This month we have begun food distribution in a new village, Bagurai Leprosy Colony, located a few kilometers outside of Bhadrak, in Orissa. As the name implies, most of the children in the village have parents affected by leprosy. This makes it even harder for their families to earn money, and take care of the children properly. We are trying to provide a little help in the form of spiritual food, so that the children can at least receive a few nourishing meals.

We provide a few photos below of the wonderful children from this village and the recent relief work. We have also included a 3 minute video clip at the top of the page.

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The last few months have been a time of increased activity for us. In September, a renewal of monsoon rains led to severe flooding throughout Orissa, leaving more than 1.5 million people homeless in the state. Every year Orissa seems to bear the brunt of monsoon flooding in India, but this year it was even more so, with miles and miles of land submerged under water.

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Recently the Bhaktivedanta Ashram opened a new rural relief center in Randiya, approximately 20 km away from our main Ashram in Orissa. With cooperation from the local villagers, a small piece of land was given to us for establishing a permanent relief center in the village. The village consists of people from the very poor adivasi (tribal) community. More than 300 children in the village attend regular programs at the new center.

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We would like to thank all of you who have come forward to help in the tsunami relief effort, as well as those who have participated as volunteers helping our devotees cook and distribute sanctified food to thousands of tsunami victims over the last two and a half months. Our team of volunteers in Tamil Nadu have been extremely busy over the last few months working tirelessly to help as many people as possible recover following the disaster.  Besides feeding thousands of people, we have also distributed over 1,000 blankets to families affected by the disaster. The emergency situation is now slowly returning to normal and we will begin focusing on more long term help for the children affected by this disaster.

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We are all very saddened about the terrible devastation that has fallen on our brothers and sisters in South India and other parts of the world. In response to the recent tsunami, the Bhaktivedanta Ashram has sent a team of volunteers to Tamil Nadu to carry out relief work to help the victims. Due to the long term effects of this disaster, the Bhaktivedanta Ashram has opened a permanent relief center in Chennai so that relief activities can continue even after the immediate media attention dies down.

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This month we have completed a new annadana hall at our Ashram in Bhadrak, Orissa where we are conducting the Nitya Annadana Seva program for daily feeding needy children with spiritual food. Below you can see some of the pictures of the hall from the beginning stages up to completion. We had hoped to complete this hall before the commencement of the rainy season, but due to several delays we were only able to finish the work half way through the rainy season. Despite the delay the hall will provide us with a great relief for the remainder of the year allowing us to continue the distribution of free food regardless of weather conditions.

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Last December, following completion of the rainy season, work commenced on the Bhaktivedanta Ashram’s school project in Orissa. The first phase of work was to fill a number of large ponds on the land and then raise the total land above flood levels. The size of the present land is aproximately 20,000 square feet, or nearly half an acre.

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I would like to update you regarding the Bhaktivedanta Ashram’s school project that we have mentioned in previous newsletters. At present we are waiting for the rainy season to finish before we begin construction on the school project. This year there has been excessive rain and as a result many areas are flooded, including our land where the school is going to be constructed. The flood waters should recede by the end of December (provided there is no further rain), and then we will begin by raising the land above flood level and starting the construction of the school building (tentatively scheduled for the beginning of next year).

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We would like to thank all of the donors who have helped sponsor the food relief activities in March. Below are some recent photos of the food relief activities conducted this month.  The photos below are from the Adivasi village of Ulanga. Previously in January we had also conducted distribution of blankets and clothes to all the children of the village. In the pictures below you can see some of the children wearing those clothes that were distributed in January. At present we are conducting food distribution programs in this village four times a month.

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In our previous email newsletter we had mentioned the Ashram’s desire to distribute clothes and blankets to the children of Ulanga village to protect them from the winter cold. Thanks to generous donations from many of our donors and friends we were able to raise the necessary funds to meet this goal. By Lord Krishna’s grace, we were able to distribute blankets and clothes not only to the children of Ulanga village, but to children in three other villages as well. Thanks to all of you these children will be able sleep soundly and stay warm throughout the winter.

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