Bhopal Survivors’ Tour

Invitation to PIH to sing 7pm on Friday, 14 September 2012, Augustine Church, Edinburgh

Scot­tish Friends of Bhopal is involved in organ­is­ing a tour of Britain and Ire­land of two Bhopal sur­vivors in Sep­tem­ber of this year. The sur­vivors will be in Scot­land from 14–18 Sep­tem­ber. On Fri­day the 14th, they will be speak­ing to a pub­lic meet­ing at the Augus­tine Church, George IV Bridge.

Protest in Har­mo­ny has been invit­ed to sing 3–4 songs to start the meet­ing — at 7pm. I have includ­ed more infor­ma­tion about the tour below.  We will be singing to sup­port this tour and the Inter­na­tion­al Cam­paign for Jus­tice in Bhopal. I hope you can join us.

If you will be able to sing with PIH on the 14th of Sep­tem­ber, could you let me know as soon as pos­si­ble (kajenkins@blueyonder.co.uk). Thank you very much.

Request for help with accommodation

We are also look­ing for peo­ple who might be able to offer either Safreen or  Namdev accom­mo­da­tion for some or all of the days they are in Edin­burgh (14 and 15th Sept and 18th Sept)  If you might be able to do this, please con­tact me. Thank you!

Kathy Jenk­ins

More information about the tour.

The Tour is to build aware­ness in the run up to the 30th anniver­sary of the Bhopal Dis­as­ter.   A sec­ond and impor­tant pur­pose for the trip is to bring togeth­er the Bhopal Sur­vivors with  trade union and oth­er activists involved in resist­ing pol­lu­tion in UK communities. 

The indi­vid­u­als who will be vis­it­ing will be Safreen Khan and Balkr­ish­na Namdev. Safreen is the nine­teen year old daugh­ter of gas exposed par­ents and  founder mem­ber of Chil­dren Against Dow-Car­bide, which was formed in 2008 by young gen­er­a­tion sur­vivors to sus­tain the cam­paign against Dow and the ongo­ing dis­as­ter. Namdev is leader of the Des­ti­tute Pen­sion­ers’ Front (Gas Peed­it Nirashrit Pen­sion Bho­gi San­garsh Mor­cha). They are both active in the Inter­na­tion­al Cam­paign for Jus­tice in Bhopal (ICJB), which has insti­gat­ed the tour.

Their itin­er­ary in Scot­land will be:

  • Fri­day 14th  — Pub­lic Meeting,7 pm
  • Sat­ur­day 15th  — Activist Meet­ing with the Envi­ron­men­tal Jus­tice Forum, Augus­tine Church, 2.30pm
  • Sun­day 16th — Rise Up Singing at Faslane
  • Mon­day 17th — Meet­ing with Trade Union lead­ers and oth­ers at the STUC and vis­its to pol­lu­tion impact­ed com­mu­ni­ties in the West of Scotland.
  • Tues­day, 18th — Vis­it with Scot­tish Reli­gious Lead­ers (TBC); Scot­tish Par­lia­ment Cross Par­ty Group on Inter­na­tion­al Devel­op­ment, 5.30pm at the Scot­tish Par­lia­ment; Fundrais­ing din­ner at the Kath­man­du Restau­rant, For­rest Road, 8.30pm

Infor­ma­tion about the tour in Eng­land, Wales and Ire­land can be found at: http://www.bhopal.org/ways-to-help/forthcoming-events/

More information about Bhopal, the continuing campaign and Scottish Friends of Bhopal

Almost 28 years on, tox­ic waste still lies strewn in and around the fac­to­ry, con­t­a­m­i­nat­ing the soil and leak­ing its poi­sons into the ground­wa­ter.  More than 25,000 peo­ple have con­sumed this tox­ic ground­wa­ter for years, and there are seri­ous health effects among these com­mu­ni­ties. Chil­dren of gas affect­ed par­ents, and those of par­ents con­sum­ing con­t­a­m­i­nat­ed water have severe and debil­i­tat­ing birth defects. It is esti­mat­ed that at lest 25,000 have died as a result of the tragedy and 150,000 are chron­i­cal­ly ill, for whom there is still no ade­quate health care pro­vi­sion. The sit­u­a­tion remains a human­i­tar­i­an and envi­ron­men­tal tragedy.

Scot­tish Friends of Bhopal is a project of the Bhopal Med­ical Appeal. The BMA fund the only facil­i­ties in Bhopal that pro­vide free, first class med­ical care to those affect­ed by the 1984 Bhopal dis­as­ter and the ongo­ing water con­t­a­m­i­na­tion; the Samb­hav­na Clin­ic and The Chin­gari Reha­bil­i­ta­tion Cen­tre. To date it has cared for more than 50,000 peo­ple. Please vis­it the Bhopal Med­ical Appeal web­site to learn more about the dis­as­ter and addi­tion­al infor­ma­tion about the clin­ics. The SFB began in July 2011 and is aimed at pro­vid­ing sup­port, fundrais­ing and aware­ness rais­ing for Bhopal sur­vivors and oth­er vic­tims of pol­lu­tion. SFB aims to pro­mote tox­ic issues with­in Scot­land.  The strug­gle for a safe envi­ron­ment and for jus­tice for those exposed to envi­ron­men­tal pol­lu­tion  is not unique to Bhopal — Bhopalis rep­re­sents envi­ron­men­tal injus­tice every­where. SFB aims to use our link with Bhopal to work in sol­i­dar­i­ty with pol­lu­tion impact­ed com­mu­ni­ties in Scotland

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