"The Ava Project will bring together people from across the world to form a working group that exchanges ideas pertaining to the environment. The first project is related to the creation of water and an activity associated with water, i.e. cleaning up of the waters,” read the message circulated by the co-chairs of the UN-NGO (United Nations – nongovernmental organization) Committee of the Federation of Zoroastrian Associations of North America (FEZANA) Afreed Mistry and Behram Pastakia on January 11, 2021.
Dr Behram Pastakia (l) and Afreed Mistry Photos: Jasmine D. Driver
Within a fortnight, "we have had 100 plus volunteers sign up for this Project and we hope to continue this for 10 years (until) 2030 when the UN Sustainable Developments Goals (SDG) are also due,” Mistry conveyed to Parsiana. They convened their first meeting on January 22 and after a brainstorming session have asked smaller groups to act on the ideas proposed.
The sixth of the 17 SDGs listed by the UN Department of Economic and Social Welfare specifies: "Ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all.” According to statistics shared on the UN website, "three billion people worldwide lack basic hand washing facilities at home, the most effective method for Covid-19 prevention... Water scarcity could displace 700 million people by 2030.”
The Ava Project was conceived following a session on climate change by Ervad Karl Desai as part of the FEZANA Talks on Zoom initiated during the pandemic, noted Mistry. In January 2021, Ervad Tehemton Mirza, vice president of the North American Mobeds Council, made a presentation on "Deep Ecology.”
Those interested in signing up for the Ava Project can fill out a form on
https://bit.ly/2KMqrur giving their name, email address and mobile number as also indicate their choice to be added or not to the mobile chat group with like-minded individuals.