By Michele Leight, Founding Director www.ashraya-ny.org

In 2005, as the director of "Young Friends of Ashraya-New York," James Leight organized four volunteers for Ashraya-New York to interview New Yorkers about health care, health insurance, and HIV/AIDS. They conducted a survey in the streets of New York over several weeks as part of their high school senior project, randomly interviewing any strangers that were willing to participate - approximately 400 interviews in total.

James and the volunteers also decided they would like to take a camera out into the streets, in the hope that people would give live, spontaneous interviews. The Founding Director of Ashraya-New York organized a camera and decided to accompany them, gradually becoming drawn into their project.

Several interviews were exceptional and successfully captured on tape, with the full consent of the participants. The Founding Director also filmed several wonderful interviews with the volunteers themselves, who had strong opinions about healthcare - especially for those who fall into the cracks, and those without enough money to pay for medications if they are ill and need them. Their opinions were idealistic, but not unrealistic. Affordable healthcare was a concern in all the interviews with the general public as well.

The results of the survey showed overwhelming support (over 90%) of New Yorkers of all backgrounds for access to health insurance and health care for those that did not have it (including a surprising number of hard-working, middle-class people), less expensive health insurance for those that already had health insurance, and free treatment for anyone that had HIV/AIDS - regardless of socio-ecomomic background.

On the basis of the survey, the taped interviews, and others that followed, the Founding Director of Ashraya-New York decided to make a short film for submission to the Amazon/Tribeca Film Festival Short Film Contest in 2006. James was the assistant director of the film, because the majority of the participants were college bound, young people, like him, that he had brought on board as volunteers. The short film was submitted and accepted. This was not as easy as it sounds. It had to be formatted for web-streaming. This had to be learned at the last minute.

The 7-minute short film is now in the process of becoming a full length digital video documentary film, incorporating many of the ideas and strong opinions of those first five volunteers.

In addition to the film, several of the spontaneous "street" interviews - and the young volunteers own commentaries on healthcare and the AIDS pandemic - are now included in a book by the Founding Director of Ashraya-New York, called "Harvest of Innocence," available at www.amazon.com (the link is on this site).

It is amazing what several energetic, committed volunteers can inspire, create and achieve. Their commitment does not have to be complicated, it is often simple - but it must be said that standing in the street trying to interview total strangers about their health takes guts! They had it, even though there were a couple of "tough customers" that were not sympathetic to the goals of the project - they had their health insurance, so they were not concerned for anyone else.

But we like to think that somewhere down the road they will remember five slightly nervous, opinionated, sassy young people with clipboards that tried to get them to answer tough questions about the AIDS pandemic and those that could not afford healthcare precisely because they did not care. It only strengthened their resolve.

It was an awesome project, with many wonderful memories of generous hearted New Yorkers who were in a huge rush to get wherever they were going, that paused, and took the time to give heartfelt, honest opinions about a subject they really care about - health. New Yorkers are probably the most direct and honest people it is possible to interview! They do not pull their punches. That was what those who were involved in the project were hoping for.

James and the young volunteers started something that has now grown into a really meaningful project - that continues to gather steam - and which has the potential to reach many more people in the future, as a film/DVD.

Our hope is that the final film will inspire and motivate other young people in New York City, the United States, India - any community in the world - to look into their backyards to see who can be helped, who is hurting, who is at risk? Who can be included that is currently outside the mainstream? How can we help so that they can be transformed into valued contributors to their community society?

From small grassroots efforts, to global entities like wonderful "Project (RED)," (read the story at www.ashraya-ny.org/bonodamien. html) featured on this site, it is possible change the things that need to change - if we act together.

Bono and Bobby Shriver created "Project (RED)" to help get medications to kids and their parents (who have AIDS) in Africa, where right now, as we sit down and have a great meal at home, or rush to classes at school or college, there are 11.4 million kids orphaned by HIV/AIDS. No matter how many times that statistic pops up, it is beyond tragic. 11.4 million kids lost their parents because they could not afford medications that exist. We have them! Money got in the way, and it continues to get in the way. What is the price of a parent? Does such a price tag exist? Please visit www.joinred.com where there is a blog, and videos on http://www.youtube.com/joinred

Here is what Bono wrote in the catalog for Auction RED at Sothebys, that will take place on Valentines Day, February 14th, 2008:

"I have a friend in the US Congress, Tom Lantos, a Hungarian Jew who as a child was sent to a concentration camp on the train with his family. Years later his dreams were haunted not by the spectres he encountered in those dead spaces - under the Nazi jackboot - but rather by the blank stares of his neighbors, the bystanders who had watched them being put on the train. The people who never asked where the trains were going, but even as a child he sensed they knew it wasn't anywhere that they would want to go."

