Malaysia
By Dada Laliteshananda
In Taiping Malaysia we had another teenagers camp on December 16, 17, 18th 2004. A group of 36 children attended the program. This time we focused on nature. The first day children were introduced to basic ecology concepts and ideas. We went for tracking in the rain forest and at the end of the day each child wrote a letter to a child 100 years in the future. The second day we visited a national reserve which is only 20 Km from our unit. We managed our way up the mountain to a paradisiacal waterfall. The third day we had a lot of fun with cooperative games introduced by some former yoga students (they are primary school teachers and have been teaching kaoshikii dance in the government school). Below is one of the letters the children wrote.

16 December 2004
To my dearest friend,
   I hope you and your family are happy and well. You are reading this letter 100 years after I wrote it. I am 17 years old, possibly the same age as you. Let me tell you about Mother Nature's beauty which I enjoyed 100 years before you.
   The tropical rainforest where I am at now has many types of herbs, shrubs and grasses. Besides the plants, there are also tall trees whose tops almost reach the sky. What a sight! The greenery around me is refreshing. I am surrounded by green trees on all sides. I am also attracted to the cool waters of a nearby waterfall, so swift and clear.
   Animals are aplenty here: ants, leeches, monkeys and insects. I can hear them all. I heard these noises and sounds as I trekked through this rainforest. Some sounds were quite frightening yet some were so melodious that I strained to hear more. There were, of course, some challenging moments during my trekking. Some places were so steep that I had to grab onto tree branches to climb up. Despite it, I felt courageous.
   I believe you would like to experience this wondrous place. Yet I do not know if the greenery will continue to exist 100 years from now. If forests are cleared continuously, I am afraid soon all animals, insects and greenery will be extinct. Landslides, flash floods, water pollution and air pollution will occur too.
   That's why I hope you and your generation will continue to preserve nature. If you come here, try not to dirty or destroy this place. I hope you will be able to understand what I am trying to convey. I also hope you get to experience what I am experiencing now.
Yours sincerely,
Sudha a/p Gunasekaran (17 years old)

Philippines
The AMSAI school in Lapulapu, Cebu Province, Maharlika has been running beautifully for the last 12 years. Principle and school founder is sister Madhurita. This kindergarten school's capacity is 25 students, and it is usually full each semester because it has an excellent reputation. Every year a large percentage of the students are accepted by high level primary schools after their graduation from AMSAI. The next graduation ceremony is scheduled for April 20th. The highest local government officials always attend our colourful entertaining ceremonies. Also in Cebu Province we have two much smaller kindergartens in Carcar. These two are attended mostly by children from impoverished families. Sister Laksmi is principle of both schools. There are presently 20 children attending.

Thailand
Huay Malay

There was an inauguration ceremony for the new elementary school building in Baan Unrak Primary School, Sangkhlaburi, Thailand on February 19th. The program started at 9:30 am with the monks from the local temple as per tradition and included children’s performances and a collective lunch at 12 o'clock.

In the evening there were further performances with the school and home children. Mr. Chong, the contractor of the new building made a donation to the School for a handicapped child, and Didi Ananda Devamala received an award from the Ministry of Social Development and Human Welfare in Thailand.

A group of supporters from Malaysia visited our projects in Thailand and participated in the Inauguration Ceremony. They brought a few boxes of school materials and other needs for the children during the Chinese New Year Holidays.

Afterwards, Kulapati, Dada Shambhushivananda conducted an NHE training seminar with six teachers in the school. The topics covered included Fundamentals of Neohumanism, Specialties of NHE, Brahmacakra & Neohumanism and Questions & Answers Session. Sister Janaki translated into Thai.

The new school building has 6 big classrooms, a science room and a library as well as a big office and a small counseling room. The dining facilities can accommodate 150 students. Now the new school year has just begun and enrolment is 19 nursery children, 18 KG children, 40 in grade 1 divided in two classes, 13 in grade 2, 10 in grade 3, 13 in grade 4, 9 in grade 5 and 6 in grade 6.

Bhuvaneshavar, Orissa
An NHE workshop was given by Ac. Priyakrsnananda Av. at the Conference of Democratic Education in Orissa in December 2004. Dada was accompanied by Dada Anvayananda and Didi Ananda Kaoshikii, SWWS Delhi sector.

Ranchi Region
A new school building was constructed at Ananda Shiila. It has 6 rooms covering a total area of 4500 sq. ft. Sixty-five new students have been admitted to the school. A successful ETC (Education Training Camp) was organized at Ananda Shiila which was inaugurated by the Minister of Education of Jharkhand, Shri P.N. Singh. All of the local newspapers gave wide coverage to the Camp, including a 90 minute presentation of Ananda Shiila on a local cable TV channel.

