KATRINA INFORMATION FROM ARUN AND SWAMI DAYAMRITA

[Guest guest]

I am sending this in case everyone has not gotten this in their

Satsangs yet...

 

Adriane

 

Aum Amriteshwaryai Namah

 

 

ammas_northamerican_satsangs

Thursday, September 15, 2005 6:11 PM

 

Important Katrina Messages and notes from phone meeting

 

 

Aum Amriteshwaryai Namah

Dear All,

Below find:

1. Message from Arun--our national Katrina coordinator; one of the

many inspirational letters from Diaster Relief sevites; and attached

notes from the phone meeting with Dayamrita Swami last Sunday.

 

Aum Amriteswaryai Namaha

 

 

To Amma's Children serving in Katrina Relief Efforts,

 

 

Thank you all for participating in the conference call on Sunday with

Dayamrita.

 

 

Many people are suffering and need help in so many ways.

 

 

Amma has given a message for the Katrina victims and the devotees who

wish to aid in any way. This message will be posted shortly on

Amma.org.

 

 

Your faith in Amma will guide you in all ways of service.

 

 

We are setting up a network of Regional Coordinators who will assist

in communications and activities in your area. The Katrina webpage

will be updated as soon as possible with information which will be

helpful to all of Amma's children wishing to serve in varying

capacities.

 

 

Please be patient.

 

 

Here is an inspirational e-mail we received:

 

 

___________________________

 

 

Om Namah Shivaya,

We missed the conference call because we were involved in a massive

donation collection for 54 families from Katrina who now live at

Sunrise Apartments in Oklahoma City and 150 families who are on

busses enroute to live at the apartment complex. I heard the

apartment owner speak briefly on T.V. and say, "We are all here to

help one another". He opened 200 rent free apartments he was just

finishing renovating to the Katrina survivors. Most all are from New

Orleans. Many were at the Superdome. The school board president said

the kids were wandering around in shock with glazed looks on their

faces. Haven't met the owner, but he spoke with a heavy accent and

looked middle eastern.

Kaivalya and Randy, from the Wichita, Kansas Satsang drove their huge

20 foot cattle trailer to OKC, with backpacks for youth filled with

school supplies and other donations collected by the Wichita

Satsang. We filled it to the top (6 foot) tall with donations, from

Edmond and OKC people. We also filled 4 trucks and have a room full

of probably 12 more pick-up trucks of men's and women's clothing to

sort through next Saturday and take to Sunrise Park Apartments. Youth

met us as we arrived in the truck pulling the long cattle trailer at

the apartments. The cattle trailer was a big hit! After emptying it

Kaivalya hopped in the back with about 20 youth and their cowherd dog

Gopi, and Randy gave them a ride for a couple of blocks up to the

laundry room to drop off more toiletries and supplies. They looked

like the pied piper with youth showing up all along the way wanting

to ride. Some kids asked, "Do we have to pay to ride?" It was better

than an amusement park! We were so tired and their joy totally

restored us! All of the youth who live there will go to Crooked Oak

School. The Superintendent of this small very poor independent school

district met us and opened his doors at the board of education for

us to drop off all the back packs and school supplies. He and his

family had been at the apartments mowing and helping all day, as was

his board president who was helping receive donations at the

apartments. The complex has a head start and nice laundry facility

and lots of open spaces for children to explore and play in.

 

 

What is needed now immediately is money for uniforms for the

children. Monday, the superintendent will serve the new youth and

parents breakfast, visit with them and show them around the school

and then load the families on the school busses to go to buy

uniforms, white shirt with collar and khaki pants. We plan to meet

them at the store and be foster friends and help them find their

sizes and get outfitted for school. They need everything!

Checks can be made out to Crooked Oak School District, attention

Shannon Goodsell, Superintendent, and mailed directly to 1901 S.E.

15th Street, Oklahoma City, OK, 73129. All donations are tax

deductible, just the same as if you were donating to the Red Cross.

The Superintendent will mail you a receipt with the school letter

head and federal tax I.D. number and the amount of your cash donation

on it. All money goes directly to the youth ages kindergarten through

12th grade at the school.

 

 

We are also looking at ways we can serve at the apartments and send

donated items directly to the apartments, and will email more about

that later.

Would appreciate any assistance you can give in getting this info

out to all the satsangs for immediate monetary donations.

Jai Ma,

Anaswara Tarr, Edmond, Oklahoma Satsang

Kaivalya Reazin-Rupe, Wichita, Kansas Satsang

 

 

__________________________

 

 

 

 

Amma says, "My children are my strength". While we await Amma

further directions, don't hesitate to help anyway you can.

 

 

Namah Sivaya,

 

Arun

 

 

 

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Visit your group "ammas_northamerican_satsangs" on the web.

