Mission: Vision Statement
Service to the poor is our duty to God.
Mata Amritanandamayi
Mission Statement
The Mission of the Mata Amritanandamayi Center is to embrace the teachings of Mata Amritanandamayi (Amma) through spiritual practices and selfless service, compassion, humility, and love for all.
M.A. Center nurtures the spiritual growth of devotees and seekers; provides support to Amma's charitable projects; functions as a focal point for devotees to serve selflessly; and maintains a cohesive network of Amma's satsang groups in the United States.
Programs: Projects in the U.S.
Mother's Kitchen, includes feeding the homeless in more than fifteen centers throughout the U.S."Hurricane Katrina"
New York Relief fund.
For the victims of the Sep 11th tragedy. The agency TEPEYAC works with immigrants has been identified and we will be working with them.
Projects in India.
The projects in India include a specialty hospital where poor patients are treated free of charge,at least 12 Open heart surgeries are performed each day out of which 5 are absolutely free of charge, Orphanages, schools and special schools for the tribal children, monthly pension for widows, free computer education to poor students, Gujarat Earthquake relief, three villages have been adopted and the construction in these villages have been going for the past several months, Hospice, Feeding the poor and homeless all over India, 25,000 houses for the poor and the homeless out of which 15,000 has already been built and so many other projects.
@GordonH - You claimed 9% of the foreign donations is used for charity activities. There is no link or a way for me to verify what you claim is your expertise in the field. But, I can tell you this -
Foriegn donations are usually in dollars, euros or other strong currencies. 9% of the strong currency is enough to build hundreds of thousands of houses for the poor in India for the people who are living in slums or streets. These houses are built by unpaid volunteers and devotees. They are always built using brick and concrete unlike in the west. For the one getting this house, it is like getting a palace. The other 20 some percent for "commercial purposes" is laughable since you called it commercial. In India, to buy, set up and maintain a foreign equipment such as 1.5 tesla MRI unit (in the hospitals) is as expensive as it is in the West. In fact, the units are purchased in dollars and euros from the west. India does not have the latest technology for hospital equipments, certain types of electronic equipments etc.
The other 63% you mentioned in foreign banks - What is wrong with it? Do you know where it is used? Amma's devotees have built several Ashrams (monastries) in the west and other countries using dollars and euros and other strong currencies. The one in Chicago is the biggest. Do you know the greatness of this place? They are self sufficient, producing their own food by organic farming and even plans to have their own electricity and they use it so sparingly. There are several devotees who flock to this place and it helps them get solace in a spiritual center. Many stay free of cost and some pay whatever they can.
Now, that is just scraping the surface. The $1 million donations to Katrina storm, another $1 million to Japanese Tsunami victims and recently one more $1 million to the recently affected islands in the Pacific.
While the leader of this great organization (Amma) is a great soul, MA Center's admin has fallen into inefficient hands, with the aging of one of its benevolent board member. MA Center provides very inferior facilities to its devotees during programs at San Ramon. There are risks of stampede and other infrastructural problems. It is high time that they respect devotees and donors and spend some dollars to improve the conditions at MA Center, San Ramon.
It is an amazing organization, reaching out to so many people in need, especially in India, but also elsewhere. Self-help programs, disaster relief, education and so many more projects that work extremely well due to the efficient voluntary work.
