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THE AKASHI PROJECT
The Akashi Project raises awareness of climate change among diff erent faith and cultural groups. Run by Shilpa Shah, its headquarters are in Gwydir Street.
What can we learn about living a sustainable lifestyle from the traditions of other cultures living in our midst? Why do media reports on climate change fail to take other cultures into consideration?
These were the questions which prompted the birth of Akashi, an interfaith, intercultural project, receiving government funding since 2006. The Akashi Project listens and talks to Cambridge’s various ethnic communities on what is now the most pressing issue facing mankind. ‘Raising awareness locally is best done by a small neighbourhood group like us,’ says Akashi Project coordinator, Shilpa Shah. ‘So the government has contracted the job out to 50 or so projects UK-wide.’ |
‘My job is to make members of our ethnic communities aware of their carbon footprint, the amount of harmful carbon dioxide we create as we go about our daily lives. After talking with the Akashi Project, people will stop me in the street and say, “Last night I saw a TV programme on the environment I wouldn’t normally have watched” or ‘I’ve started leaving the car at home and walking to work’. So every little counts.’
Shilpa warns however against assuming the ethnic groups she talks to are somehow less concerned about environmental issues. ‘This morning I was talking to a group of Bangladeshi women. Their attitude very much resembles the British post-war generation of Waste not, Want not, Make do and mend. It’s very much part of South Asian lifestyle never to throw food away, and to bathe using only a small bucket of water. Though they don’t necessarily think in terms of ‘saving the planet’, their values are spot on.’
‘If anything, I’d say Cambridge’s various ethnic communities have above average awareness of the dangers of climate change. After all it is their countries of origin which are already suffering the devastating effects of global warming. Tiny Caribbean islands are increasingly at risk from rising sea levels and shifting hurricane patterns. Bangladesh is more than ever vulnerable to horrendous floods.’
Whether organising a henna decorating session with environmental motifs or organising individual carbon footprint measurements with the local Jewish community, Shilpa has found the differences dividing faiths and cultures are more apparent than real. ‘Respect for people and nature is common to all faith groups. Christianity sees man as having stewardship of the earth; Muslim teachings say that humans are the earth’s vice-regents, while for Hindus and Buddhists all mankind forms one interconnected family. Global warning concerns us all.’
Akashi is a project of Cambridge Carbon Footprint.
To participate contact www.akashi.org.uk
Look out for the Akashi Project Multi-faith and Cultural Day at the Junction on 27th October 2007.
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