Happy Birthday Meher!

Today is Meher's 7th birthday. She was 3 years old when I met her, and we started arrangements for her first surgery on her 4th birthday. I always specially remember her birthday since it is on Valentine's Day, which fits her as she is especially lovable.

While Meher is doing amazingly well and continues to excel in school, she is unfortunately spending today in her family's village as her father is seriously ill, as described in more detail on Anou's blog:
Project Why: Say a little prayer for her

It is an extremely difficult time for her and her family.

In other more positive news, the Hough Street Chess Club in Barrington, IL is teaming up with Chess Without Borders to organize the 4th Annual Hough Street School Chess Tournament on Feburary 25th to raise money for Meher.

Back to School

Meher and the other students from Project Why have headed back to school! As you can see from the photograph, they are all doing well and are excited to be back.

New Pictures of Meher at School

This is a long overdue update, but Meher is doing extremely well at school, as she always does, and continues to receive straight A's. Even more importantly, she is very happy (as you can see from the pictures) and healthy and is enjoying herself immensely.

Emmy Nomination for "A Future For Meher"

The documentary about our project, A Future For Meher, has been nominated for an Emmy award in the Community/Public Service (PSAs) category. The final revised version with the new score is here:



Many thanks to Joshua Avila and Ron Swanson for all of their work in putting together the final version.

New Score for "A Future For Meher" Documentary

Thanks to Ron Swanson and Joshua Avila, musicians from Illinois who graciously volunteered their services to help support our efforts for Meher, the documentary now has a new score which sounds amazing!

You can view the film with the new score here:




Original Score Written and Performed by
Ron Swanson

Music Recorded and Mixed by
Joshua Avila
DUB VOX Studio Services
www.DUBVOX.com

Also, thank you to Rahul Chadha, our film editor, for putting the new version together.

Project Meher Chess Tournament and Fundraiser is a Huge Success

On Saturday, April 30th, Chess Without Borders and Hough Street Elementary school held a chess tournament and fund-raiser for Meher's fund. The tournament was an enormous success, with both children and adults competing, raffles, and a concession stand.

Special thanks to Maggie Gruber and Canary Chia for organizing the event and of course, thanks to all the volunteers, competitors, and other supporters.

Documentary Featured at GiSCA Palooza at Teachers College

On Saturday, April 23rd, A Future for Meher, the short documentary about our efforts to help Meher edited by Rahul Chadha was featured as part of the Global Initiative for Social Change Through the Arts (GiSCA)'s Spring Palooza at Teachers College, Columbia University.

The invitation to the event describes it as:
"The Palooza is GiSCA's signature annual spring event, a participatory, creative, meaningful, humorous and fun attempt to provoke and be provoked. Social Regime Change Begins at Home Too!! Join us to refill the soulful energies of students, faculty and staff to do effective work, while reinvigorating our commitment to living daily lives that resist and transform structural injustices in our communities and broader society.
The Palooza evening goes like this: we have a few 3-8 minute acts (theater, music, film, visual arts, sculpture, you name it), and then we have facilitated audience dialogue, then we repeat. Refreshments and an after-party round out the night."

The film was a big success and many people asked me about Meher and our efforts in India after the screening.


Program from the event (above)