fight sexual violence ended in accepting all views from changing the way we bring up our children, being vigilant, self-defense, pepper sprays and even spiritual intervention.

There was so much to learn, experience, reflect and absorb. How could we not have been transformed by this experience? An exercise that particularly comes to mind is when I was paired with a stranger and we had to share our feelings and thoughts at that exact moment and the other person would listen compassionately, without reacting or judging and with full attention. For me, it was a great feeling to know that no matter what the person in front of me said, I had the power to react and make the other person feel listened to without having to react. Many such interactions involved diving into the deepest and some dark corners of my mind and re-surfacing feelings that had not yet died but still buried deep into oblivion. For someone like me who is very selective about what I am sharing and with whom, it was a great churning of emotions and a whole lot of extra effort to open up. It made me wonder how inept I was at openly accepting my feelings, showing my wounds and weaknesses, letting go and being able to talk calmly about the most disturbing facts of my life. Some wounds never heal, but it was nice to have someone to listen to me and acknowledge the pain especially when there was a safe space to open up. It is true that life hardens us as it subjects us to traumas and troubles over time and to protect ourselves from being hurt, we build walls around us – walls of indifference, insensitivity, and aversion to everything that may expose our weaknesses. Special efforts are surely needed to cultivate compassion in hearts hardened by misery and distrust.

There were some light moments as well with cooking and serving Jewish delicacies, American apple pie, Indian street food and some green smoothies by an Indian delegate, who is a passionate proponent of organic farming. Some witty delegates lightened the air by punctuating intense moments with their humor. A dance program with the children and women of Maher, however, stole the show revealing a bit of Maher’s recipe of creating joy by people who once had nothing. Most of us, especially the foreign delegates could not have enough of the beautiful things made at the Maher production house – purses and bags of flamboyant colors and elegant designs, candles, greeting cards and spicy Indian masalas.

Being a learning maniac, I was enthused with the Open-Space Technology and World Café that were on the agenda towards the end. Did I wonder how chaotic it would be when 150 people discussed equity, justice and empowerment in a not so big hall of a local college? But the day dawned to put all my apprehensions and anxieties to rest as a team of Maher volunteers dressed in bright yellow that we fondly refer to as the ‘Yellow Brigade’ made it happen. In no time, 150 people were organized into groups to collectively harvest ideas, dreams, ambitions and plans toward advancing humanity to a more just, equal and empowered society.

Then came the final day, the day of adjourning, that left us marveling at the countless deep interactions we had among ourselves. We would go back into our smaller, individual worlds but not without realizing that all these small individual worlds collectively made up the larger one and in knowing that we are connected. That no matter how different our citizenship, skin color, language or lifestyles were, we share common values of justice, equity and compassion. That the injustice to one community was an injustice to all and the suffering of some people would leave scars on all humanity and that humanity on earth shared a common global future.

GCJ is not about crossing borders or traveling for me, it is about breaking barriers of fear, distrust, indifference between me and people who were not like me and thus being a Global Citizen.

– Meena Jadhav, Indian delegate 

January 31, 2017/by Susan Partnow
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