We welcome you to our new re-launched electronic version of our monthly newsletter. We seek to provide readers with an alternate source of news of local and international events and developments that would not be covered in the mainstream and commercial media.
The change in our format has been necessitated by financial considerations and our pursuit to leave as small an environment footprint as possible. We believe that we can still provide valuable reading material to our many readers who subscribed to and regularly read the paper version of our monthly newspaper. We consider it an accomplishment that we published the uninterruptedly produced the paper for 15 years before deciding that we should embrace the electronic format. We hope that we will also be able to reach a new set of readers outside of our main distribution area of schools in KwaZulu-Natal.
We have developed alternate programmes that retain our contact with this valuable base of future leaders. Our stories will also cover perspectives that will allow ourselves to learn from the experiences of communities from all over the world who seek to build societies that are more just and fair – societies where through united action local communities are answering the question of what type of society that they would like their children and grandchildren to grow up in. The first source of news will be our programmes that the Gandhi Development Trust are implementing or supporting. News from the activities of our partners will be covered to show that alternatives to despair, nihilism, alienation and violent confrontation are possible and desirable.
In this issue we cover some of the lessons and tools developed from the GDT Early Childhood Development Programme, some champions of non-violence in different contexts and environments, some thoughts from Pope Francis, tools and exercises that can help raise inner consciousness and contributions about nuclear power so that we can gradually become better informed and have a say in public policy discussions.
We invite readers to make their own contributions of their experiences and perspectives so that the newsletter is enriched by a diversity of views but all seeking solutions to the problems that appear intractable and insoluble. We seek to draw from our own rich heritage of the anti-apartheid and national liberation struggle that galvanised world attention and its struggle to produce a better humanity. Satyagraha is inspired by the practice and teachings of Mahatma Gandhi as we all find resonance with the philosophy as a set of tools and principles that guide our own small efforts to effect change.