AMURT (Ananda Marga Univesal Relief Team) has being carrying out a drought disaster relief operation in Kenya known as Samburo Community Assistance Project (SCAP). This video documents some aspects of the operation:
Our first distribution was in Swari on October 13, 2011, a community in the Nariminimo location in Samburu East District. The village relief committee had selected the neediest from various vulnerable groups such as, but not limited to, pregnant and lactating mothers, orphans, the very sick, the disabled, the elderly and economically impoverished. In all, the beneficiaries were 90 households selected from a total of 694 people living in the village.
Our community mobilizers and local volunteers together with our core program staff handled the distribution fairly, courteous and efficiently. In fact, we received many positive comments about our entire process as compared with other NGOs and the government.
We distributed 950 kg of beans, 875 kg of Unimix, 90 liters of oil and 45 kg of salt for an average of about 21 kgs for each of the beneficiary households. As supplementary food this can have a substantial positive impact on these families over the course of a month.
At the same time a free medical camp was conducted with the local government nurse and one of our clinical officers. They saw in total 76 patients. Common ailments were eye infections, arthritis, skin rashes and respiratory illnesse,s but they also saw three cases of malnutrition and one case of suspected cancer. In fact, even with the government clinic in the village the medical need was great. We can only imagine what we will encounter once going deeper in to the hinterland.
Amongst the patients was a mother with her four-week old baby. When asked what the name of the baby was the mother replied that they had not given it a name yet. The mother then asked the name of one of our program officers that was assisting in the mobile clinic. Her name is Susan. The mother then declared the baby’s name Susan! This incident illustrates the excitement and gratitude the community felt for the food and medicine they received which was more than they had ever received during the drought at any one time.
We found the village relief committee to be responsible and helpful, the community patient and disciplined. It was a joy to serve them and we look forward to being part of making a difference in their lives in the months to come.
We have another six villages lined up for distribution next week. With the second batch of community mobilizers starting their work this week, even more will be added to the distribution schedule in the following weeks. In total our target is to distribute 25 tons of supplementary food in 20 villages over the next month. We will also conduct medical camps in those villages and plan to screen over 1,000 patients. Additionally, we plan to disinfect and treat more than 30 water tanks and water points throughout the district.
Our principle partners in this intervention are the village relief committees, the Government of Kenya, The Samburu East Women's Empowerment Forum and Kindernothilfe (Germany).
Two Medical camps were recently conducted at Mountain View Estate and Kangemi High School, both in Nairobi, with the help of the Divinity Foundation and Dada Diiptimayananda. More than 480 patients and students were treated.
Meanwhile, Dada Jayamaungalananda conducts a food distribution and medical camp for 1800 people every Saturday in Mombasa, Kenya, which is highly appreciated by the local people and the local government.
South Africa
Four successful Weekend Yoga Detox Camps were recently held in South Africa. The Detox Camps are an excellent way to introduce people to the concepts of meditation and holistic health. A regular beginner’s meditation session is gradually forming from the attendees of the retreats in Johannesburg.
Longevity magazine of South Africa published an article on Ananda Marga and Dada Shiilabhadrananda in its June issue.
West Africa
Visit our community development pages for video coverage of AMURT (Ananda Marga Univesal Relief Team) community work in Burkina Faso, Ghana and Nigeria.
Mafi Zongo Water Project has been connected to the national electricity grid, so that now the project runs on electricity rather than diesel. AMURT constructed a new staff quarters for the water project with a European Union grant, which effectively doubles the accommodation space available.
Health Education programs, including HIV/AIDS awareness, have been conducted in more than 30 communities. Fun programs in many villages, focusing on malaria, hygiene and sanitation, were organized and co-presented by Seva Clinic staffs and Kekeli women. TBAs (Traditional Birth Attendants) are visiting the villages with volunteers and Seva Clinic staff. The homeopathic clinic gets over 70 patients a month. Our antenatal check-up program provides women with iron supplements, malaria preventatives and all other required care.
The annual Ananda Marga Summer Conference for Accra Region was held in August in Tamale, northern Ghana. Brother Govinda and family were the hosts at their hotel called Relax Lodge. All appreciated the arrangements and hospitality. The theme was "Yoga for Health and Peace in the 21st Century". Over 150 people participated from Ghana, Cote d'Ivoire, Burkina Faso, Nigeria, Togo, USA, and Portugal. Based on the established system of seminars the program included nagar kiirtan, public service (feeding of beggars and a visit to the local government children's home), and a public conference in the city. Classes and presentations were held on "The Benefits of Asanas", "Be the Master of Your Own Health" and meetings were held to outline a strategy to revitalize public dissemination activity throughout the region.
The first Ananda Marga Yoga Teacher Training program in Africa was held in early August in Accra. Sixteen Ananda Margiis from Ghana, Nigeria, Togo, Burkina Faso and Cote d'Ivoire and 3 Dadas/Didis attended. All felt great benefit and increased knowledge and have started teaching classes locally in their units.
