Sai Global update: U.S.A.-ARGENTINA -INDONESIA-INDIA-BHARAT-COLUMBIA-JAPAN-ITALY-SRI LANKA-LAOS-THAILAND -SWITZERLAND

04-08-2006, 01:45 AM

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THAILANDOn 8th October 2005, an earthquake of magnitude 7.6 on Richter scale
devastated north-eastern Pakistan. The immediate estimated death toll was over
87,000. On 17th October 2005, the Sathya Sai Baba Organisation of Thailand
donated 30,000 Baht (or 33,000 rupees) for the relief efforts. This led the
Pakistani Ambassador of Thailand to enquire more about Bhagavan Baba and the
Sathya Sai Organisation.A medical camp was held on 16th October 2005 in the
Khut Tung Khaophuang district in Chengdau. Thirty Sai devotees volunteered for
the camp where 186 patients were seen for health screening and preventive
healthcare.Lunch was served to all patients during the camp and the young
adults played value games with children for two hours during the
camp.Bhagavan's Birthday was celebrated in Thailand on 23rd November 2005 with
ceremonial chanting by Buddhist monks at the Sathya Sai Foundation in
Rajdamnern,Bangkok This was followed by serving food to the monks followed by
Bhajans. It was attended by approximately 100 devotees. A cake was cut for our
Beloved Bhagavan and a birthday song sung in honour of the Lord.Sai devotees of
Thailand visited the Klong Tooey slums on 4th December 2005 todistribute 600
packets of full meals and deliver Swami's teachings on human values. This is
part of a monthly service activity which also involves distribution of toys and
clothes.LAOS The People's Democratic Republic of Laos is landlocked between
China, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam. In this tropical country, the Sathya Sai
Organisation has been engaged in monthly activities and special celebrations. On
23rd November 2005, they celebrated Bhagavan's 80th Birthday with Bhajans and
continued their weekly human values school attended by about 230 children.In
addition, they have opened a Sathya Sai Community Centre and carry out weekly
SRI LANKADevotees in Sri Lanka have been working on providing housing for the
poorest of the victims. The district of Hambantota is a multi religious set of
villages located about south-east of Colombo and was devastated by the tsunami.
Sai devotees in a undertook a project to provide; for tsunami victims by Sai
devotees of Sri Lanka. for those families. A total of 10 furnished houses were
built and donated to families during December 2005.SWITZERLANDIn a large
cooperative effort by Sathya Sai devotees of Ticino, Switzerland and Sri Lanka,
several container loads of milk and rice cereal have been distributed to
malnourished children between the ages of one and five in tsunami-devastated
villages. This project continues to the present day since the tsunami, and 254
children from several refugee camps have been given milk and rice cereal daily.
The children are also visited by Sathya Sai physicians and screened and treated
for any health related problems.ITALYLarge public meetings were held on 4th and
5th February 2006 at the Serena Majestic Hotel by the Sathya Sai Baba
Organisation inPescara, Abruzo, one of the largest commercial and tourist
cities on the bank of the Adriatic sea. The event was highlighted by four
movies on Bhagavan and talks by four devotees. The first film shown was on the
80th Birthday celebrations in India. This was followed on the same day by
screening "Sai Schools in the World." The next day, two films were shown
entitled "Social Service in Africa" and "Water Project in Madras." On the
second day, Gabriele Ducross, Amilcare Monaldi, Alberto Caratti and Gianni
Cecere spoke of their personal experiences with Bhagavan and how they have had
a major impact on their lives. Finally, Marco Pesce highlighted the messages of
the 8th World Conference of SaiOrganisations and committed to a two-year
programme of national activities.JAPAN The historic city of Kobe, which is a
twin city of Osaka, has one of the busiest ports in the world. Kobe which means
"God's Door" in Japanese established the first Sathya Sai Centre in Japan over
30 years ago. It was in this milieu that Japan's Sathya Sai public meeting was
held on 11 th December 2005.More than 350 people from all over Japan attended
including special guests such as the Ambassador of India to Japan, Sri Manilal
Tripathi, Consul General of India in Osaka, Sri Om Prakash and President of
Kansai IndiaJapan Cultural Society, Sri Kazuaki Kurosawa.The programme began
with the screening of the movie "His Work" followed by inspiring talks by the
Indian Ambassador, and by Ryuko Hira, Masako Yamamoto and Genzo Makino, the
vice chairman of the Sathya Sai Saba Organisation of Japan. They spoke about
the national and worldwide activities conducted by Sathya Sai Organisation and
were grateful for the opportunity to serve their fellow human beings. Finally,
Hiromasa Fukai, the Councillor of the City of Ohmi Hachiman spoke on Shagavan's
Education in Human Values.COLUMBIA The Sathya Sai Centre of Santa Elena has been
renting a house for the past nine years for children who have been orphaned by
violence. About 20 Sai devotees take turn to care for the 63 resident children.
