OUR WORLD | TILLER'S FREEDOM | LAFTI | DONNE TEMPO
What can you build with 25,000 Dimes
by Jacquie KubinRockville, MD — The goal was twenty five thousand dimes. Enough to provide the raw materials needed to build one house, buy a goat and provide a woman and her family in India a new life.
So invitations were sent asking friends and strangers, to stop by The Lemon Tree Mediterranean Market and Gourmet Café located in Rockville, Maryland and bring a handful of dimes.
“With the holiday season upon us, this is a time to not only reflect on our own lives, but also to think globally to the lives we can help change,” said Koray Kotan, owner of The Lemon Tree. “We are so pleased to have been able to host Mr. Albert and to be able to help increase awareness of LAFTI.”
Guest speaker, author and LAFTI activist David Albert was on hand and he spoke for a few moments about the groups’ work and his desires.
“We have learned how to make just a little go a very long way,” says David Albert. “A dime buys a brick, 15,000 bricks and we have a house. This is an opportunity for a real partnership for people fighting successfully for justice in the Third World.”
It is hard to get people to notice India and the plight of these easily dismissed people. There are no actors or politicians coming in, hammer and saw in hand, to raise a roof and awareness. To open a school or fund a medical center.
The most press they have received for the area came about as a result of the 2004 Tsunami. And much was said about the cost of the human life, which was devastating. But what we saw were the photos of the resorts washed away, we heard about the model clinging for her life.
Those people are the Dalit, or the untouchable caste, land farmers when they can find work, which live in abject poverty and at the mercy of a life that they were born into, living their lives in grass-roofed, mud huts.
The dimes are for them. The goal was enough dimes to help provide the raw materials that the community needs to build just one house and the skills needed in order to step up from being one of the “untouchable” people to being one of the “able” people - able to make the money to repay their loans, feed their families and send their children to school.
The showing was small but mighty. Like Koray Kotan, Piotr Gajewski is a child of the world, born in Poland, and he was there anxious to help.
He is also a newly elected member of the Rockville City Council. He brought with him an energetic spirit and desire to enhance and improve not only the city he calls home, but also the larger world, including India.
"Those of us who by virtue of dumb luck are fortunate enough to have plenty must never forget to reach out and help those who do not,” said Mr. Gajewski.
Land for Tiller’s Freedom do have one powerhouse in their corner, 78 year old Krishnammal Jagannathan, who was born into the Dalit caste and continues to work tirelessly to meet her goals.
“I feel personally that my mission is incomplete if I do not accomplish this task of a housing program,” said Mrs. Jagannathan. “I cherish the dream of land ownership, proper housing and or a participatory community willing to work together for their dignified living.”
It seems like little to ask for. Like a dime. It’s not much, but it can change the world.
If you would like to help Krishnammal Jagannathan reach her goals, please send your donation, making checks out to The Ghandian Foundation, c/o Jacquie Kubin, editor Donne Tempo – P.O. Box 603, Rockville, MD 20848.