In Loherdoga the school building construction is in full swing. An additional 40 new wards have been admitted to the school.

Seven new rooms have been constructed in our school in Daltonganj at a cost of 2 lakh. Three classrooms were repaired at our school at PO Saharaspal at a cost of Rs. 15,000. A new wall, new gate and electricity upgrading were also done.

A 1500 sq. ft. school building was constructed in Gwalior after two ministers of State raised Rs. 60,000 for the work. The DM of Gwalior donated a computer for our school.

Nicaragua
Didi Prema successfully ended the last school year with 35 students in Nicaragua. Dada Vishnupremananda has 115 students in his school. He recently got some sponsors for 7 kids and has been able to include an English and a Dance teacher. February 27 was the 5th anniversary of the school and was celebrated with many festivities. Dada has included sports as a way to get the children more interested and focussed and it has worked very well. The sports kids now have a uniform with T-shirt, shorts and the badge of the school, which was designed by the Didi who started the work in Nicaragua.

Monterrey, Mexico
The school has 125 children and has recently been registered with the Ministry of Education. Didi Ananda Sujita is working as DSL.

Taiwan
Dada Cidatmana conducted a Teacher Effectiveness Training program at the Amatyakul School for one week with 15 teachers. The program was composed of asanas (with kiirtan music), kaoshiiki, tandava, short spiritual philosophy and meditation (Baba Nam Kevalam).

Bali
New Children’s Home
by Didi Ananda Mohatiita.
A children’s home was started in October 2004 After 3 months a small house was donated by a senior member of Ananda Marga. In that small house we began our small children’s home with 2 children. Now we have 5 children and they are either parentless or from a very poor family background. We also have one small house for starting a school, and we are working on starting the school in the next school session.

Ghana
Ejura
The school at Ejura has continued to develop. The number of students has reached 230, and more children come nearly every day. Dada Haranath and Dada Shiveshvarananda are running the school, with local staff. Overseas volunteer teachers continue to add a lot to the school and make it more popular locally. A boundary wall around the school has been constructed and a new building with three extra classrooms, is under construction.

Accra – Sorkor
Didi Ananda Shanta runs a nursery school in the children’s home with 22 students. Volunteer teachers from overseas teach art every day to the children. The Children’s Library is popular with children in the locality.

Accra – Korle Gonno
Brother Pamkaj manages the jagrti nursery school with 70 children. The school has a separate classroom for art, where an overseas volunteer teacher is in charge. The school classroom needs renovation and they need more furniture.

Kasua
Didi Ananda Shanta and Shankar are trying to start a model school in Kasua. Land has been bought and construction will start soon.

Ivory Coast
Abidjan – Yopogoun
The school, after nearly 20 years of operation has 316 students and 15 staff and is running very well. The main struggle is for permanent authorization from the government. The staff is working hard to resolve this impasse.

Togo
Lome – Cacavelli
Dada Tapan is managing the nursery school at the master unit in Cacavelli at the outskirts of Lome. The school has 23 children now, and cannot grow more with the current limited facilities. The Ananda Marga members are trying to raise funds to install water and electricity and are looking for sponsors to help construct a school building with four classrooms.

Kenya
Our projects including the Ananda Marga Academy-Nairobi were visited by the delegates to the conference in Kenya called Globalization for the Common Good, the Quest for Peace & Justice. Dada Vratadhiirananda was also one of the speakers in that 4 - day conference. The Ananda Marga Academy high school now has full registration from the Ministry of Education.

Athens, Greece
By Didi Ananda Uttama
We're in the beginning stages of starting a school here in Athens with preschoolers coming 3 mornings a week and a few after school yoga classes for older children. The 15 or so children are a mix of Greek and non-Greek so it's a very international classroom. Vimala has been training to be the teacher and Lavanya, a long time sympathizer, has been working a lot with the mothers in areas of nutrition and communication and other parenting issues.

Croatia
The Centre for Neohumanist Studies in Croatia completed a national contest for children and youth for writing and illustrating their own stories. See the full story in the centrefold of this issue.

Budapest, Hungary
Didi Ananda Rama gave a workshop entitled “Empowering Children Spiritually” at the Path of Peace Conference in Budapest in October, 2004. The conference was an inspiration of the first Soul in Education conference in Findhorn. Didi also taught yoga and meditation to those interested. In May, 2005 she gave a follow-up workshop on "Circle Time' in Budapest, Hungary which was organised by SEAL (Society for Effective and Affective Learning). Didi introduced elements of Circle Time that can be practiced in normal school settings by teachers who are inspired to work on community building within the classroom or the school.

