Global Scholar Answers Call to “Assist Bhopal” Megan Dogra ’17 spends time with a small group in Bhopal, India.
Inspiration can come from a variety of places. For Megan Dogra ’17, it was an assembly speaker that inspired a fierce call to action during her freshman year. Dr. Lalita du Perron, associate director of the Center for South Asia at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, gave a lecture addressing modern-day issues in India that struck a chord within Dogra, who had just recently joined USM’s Global Scholars Program. “Her passion and the issues she was involved with really inspired me,” Dogra said. Following the assembly, Dogra conducted her own research and discovered the tragedy and aftermath of the Bhopal gas leak disaster on December 3, 1984. More than 40 tons of methyl isocyante leaked from a carbide plant in Bhopal, India, forming a gas cloud over the city of 500,000 people. Gas inhalation killed more than 8,000 individuals, and that number grew to more than 20,000 over the weeks and months that followed. Waste from the leak still impacts families today, with an estimated 200,000 people, mostly children, suffering from chronic illnesses related to the leak. “I wanted to be the voice of these poor, unfortunate, and illiterate people who have been suffering for more than three decades,” Dogra said.
funds and awareness for the people of Bhopal. Dogra created a Facebook page to raise money for second- and third-generation victims of the leak, with proceeds benefitting a nutrition program that provides free meals at the Chingari Rehabilitation Center in Bhopal. Dogra also visited Bhopal this past March and met with survivors and their families. During her visit, she shot footage to be used for her documentary entitled “Assist Bhopal.” The film was shown at the Milwaukee Film Festival in September, as part of the Milwaukee Youth Show. “What really struck me from speaking with these families is the hope that they still have,” Dogra said. “Their spirit and resilience has truly stuck with me.” Dogra is also planning a benefit dinner with Ben York, USM’s service leaning coordinator, at the Bollywood Grill in downtown Milwaukee this December. “I witnessed so many powerful, moving experiences during my time at the clinics,” Dogra said. “I wanted to use the footage to provide a window for my audience to see what I saw and make a connection to those people.”
Dr. Henry Wend, director of USM’s Global Scholars Program, connected Dogra with du Perron, and those two got to work raising
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