Greetings to those observing Hanukah and salute to those participating in #ChanukahForCeasefire demonstrations around the United States. Thousands of Jews have been lighting candles at #ChanukahForCeasefire gatherings, coming together “to mourn, find hope, and fight on — for ceasefire, freedom for all held captive, and an end to siege on Gaza,” says IfNotNow, a movement of American Jews “organizing for equality, justice, and a thriving future for all: our neighbors, ourselves, Palestinians, and Israelis.” To find one near you, go to: https://innmvmt.org/chanukah.
Such actions, and those of thousands including high school students marching around the world to call for #ceasefirenow, provide hope in a world that feels heavy. It is unbearable to think of the thousands killed, maimed and displaced in conflict areas, especially children.
Public opinion worldwide is clearly for #CeasefireNow, calls being ignored by those who could stop the bombing that continues to claim lives. What can we do? Hold on to ourselves and do what we can, where we can, when we can. Inform ourselves, share information – double-check before sharing so we don’t pass on #fakenews — donate to causes, participate in public actions.
I shared a list of resources on Substack recently – articles, poems and videos that I found insightful. Also see this interview of the psychiatrist Gabor Mate with Piers Morgan. A Hungarian-Canadian, Dr Mate is a Holocaust survivor and self-described former Zionist. He talks about conflict, history and ways forward, the Israel Gaza situation – and Prince Harry. His foregrounding of compassion, possibilities of peace, and the need to recognise each other’s pain resonated with me.
In the final analysis, we just have to keep doing our work, as my late uncle, the filmmaker Mushtaq Gazdar would say. That really is all we can do. For me, that work includes teaching journalism, currently at Emerson College in Boston, plus two initiatives launched over two years with a team of amazing inter-generational, cross-regional, cross-diasporic volunteers. This work brings together everything I have done so far.
A passion project with a mission
One initiative is Sapan News, a syndicated features service which aims to produce honest, non-partisan, nuanced, reliable journalism that connects and covers Southasia*, the Indian Ocean, and the diaspora and furthers the narrative of peace, dialogue, and regionalism. We aim to catalyse positive change and create space for empathy.
Sapan News soft-launched in August 2021 with the story of a Pakistani Hindu family stuck in India yearning to return home, published by several media outlets.
Media outlets had been publishing our press releases from Southasia Peace Action Network (Sapan) platform, based on our monthly online discussions. The first one in March 2021 was about the brainstorming session that launched Sapan, followed by issues like the need for empathy and cooperation to combat the COVID-19 pandemic (April 2021), Southasian solidarity in the time of Covid-19 (May 2021), ‘Neighbours in peace and health,’ (June 2021), and the challenges and wins of Southasian sportswomen (July 2021).
The upcoming event this Sunday, 10 Dec., Why SAARC? Challenges and Missed Opportunities, is the 21st in this series (10:00 am ET / 8:00 pm Pakistan / 8:30 pm India / 8:45 pm Nepal / 9:00 pm Bangladesh).
See details of previous events at the Events tab at the Southasiapeace.com website, built by volunteer Aekta Kapoor, an excellent editor already running her own ventures, the digital, woman-focused eShe magazine and the nonprofit South Asian Union. Sapan News features were housed in the Southasiapeace.com website until Aekta built a new website for it, launched by the BBC journalist Lyse Doucet at Sapan’s second anniversary event in March 2023.
Is your name listed on the Sapan Founding Charter?
Check out southasiapeace.com. Nearly 60 organisations and hundreds of individuals have endorsed the Charter, available in several languages. If your name is not on the list, feel free to endorse it.
Why Sapan News?
Sapan News produces unique features, analyses, explainers and backgrounders that are available for republication with due credit. The latest syndicated feature, by film student Kanika Gupta in Germany, focuses on ‘de-colonisation’ pegged on a precious carved ivory box from Sri Lanka on display in Berlin.
