[Ailist] Kathmandu or not??--Please give us a hand !!

[MALCOLM ODELL]

Dear Friends of Appreciative Inquiry,

We're excited about this historic event, now to be opened by the  
President of Nepal, and just need to ask you for some help as we go  
for the countdown.  We need to raise $3000 during this week to cover  
the few gaps that remain.

Whether you will be with us in Kathmandu (330 participants from 38  
countries!!); Online from where you are; or just among the hundreds  
who can't make it to Nepal but wish you were with us for this exciting  
conference, we write to ask your support to help make the conference  
"even better."  		 <http://www.2009worldaiconference.org/home/>

Please join with us and send a pledge by return email. We'll reply  
with instructions asap on how to get the cash to the right place.

Here's the story:
We are almost at 'break-even' -- a miracle given these rough economic  
times--but we are still short of the funds needed to bring those  
wonderful WORTH women from Chitwan for our Day 2 interactive session.   
And we need support for our colleagues in Nepal who have put this  
conference together.  We deliberately kept our fees very low, compared  
to most such events, to enable more folks from Africa, Asia, Latin  
America, Middle East to join us.  It worked!  But gaps remain.  Details:

Those remarkable WORTH women made it through the Maoist rebellion,  
through one political crisis after another, they kept their village  
banks going, and are still hard at work educating their daughters,  
ending domestic violence, and--as the biggest circle of AI  
practitioners that we know about anywhere in the world--have ended  
poverty for themselves and thousands of other women in Nepal, and now  
across half-a-dozen other countries in Asia and Africa.
But we can't ask these amazing women to have to pay from their own  
pockets to come meet with us in Kathmandu--and we can't ask the local  
grass roots NGO, Samjhauta--which is making the arrangements for them  
to come and for setting up village visits for those of us going to  
visit them after the conference--to pay from their pockets either.

And... as important:
We can't let our Nepali colleagues--who have worked tirelessly for the  
past year to organize this great event--to dig into their own personal  
pockets to cover the remaining costs in Nepal!  They have all  
volunteered to pay full freight as participants... We cannot let them  
do that after all they have done, not only for the Conference, but for  
the global Appreciative Inquiry movement they are supporting.

So, please, dig into your hearts and wallets and send us whatever you  
can spare.  The two of us are each chipping in $100. Can you do the  
same?  Or $25, $50... or maybe $500 if you got a bonus check recently?

Reply with your pledge by return email and we'll get back to you ASAP  
with instructions on how to get the money to us.

Only a week to go!

"Do it Now!"  'Yes We Can!"

With heartfelt thanks, and lots of 'appreciation,'

Jane Magruder Watkins
Malcolm Odell
for the 2009 World Appreciative Inquiry Conference Planning Team
-------------
PS from Jane: "Well, I worked in the Southern Sudan at the beginning  
of Ananya 2,
and in Zimbabwe at the end of the war..... not to mention all those  
years in
South Africa and the beginning of the civil war in Liberia. So we aren't
worrying. Just looking forward to the conference and the trip to meet  
the
WORTH women.... Like to give something back! See you soon
and thanks so much for all your work. Hugs, Jane"