Happy new year to you all! It’s the first weekend of the year, and don’t we all deserve a scenic mountain photograph?!
We recently paid another visit to the post office to send in our handbook to two more locations.
The first is a very unique climate justice library located right inside India’s mining belt, at a town called Ambikapur in Chhattisgarh. The library is a collaboration between Bhumi Bandhu Samajik Adhyayan Prashikshan evam Shodh Sansthan (which roughly translated to Institute for friends of the earth involved in social study, training and research) and Youth For Climate India.
Listen to our in detail discussion with Savita Rath, founder at the Climate Justice Library here!
Curiously, Ambikapur is neighbors with a Tibetan settlement and has a densely forested, hilly geography. It is so interesting to us to lay out these connections across the frontline when it comes to planetary change and boy is Chhattisgarh the frontline. Check out this graphic which describes what is going on at Hasdeo Arand, not too far from Ambikapur:
And the second location? Well, let’s keep that a secret for now shall we :P. Till then, do check out our small whatsapp channel for a more unfiltered version of events and thoughts as they unfold (@hiadce is now our handle for IG, X, Youtube and Whatsapp!):
And while our handbook sits at various locations across the world, what’s the point of it all if we don’t spread awareness locally? As you may know, being rooted in the Himalayas is a core value for us - which is why we approached the Library of Tibetan Works and Archives before Oxford!
And so we came across QR codes and stickers! We converted our long form work into tactile business cards and easy to navigate stickers and planted these all across Dharamshala!
This is, in our worldview at least, a step forward from publishing a paperback. And guess what? We can find judicial authority pertaining to almost any environmental issue around us in the third pole with just a Control + F in the handbook doc!
This also hopefully demonstrates the steady focus with which we are moving forward with our advocacy efforts! Your money directly translates into these advocacy efforts.
For example, one of y’all recently supported us with a 10K grant and guess where that went towards?
What we're most proud of is that these funds were raised from within the Indian ecosystem itself - making each Rupee more valuable as compared to a FCRA (foreign money) fundraise.
Guess where that money is going?
Also because of the way Indian law works, a 10K grant means we can raise funds up to 2K by selling these paperbacks (and stickers too!). Phew, finally, we got a nod from our Chartered Accountant for this!
As always, all the money goes towards the steady focus we spoke about. Just DM us on our IG to place and order and inquire further!
Well, that’s it for this edition - we’re going to leave you with a two more photos:
Happy new year,
Himalayan Advocacy Center
We’re on LinkedIN, YouTube & Instagram! Hit us up anywhere with your thoughts or simply reply to this email - looking forward to collaborating with you! It would mean the world to us if you’d share this newsletter with people around you - the welcome email is always going to come with some goodies!
Postscript:
As you may know, we are a small non profit in the environment + law space located in the Indian Himalayas. We are completely bootstrapped! This means no foreign funding and no fancy headquarters - just a small community - of which you all are an integral part - in the long run we hope!
What’s more - we, at the Center, are determined to localise efforts for the planet, without compromising on the best that the law has to offer. If you have the means, and want to support a committed local undertaking, please do consider contributing to our corpus. We hope to pleasantly surprise you with detailed information on where you money has been spent!