abuse

[Guest guest]

Haribol prabhus,

PAMHO AGTSP

 

"Our farm here is supported by collections in the name of feeding the

hungry, guest facilities, and donations in the name of feeding our poor

orphans the cows, where it actually goes to paying our bills.."

 

I think this has happened in most temples. Also it's more annoying when at

the first chance of gaining favour with anyone, the cows are brought into it

by a very rare visit etc. It's a pattern in gardening, farming and cow

protection which I've seen for years. A big turnout for specific preaching,

and mentioned in SB class, but practically no other real functional

interest.

 

What we've been trying to do is set up our own account for direct donations,

so that it can't go on bills. The paper work is done, but the hard work of

getting donations is getting going. Also we have been putting more emphasis

on the Temple here, (who are really not financially in a good position)

allocating they're funds better. So we tried to propose a percentage system

according to priorities, and this did not get adopted. So we are now trying

to come up with a weekly figure which would be reasonable and honest, so

that the cows could be maintained, and their monies go into the cow kitty

just like the other bills. This is also in it's early stages, but I think

most temples should do this. Why should the cows be less important than

somebody having their washing machine bill or electric bill paid? So we've

been trying to work this system out with the Temple.

 

The other thing which I am doing is trying to encourage people to make

specific donations, by naming that this is for the cows. So that if the

laxmi goes into the main ISKCON treasury, they're is little or no chance of

it getting swallowed up on something else, which is a real problem. The

difficulty is that there aren't many donations full stop. So maybe we

(cowherders, or would be protectors) should have a collective lobby to make

sure that each Cow programme has separate accounts, and that the individual

temples prioritise the cows as one of their expenses, just like all their

other ones. Otherwise, it becomes too easy to discount the programme, and

shift a sense of responsibility or ownership onto others.

ys