Further renovations and improvements have been made at Madhu Shyam, MG Quarters (Spiritual complex) in Accra. New aluminum and glass windows were installed. Other improvements include terrazzo walkways, new paint at the front of the house and a refurbished entrance wooden and tinted glass door.
As part of the growing global network of Ananda Marga Wellness Centres, the local AM Holistic Health and Lifestyle Centre conducted a weekend "Be the Master of Your Own Health" detox program. Attendees including a retired bank manager and the human resource training director for Standard Chartered Bank in Accra. All shared positive feedback. The program featured a one-day liquid fast, presentations on natural therapy, delicious alkaline food, clay/mud pack and individual steam, sauna bath. We feel this program holds much potential for pracar and service.
Dada Shiilabhadrananda's booklet Scientific Study Methods is proving to be another way in which people are getting to know about Ananda Marga in Africa. Dada presented the subject to 200 students at one of Ghana’s leading high schools in September.
Burkina Faso
Our TBAs (Traditional Birth Attendants) currently cover 33 villages. AMURT has distributed 1 ton of millet in the flood-affected area of Bangeldaye. A watershed management program was initiated to collect surface water and keep the rainwater from running off without penetrating the soil by means of small check dams and other rainwater harvesting methods such as creating barriers to retain water around trees.
At the Bissari master unit, the transition into organic farming is proceeding smoothly as the farmers have clearly understood the benefit of it. We have a donkey and a few goats and are working to acquire some cows in order to produce our own manure. A beekeeping project has been started to introduce beekeeping to the community.
Our clinic in the Bissiri Master Unit, near Ouagadougou is growing. We hired a second nurse and have nearly completed a new room for the increasing number of patients during the rainy season (which is the big malaria season too). We are also building a simple toilet and bathroom facility. One of the nurses is now living in the MU itself. This allows the patients to get care during the night. We have been able to dig a borehole. The regular supply of drinkable water in quantity is a very great improvement.
We now are making our own bread, thanks to a very simple traditional mud brick oven. The bread is nice and our trainer, a French baker and friend, had the community taste its very first bits of pizza! Now the bread is made every day, small bread that the community can afford. There was no local bread available until now and everyone enjoys it.
Nigeria
Three health centers have been opened in Ebonyi State of Nigeria: Ephenium Health Center, Omege Health Center, and Offia Oji Health Center .In Abakaliki Local Government Area in Ebonyi State, AMURT has started working on water and sanitation programs. In August we signed an MOU with the local government council to provide water through boreholes to ten new villages and to rehabilitate broken boreholes in four more villages. AMURT is carrying out the program in partnership with NIWA, a local NGO.
In addition to the boreholes and repairs, AMURT has organized WASHCOMs (Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Committees) in each of the communities and provided comprehensive training for them. The training includes water management, repair and maintenance of the boreholes, human rights, conflict resolution, leadership and HIV/AIDS awareness.
The villagers also learned livelihood skills like soap making, pomade making and bead jewelry production. They were also taught how to make Tippy Tap, a unique way to facilitate hand washing, pioneered in India. Seven of the ten boreholes have been installed. The remaining three were delayed due to inaccessible roads. With the beginning of the dry season these villages are now accessible and will be completed in the next weeks.
Togo
Two new classrooms have been constructed to expand the Togo school, now with 310 children. A new football field sponsored by AMURT Italy is now ready. Plans are now afoot to expand the school into the high school level.
At the master unit, a bore hole has been dug, the elevated water tank is up and the pipes have been installed. The garden is completely organic. There is plenty of water available and three gardeners are working to raise crops for market. Gardening is now part of the school program and children enjoy learning about it in a practical way.
These videos cover Ananda Marga in Tanzania:
...youth Hip Hop training in Kenya:
...the Kekeli women in Ghana:
...the Neohumanist school in Lome, Togo:
...and the Neohumanist school in Ejura, rural Ghana:
Tanzania
Two ambulances have been donated for the Ananda Marga Medical Dispensary in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania by Sewa UK and the Kalamandalam Foundation of UK.
A medical camp organized by the Kalamandalam Foundation in Dar es Salaam was attended by the local MP, the local councillor and the High Commissioner of India, who promised to help five children from the local community with education in India and also five patients for treatment in India.
Mozambique
AMURT Austria and Vitens Friesland of The Netherlands are sponsoring the construction of rainwater harvesting at three primary schools in Xai Xai District, Mozambique. Each school has a 10,000 liter water tank to collect water and use it for the school’s needs during the dry season.
They are also sponsoring the construction of latrines and hygiene and sanitation workshops at the Makandeni Primary School in Xai Xai. Ananda Marga is feeding 23 primary school children daily in our office in Xai-Xai. And on our 40 hectare Prout land in Nguguleni village, we have constructed a feeding centre consisting of a feeding hall, a room, toilet and kitchen.
Uganda
Dada Aksovananda, who manages the Ananda Marga Primary School in Uganda, recently made a trip with the school children to the Ugandan parliament and met with the local MP, who is also a cabinet minister. He promised to help in the development of the school. The children also visited the Uganda Broadcasting Corporation.