Uplifting Our Meditation
At the end of the recent holidays, we held a "Meditation In-Service" with the Primary teachers to discuss how to improve our "Quiet Time" programs. The half day program was inspiring and informative, and we all feel it has brought together some nice changes in the classrooms.

We began reviewing the current programs the teachers were using in their classrooms. It was interesting to hear about a variety of techniques teachers have used integrating music, meditation, visualisation, relaxation, yoga, virtues, discussion, journaling, storytelling, sending love to the world, and gratitude work in a variety of ways. Generally the teachers thought their programs were going well and I was impressed with the creativity and sincerity of the approaches.

We discussed the reasons why we teach meditation at the River School. These included:
• Helping children utilise their full potential
• Giving our minds a "rest"

• Helping children find happiness and contentment inside, so they don't feel only material objects can fulfil them
• Change ourselves, change the world
• Creating peace and relaxation to enhance the ability to learn
• Creating an environment so that children may have a genuine taste of spiritual bliss and peace at least once, and ideally often, in their school experience. Such deep experiences will never be forgotten.

We also discussed with the teachers some in-depth information about meditation such as the science of mantra, techniques for helping mind withdrawal, and scientific research showing the many benefits of meditation in education, health and general well-being.

One change that will affect the whole school is we have decided to begin our Monday morning circles with meditation. This means the children come in and seat themselves quietly. Then we dance the kiirtan dance, and sit for a meditation before we start our songs. Our first trial of this on Monday went very nicely with plenty of enthusiasm.

Tuck Shop
We now have a "tuck shop" once a week. This means children can order sentient vegetarian food from a short menu (pizza, lavash rolls, mac and cheese, some cakes and ice blocks) in advance, and get served the food at school. The parents run this, and it helps raise money for various programs. (otherwise the children bring their lunches.) The food is yummy!

New Jagrti
Late last year the school finally completed building our new Jagriti. This is a two story building with a meditation hall below and a three-bedroom "Dada house" above. No sooner was the paint dry on the walls, then we began pracar classes and workshops which have all been well attended. The new hall also gives us a venue for our all-school morning circles and is used as a much needed music room several days a week.

Swimming Carnival makes a Splash!
We held our first swimming carnival last month at the town pool where all the River School children had been having lessons for the term. The carnival included races, where children received "ribbons" based on their own level of improvement (rather than competing against each other.) There was also lots of fun, dancing and games!

Stockholm, Sweden

NHE Preschool run by Didi Ananda Bhadra has 15 children.

In GT sector we have 24 schools – 17 in Brazil, 3 in Paraguay and 1 each in Peru, Colombia, Venezuela and Guyana. In Porto Alegre, Brazil one of our schools is Primary level and our Barranquilla school (Colombia) also has Primary level. At present 10 of our schools in Brazil receive full funding from the local government.

Barranquilla, Colombia
The school now has 170 children who receive free education. Photo shows Dada Divyapremananda meditating with the children.

Paraguay
Sojonia, Asuncion
The school year started in March and we have 21 children in school. We are giving daily refreshments to the children. Local people of this area where our school is located are very happy with our education system. The school also has a built-in medical clinic, where treatments are given to children and adults.

Capiata, Asuncion
The Capiata school on the outskirts of Asuncion is running well and now has 320 students. The school teaches up to 9th grade (around 14 years old). Recently a meditation room was constructed and meditation is done there with the children daily. Didi Ananda Sushiila writes: “I have started yoga course including basic knowledge of yoga, asanas and meditation with the 7th and 8th grades. Recently we renovated the office and preschool too. After one year of meditation regularly with the children, everything is moving smoothly now in the school. I also started collective meditation with the staff, mothers and neighbours every Tuesday after school hours.”

Brazil
Guarapiranga, Sao Paulo
A wonderful Education Training seminar was held in our, school with 50 participants. Classes included spiritual philosophy, the art of play, story telling and there were workshops on painting, drama, music and voice. The flow was really inspiring and a lot of practical learning was done. Two more trainings will be held in the beginning of next year in different parts of Brazil.

Araruama, Brazil
Documentation has been received permitting the opening of the proposed school. The school will begin next year.