 

ammas_northamerican_satsangs

 

 

 

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Notes from Meeting of Katrina Coordinators from Amma's satsangs-

Sunday Sept 11 2005. For those who missed getting the announcement in

time, we beg you to excuse us. Organizing efforts are being

undertaken by sevites as we speak.

 

Dayamrita Swami held a conference call to discuss and give direction

to satsangs about participating in Katrina relief. The agenda was:

Short term plans, long term places, and future preparedness, however

the discussion was mainly limited to short term plans.

People from US and Canada spoke up about their interaction with

evacuees, or the Red Cross, or their own satsang's intentions.

 

Swamiji: The greatest need at the shelters now is individual

attention, compassion, and counseling. Swami encouraged us to "go

and talk to the people, even if only one or two hours. Let them know

they are being taken care of...connect with them and give emotional

support". Other suggestions: Shelters are bound to respect the

privacy and safety of the occupants, by not letting the public in

unless they have been Red Cross or Salvation Army certified, but even

just being in the area you can help to encourage and maybe offer a

ride to a store or job interview. If there is a spiritual counseling

section of the shelter, that would be a good place to start. * Try

to encourage and offer assistance to survivors for registering with

the Red Cross and FEMA - registration is absolutely necessary in

order to receive benefits however the paperwork for all of their

relocation is difficult and many give up.

 

It was suggested that all devotees interested in volunteer work be

certified by the Red Cross - this is a lifetime, international

certification. Should there be a disaster in the future, you would

be ready to help immediately.

 

Devotees who are involved with hands on volunteering are encouraged

to speak/share with other devotees for emotional support as this can

be draining and depressing. It is suggested to study written

materials about Post Traumatic Stress Disorder before talking to

these victims. Innocently- very harmful things can be said.

 

A representative from each area of the US and Canada spoke about

efforts in their area.

For those outside of areas with shelters, there is still a lot to do:

 

1) Fund raising – donations are already being accepted by M.A.

Center. Amma has not yet spoken as to exactly how She wishes to use

funds raised here for Katrina victims, however we can give assurance

that it will be Amma's decision, and it will be spent according to

our standards of extreme care and efficiency of getting the maximum

percentage to the needy. See www.amma.org

 

2) Writing letters of encouragement, sharing your heart, children

making pictures - send these to Jeff Warren in Dallas

(jwarren ) for his distribution at shelters there.

Satsangs can distribute these gifts of art in person. Also there is a

letter writing seva organized by the Circle of Love. aikya

An email was sent tothe satsangs about this.

3) Computer seva at home: Amritavarshini (edmondsb) is

connecting people who wish to volunteers for a remote seva project

entailing many hours of computer work for those who may not be able

to do other sevas. This involves searching through many databases

(assigned by the coordinator of the project) to unite families and

missing persons who have lost track of each other. There is also a

section of this seva involving placing the calls to shelters, to

notify when locations are made of family members.

4) Swamiji requested each and every satsang to create a report of

their Katrina Relief activities, and send it –asap---to

Krishna. There is a great need now to compile and

organize all efforts and information.

 

5) Several satsangs have collected school supplies and backpacks for

student evacuees. These have been distributed in various locales

where we have the connection to do so.

 

6) Satsangs have collected goods and sent them via horse trailer, and

truck to locations where evacuees are being housed. From San Ramon,

Dr. Shree Pillai is working on plans for post-disaster counseling

sevas for trained people, as she has done this under Amma's

supervision after the tsunami in India. This will be a very great

need.

Many many satsangs reported, either ways in which they have been

involved with victims, or that they were waiting to hear from

Swamiji, or that they are using fundraising as their main

contribution. Much more will happen as we get organized and hear from

Amma. Meanwhile all info on what is being done by our devotees, and

what can be done--will be accessible as soon as people send it in (

Krishna )

 

7) Much discussion was around how to organize our communication

systems. We see the lack of a coherent system right now can hinder

our ability to be more productive. Arati who is in charge of the

seva e mails can put people together with needs if each

location can inform her of the needs and opportunities. Then when

someone from that region asks for info on what to do she can network

with them. Please send your needs for help or offer of help to

seva

 

8) Arun Richmond from NY ( arun) will be the National

Coordinator for Katrina Relief. Arun is encouraging all to help build

our infrastructure and our community. We can look at all ways we can

help people. The first step is to build a way of communicating and

finding out strengths. We are all one team and family. He will be

working with Arati and Sanatini who volunteered to help assemble data

bases of all Katrhina Coordinators, and regional coordinators etc.

Swamiji suggested forming teams based on regions: North, South, East

and West. Amma will be the one to give us direction and guide our

efforts.

 

9) Swamiji concluded that it is not the proper time to discuss our

long term efforts now.

Another conference call will be scheduled in the next couple of

weeks, wherein follow and long term items will be discussed. AUM

AMRITESHWARYAI NAMAH