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Monday, October 20, 2008
A Local Partnership, a Global Action
This November, Project 10 East is launching the most far-reaching initiative in its history, one that will stretch across the globe to the Blue Diamond Society (BDS) in Nepal--the only organization supporting gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender people in that country. Click here to find out more or make a donation to support this work.
Conducted in partnership with the Massachusetts Area South Asian Lambda Association (MASALA), this initiative offers a rare opportunity to provide assistance to an international ally while bringing home important lessons about oppression and human rights issues to students in P10E GSAs.
Established in 2001, the Blue Diamond Society works to improve the sexual health, human rights, and well-being of GLBT people throughout Nepal, a society that condemns homosexuality and non-conforming gender expression. Nepalese GLBTs are vulnerable to arbitrary arrest, blackmail, assault, and all varieties of physical and verbal abuse and discrimination. The BDS offers counseling and medical care, promotes HIV/AIDS awareness and safer sex practices, and works to prevent human rights violations and document them when they occur.
We kick off the initiative in November, when P10E board member Blair Smith, MSW, LICSW, travels to Nepal to visit BDS and promote our inter-organizational and inter-community learning exchange. An avid outdoorsman and active philanthropist, Blair will also use this trip to fundraise for both P10E and the BDS by climbing to the base camp of Mount Everest.
In support of the BDS's vital work, Blair will meet with Sunil Pant, the founder of the BDS and the first openly gay member of Nepal's constituent assembly, to present him with the P10E GSA Curriculum and other programming materials and to discuss best practices in counseling and outreach to GLBT populations.
After returning from Nepal, Blair will join with members of MASALA to speak with P10E GSAs and other groups about the plight of GLBT people in Nepal and throughout South Asia. Youth in P10E GSAs will be encouraged to engage in our new partnership through activism and peer education.
Our in-school programming has always focused on the links between oppressed communities in our neighborhoods, our region, our country, and throughout the world. We know that showing students the common causes that link all discrimination helps prepare them to become leaders and advocates not only for the GLBT community but for all oppressed peoples. "The work of making the world safer for marginalized people is personal, global, and interconnected," Blair says. Indeed, the very act of bringing both together builds community and increases our opportunity to prevail.
For more information, click here.
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