9th April: Swami has left Prasanthi Nilayam,
Puttaparthi. today morning Swami's flight left Puttaprthi airport
for Kodaikanal
Photos 9th April:
Swami on the way to the airport.
THAILAND
On 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 to
distribute 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 LANKA
Devotees 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.
SWITZERLAND
In 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.
ITALY
Large public meetings were held on 4th and 5th February 2006 at the Serena
Majestic Hotel by the Sathya Sai Baba Organisation in
Pescara, 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 Sai
Organisations 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.
ARGENTINA
Inspired 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.
INDONESIA
A 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 wee
INDIA - 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.
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