My Nonprofit Reviews

My experiance will Amma's charitable activities started as a child growing up in Kerala, India. At that time, the ashram was small, but never lacked opportunities for seva or selfless-service. Amma always gave much importance to serving everyone including mother nature. As a young adult, my selfless services started with helping in the kitchen at the ashram, were free food was given to the needy and everyone who visited the ashram. When I grew up and came to the United States of America there were still ample opportunities available through the local Amma satsang (satsang literally means company of good). Ten years back, during on of Amma's programs I came across 'Amrita Kuteeram' project. It was a project Amma inspired to build homes for destitues in India. What caught my eye was the fact that with just Rs.20,000 (i.e. about $500) a family could have a house to live in. That was my first donation for a charitable cause, after I started working. The volunteers in India working on this project, turn these small amounts we donate to a fine home for a homeless family. These houses had a bedroom, kitchen, family room and a prayer alter. Now, beyond constructing houses, ashram tries to build communities - paving roads, providing electricity, drilling bore wells and installing water tanks. For each development, ashram builds a community hall where residents can come together and celebrate cultural festivals. ashram also supports the community by providing tutoring for both adults and children, and helping the adults to find new work opportunities through our economic development programs. Such project have been successfully completed as a part of disaster relief effort by Amma's ashram in areas that were ravaged by natural calamities like the earthquakes, Tsunami etc. Here in US I participate in 'Mother's Kitchen'. These are soup kitchens started all around US that prepare and serve food for the homeless. I'm very thankful to have these opportunities available to give back to the community, that are all initiated by Mata Amritanandamayi Math. Now, I take my son with me to participate in the charitable opportunities MA Math provides. He understands that it is important give back to the society. He is thankful to MA Math for the providing these opportunities. Amma's has inspired us by showing us selfless service, and that makes us feel good. There are numerous other activities MA Math has intiated, here we've only mentioned a small part that we are involved in. MA Math charitable activites are available to a wide range of people. Monetary contributions are only a small part of these activities. Success of MA MAth's charitable activities lies in the volunteers who render their valuable skills and services. We don't have to be disappointed that we cannot make monetary contribution to MA MAth charity, if we are not financially sound, since there are always opportunities were we can render our service, from chopping vegitables to painting amritakuteerams, transporting / filling sand bags, and the list goes on.....

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