Urmi Chanda, a Sapan volunteer and interfaith scholar in Mumbai put together a ‘Tools to Build Peace in a Broken World’ presentation – read her piece for Sapan News about it.
These are just a couple of pieces produces by Sapan News, with the kind of context, background, information, nuance and thoughtfulness that the rush of daily news tends to bypass.
Sapan News and NewsMatch
As a member of the Institute for Nonprofit News, Sapan News is eligible for NewsMatch funds that match donations raised by nonprofit news organisations in the U.S. dollar-for-dollar during the ongoing two-month campaign period that ends Dec. 31. We recently reached our goal of raising $3,000 before year-end – in just two weeks! This means we will get matching Diversity, Equity, Inclusion (DEI) and NewsMatch funds. A huge THANK YOU to all those who contributed. We still have nearly three weeks to go to meet the more challenges.
The NewsMatch year-end challenge also matches Sapan News dollar-for-dollar for the rest of the campaign period, ending Dec. 31. I’m grateful to Jonathan Kealing at the Institute for Nonprofit News for nudging me about it – we are co-Fellows at the Media Transformation Challenge fellowship at the Poynter Institute this year along with several journalists from legacy media as well as startup, nonprofit media outlets. Gratitude also to the MTC programme, the coaches, and my fellow Fellows, for their guidance, mentorship and support. Turns out that what I’m doing is a media startup and what I have become is an entrepreneur. Help!
- For up to 50 new individual monthly contributors by year-end, NewsMatch will match each at a 12-month value, up to $1,000. So a new member starting a donation of $10/month in December will be matched at $120 ($10 x 12); $20 monthly will get us $240; a new donor contributing $500/month will get matched up to $1,000.
- PLUS: Newsmatch will match $1,000 donations made by individuals, and up to $10,000 raised by the end of this month.
To run Sapan News professionally we need maybe half a million dollars annually (hah). That’s not going to happen overnight. “THINK BIG, START SMALL, ACT NOW,” read a poster I saw decades ago at the Women’s Center at Rutgers University. That is what we are doing.
Our goal for year-end was to reach $50,000 and develop a small budget for the coming year. We have been receiving individual contributions, ranging from $10-25 a month subscriptions, to $30, $50, $500 one-time contributions – some matched by companies – and a $1000 one-time contribution. Since NewsMatch will double contributions made between Nov- Dec. 2023, we may actually meet our $50K goal.
Every contribution counts in our journey towards peace. No amount is too big or small. All donations are tax-deductible, thanks to Sapan News fiscal sponsor Tasveer in Seattle. These contributions also help build our community, and we need help to reach more people. Here is the donate link, thanks to Tristan Loper at FundJournalism.
If you already donated, or are unable to contribute financially, we’ll be grateful if you share this post with friends who you’d like to involve. You can also subscribe (free) to the Sapan Alliance newsletter on Substack, and share it with your networks.
Thank you for your support and for reading this. We welcome your feedback and ideas. Together we are stronger.
*Note on Southasia as one word: Borrowing from Himal Southasian, Sapan uses ‘Southasia’ as one word, “seeking to restore some of the historical unity of our common living space, without wishing any violence on the existing nation-states.”
Featured image: A tusker: Screenshot from A Jewel in Ivory documentary.
Filed under: 'Internally Displaced Persons', covid-19, Health, History, Human rights, Interfaith, journalism, Media, Palestine, prisoners, Progressive politics, Resistance, Southasia, Violence in the name of religion | Tagged: art, Berlin, books, building bridges, ChanukahForCeasefire, Charlottenburg Palace, elephants, Hanuka, INN, ivory, journalism, literature, media transformation challenge, mtc, newsmatch, nonprofit news, nuance, photography, poetry, poynter institute, Prince Harry, Prussian palaces, Sapan, sapan news, SinhaRaja Tammita-Delgoda, south asia, Tools to Build Peace, Travel, Urmi Chanda, writing |
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