Visit our community development pages for new video coverage of AMURT community work in Burkina Faso and Ghana. Another recent film here documents the Kekeli women in Ghana:
...and another on the Neohumanist school in Lome, Togo:
...and the Neohumanist school in Ejura, rural Ghana:
The Ananda Marga school in Ejura currently has an attendance of 430 children, served by 15 local teachers, four non-teaching staff and seven recent volunteers. The standard of teaching is improving dramatically. In March a group of inspectors from the district education office visited all the schools of Ejura. They came to test the reading ability of the students of lower primary classes. According to them, our school was the best. They found that the number of students having reading ability, especially in class 2 and 3, much more than those of other schools in the area.
The most noticeable development this term was the expansion of the Namaskar Childrens Home. In January, five more children joined our home, taking the total up to 12.
Report from a returning volunteer:
Greetings All,
It is a joy to be back in Ghana after nearly four years of living and farming in the US. I still remember my first visit to Ejura back in 2003; it was my first experience in a sub-Saharan African country. At that time, the Namaskar House was a training center for African dadas. The only youth living in the house was Mahadeva. There was no running water or electricity. We fetched water from the river and lit the night darkness with kerosene lamps. The school was holding only primary classes, and there was a large mango tree where the courtyard now stands in stone.
Upon my second visit to Ejura, in 2005/6, I found that the school had expanded significantly and there was now a children’s home. I got to know Kwabena, Kweku and Akwasi very well during my seven-month stay. I was also present when Christian came to the home.
I arrived back in Ghana in January of this year. I am currently focusing my efforts on developing a sustainable agriculture education program for youth living in rural communities. However, I have recently taken the opportunity to stay in Ejura for the past few weeks. I did not recognize the Namaskar Home, so much construction has been done since I was last there. Five new boys joined the home in January. The older boys, whom I've known for some time, have grown up. I didn't remember their voices being so deep before! There are also two cooks, whom I met for the first time. Everyone seems to be doing well, considering such a dynamic mix of personalities in such a small space!
The school is pretty much the same as I remember, but with new teachers and double the amount of children! The JSS program is now in full swing. Kwabena is graduating...hard to believe. Also, it is so great to see a functioning computer lab for ICT classes. This was one of my personal dreams some years ago.
I am humbled by the amount of support the school and children’s home is getting in the form of sponsorships. The support from volunteers and other private donors has been an invaluable asset in helping to educate hundreds of Ejura's children.
This said, I am also aware that we are living in a world full of economic, social and political unpredictabilities. It is my sincere wish to see financial support for the school and home be generated from within this community, rather than solely dependent on the 'outside.' Ideally, support from outside would augment the revenue generated from within; acting as a kind of safety net for any future development initiatives.
I have long been in support of Dada Shiveshvarananda's wish to build up the project's future infrastructure on the 96 acres of land (owned by the Ananda Marga Ghana Yoga Society), just a twenty-minute walk from Ejura. By utilizing the agricultural potential of this land, it is possible to sustain the operational costs of the project, as well as generate capital for any future development. Future initiatives could include the construction of West Africa's first Neohumanist Senior High School, an organic agricultural training institute, alternative health clinic, etc. Since paving the Nkoranza Road near the land, new houses and shops have begun popping up, signaling that Ejura will surely expand to this area.
Keeping this great potential in mind, I am also aware that without addressing and solving the pressing issues currently present at the school and children’s home, any future development effort on the land will be in vain. I am working with Dada, Ananda Marga, KWW and others to improve financial transparency, quality of life in the children’s home, and teaching standards at the school. However, while working on these issues, I am keeping the project's sustainable future in mind.
Wishing you all the best!
Daniel Isner
Abha Light Foundation in Nairobi has made a big difference
to many lives in Kenya through homeopathic clinics and a school:
ALF started in 1998 and so much has been accomplished these last 10 years. We continue growing. We have done a lot of work this year to establish our HQ as a place of learning and healing.
Alternative health care is needed more now than ever. We are implementing solutions to affordable, sustainable health care on an ongoing basis: village clinics, medicines, training of economically-constrained Kenyans, textbooks and resources for the students and college library, maintaining our free charity HIV clinics for HIV orphans and People Living Positively, and malaria prevention for families in high-risk areas.
