URI Stories of Impact

By URI Peace Group of Journalists (URI Kashmir) CC

Muzaffarbad, 5th June 2011

Peace Group of Journalists (URI Kashmir) has called upon all stakeholders, including the government to make a collective effort towards implementing the UN 1997 Kyoto Protocol on the environment. The UN has declared 2011 the World Year of the Forests. At the time of independence, Pakistan had 25% forest cover, but according to statistics this has fallen below 2.5% landmass with forest cover. The 2010 historic flood that devastated Pakistan and the State of Kashmir, leaving behind a trail of destruction affecting 21 million, is largely attributed to deforestation by the timber mafia. It is therefore critical for Pakistan and State of Kashmir to protect the forests before they disappear altogether with serious consequences.

[Source: the Boroondara Interfaith Network website]

The Boroondara Interfaith Network marked World Environment Day, Sunday 5 June 2011, with a forum on the theme of Religion and Ecology hosted at the Leo Baeck Centre for Progressive Judaism. The event supported by a climate change awareness project of the City Of Boroondara’s Health, Aging and Disability Department and was held in partnership with locally based interfaith organisation focusing on environmental themes and awareness raising, GreenFaith Australia.

Ektaan CC and Rainbow CC organized a nutritional program with local volunteers on June 3rd at a temple in the village of Bengal. They provided meals for 250 people, mostly women and children from..

There are many kinds of spiritual practice.  Most of them are derived from one of the major religions.  Spiritual practices of this kind tend to be based on teachings from one of the earlier civilizations.  Some of these practices are very profound and deserving of our attention.  On the other hand, we live in the beginnings of a global age, one which has teachings coming from different civilizations of the past and, at the same time, needing to be relevant to this age.  Each new civilization will be a combination of older teachings and teachings born of the age now coming into being.  It is in the integration of past, present, and future that a civilization gains its completeness.

In April I had got a chance to attend workshop on teacher training. There were at least 300 teachers in that program divided in 5 groups of 60 people in each. I tried to study their behavior and...

I’m sitting in my spacious flat on a Sunday afternoon, drowsy from the heat of the sun’s rays coming into the large windows and doors that are west-facing.