Minutes of the Fifteenth RBT get-together on JULY 6th at BELLISSIMA, OPERA HOUSE.
Next Meeting : AUGUST 3rd 2003 at at Mikanos, Landmarc Citi,
Worli - Courtesy of Lochan Kothari. As always, 4:30pm.

Hello everyone,

These are the minutes of the Fifteenth get-together of the organization.!

AGENDA
-Organisational Update
-Team Updates
-New Projects Proposals
-Miscellaneous


A) ORGANISATIONAL UPDATE

- We are in the process of looking for a secretary for Revive Bombay, as mentioned in the Note sent out to everyone.
- Give India Foundation. We are in the process of applying to giveindia.org, a website run by the Give India Foundation to be accepted by them to accept online donations from their website.
- Trying to keep the minutes succinct! And on time.

B) TEAM UPDATES
(To get involved with any of these projects, kindly contact the team leaders on their email address mentioned below)

Pet-a-tree
Heritage Statues
Bollywood Walk of Fame
NGO AGM
Accessibility for Individual with Disabilities (A.I.D)
Cafe Revive
Future of Roads (F.O.R)
Adopt-a-Child & Magic Bus


1) Pet-a-tree: (NEED MEMBERS)
Team leader : Rishi Tejuja - rishitejuja@utisel.com
- There is a free saplings distribution on 2nd July. Saplings are provided by BMC free to Giants/I love Mumbai, who organise the distribution. There are various locations where the saplings are being distributed. Information with Rishi.
- Mahim Causeway Tree plantation- Since the earlier landscaper is not to be traced, we are in talks with other landscapers for quotations for the tree plantation of Royal Palms on this drive.
- We are being given a bit of a run around by the BMC. Puran has volunteered to help us out with this, as it is the BMC's responsibility to give us certain information for the location, such as the road and pipe-plans.

2) Heritage Statues: (MEMBERSHIP CLOSED. AWAITING PERMISSIONS.)
Team leader : Hemanth Meka Rao - hemanth@hemanth.net
- The Municipal Corporation has sent letters to the Secretary of Cultural Affairs and the Secretary of the Public Works Department regarding these statues, to get their okay for repossession.

3) Bollywood Walk of Fame: (MEMBERSHIP CLOSED. AWAITING PERMISSIONS.)
Team leader : Hemanth Meka Rao - hemanth@hemanth.net
- No update. Still working on permissions.

4) Accessibility for Individuals with Disabilities (A.I.D):(NEED MEMBERS)
Team leader : Manish Maker - manish.maker@makers.co.in
WSF INDIA:
The World Social Forum 2004 is going to be held in India this time, with about 75,000 delegates expected to participate, of which about 10,000 will be from outside India. Groups from around the world will participate in the event, which will comprise cultural events, exhibitions of the visual arts, expressions of the performing arts and screening of films, etc. The WSF 2004 attempts to redefine and restructure our world. The WSF 2004 also includes a YOUTH FORUM which will run concurrently to the main event. In recognition to its work in the field of accessibility, AID has been invited to actively assist the venue and logistics team on the issue of access to the venue.

Meeting with Principal Secretary, Social Welfare & Commissioner, BMC: 
Hemanth and Lalita met with Mr Srivastava, Mr. Suresh Kumar, and others to discuss the possibility of working together with the government to further the cause of the handicapped. (Hemanth can expand further on the meeting) 

BEST Disabled-Friendly buses:
In response to our observations that the Test-Run Disable-friendly bus by BEST is not in fact accessible at all, AID organized, together with ADAPT of Spastics Society, a meeting with the concerned authorities of BEST and Mr Puran Doshi last month. Various issues and suggestions for improvement were highlighted and brought to the notice of those present .

Work with ADAPT:
Pursuant to our meetings and deciding to work closely with ADAPT (Able Disabled All Persons Together) which does similar work to ours, AID has been closely in touch with its members, and is in the process of pursuing Accessibility Audits around the city, as well as working with other Wards to develop accessible patterns on lines similar to those proposed for A-ward.

Mr. Subhash Datrange of NAB:
Mr. Subhash Datrange, one of the stalwarts of the National Association of the Blind, now works on Project Management and Implementation for various disabled-related projects, and has expressed his keen interest in working with AID, especially in any new infrastructure or employment-related projects. We are exploring the possibility of having his assistance for projects such as Geetanjali Jewels Employment Project. He is also keen on hosting some information about other fund-raising NGOs in the field of disability, on our website.

5) Cafe Revive: (MEMBERSHIP CLOSED. AWAITING PERMISSIONS)
Team leader : Hemanth Meka Rao - hemanth@hemanth.net
- Have submitted our proposal for The Art CafT, to NGMA. Our members are working on getting us the permission for that. We are facing competition for that location from another person. We are hoping in the mean time. Any suggestions for any other location - then please let us know!

6) Future of Roads (F.O.R) (NEED MEMBERS)
Team leader : Hem Tejuja - htejuja@hotmail.com
Pot-holes have become a serious problem! To take up this issue, we would like to photos to show the authorities concerned, such as the Ward officers, and the Chief Engineer of Roads, BMC.
If you have any problem in any roads-related area -be it roads, footpaths etc, email Hem and if you take photos, send them to the Revive Bombay office at Revive Bombay Trust, 304, Shiv Smriti Chambers, 49, Dr. A. B Rd, Worli, Mumbai-18. A new idea suggested was to become a nodal agency for Road-related complaints for
the BMC. We would then approach the BMC with these complaints and work with them in rectifying it. Another suggestion was to get the names of the contractors doing the Pot-hole works and assess the pot-filling work. If it is not done properly, then the needful can be done.

7) Adopt-a-Child & Magic Bus (NEED MEMBERS)
Team leader : Sohan Shah - drsohan@indiatimes.com
We were unable to go on the trip with Magic Bus. We are rescheduling it for a later date. There would be 50 kids and 4 members from Revive Bombay.

C) MISCELLANEOUS

Annual Report - We have created a committee that oversees the Annual Report. The team consists of Chaitanya Pande, Nishita Mehta, Shuva Mandal, Hemanth Rao, and Karan Ahluwalia. We have collated all the work done by RBT in the last year. What we require now are photos. Photos of work done, photos of the entire team etc as we would like the Annual Report to show all this.

Polio Drive - Rupali Tejuja brought up the case of Polio drives and the lack of them. The polio drives are widely advertised however on the day itself, its all a show and no one there to actually administer the medicine due to lack of it. This is a drive being done by the BMC. Puran Doshi said he would look into it for the BMC.

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 THANK YOU!
We ended the meeting with a BIG Thank You to Chirag Doshi and the Bellissima team for making this meeting possible.

NEXT MEETING :
The Next Revive Bombay meeting will be on AUGUST 3rd at Mikanos, Landmarc Citi, Worli - courtesy of Lochan Kothari. As always, 4:30pm.

Get involved now - and make a difference to your surroundings.

Looking forward to seeing you at the next RBT get-together!

RBT.

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