Circles of SAHANA

As usual, I was up till the wee hours of the morning in preparation for an IOSN booth display for a local Rotary District Convention on March 23 to 24, 2007. In addition to an IOSN showcase, Bobby and I have planned for a SAHANA multimedia display and an Ubuntu demonstration.

Part of the preparation is for me to make ID pins that we will wear during the event. As shown above, the pin at the left uppermost corner is the one I had made to be worn. Then, an idea struck me!

As we all know, the sunflower is used in the SAHANA website, which I find, on my opinion, a fitting symbol of the SAHANA FOSS Disaster Management System, because for me the sunflower symbolizes hope and a new beginning. According to the FTD website, a sunflower's meaning differs from culture to culture. To some, the sunflower promises power, warmth, and nourishment — all the attributes of the sun itself. The Chinese hold the sunflower as a symbol of longevity. The sunflower is also often used as a symbol of green ideology.

Then as if a stroke of pure inspiration, I ended up doing several pin designs. What I thought of was combining the sunflower and different calamities as a background. It was actually a creative contrast of disaster and hope. I came up with several pin series: tsunami, typhoon, landslides, and volcanic eruptions. Ooops! My mind skipped earthquakes. Well, I still have time to make some.

It sure is cool to wear them all and show that amidst calamities - natural or man-made - hope brought by SAHANA leads to new beginnings. By the way, the word "sahana" means relief.