I first met Amma in 1995 and am continually moved by Amma's extraordinarily far reaching huge heart and charitable impact. She encourages all of us to do volunteer work, stressing that to help others is the best we can do with our lives.
To watch Amma give comfort to thousands at each of her 'programs' in the US, Canada, Europe and throughout the world is very inspiring. She is a well, overflowing with love and compassion.

Amma is a most extraordinary example of Compassion and Love in action. The impact of Amma’s good work, is on a nearly unimaginable scale. Her many humanitarian projects [including a hospital that provides state of the art free medical care, pensions for widows, construction of homes for widows and disaster victims, aid to farmers, construction of schools and making teachers available to children who would not otherwise receive education, aid to victims of natural disasters (from floods, to the tsunami, to hurricane Katrina)... ] are on a level that I have not before encountered in my nearly 60 years of life. Amma has an enormous capacity to be both visionary and practical in the work she initiates. She does not simply promote the giving of 'charity'. She creates programs that empower large groups of individuals, such as: providing sewing machines to women so that they can productive and self-supporting; offering technical training to young people so that they will be employable; giving swim lessons to children traumatized by the losses they sustained due to the tsunami. Finally, because Amma has inspired so many by her own loving example, great numbers of people volunteer to carry out the projects, thereby allowing a dollar to go a very long way.