Sai Global update: U.S.A.-ARGENTINA -INDONESIA-INDIA-BHARAT-COLUMBIA-JAPAN-ITALY-SRI LANKA-LAOS-THAILAND -SWITZERLAND

[Guest guest]

Home | SBOI-Group| Pictures | Audio-Video | Wallpapers| Greeting-cards | Ashrams Info. | Sai news

THAILANDOn 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 todistribute 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 LANKADevotees 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.SWITZERLANDIn 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.ITALYLarge public meetings were held on 4th and

5th February 2006 at the Serena Majestic Hotel by the Sathya Sai Baba

Organisation inPescara, 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 SaiOrganisations 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.ARGENTINAInspired 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.INDONESIAA 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 weeINDIA - 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.

Source SBOI - Courtesy: Original text source excerpted from Sanathana Sarathi

Attachment: (image/jpeg) sai_baba_news_online_1.jpg [not stored]

Attachment: (image/jpeg) monks_praying_sai.jpg [not stored]

Attachment: (image/jpeg) thailand_seva_sai_baba.jpg [not stored]

Attachment: (image/jpeg) happy_family_sri_lanka_sai_seva.jpg [not stored]

Attachment: (image/jpeg) refugee_camp.jpg [not stored]

Attachment: (image/jpeg) sai_meeting_italy_pescara.jpg [not stored]

Attachment: (image/jpeg) sai_seva_columbia.jpg [not stored]

Attachment: (image/jpeg) homeless_being_served_la_sai_devotees.jpg [not stored]