(Since this story posted, Congressman Tom Lantos passed away on February 11th, 2008, aged 80. The Honorable Tom Lantos was the only Holocaust survivor to be elected to Congress. He was the first Congressman to invite the Dalai Lama to speak in Washington, DC and one of the main architects of the United States government's policy on Tibet. Congressman Lantos had four generations of his family by his side when he died at a medical facility in Maryland, where we was being treated for cancer. Lodi Gyalsten Gyari, Special Envoy to His Holiness the Dalai Lama and Executive Chairman of ICT's Board of Directors said:

"Congressman Lantos was a steadfast friend of the Tibetan people, and particularly of His Holiness the Dalai Lama. From the first time I met him in the 1980s until his passing away, I remained inspired by his sincere concern for the wellbeing of the Tibetan people. Congressman Lantos leaves behind a lasting legacy for Tibet with his leadership in institutionalizing the issue of Tibet."

We offer our deepest sympathies to the family of Congressman Tom Lantos.)

If you would like to help prevent more parents dying of AIDS and kids becoming orphans in Africa, please think about buying (RED) products (IPods, sneakers, sweatshirts, many items) when you shop at The GAP, Apple, Converse, Giorgio Armani, Hallmark, Motorola, Microsoft and American Express (UK only). Myspace.com is the first media sponsor in the United Kingdom and MTV Networks is the first media sponsor in the US. Congratulations to all these brands for embracing this great idea and helping so many people.It makes a huge difference...............!

Please read the full story about the wonderful artists that have donated their art outright for this cause on this site.......so far (RED) has delivered $58 million dollars to help fight AIDS in Africa, just from a percentage of the sales of items we buy! And every day the number grows.

It is important to get involved in anything that needs to change; shopping for something you beleive in is a totally legitimate way to help.

The more people that can contribute to any community, the more successful it will become as a whole. Ignoring those that are hurting is not a wise long term investment, and it is inhumane. There is no telling what people are feeling deep down. It is important to put your opinions, and what you care about, out there - no matter what. It is the dialogue that counts. We learned this in the streets of New York when we spoke with total strangers. Scratch the surface in any community, and many different voices and opinions will be heard. We learned so much from them.

For young and old alike, it is important to know what issues to raise with community leaders, politicians and policy makers to make America - any nation - a safer, healthier and more awesome country than it already is. It is important for young people to become engaged in community life, and not feel like their voices cannot be heard. Having a dialogue with the community is a lifeline for changing corrosive forces, and creating positive change.

We hope that what you read and learn on this site will inspire you to reach out and establish a dialogue with your community, wherever you live, so that change take place, making the world a better place for everyone.Have an auction at your school, with your artwork, to help orphans in Africa, or anything you feel strongly about. After 9/11 in New York, many young kids set up lemonade and cookie stands to help raise funds for the families of firefighters and law enforcement that died. They were great.Every little thing counts, when we all pitch in.

Please continue to communicate with us as you do every day. It is a wonderful feeling to get emails from young people in other cities or states in the US, or other countries, or to be sent a poem in another language that we have to get translated so we can understand it in English.

The Founding Director is focused on young people, the future of all societies, especially in New York, the United States - her home - and India, the country where she spent her childhood. However, thanks to the internet, and Tim Berners Lee's wonderful world wide web, she is deeply committed to keep bringing important stories, interviews and reports to this website, and sharing them with others across the world that create their own change and want to share it with us, or be inspired by the "movers and shakers" we feature on this web site. There are awesome examples of caring in action in the stories we bring to you - these movers and shakers are not "stuck in reverse" as Coldplay would say.

Information and communication are the tools of change - and we use them to the max here as Ashraya-NY.org.

Every day we share contacts and ideas with colleagues, NGO's, businesses and individuals that share our goals - via email, phone or in person. Good news travels fast, volunteers criss-cross the globe, learning and sharing concepts and ideas that are a breeding ground for positive changes, hopefully in the not too distant future.If you look around you and then go to the history books of 50 years ago, it is amazing how much has changed for the better.We need that to happen in the next 50 years.

We are committed to very young children across the world that are at constant risk due to poverty. If you have any ideas about reaching out to them, please contact us. We are in daily contact with NGOs and grassroots organization across America, India and in other countries, about ways to make the world safer for these endangered children.

Some of the stories on this site give an idea of how different life can be for the really vulnerable - children - especially the children of the poor, kids from dysfunctional homes where there may be child abuse, or children that have virtually no home life at all because they are already orphaned (as in Africa). In the United States and other industrialized nations children from broken or dysfunctional homes end up in foster care, or Juvenile Hall. We never take the attitude that because America is the wealthiest nation in the world there are no problems here that compare with problems in India or Africa - we have very real issues confronting us in America, like anywhere else, and we never lose sight of that.

