Community Advisers

 

BODHI is honoured to welcome these committed activists to our Community Advisory Board.

 

 

Kabita Chakma

Kabita is the Co-ordinator of the Jumma Peoples Network of the Asia Pacific. She has a Masters Degree in Architecture and is married to Dr Glen Hill, Senior Lecturer in the Department of Architecture, Design and Planning at the University of Sydney.

BODHI has formed a Human Rights Committee with Emilia Della Torre, Kabita Chakma (right) and Susan Woldenberg Butler. Its first project is to prepare a portfolio on the Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT), Bangladesh for the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ), in Geneva.

We are hopeful about a possible ICJ mission to Bangladesh next year and are working on the final draft of the submission as this goes to press.

 

 

 

Kulottam Chakma

BODHI welcomes Mr. Kulottam Chakma to our committee. He writes, ‘I hail from Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) of Bangladesh. CHT is the southeastern part of Bangladesh bordering India’s northeast & Burma’s Rakhaine state. From early age, I became aware of the suffering of my people (Chakma, Marma, Tripura and other ethnic minorities collectively known as Jummas).

The suffering was caused by violence and discrimination deliberately inflicted by the government & majority population of Bangladesh. For example in 1971 soon after independence, I heard how the victorious Mukti Bahini (Freedom Fighters of Bangladesh) massacred hundreds of Chakma Buddhists in the northern part of CHT. Their ‘crime’ was that the Chakma king Raja Tridiv Roy supported Pakistan during Pakistan-Bangladesh civil war in 1971.

‘Due to my background and shared experience of persecution, I developed a strong sense of responsibility, love and compassion to my community. The urge to help my community comes naturally to me. After graduation from the university in Dhaka, Bangladesh in 1987 & after working with Bangladesh Biman (national air carrier) for more than a year, I set off for Australia in 1989 to do Master of Electrical Engineering.

Another reason I came to Australia was to help my community bring their plight to the knowledge of Australian lawmakers. But I was disappointed with the indifference and realised that self-help was our main way to survival. That’s why I still continue to help my community.’

 

 

Shanti Raman

Dr Shanti Raman works as a community paediatrician in Sydney, Australia. She says:

I spent the first 19 years of my life in India, in fact I began my training in medicine in Bangalore, India. I moved to Brisbane, and continued my basic training in Medicine (MBBS, University of Queensland, Australia). I had my initial training in paediatrics in Sydney, Australia, and did subsequent training in public health and epidemiology (Canberra, Australia). Clinically, I have trained in developmental paediatrics, and currently work in the interface of clinical paediatrics, child public health and health services planning.

I have had a long interest and involvement in international health and development issues. I am particularly interested in inequity at all levels, how it contributes to poor health outcomes globally and in our own backyards. I have also been involved with the peace movement, being a member of Medical Association for the Prevention of War (MAPW), and various other peace and refugee action groups. Recently I have become a member of Indian Doctors for Peace and Development, a dynamic group that is trying to address peace and development issues regionally in South Asia. I am fortunate to be able to take 7 months off from my job in Sydney, to live and work in India. I am currently working on a large scale maternal and child health project, targeting 100 million mothers and children in the poorest districts in India.

I was attracted by BODHI initially because of its name. Coming from India, I was pleased to see development and health put in the context of ‘insight’. It is clear that improving the health of the most disadvantaged populations begins a long way before health services. It begins with understanding the nature of the problem, the source of inequity, empowerment, women’s status in society, the cultural beliefs and spiritual practices that operate to keep that community going, and the global forces that operate to maintain the state of disadvantage.

I look forward to a long and meaningful association with BODHI. As a community adviser, I will strive to bring my experience in public health, development, child health and my cultural understanding of issues that pertain to South Asia to help BODHI’s initiatives.

Dr Raman has published a paper on human rights and child health in the Journal of Paeds and Child Health, as well as one on refugee child health in the conference proceedings of the Population Health Congress, 'A Global World - Practical Action for Health and Well Being,' held in Brisbane, Australia, 6-9 July, 2008.

 

 

 

 

 

Top of Page