Get on the Bus! - 30 recommended organizations include: Foods Not Bombs, Reef Relief, and Mothers and Others for a Livable Planet

Vegetarian Times, Nov, 2000 by Mark Harris

In two of the poorest regions in India and Nepal, 25,000 people blinded by cataracts have been given the gift of sight, thanks to an international relief organization called Seva.

Founded in the early 1970s by the spiritual guru Ram Dass and a group of public health doctors who were involved in the United Nations' successful battle to eradicate smallpox,

Seva now provides on-going support to Indian and Nepalese hospitals that offer cataract surgery to the poor, free of charge.

Seva is probably best known for its eye clinics, yet these make up only part of the group's efforts to fulfill its mission: to offer "compassion in action." Since 1980, Seva has worked with native Indian populations in Guatemala and Chiapas (Mexico) to support and protect indigenous cultures by helping build schools and wells and grow food according to sustainable methods. Closer to home, it's collaborating with Native Americans to revive plant-based, traditional therapies designed to combat diabetes, now epidemic on reservations. Funding comes from donations and the support of socially conscious celebrities like Danny Glover.

SHARK (Showing Animals) Respect and Kindness)

P.O. Box 28
Geneva, IL 60134
(630) 557-0176
Email: info@sharkonline.org
Web site: www.sharkonline.org
Founder: Steve Hindi

In the battle for animal rights, he's the David who's bringing down Goliath. "He" is Steve Hindi, president of the one-man direct-action campaign for animals called SHARK. "I video-document evidence of animal abuse and get that video right in front of people," he says. "That's how you get folks to think about animal issues."

Hindi's victories are of epic proportions. Last year he stopped PepsiCo from advertising at bullfights in Spain and Mexico. With videocam in hand, he documented the abuse bulls suffer before and during the "fight," hoping to pressure PepsiCo to pull all its advertisements from bullrings. Afraid of losing access to a billion potential Pepsi drinkers, the food giant PepsiCo agreed. Showing the public and elected officials his videos of animal abuse, Hindi has also played a key role in halting the shooting of live pigeons for entertainment and the practice of playing basketball games on donkeys' backs and for shutting down hunting clubs. Yet Hindi's no mere camera activist. Not only has he been on the ground at street protests, but he's been in the air too, maneuvering an ultralight plane between ducks and their hunters.

Now Hindi's gearing up to take his show on the road. Plans are in the works to outfit a fleet of vans with video monitors that will show his tapes of animal abuse on the street corners of America. And the bullfight isn't over yet. SHARK is going after Mattel for producing its latest model of bad behavior: the Spanish bullfighting Barbie.

Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine

5100 Wisconsin Ave., NW, Suite 404
Washington, DC 20016
(202) 686-2210
Email: pcrm@pcrm.org
Web site: www.pcrm.org
Founder: Neal Barnard, M.D.

A number of organizations tout the benefits of a vegetarian diet, but few do it with the hard science of PCRM. This good-health think tank conducts and publicizes scientific research that proves, for example, that going veg lowers one's risk of developing certain cancers, heart disease and diabetes. The group then uses that research to attack bad health initiatives. PCRM has challenged the government's food pyramid (which is heavy on cheese and eggs) as well as the dairy industry's fraudulent claims in its ubiquitous white mustache ads that drinking milk wards off osteoporosis or cuts the risk of high blood pressure. A favorite recent target is the USDA's promotion of chicken as a health food.