Ponta Grossa
The new pre-school is running well. Shantimaya writes regarding a yoga teachers training course which has been started to help the school. “The whole Ponta Grossa team worked very hard. 25 people attended the yoga training, 14 are paying and the rest are Ananda Marga members and school staff that also are taking the training. The main goal of this training is to create a nice positive flow in the unit and to raise funds for the school; with the money of this course we expect to run the school for the rest of the year until we get funding from the local government.” Before coming to the school, two of the very young children used to go around the streets with their mother as she collected waste materials to sell. They were suffering from various diseases and psychic problems. In the loving environment of our school they received medical care, proper nutrition and personal attention. They are now very much improved.

Porto Alegre
Our primary school and 5 pre-schools continue to run well. A teacher training was held for the staff of all the schools which focused on giving the participants an understanding of Ananda Marga philosophy. Topics included Layers of the Mind, Neohumanism and Prout.

Venezuela

This project, directed by Didi Ananda Sadhana, began in the year 2000 with the purchase of three and a half hectares of land. Now the second floor of the 160 square-meter AMURTEL Community Centre has almost been finished. The focus of the Centre is to serve the surrounding impoverished rural villages of Barlovento through education, health, agriculture and cooperatives.

During April and May, the children of two villages regularly attended a special reading and writing program in which stories, drama and art helped strengthen their literacy skills and their self-esteem.

In July, Children's Day was celebrated in four villages, with clowns, games, songs, and food. This is the fourth year that AMURTEL has celebrated this event with the people of the villages nearest to the centre.

Back to Top of 'Georgetown'

For two months during the summer vacation period, a special program was designed for 20 young people of two villages aged 9-12. A bus was hired to bring them twice a week to the AMURTEL Centre where a variety of activities developed their self- esteem and sense of values. Science classes, a field trip, games, stories, reading, writing, art and drama all focused on presenting universal moral principles. The attendance was excellent, and both the kids and the AMURTEL volunteers thoroughly enjoyed the experience.

Our Neohumanist Preschool is running now in its 2nd year. Although we couldn’t yet complete the registration with the education department, the quality of the school is getting increasingly better. We have now 9 staff – 1 director, 4 teachers, 3 assistant teachers and the lady who cooks and cleans the school. Forty-five children attend, mostly from low-income families. Nine children are completely sponsored by us, 32 are getting partial scholarship and 4 are paying full fee. Two volunteer doctors are providing free medical care on a regular basis. We also received donations of school materials, food supplies and a cooking stove from sympathizers. An Ananda Marga couple donated all the Christmas gifts for the children.

The children practice yoga and meditation and are eager to hear the Circle of Love and other related stories which they then retell and dramatize. They also know a large variety of children’s songs; one of the teachers was a professional singer before. Recently we had a painter give an art workshop to the children. They enjoy creative work tremendously.

A member of Ananda Marga is working on a video to present to the public, to explain Neohumanist Education and for fundraising. We still need to increase enrolment of full paying children and after the registration is finished we will be able to ask the government for funding, but until then we depend on donations to keep the school running.

Since several years Ananda Marga owns a 16 hectar piece of land in La Parreña, in the mountains of Yaracuy, about 1300 meters above sea level. Part of the land is planted with coffee which is the main crop in this area.
The people living in the neighbourhood of our Master Unit are suffering from multiple neglects. Transportation has become a real problem, one time going up and down the mountain by jeep costs about the amount of a 3 day salary of a worker in the coffee plantation and walking down the mountain by foot takes anywhere from 1 to 2 hours. The living costs have increased tremendously because of the inflation, but the salary of the workers has almost remained the same.

Since the increase of the transportation costs most of the children have stopped going to school. Most of them are girls and Didi Liina who is working in the Master Unit has given individual classes to them in order to help them pass to the next school year. Two of the girls are walking every day to school and another two have moved to Caracas with us to stay with the Didis permanently. After seeing this situation, myself and one of the sympathizers who has helped us to cover the costs of cleaning our land for the last year, have forwarded part of the money to buy a house in the village for our caretaker´s extended family. They will pay it off gradually, and at least the children will not have any more problems attending school. The property is located right in front of it.

We also bought another piece of land in the village of Tartagal for the Didis, since staying alone up in the mountains is not very safe and also is very lonely. The land is plain with a beautiful view towards the mountains, it is also very fertile and much easier to cultivate. We already planted many fruit trees and the construction of the house is almost finished. In the near future we would like to start a small industry with aromatic and herbal plants to help generate income for the many unemployed women and adolescents in the area.

If you are interested in sponsoring a child or work as a volunteer in one of our project, please, contact Didi Ananda Amegha - e-mail: amegha@etheron.net. You can also send a tax deductable donation through our AMURTEL office in Vermont.