Humanitarian Initiatives - Amritavarsham61
Amma turned 61 on September 27th. She used the occasion to launch an array of new humanitarian initiatives, and to speak to the assembled crowd. In her talk, Amma addressed many of the most pressing challenges facing the world today and invited each of us to be part of the solution. Read Excerpts here
Some of the humanitarian initiatives that were launched on this occasion:
Amritadyuti Solar Home-Lighting System
Amrita Centre for Nanosciences introduced Amritadyuti, the Solar Home-Lighting System during Amma’s 61st birthday celebrations. This low-cost system consists of three LED lights, a radio and a mobile-charger powered from a solar-power system. It has been designed as a package for Amrita Kuteeram homes and village hamlets (of 101 villages of Amrita SeRVe) so as to ensure them power even if they are cut off from the main power grid.
The Minister also unveiled Amrita Karshakan, a solution for farmers facing serious financial problems with regard to receiving fair compensation for their produce. It enables farmers to trade using SMS, Web and mobile platform as well as kiosks. The system also helps beneficiaries getting locally grown produce at a fair price in an efficient way. This will be a major contribution in Amrita SeRVe’s 101 Villages project.
Unveling of Amrita’s A-One Fuel-Maker and Solar Dryer
The Amrita A-One Fuel-maker is an electricity-free machine for producing fuel briquettes from bio mass, like husk, sawdust, pine needles, dry leaves, etc. This patent-pending technology produces briquettes with bicycle power and is a great way to generate income as well as reduce fuel cost for rural Indian villagers.
Amrita Sphuranam
The Amrita Sphuranam project of Amrita Centre for Wireless Networks and Applications, the Mata Amritanandamayi Math will be providing solar-powered electrification for the entire rural village of Motakkara in Wayanad. Amrita Sphuranam was created as part of Amrita University’s Live-in-Labs Program and the Mata Amritanandamayi Math’s Amrita SeRVE initiative to make 101 villages in India totally self-reliant. Kerala Chief Minister Shri Oommen Chandy launched the solar electrification project “Amrita Sphuranam”
Amritakuteeram
As part of Amma’s dream that everyone in the world should have a solid roof over their head, the Mata Amritanandamayi Math has constructed more than 45,000 homes for the homeless in more than 75 locations across India since 1998. Often, in response to floods, earthquakes and other natural disasters, entire villages are reconstructed at a time. This year, we built 500 houses across Kerala. And, in Uttarakhand, as part of the Rs. 50-crore (more than $8 million USD) relief package for flood survivors we launched in 2013, we built 250 houses for people whose homes were washed away last year. At Amma's 61st birthday celebration yesterday, Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh bestowed keys and certificates to beneficiaries of our housing project, some of whom came all the way from Uttarakhand.
Disaster Relief
Sri. Rajnath Singh, Union Minister for Home Affairs officially launched the Mata Amritanandamayi Math’s 25 INR Crore (approx 4 Million USD) Relief & Rehabilitation Package for Jammu-Kashmir, as part of which houses Embracing the world construct houses for people who have lost their homes in the flooding.
This would include housing for those who have lost their houses, monetary disbursements for widows, medical aid in terms of doctors and medicines and essential supplies.
As part of this huge effort, the Embracing the World volunteers already distributed school kits for the children of Panjar in Udhampur district, at the behest of the local authorities. The request of the authorities came when the volunteers from MAM were inspecting the nearby affected areas after their discussion with Yasha Mudgal, Deputy Commissioner Udhampur. A school kit was handed over to each of the children identified from the affected families.
After the official program for Amma's 61st birthday celebration yesterday, Amma began to give darshan to each person who attended the event. She got up only after everyone had spent a moment in her arms, more than 24 hours after arriving at the stage on the morning of her birthday. May the celebration continue in our hearts
Amrita Santulam
The Amrita Santhulam (Balance trainer), is a low cost rehabilitation system for the elderly patients suffering from stroke, Parkinson’s, peripheral neuropathy, diabetes, post ankle sprain and similar morbidities which cause impaired static and dynamic balance in the human body. This was developed by Ammachi Labs of Amrita University and the Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation Department at Amrita Hospital.