Project R.E.V.

Phase 1: Bilidoj Mission Goals in Bilidoj: • Set up a nutrition rehabilitation center to treat local children with severe acute malnutrition. This includes finding and referring children in need of treatment to this center. • Train strong women in the community in malnutrition treatment/prevention through education and empowerment. We will help set up community self-help groups to run all of our implementations after we leave to ensure sustainability. • Install biomass gasifiers as sources for sustainable cooking gas. This is an energy system for rural communities that provides an alternative for generating clean and renewable gas. The basic system converts agricultural waste (woody biomass, rice husk, etc.) into combustible gas which can be used for distributed power, cookstoves or transportation. • Implement composting as a sustainable way to turn organic waste into a valuable resource to fertilize soil. We will follow RMF's plan by educating community members in ways to use the resources they have available to combat this hunger epidemic. By this empowerment, we are doing more than putting a bandaid on the wound of malnutrition, but rather healing it for years to come through sustainable solutions. This basic education will allow these people to better their lives and the lives around them. After our four weeks in Bilidoj, RMF will continue weekly follow up visits to continue the project. Yet our project goes further than the basic RMF intervention plan that only includes nutrition education. We want to create an infrastructure that will greatly deter malnutrition for the future of Bilidoj. The rehabilitation center, gasifiers, and composting are all ways to build a future for the inhabitants of Bilidoj. Furthermore, Bilidoj is the perfect village for our project because we have made great contacts in India and have good relationships with the village leaders, so we know our project can be implemented without any problems. There are many villages in dire need. RMF has agreed to support our project and provide guidance. We have contacts who will make our immersion into the Bilidoj society a reality. With their help, our ambitious project will become a feasible reality. Throughout the trip, we will document the lifestyle of Bilidoj and our immersion into the community. We will try to get a general understanding of the village living conditions. Along the way, we will gather interviews and stories from the people of the community. This will be used in the post-trip phase of our project. Phase II: India to LA, Sustainable Integration : Our goal in Phase II is to integrate elementary, high school, and college students from the U.S. into our project. We hope to fundraise a total of $10,000 to give back to the people of Madhya Pradesh, ultimately matching the award given to us by the Strauss Foundation. "Project R.E.V." will consist of visiting one school per month and during our spring break, we plan to travel up the coast of California for a final university tour. Upon returning from India, we will edit a short documentary along with other short promotional videos. We will develop a website to promote the Bilidoj story. Merchandise such as T-Shirts, stickers, and 500 DVDs will be produced. These along with handicrafts (bracelets, necklaces, etc) brought back from the women of Bilidoj will be sold during phase II. These materials and supplies will be used during our year long tour to promote, educate, and give back to India. The basic format of our school trips will be a presentation of the issue, a viewing of our short documentary, and a call to action. This call to action is to encourage each school to adopt one or more villages in India. Through donations, the sale of merchandise, and Indian handicrafts, we hope to raise a minimum of $200 per school. It costs the Real Medicine Foundation $200 to implement the basic Malnutrition Initiative in each village. This money goes to hiring local villagers for RMF's nutrition intervention as well as providing important local employment and empowering local women to fight malnutrition. Our threefold goal for each tour stop is to educate, integrate, and sustain. We will educate the elementary, high school, college students and faculty about the current situation Madhya Pradesh. With every donation, the sponsor will receive a DVD of the documentary we created. With this, they must promise that they will show it to at least one other person. Here, we are trying to create a ripple effect. We will integrate each school into the project by having them adopt a village of their own. These donations will sustain Real Medicine Foundation's Malnutrition Initiative and the global fight to end hunger. All extra proceeds will go back to the Bilidoj village to ensure it is thriving and sustainable. During our Fall semester, the project will cover mostly Los Angeles-area and Southern California schools. Over our Winter Break in December, we will assess the project. Where are we? How can we make it better? Are we close to the $10,000 goal? From here we can reevaluate our techniques and make changes accordingly. Throughout January to March, we will continue the Los Angeles-area tour. Over our Spring break we will travel North to Stanford, UC Berkeley, USF, Santa Clara, and St. Mary’s for the final tour. We hope to get local press on board to promote and tell our story. This will get more people involved and a greater call to action will be reached. A committee of students has also been set up at LMU to bring the project onto our campus (documentary screening, fundraising, promotion, other events). Service Organizations (Ignatians & Sursum Corda), sororities (Pi Beta Phi), and fraternities (Beta Theta Pi) have already expressed great interest in our project. Our grassroots campaign will spread our message to thousands and help eradicate the devastating effects hunger in many villages.