They wake up in the morning to prayer and meditation.They then eat a healthy
breakfast before going to school. The children are given a snack to take to
school. Once a week, there is EHV instruction and they are asked follow one
value during that week.For the past five years, the Laureles Sai Centre in
Medellin has been working with children who are homeless and are addicted to
drugs on the street. There are 29 children in the programme at present and
about 18 Sai devotees participate. They meet at at Sathya Sai Centre five days
a week. Some the devotees teach while others prepare and serve meals for the
children. They also provide ( EHV instruction once a week and through constant
interactions share Bhagavan's love with the children. In fact, the children do
not like weekends because there are no classes Many of these children have been
motivated to return to school to study. This has resulted in their remarkable
transformation from high risk social delinquents to loving responsible
individuals. U.S.A.In Jacksonville, Florida, a medical camp was conducted on
28th January 2006 wherein 74 patients were seen and screened for cholesterol,
glucose, hypertension, HIV and sickle cell disease. Dental and visual
examinations were also performed. The influenza vaccine was also
administered.Primary prevention presentations were given on heart disease,
obesity, cancer, stress management, diabetes and anger management. The event
was covered by a local television station.Amidst the glitz of Hollywood,
downtown Los Angeles has a sizeable homeless population of about 48,000. These
individuals have no shelter from inclement winter weather and often spend days
without meals. The Glendale and Arcadia Sathya Sai centres teamed up on 26th
January 2006 to provide blankets and toiletry bags to the homeless in downtown
Los Angeles. The toiletry bags and full meals were handed out to 400 people. In
addition, blankets were imported from China and distributed to 1000 people.
These centres have be full meals to the homeless eve the past 18
years.ARGENTINAInspired by Bhagavan's health the Sathya Sai Organisation of a
regular programme called Sc provide both health education treatment. The
programme beg; 2002 and, on an average, about 300 patients are seen in each
camp. The camps are held 3 or 4 times a year in Santa Gonzales Katan, Gran Boul
Cordova and Tucuman. Heal addresses topics such as we breast feeding, child
development and family violence.In addition, medical camps a which not only
include medical also the serving of meals and entertainment for children. The
medical camps conducted four times a year and about 3000 patients have been
seen so far. In one of the camps an individual who was not familiar with Sri
Sathya Sai was so impressed with the charitable and loving service that he
donated 60 pairs of eyeglasses and free for all patients.INDONESIAA free
cataract clinic was ( Surabaya in February 2006. At t~ the clinic, 388 patients
were see them were deemed as requiring operations. First surgeries were ( 4th
February 2006, and were more surgeries every weeINDIA - BHARAT Andhra Pradesh:
Srikakulam district distributed 108 tricycles to physically challenged children
at Srikakulam and opened multipurpose Community Centre at Polla village in the
presence of the District Collector 25th December 2005. The district also
distributed Amruta Kalasams to 300 poor tribal families at Polla and Killada
tribal villages and came to the rescue of 65 fire-victim families providing
food provisions, new clothes and utensils in Ungarada village on 20th December
5. This district came to the rescue of 201 victim families of Chillapeta
village on 22nd January 2006 by providing to each of the families, 8 kg rice,
one mat, one blanket, one sari, one Dhoti and a cooking vessel. Similarly,
district helped 64 fire-victim families of Santhakaviti village on 12th January
2006 by providing one cloth-bed, clothes and 5 kg of rice to each family. The
district organised a service camp at the pilgrim place Suravaram 18th January
2006, providing footwear keeping counter, drinking water supply, Jayana Seva to
7000 pilgrims, first aid ltre and information centre.Assam, Manipur and N.E.