As Dr. Piot said in his interview: "The young think they are invincible." We also know that it is because we think that way when we are young that we take risks. We think nothing bad can happen to us. It is often only when something bad happens to someone we love, or to a famous actor, or to us, that we pay attention.

However, it is possible to gain valuable information and self-protective knowledge and strategies long before that tragedy happens. Hopefully we can avoid tragedy altogether because of what we know. We can prevent and intervene, we can arm ourselves with as much information as possible so that drug overdozes and car wrecks do not claim young lives unnecessarily, tragically.

There are two reports on this site about the tragic Virginia Tech massacre, that really are a "must read" for those who are at college, about to attend a college, and parents of college bound teenagers. Extreme vigilance is necessary because of the loopholes in state laws versus Federal laws, and both reports show how this can put innocent young people in the path of a mentally ill human being that has no idea what he was capable of doing once he chose to leave therapy and treatment - including harming himself - and because the adults that tried to warn the administration at his college were ignored because of privacy laws. These do not encourage or even permit sharing information about anyone over the age of 18.

As a result, many young people, and some professors and teachers, were gunned down before the young man turned the gun on himself. It should not have happened at all. It could have been prevented. The question is, what is being done in the aftermath, and will it be more of the same?

The Founding Director of Ashraya-New York lost several close friends - one was her best friend as a child - to drugs and alcohol, not because they used them, but because the people they were with were abusing substances, and they dropped their guard, just once. They tried something that looked like any old blue pill that lay in a medicine cabinet "just once;" they mixed alcohol with a party drug and forgot they were taking antihistamines; they got in the car with a driver who was clearly drunk - "just once." That is all it took. One poor decision to end beautiful young lives.

Once we see our friends die, close friends we love, there are no more illusions about what these substances are capable of doing.

The recent, sad, death of Health Ledger - a beautiful, talented young man with everything to live for - might have been prevented. Closer scrutiny of how many different prescription drugs one person takes should be required if a person is on just one strong prescription medication for anything. Pills and powders look innocent, but they are potent, often lethal substances that do not combine well with cough, cold and allergy medicines, or sleeping pills.

Young people have too many temptations in the medicine cabinets in the average home, because everyone in the family is popping pills - for everything. These substances, taken without proper monitoring by a professional, are potentially deadly. They can kill if not taken in exactly the right dose, or if mixed with alcohol, or if a person also has ashtma, for example. They are not to be taken casually, experimentally or "to get a buzz."

We would not consider taking a cleaning agent from the broom closet and swallowing that, but many young people just reach into the medicine cabinet, and pop whatever strikes their fancy. Just because it is packaged as "medicine" that is supposed to cure everything does not mean it cannot cause fatal harm.

It can save someone's life to share important information about their health with them, or intervene if you know something is really threatening them - like a predatory peer who is pushing hard drugs on them, or if they are drinking heavily and they are also taking antihistamines. Prescription medications and many over the counter remedies for colds and coughs or allergies are drugs. Know what you - or a close friend is taking if you are out on the town with them. It can feel "uncool" not to join with friends that are drinking heavily, but how cool is it to not make it through the evening at all - or to end up in the car with a stranger who might commit rape? Most people in the world are great, but all it takes is one rotten apple. They are out there. Just watch the news.

We are positive here, because there is so much to be positive about. There are incredible web sites that offer a wealth of information (www.cdc.gov, www.nih.gov) that identify health conditions like asthma and diabetes, (alcohol is not a good idea for either of these conditions, but many young people do not know and they are worsening the problem). Or there is www.webmd.com that can tell you exactly what is in a given prescription medication, what it should/should not be used for - and what it should not be mixed with. Overall, alcohol and medications do not mix - period.

It is wonderful for young people living in America. There are so many opportunities, freedoms and pleasures available to the young here. This is the wealthiest nation in the world, and with that come certain risks. None of us likes to think of ourselves as a target, but that is exactly how we are viewed by practiced, highly skilled predators.

Kids have more allowance to spend, more money in their pockets in America than in any other country. Fast food joints target teens with sodas, fries and whatever gimmicky burger deal they can come up with next. Stay tuned for reports about what really goes into food these days.

Drug predators of all kinds specifically target American youth. Hundreds of tons of illegal drugs cross over the borders into the US annually, and it just keeps coming. "No Country For Old Men" is a great film about who exactly is involved in these rackets and cartels - no kid would be a match for a serious drug pusher if they got their talons into them. This makes early education abou the tactics they use so important.

It is mind numbing when one also considers how many "home made" and "home grown" drugs are added to the drugs that find their way here. We are talking about deadly, hard drugs. And no one really knows what they are "cut " with. One thing is certain, the pushers are not concerned about what happens to the person they sell a contaminated drug to. The person who is going to suffer is the buyer. So, buyer beware. There is information on this site about the tactics they use, and how to avoid traps. Please read the stories closely.