Abha Light College of Natural Medicine is part of the Abha Light Foundation and represents an extended family of teachers, students, graduate practitioners, satellite clinics, supporters and friends. ALF is one of the oldest permanent projects of "pioneering" homeopathy in Africa. ALCNM grew from community classes in the slums in 2000. On the face of it, we are a very small, struggling school and, along with the rest of the ALF, ever on the brink of financial disaster. Often, we feel it's only through Cosmic Grace that we manage to pull through each month. But we ever remain vibrant and inspired by the work of bringing homeopathy to the people and by the daily miracles of homeopathy we witness in our work.
We offer diplomas in homeopathy, reflexology, herbal medicine and naturopathy (Indian tradition). Thanks to our patron, Dr. Robin Murphy, we are affiliated and get advisory support from the Centre of Homeopathic Education (UK). They have approved our course and have authorized us to offer a CHE diploma. On the Naturopathy side, we offer a Diploma from the All-India Natural Life Association.
We now conduct a 2½ year course. Our average class size, each year, is about 10 students, with ages ranging from 18-60. Up until now, we've trained about 60 Kenyans and 1 Ugandan, primarily in homeopathy. Some students have specialized in other fields such as Naturopathy, Traditional Herbal Medicine or Reflexology. Most students are from the villages or urban slums and their course is subsidized by sponsorships, but there are a growing number of middle and upper economic class students taking interest in the course. After training, we encourage them to return to their communities. This is necessary in order to establish homeopathy as a medicine accessible to everyone, rather than remaining elite in the cities. We also have a few distance students learning homeopathy from other parts of Africa.
The school can't be separated from ALF as a whole. The college's former students are now experienced homeopaths and run their own clinics. In turn they host students who come for their practical internships. ALF raises funds, as needed, to support graduate students in opening their first clinics. ALF subsidizes these low-cost clinics with free medicines. Otherwise the clinics and practitioners are independent and autonomous, working together only on special projects as a loosely affiliated group.
The work of ALF itself goes beyond the College and we are involved in many activities. We are, time to time, approached to offer homeopathy and health-care services by special-interest donors who support certain groups or projects, for example, an HIV self-support group or an orphanage. In that case, any ALF-affiliated homeopath may be asked to take charge of it. Right now, we are involved with two orphanages and one HIV-support group in this way.
Over the years we have partnered with other local and international groups to provide healthcare services in their projects. One of our oldest partnerships is with a Catholic medical mission. Corboni Sisters provides services to HIV infected persons in one of Nairobi’s largest slums. The project opened a "natural" section in 2005 with our help and we provided a homeopath and advice on their natural protocols for HIV (see ALFs book Great Health, Naturally!). Now, three of the Corboni’s nurses are trained in homeopathy and are fully in control of that section of the Corboni project.
ALF has established a pharmacy in order to be able to directly supply homeopathy to homeopaths and the public. We have developed certain complex products that are reaching the public, and help provide a small income for the Foundation. Connecting our pharmacy with the clinics, we are interested in research of various kinds.
Didi Ananda Ruchira
Five new classrooms have recently been completed at our Johannesburg school.
Togo
AMURT Italy helped to construct 8 classrooms in our Lome school and two more are in the process. 220 children are currently enrolled. See this blog covering the school.
Nakuru, Kenya Didi Ananda Rupa now has 135 children in her school.
Mombasa, Kenya
Our clinic has been selected as one of the best TB clinics in the coastal area. Ten new children were admitted to our Kiambeni primary school, bringing enrollment to 427 children from KG to Grade 8.One more child was admitted to the children’s home which now has 21 children. One of the home children, Manjuri, recently graduated from a 3-year diploma course in catering. All the projects are being supervised by Didi Ananda Giitika.
Nairobi, Kenya
Ten new children were enrolled in the Huruma School run by Didi Ananda Giirija,which now has 525 children from Baby Class to Grade 8. Kenya’s largest food retailer, Uchumi, placed a huge billboard at the Westlands branch that depicted Dada Shubhavratananda and Dada Jagatmitra doing service work for the poor children.
Dada collected materials for the completion of the children’s home, which now has 21 children.
Dada’s new 5-acre master unit land in Kikuyu, about 26 km out of Nairobi, received a $US 400,000 for the construction of a multi-purpose service project that will include a children’s home, school, health clinic and rehabilitation center for the handicapped. Construction is expected to start in January.
Uganda
Our school in Lugasi was selected as the only school in the Mukono District to measure the standard of examinations of primary school pupils as part of a nationwide exercise.The school harvested 15 quintals of maize (1500 kg) which was consumed by the 250 children in our primary school.The Hare Krsna organization donated 4 cows to our farm.
Zambia Dada Sukalyan's assistant is running the computer night classes for adults. Our AMSAI school now has 93 children.
taking the total up to 12. 