States:Akhanda Bhajan was held from 6.00 p.m. on November 12th to 6.00 p.m. on
November 13th 18 centres of Assam, Manipur and Meghalaya. A total of nearly
1,500 people participated in the Akhanda Bhajan.In Guwahati, Bhagavan's
Birthday celebrations on 23rd November 2005 started with chanting of Omkaram,
Suprabhatam and Nagar Sankirtan from 4.30 a.m. onwards followed by Abhishekam
of Shirdi Sai idol up to 12.00 p.m. in a traditional way with Brahmaputra river
water brought in vessels by 110 ladies. Narayana Seva was conducted from 12.00
p.m. to 3.00 p.m. for more than 1,000 people. Lighting of 80 lamps was done at
4.30 p.m. Bhajan initiated with Veda Mantras was conducted from 5.00 p.m.to
6.45 p.m. with more than 2,000 devotees participating. Bursting of fireworks
marked the end of the programme. Bhagavan's 80th Birthday was also celebrated
at Dibrugarh, Borgolai (Tinsukia), Digboi, Dhubri and many other places where
various spiritual and social welfare programmes were organised to mark this
important event. Similarly, many excellent programmes of far reaching
importance were organised in Agartala (Tripura), Imphal East (Manipur) and
Itanagar (Arunachal Pradesh) to celebrate the 80th Birthday of
Bhagavan.Gujarat: A Conference was organised at Savani Hall, Rajkot on 5th
February 2006 which was attended by nearly 800 persons.The theme of this
Conference was Unity, Purity, Divinity. After deliberating on this subject in
the Conference, a workshop was organised to discuss this subject
threadbare.After the workshop, the recommendations of the Conference were
finalised for follow-up action. Besides the State President and Trust Convener
of Gujarat Sathya Sai Organisation and the Mayor of Rajkot, many dignitaries
including the All India President of Sri Sathya Sai Organisation guided the
deliberations of the Conference.Haryana and Chandigarh: 24-hour Akhanda Bhajan
was conducted in 30 Samithis of all the 13 districts of the State attended by
approximately 500-600 people at each place on 12th to 13th November 2005.On
23rd November 2005, Youth Wing of the State held celebrations in all the
districts with Nagar Sankirtan, Veda recitation and 2 to 3 hours special Bhajan
at Samithi level benefiting approximately 400-600 people at each place.
Colourful Bal Vikas Rally at Panchkula, Ratha Yatra at Yamunanagar and Palki
with 80 Kalashas with recitation of Veda Mantras at Hisar were highlights of
the celebrations of 80th Birthday of Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba. On this
auspicious occasion, special Narayana Seva was conducted in all the districts.
Sai Samithis conducted health awareness and medical camps in all the adopted
villages. 34 decently designed cushioned patients' trollies were also gifted to
the PG I hospital by Chandigarh district for the convenience of the
patients.Declamation contests to create awareness about the Divine Mission of
Bhagavan were held at school and college levels in Chandigarh, Panch kula,
Gurgaon, Sirsa and Yamunanagar wherein 31 school and 17 college teams
participated. 83 speakers took part in the contest in the presence of 1050
students and teachers.Jammu and Kashmir: To follow the divine message that
Grama Seva is Rama Seva and Manava Seva is Madhava Seva, two Samithis, namely,
Talab Tillo and Marh, distributed blankets, shawls and other warm clothes
comprising jackets, sweaters, shirts and pants among 558 very poor and needy
villagers of Jammu district. Apart - from this, 50 kg rice and 20 kg wheat ·
flour was provided to a poor widow in village Rehal Kandarian. This act was
appreciated by all the villagers. In order to help the poor people, the Sai
Organisation has decided to adopt 12 villages. Efforts are being made to spread
the message of Bhagavan in all these villages.Orissa: Global Akhanda Bhajan from
6 p.m. on 12th November 2005 to 6 p.m.on 13th November 2005 was held in all
Bhajan Mandalis and Seva Samithis of the State Sai Organisation in 1296
centres, covering 4 cities, 154 towns and 542 villages.All the 160 Samithis and
549 Bhajan Mandalis and other 587 centres celebrated the 80th Birthday of
Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba with various daylong programmes in a grand manner
with common activities like Nagar Sankirtan, Puja, Satsang, devotees meet, Bal
Vikas students cultural programmes and essay / elocution competitions among
school students. In addition to that, some special activities were organised by
Balasore, Bolangir, Gajapati, Ganjam and Sundergarh districts to celebrate this
important event. Bhubaneswar, Berhampur, Jarsuguda, Bhrajarajnagar Samithis
also conducted many programmes to help the less privileged sections of )
society on this auspicious occasion.
Source SBOI - Courtesy: Original text source excerpted from Sanathana Sarathi
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