Bhaktivedanta International Charities

BY: JAHNAVA NITAI DAS

Sep 6, USA (SUN) — Quarterly Report (September, 2005)

Recently the Bhaktivedanta Ashram opened a new rural relief center in Randiya, approximately 20 km away from our main Ashram in Orissa. With cooperation from the local villagers, a small piece of land was given to us for establishing a permanent relief center in the village. The village consists of people from the very poor adivasi (tribal) community. More than 300 children in the village attend regular programs at the new center.

In order to reduce expenses on infrastructure and increase the funds available for relief we chose to make all buildings from traditional village materials, primarily bamboo, mud and straw. We wanted to create a practical model that could be easily repeated in other villages very economically, allowing us to expand our relief projects without incurring undue expense. Hundreds of millions of villagers throughout India utilize bamboo, mud and straw to build their own homes, so we felt it would be the ideal solution for inexpensive permanent relief centers within the rural villages.

In the present relief center we have begun with weekly distribution of free meals to over 300 children. In addition to this we have installed tube wells for providing clean drinking water to the villagers. The villagers have also requested us to start a small school for the village children, as none of the children have a chance to receive education at present. The government ignores these poor tribal areas and does not provide educational facilities for these villages. A bamboo and mud school building will be setup shortly and a full time teacher will be stationed in the village to take care of the children's education. In the meantime we are conducting daily programs at the relief center every evening to engage the children in positive educational activities.

We would like to thank Mr. T. R. Puri for sponsoring the food distribution in the new relief center for the first 11 weeks to commemorate the occasion of his daughters wedding. We would also like to thank Dorothy Quick Jones for sending toys for the children in Randiya.

Community Center to be Built in Chennai

Last week devotees in California donated a small piece of land in Chennai to be used for a new project, the Bhaktivedanta Ashram Community Center, which will be located in Taramani near the back gate of the Indian Institute of Technology. The community center will contain a 1300 square foot annadana hall on the ground floor where we plan to feed 300 needy children from the Taramani area every day. Two other floors will offer educational and recreational facilities for children of the neighborhood which will help them improve their studies and keep them from engaging in negative activities. Taramani is a poor area of Chennai with many slums spread out in the neighbhorhood. The new community center will be ideally located within the slums to provide easy access for needy children, and also located near to the IIT campus so that volunteer students from IIT can easily attend for helping in social service activities.

On Tuesday work began on the community center land with the drilling of a bore well to supply water. We began drilling in the North East corner as per the vastu recommendations and were blessed with immediate success. Our workers were expecting to find water at a depth of 100 feet, but within a few minutes water began shooting out, having dug only 18 feet. Chennai is a very dry place with severe water scarcity. Most of the people in our area don't have water in their bore wells (many have drilled 100 feet without getting any water), so everyone was happy and amazed that we hit water so quickly. By the time we had dug 35 feet, the water was shooting up 20 feet into the air as they drilled. Everyone was amazed at how much water we had found at such a short depth. They all believed that because the land was for Bhagavan's use therefore the water was so plentiful. It was very important for us to have found sufficient water, as 300 children would need to wash their hands and mouth everyday after eating, and the annadana hall would need to be washed thoroughly after the daily distribution of food. Everyone was happy and relieved with the results of the bore well.

Work on the building is expected to begin within two days. Workers have already arrived from Orissa to undertake the construction work. If all goes smoothly, the new Bhaktivedanta Ashram Community Center will be completed in the end of January, and daily distribution of sanctified meals to the children will begin immediately.

Once again I thank all of you for your commitment to service and pray that Lord Sudarshana will protect you at all times with the sixteen weapons raised in his divine hands. Jaya Sita Rama.

Yours in service,

Jahnava Nitai Das
Bhaktivedanta Ashram & Bhaktivedanta International Charities
http://www.foodrelief.org

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