It has been almost three months since I posted anything on this blog. After the exams, I had made a new time table and forgot to add time to post on my blog. I only remembered my blog when something interesting happened.
My father recently happened to be sitting next to Amala Akkineni on a flight. He told me that they talked about animal welfare issues and Mrs.Akkineni told my father about a program that her organisation conducted in Venkatagiri, a village in Nellore district (I will write about what was happening in the village later) in the state of Andhra Pradesh in India. Later, when my father told me about the program, it sounded interesting and I thought of writing a blog post about it. I asked my father for more information and he told me that I'll have to contact Mrs.Akkineni for that since he didn't have all the information. I immediately lost interest but decided to send her an email anyway. At first, I thought it would reach her spam and she would probably look at it some ten years later. Anyway, I really didn't expect someone who had their own page on Wikipedia to reply to my emails; and when I didn't receive any reply for a week, I was convinced that I was right.
Then one fine day... in the middle of the night... I opened inbox to see what was sent out...jokes aside, after a week, I finally received a reply to my email from Mrs.Akkineni and she stated that she couldn't reply earlier because she was busy and she would ask one of the blue cross members - Education Officer Mr.Sriram - to send me all the details I had asked for. After another week waiting for an email from Sriram and then feeling dejected, I happened to open my spam folder and realised that Mr.Sriram had replied to my email 3 days earlier. In that email he had answered all my questions and provided a lot of information about the program they had conducted in Venkatagiri.
It seems that huge number of animals were being sacrificed in temples in the village of Venkatagiri. Small animals like hens, goats, sheep, and sometimes even large animals such as buffaloes were sacrificed on the annual festival days (the dates for the annual festival are declared by the temple committee every year). Mrs.Akkineni had organised a campaigning team, which had been in action in the September of 2010 and 2011, and their campaigning team happens to be at Venkatagiri right now for this year's festival. The team compromised of corporate professionals, NGO founders and students, who were aged from 17 to 38 (I would have liked to be the youngest at 13). The team had used various strategies to educate the people, such as 1) Door to door counselling for households in sensitive areas. 2) Short talks with students in their classes in all high schools and colleges. 3) Huge public gathering addressed by Mrs.Akkineni. 4) Mrs.Akkineni followed by student rally. 5) Celebrity bytes on local cable television channels, etc; The program carried out by this organisation had been funded by the Administration of Nellore district. And guess what? This program really payed off. It was believed that 60,000 animals were sacrificed every year, and now -with the help of district authorities and the police departments - the numbers have reduced by 40%! I am sure that the number of animals being sacrificed will be further reduced this year. After the program, Mrs.Akkineni's team had empowered local NGOs to work accordingly. Now, the Blue Cross visits Venkatagiri during the months of September and October.
Personally, I think this program has been a huge success. The team has saved the lives of thousands of animals in the village of Venkatagiri. Everyday, many animals are killed (especially in India) in the name of sacrifice. Endangered species are becoming extinct. People are killing animals without realising their use in the ecosystem. How many of you like dead animals better than the ones alive? Animals can provide us with many things even when they are alive, and somehow people don't seem to notice this. Why sacrifice buffaloes, hen and sheep, when they can provide us with milk, eggs and wool when they are alive?
Mrs.Akkineni has also spent a lot of times with animals, and she has founded a voulantary organization: Blue Cross of Hyderabad, which has saved over 300,000 birds and animals. And I feel happy to know that some famous person who has the ability to change the mindsets of people (about animals), is helping the world to turn into a better place by siding with the animals (who cannot create guns to defend themselves against the most violent animal - humans).
Note: Articles about the program in Venkatagiri have appeared in National newspapers also. You can read more about the program here (http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/tp-andhrapradesh/article2466314.ece)
My father recently happened to be sitting next to Amala Akkineni on a flight. He told me that they talked about animal welfare issues and Mrs.Akkineni told my father about a program that her organisation conducted in Venkatagiri, a village in Nellore district (I will write about what was happening in the village later) in the state of Andhra Pradesh in India. Later, when my father told me about the program, it sounded interesting and I thought of writing a blog post about it. I asked my father for more information and he told me that I'll have to contact Mrs.Akkineni for that since he didn't have all the information. I immediately lost interest but decided to send her an email anyway. At first, I thought it would reach her spam and she would probably look at it some ten years later. Anyway, I really didn't expect someone who had their own page on Wikipedia to reply to my emails; and when I didn't receive any reply for a week, I was convinced that I was right.
Then one fine day... in the middle of the night... I opened inbox to see what was sent out...jokes aside, after a week, I finally received a reply to my email from Mrs.Akkineni and she stated that she couldn't reply earlier because she was busy and she would ask one of the blue cross members - Education Officer Mr.Sriram - to send me all the details I had asked for. After another week waiting for an email from Sriram and then feeling dejected, I happened to open my spam folder and realised that Mr.Sriram had replied to my email 3 days earlier. In that email he had answered all my questions and provided a lot of information about the program they had conducted in Venkatagiri.
It seems that huge number of animals were being sacrificed in temples in the village of Venkatagiri. Small animals like hens, goats, sheep, and sometimes even large animals such as buffaloes were sacrificed on the annual festival days (the dates for the annual festival are declared by the temple committee every year). Mrs.Akkineni had organised a campaigning team, which had been in action in the September of 2010 and 2011, and their campaigning team happens to be at Venkatagiri right now for this year's festival. The team compromised of corporate professionals, NGO founders and students, who were aged from 17 to 38 (I would have liked to be the youngest at 13). The team had used various strategies to educate the people, such as 1) Door to door counselling for households in sensitive areas. 2) Short talks with students in their classes in all high schools and colleges. 3) Huge public gathering addressed by Mrs.Akkineni. 4) Mrs.Akkineni followed by student rally. 5) Celebrity bytes on local cable television channels, etc; The program carried out by this organisation had been funded by the Administration of Nellore district. And guess what? This program really payed off. It was believed that 60,000 animals were sacrificed every year, and now -with the help of district authorities and the police departments - the numbers have reduced by 40%! I am sure that the number of animals being sacrificed will be further reduced this year. After the program, Mrs.Akkineni's team had empowered local NGOs to work accordingly. Now, the Blue Cross visits Venkatagiri during the months of September and October.
Personally, I think this program has been a huge success. The team has saved the lives of thousands of animals in the village of Venkatagiri. Everyday, many animals are killed (especially in India) in the name of sacrifice. Endangered species are becoming extinct. People are killing animals without realising their use in the ecosystem. How many of you like dead animals better than the ones alive? Animals can provide us with many things even when they are alive, and somehow people don't seem to notice this. Why sacrifice buffaloes, hen and sheep, when they can provide us with milk, eggs and wool when they are alive?
Mrs.Akkineni has also spent a lot of times with animals, and she has founded a voulantary organization: Blue Cross of Hyderabad, which has saved over 300,000 birds and animals. And I feel happy to know that some famous person who has the ability to change the mindsets of people (about animals), is helping the world to turn into a better place by siding with the animals (who cannot create guns to defend themselves against the most violent animal - humans).
Note: Articles about the program in Venkatagiri have appeared in National newspapers also. You can read more about the program here (http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/tp-andhrapradesh/article2466314.ece)
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