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We are convinced that the eight UN Millennium Development Goals treat the most fundamental issues of human life in dignity. Through sharing as much personal experience and background stories as possible, we want to raise awareness and understanding for those topics and consequently for Indian living conditions and culture. The following paragraphs outline in which way Findia 09 promotes the MDGs.
One can find more detailed information about all eight MDGs and the concrete targets on http://www.undp.org/mdg/basics.shtml.
 Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger
Three of us, accompanied by a translator marched in the Slum and learned about poverty, daily life and social cohesion. In an interview with a well respected community leader, we heard that not even local journalists gave attention to the slum before. Our blogs express what we learned about the “system of slum”. First of all, one has to realise that every slum is different.
 Achieve universal primary education
We studied private and public schools and and learned about the university system. Who would have thought before that the command of English is the biggest obstacle at university admission for public school graduates in the so called English speaking country of India? Baale Mane, an orphanage developing towards a regional children rights centre, showed us how children rescued from child labour can grow, study, develop and teach each other.
 Promote gender equality and empower women
Human Trafficking was one of our main issues and is directly linked to the fight against the suppression of women as it mostly leads to the sexual exploitation of young girls and women. On the concrete example of Anti Human Trafficking Police Units and the NGO Swift Wash, allowing sexually exploited victims to work in dignity (both supported by UNODC), we could learn and report about progress, challenges and difficulties in the realisation of the MDGs.
Furthermore, the well known women rights activist Geetha Menon gave us insights in the role of women in the Indian society and a variety of empowerment activities.
 Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases
The combat against HIV and other diseases was not among the main topics of Findia 09. However, our team member Nora will be working at the World Aids Conference held in Vienna in July 2010. And Mathias is already working on a web project to raise awareness for HIV issues. This is a good example for the diversity in the team and the boost for social commitment in general Findia 09 gave to all of us and directly leads to the development partnerships and communities explained next.
 Develop a global partnership for development
Since the beginning of Findia 09, there grew a new network of socially committed and talented youth. The project allowed us to realise that you can really achieve and change something if you only have an idea, are able to motivate others and pursue your goals consequently.
Our partners at Baale Mane and the Austrian interns over there are regularly updating us about the progress of the construction work. The revenues of self organised youth events allowed us to give the organisation a donation of 4500 € in order to enable them to upgrade their centre to a training centre for children rights for the whole state. Through giving them starting requirements, even our donation can have sustainable impact and allows the training of activists for years.
Another concrete plan we already started to pursue is a community for socially committed youth and students in general. A web portal and personal contacts should enable activists to share ideas, skills and experiences in order to enable us to reach projects with even more impact. The vision is that this network will be present at all Austrian university cities in the near future and throughout Europe or the World later on.
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