The State of Bengal in India is a place of whose legendary achievements have vanished in a hallowed past and its present is mired in severely impoverished living conditions. The problem was addressed at the Renaissance Seminar, an econo-cultural event held as part of the first North American Bengali Conference, (Bangla Sammelan 2001) held in Lowell, MA. The discussions concluded in a resolve by all present to come up with a concrete solution to address the problem and “The Boston Pledge” (TBP) was born.

In a fundraising meeting held in Concord, MA on December 21, 2002, volunteers involved in many of the TBP projects presented a synopsis of their work. From the presentations it was obvious that the dedicated group of volunteers involved in TBP had accomplished a lot in a short period of time.

“TBP’s initial objective is to provide outstanding, quality and “ego-free” leadership in channeling intellectual and financial assets of individuals, groups or government bodies for the betterment of Bengal,” says Partho Ghosh, the Chairman of TBP. “As the experiments in Bengal succeed, TBP will assimilate the expertise from this engagement in a global prototype for economic revival in underprivileged countries.”

Based on the interest of the people involved several projects have been undertaken by TBP. Examples include the Kalighat Project – Urban Renewal, Life Time Education for Assistance of the Disabled, Renaissance Corps, Arsenic Removal from Water/Water Management, Public Health Project, etc.

“We have teamed up with the Perkins Institute and the Ram Krishna Mission in India to enable education for the disabled,” says Sumita Basu, a volunteer working on the Lifetime Education of the Disabled Project. “We are using the expertise and funds that we can get from the Perkins Institute along with funds from TBP and sharing that with the Ram Krishna Mission in India, which has had a successful track record of delivering quality education to the underprivileged in India”. A relationship has been set up with the Perkins Institute and the first beneficiary from Blind Boys Academy Ram Krishna Mission in India is in the process of getting ready for training in Perkins School in Boston.

Dr. Anjun Chaudhury presented the activities of the Public Health Project. A major component of this initiative is the “Second Opinion” initiative where networks of doctors in the US provide second opinions through the Internet to queries citizens might have in the third world. “This initiative has had many successes. People from India have sent cases with test records etc. via the Internet to us and doctors from the US have provided second opinions on the cases” said Dr. Anjun Chaudhury. ”Of course the project is not without problems. In some cases the doctors in India do not accept our suggestions. In other cases even if they do accept our suggestions, they do not have the facilities to administer the cure. But there are many cases where doctors have accepted our opinions and it has had a positive impact on the treatment.”

Entrepreneurial Development Network (EDP) is another initiative that is led by Anil Khurana and Partho Ghosh. “The vision is to be a catalyst for the creation of traditional and hi-tech businesses in India, and support grass-roots effort,” said Dr. Anil Khurana. “We are currently working with the Entrepreneurial Development Institute in Kolkata. We have already established academic partnerships between Boston University and EDI.“

TBP’s approach is to build a core team of volunteers for each initiative drawn from different walks of life. They work with agencies in India to make sure that the implementation of the various initiatives is in tune with the needs of the people they are trying to serve.

To find out more about TBP and their initiatives, please visit their web site at http://www.thebostonpledge.org/.

|