Millions of children in the US have very little supervision during the day when they get home from school: most parents are busy working to pay the bills. Some parents have problems with addiction and are not equipped to take on the responsibility of raising their children, who are taken away from them. Tragic, a high price to pay.

Some kids stray into using and selling drugs at a very young age because no one at home notices or even cares what they are doing. This does not only happen with kids in low-income neighborhoods. It happens in all backgrounds, but statistically this occurs more in low-income families because there is a need for money. Some of you may know someone who is struggling with a substance abuse problem, others may know kids that try to sell drugs for all kinds of reasons, either because they are addicted and must feed their habit, or because they need money, or even because they think it is cool. How cool is jail, seriously? Talk to them. Try and help in any way you can.

Please do everything you can to talk your friends or family members out of associating with those who want them to push drugs. Pusher trick #1 is they give them drugs for "free," ( watch out for freebies), to reel them in. They get them addicted. Once that happens, they can control them to sell their drugs to other naive and unsuspecting teenagers or peers.

If you know a friend that is experimenting with drugs - and while doing drugs they are hanging out with pushers that act as friends - please ask them to read "A Father's Story." This is a true story posted on this site, about how a father tried so hard to rescue his daughter from the clutches of a drug pusher. He did everything it is humanly possible to do to prevent what happened, but she was too far gone, too addicted, and on top of it all she got AIDS from using intravenous drugs. She was a beautiful young girl when the pusher entered her life, pretending to be her boyfriend. He was not looking out for her best interests. What he wanted to do was get her to push his drugs so he could make money off her, and he pimped her out more often the more addicted she became. She got AIDS.

Once drugs enter the picture, it is a battlefield, with addiction as the toughest opponent - therefore early education about the risks is critical. If a drug pusher hits his or her target, swift intervention is the only hope. There is a fantatic series called "Intevention" on one of the TV networks. We will get more information about it, and post it on the site.

Do not stand by while anyone you love or care about continues to hurt themselves with alcohol, drugs or friends that are known to be drug pushers that can only bring harm into their lives. Intervene, or try and involve others, professionals, that can intevene if you cannot give it the time or you think it is not your place. Keep after them to stop hurting themselves any way you know how, as long as you can. That is what caring really is.

It is not being a friend to encourage a friend with ashtma to smoke because you smoke. Smoking is bad enough for anyone, but for asthmatics it is really damaging. If you want the truth about nicotine and the addiction it creates, rent or buy "The Insider," starring Russell Crowe. It is based on a true story. Learn how billions of dollars have been spent knowingly spreading addiction, heart disease, emphesema - and even lung cancer. Nicotine addicts will be the first to tell you it is not addictive. Isn't that the same jargon of all addicts? Addiction is sad. Help your friends and loved ones kick it if they are hooked on any drug. It is not easy, so find professional help if they get upset.

Nicotine is one of the hardest addictions to kick, as hard as heroin. So don't smoke, do something great for your body instead of abusing it. Letting a friend get behind the wheel of a car when he or she is drunk is not friendship. Letting a friend go into your medicine cabinet and help themselves to your parents sleeping pills is not friendship. It could kill them if they have some other health condition................it happens. Every day. Don't let someone you love become a sad statistic.Once they go, we cannot bring them back.

Protect those you love. Prevent harm coming to them. That is friendship and love - that is caring.

Drug use (including nicotine) can promote dangerous diseases, but that is a separate story. There are several

We are lucky to live in the United States, because many young people learn "health education" when they are young enough to prevent harm. They are taught that there are diseases out there that they must guard against. Some kids - many in fact - do not have that advantage because no one tells them, or they live in a nation where every child cannot be educated, they cannot read or write because they have never been to school.

It is important to get tested for HIV as part of a routine health check up and most good doctors will suggest it. (If you have concerns, there is great information on www.unaids.org or www.thebody.com or the other health web sites and organizations already referenced) Most colleges will administer an HIV test - any test - if you request one at their health center, confidentially. They cannot release information abou you.

Your community will have a place that offers free HIV testing, you can be sure of that, where you can get a confidential, free test if you just want to be sure. The same applies for blood sugar levels that might indicate early onset Diabetes - or Juvenile Diabetes.

There is an epidemic of Juvenile Diabetes in America - almost 13 million teenagers have it. This is a truly shocking statistic. Please find out what Diabetes can do in the longer term. We do not want to scare you here. If you have the will to protect yourself, you will do the research.

You can find all the data you need about any health condition, illness or disease at www.cdc.gov. The Center for Disease Control is the most efficient health agency in the world, and they have detailed answers for just about every symptom, disease or illness online - so your privacy is protected.

If you have important information to share with us, please get in contact. We would like to hear from you.

For general enquiries email: harvestml7@aol.com