A new clinic has been constructed at Lugazi, Uganda to replace the old building. More than 300 parents and students attended a cultural program at the school, and a sadavrata (food distribution) was held for 100 families.
Abha Light Goes to Democratic Republic of Congo
Dust.
Dust is what we encountered when Abha Light student, Ringa, and I arrived in Congo (Zaire) in August for a three-week visit. There's only 3 months of dry season in the forested green rolling mountains of eastern Congo and we arrived when the untarmacked rocky roads were nothing but rivers of dust. Soon, we were told, this would all turn to mud once the rains started, but for now, earth-reddened dust was everywhere and in everything.
Cibimbi is a tiny village in Nyangezi district, about 25 km south of Bukavu on the border with Rwanda. Short as the distance is, however, it takes 2 hours to reach it in a lorry winding on the unpaved roads through the mountains. It seems that previous regimes and present government don't give much attention to development in far away eastern Congo. In fact Nairobi, Kenya to the east is closer to Bukavu than Congo's own capital, Kinshasha to the west. So this part of Africa is somewhat behind in development compared to modern Nairobi.
How we came to Cibimbi is through an introduction to a very excellent family there. Some years back my brother-colleague in Ananda Marga, Dada Jinanananda, gave me an introduction to his brother who was visiting Nairobi at the time. Since then his brother and his brother's son, Cito, have been my friends.
Cito came to Nairobi a few years back to study at a local university. After his studies, he volunteered with Abha Light for a few months for community development. Inspired, he decided that homeopathy and natural medicine were what the people of Cibimbi needed. Cito then organized a programme for us. His father's own community development
project "VETO" was our host site.
Classes
So in August 2010, Ringa and I travelled 36 hours by bus to Congo. We held marathon classes to a group of 13 village youth in order to train them as homeopathic community health workers. We also held a clinic and saw the villagers.
Julius Ringa is currently a student at Abha Light College. Julius was introduced to homeopathy some years back with a homeopath visiting from Canada (unconnected to ALF) He's been conducting for 5 years free clinics and "first aid" homeopathy in Nairobi with Dr Jim. It was when he wanted to learn more that he joined Abha Light for further training. He's just about to graduate our training later this year. I felt since he was himself previously trained in "first aid" homeopathy, he would be ideal to bring along as co-trainer.
Clinic
We saw about 120 patients. Most of them came to us suffering diseases that the doctors could no longer help. There were many suffering recurring malaria and the lingering effects of quinine overdosing. Plus there was an abundance of epileptic cases, most of them started in infancy during a bout of fever or malaria. As to be expected, many were wary of our little white pills, but as patients got cured and word got around, the attitude changed and we were beginning to be flooded by the third week.
Mass distribution of de-wormer for the children
We also decided to do a little promotion in the community. It was announced at the church on Sunday that we would be distributing dewormer to all children who came with their parents. Ringa quickly wrote a little jingle in Swahili: "Oh my tummy hurts! But the doctor told me to wash my hands after toilet and before I eat. I won't put dirty fingers in my mouth. Then I'm going to have a strong tummy with good health." We all then lined up like a chorus line and performed with children's hand gestures for the children as they arrived from church.
We mass-distributed the free de-wormer medicines. Over two hundred parents came with their children (over 1000 children) to receive deworming medicines. We lined up the kids in queues and popped little white homeopathic "candies" into their mouths one after another. This was followed by giving the parents tablets and instructions to take home. By the end of the week we were already getting positive reports of its effects.
Training and promotion of homeopathy
Our activities didn't stop there. We visited the midwives' group and gave 15 midwives a short class on the benefits of homeopathy in midwifery. We went to the two clinics in the village and talked with the doctors and nurses there. All showed interest to learn homeopathy. In fact, we signed the 3 doctors and several nurses from the clinics up for the course.
So with our intention to train the village's doctors, nurses, midwives and community health workers, maybe this will be the first fully homeopathic village in Africa by the time we finish our 2-year plan for training!
Would you like to come with us?
Our plan is to return to Congo every 2-3 months for two weeks training. In between, the homeopathic students will study through distance courses.
Homeopaths are needed and welcome to volunteer with us. French and Swahili are the languages of communication, with a few people speaking English. English speakers can manage with local interpreters. We need the help of volunteers for this new project.
Concerns about security
Although Congo has a history of civil war, that is now over. I found it very peaceful and secure. The village is quiet and the villagers keep their environment very clean. The mountains and rolling hills are forested and the air is very pure. It's a wonderful environment to visit and volunteer.
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
Four successful Weekend Yoga Detox Camps were recently held in South Africa. The Detox Camps are an excellent way to introduce people to the concepts of meditation and holistic health. A regular beginner’s meditation session is gradually forming from the attendees of the retreats in Johannesburg. 
We now are making our own bread, thanks to a very simple traditional mud brick oven. The bread is nice and our trainer, a French baker and friend, had the community taste its very first bits of pizza! Now the bread is made every day, small bread that the community can afford. There was no local bread available until now and everyone enjoys it.
