What an AID Conference!!! A message from Ravi Kuchimanchi

Dear AIDers,The conference was incredible.... the talent and enthusiasm from all chapters on display was really a joy to see. AID-Tempe folk put up such a magnificent effort and handled so many tasks so calmly including the crisis situation at the end of day 2 when campus police informed there was a prowler on loose possibly with a gun, and everyone should be on guard. I hope the energy at the conference and unity amongst all of us and the causes we are a part of, goes a long way in rising to the challenge of ending exploitation and oppression of people by people. I hope we begin to relate to the hard working poor of India and the world as people who need to get a fairer deal from the rest of us, and not only as people who need our sympathy and help. I hope we have begun to see how we are make concrete progress by standing up for rights of people of Narmada and Bhopal, by using RTI, by exposing implementation problems of NREGA and digesting threats from corrupt officials, by using our skills to impact children's education on a large scale achieving greater equity in the schooling system and by seeing that in how we spend money and in what we wear and buy, the Jivika of others is impacted, I hope the "can do" spirit in AID continues for ever!!--Ravi