We all want to have fun, to enjoy. The most fun of all is to be alive. Not everybody understands that, because we get caught up in what “fun” is, what life is, and how that should be defined. And all of a sudden, we find ourselves coping with what is happening around us rather than enjoying.

Coping is totally different from enjoying in the truest sense. I’m not talking about parties and balloons, but about something so essential to a human being—the fun of the heart.

People say, “Life is terrible. If you think life is fun, if you think life is about joy, then you need a reality check.”

What is your reality? My conviction, my understanding is that of all the days you have in this life, if just one day you are fulfilled, then this life was worth it. If it was just six hours, three hours, one hour, one moment, one second of being able to realize what you have been given—this life was worth it. You cannot realize what you have been given until you have accepted it from your heart. Look at what you have been given in its entirety. Even if it is for one second, it is so beautiful, so precious, that it is indeed enough.

When the call from within comes, when the heart says, “Be fulfilled,” we ignore it. We think it is not significant enough, or we say, “I don’t have time for this stuff.”

We think that, as this breath has been coming and going, it will continue to come and go, and that there will be no end to it. Excuse me, there is. And the humility that it evokes is so amazing. It’s not like a hammer falling down. It’s a fine line. One day, I have to go. And when that becomes certain, the value of this time, this life, this breath becomes clear.

It’s not about the beginning or the end of life. It is that one day, one minute, one second you are touched by the pure joy, the pure reality, that resides in you 24/7, that never abandons you. Wherever go, whoever you are, the gift keeps coming. All you have to do to put your world right is to accept it. That’s all. You don’t have to ferment it, reshape it, cut it, wash it, frame it.

Do you know what the greatest form of worship is? Acceptance. In that acceptance, in that understanding, clarity begins to come, not confusion. What comes with joy is clarity. These things are paired. Clarity is paired with joy, not with confusion. Confusion comes with doubt, anger, fear—all the things we don’t like and don’t know how to get rid of.

What is being offered is not just to feel that joy for one moment—which would be enough—but to feel it whenever you want to. There is no question that whenever you turn within—be it your last breath or not—you will be rewarded with joy, with peace.

What do you want? Look at your heart. It hasn’t changed. You may have gotten older, but your heart has not changed. What you desired when you were very little, you still want today. And it’s not the toys. It’s the joy of being alive—to wake up, to want it, to grab it, to accept it in earnest.

I want you in your life to feel that feeling of fulfillment. That’s all. I’m not here to confuse you or tell you that everything you know is junk. I’m not here to say you should follow a religion or not follow one. Do whatever you have to do. But of all the things you do in your life, do this one, too: feel fulfilled. And of all the things you do, do this one also: accept the gift that has been given to you so abundantly.

This breath, accept it. The day you do, that will be the most incredible act of worship you will have ever done. Your heart will instantly fill with gratitude. And when your heart is filled with gratitude, there is no greater heaven on the face of this earth. Time stops; worries are gone. The heart is filled with gratitude. The heart is the best. It will bring you back home.

Prem Rawat

Grant to Community Water and Ecological Sanitation Care is Third in Series, Bringing Clean Water to 23 Communities

The Prem Rawat Foundation (TPRF) has made a grant of US$100,000 to Community Water and Ecological Sanitation Care (CWESC) to provide 10 impoverished communities within Ghana's Wa West and Gemoa East districts with potable water and proper sanitation essential to eliminating debilitating diseases associated with contaminated water. The grant is the third in a series that will help a total of 23 communities and nearly 100,000 people in Ghana.

“Less than five percent of the residents living in these regions are currently able to obtain safe drinking water. Many are forced to salvage what they can from streams, ponds or makeshift wells—sources scientifically proven to be unsafe for human consumption,” notes TPRF President Linda Pascotto. “On average, these sources lie nearly two kilometers (over a mile) away from residences, forcing women and children to haul water over exhausting distances in order to satisfy the needs of their communities.” [See photos of current water sources.] Bacterial growth within this water leads to guinea worm infestation, a parasite that causes extremely painful and long-term debilitation. Such parasites and other dangers are easily avoided by the use of safe drinking water and simple changes in personal behavior. 

TPRF's grant will fund construction of sustainable, demand-driven water systems, including rain harvesting, mechanized boreholes and hand-dug wells and dams, providing 20 liters of fresh water daily to each individual within the 10 villages. These safe water supplies will be within 500 meters (0.3 miles) of every household. In addition, ecological sanitation toilets will be installed in 10 households within three separate communities. 

To make this project sustainable, CWESC will organize and train local residents to spearhead relief efforts, emphasizing the involvement of women previously burdened with the task of finding water. Once formed, these water and sanitation committees will help build, own and maintain the clean water systems, providing long-lasting benefits for their communities. Further education on sanitation will promote better living conditions, better health and increased productivity for all residents. It is also anticipated that children, especially the young girls, whose responsibility has been to carry water from its source back to the villages, will soon be able to attend school more regularly. Education for young women is key to the future economic well-being of families and communities in this area.

"We wish to express our profound gratitude to you for this opportunity," says Ralph Osei-Agyemang, project coordinator of CWESC.

TPRF's grant will fund the 12-month project, culminating in April 2009. George Ortsin, National Programme Coordinator of the UNDP Global Environment Facility Small Grants Programme-Ghana, who managed a previous grant of $100,000 from TPRF, will retain oversight of the project with CWESC.

( Photos courtesy of Ecosanitation and Community Water Care- Ghana. )

---

About The Prem Rawat Foundation
The Prem Rawat Foundation was created in 2001 by Prem Rawat, known also as Maharaji, and has a dual mission of bringing his message of peace to people around the world and providing essential humanitarian aid to those in need. TPRF partners with other humanitarian organizations to bring food, water and rapid disaster relief where it is most needed. To learn more about TPRF’s humanitarian initiatives, Prem Rawat and his message of peace, please visit www.tprf.org.

About the Community Water and Ecological Sanitation Care
Community Water and Ecological Sanitation Care (CWESC) is a local non-governmental organization, managed and implemented as a collaborative effort among local communities in Ghana. CWESC operates through the local partners formed at the community levels and functions as a decentralized, demand-driven funding mechanism for sustainable community-based water and sanitation development and management.

What is this life all about? One day, we all have to go. You know that; it’s in the back of your mind some days. Other days, you don’t bother thinking about it. For most people, the subject is very unpleasant. But the issue is your existence—you being alive. Just what does that mean to you?

So many people say, “If we could just find a solution to this problem, everything would be fine.” People everywhere basically know that they want to be happy. They want to be content. They want to feel good. Every human being is innately like that. This is our nature.

We seek equilibrium. The storms in our lives are not a good thing. When a storm comes, we seek shelter. We don’t say, “I’m going out in the storm now. This is the perfect time.”  We need the equilibrium of feeling good. I’m not going to define “feeling good.” There are certain things that work for you, and certain things that don’t. Feeling good works. Feeling bad doesn’t. You don’t get bored with feeling good. When you are feeling bad, on the other hand, you want to get out of that situation. This is your nature.

Do you concur with your nature? Do you try to nurture a good feeling and perpetuate it as much as possible? Or do you carry around a pocketful of band-aids? A pocketful of band-aids is: “There is no way I’m going to be conscious or perpetuate happiness in my life. I will do things that are unconscious, and when I get hurt, I will simply pull out one of the band-aids, take care of it, and I will be okay.”

Being unconscious will get you hurt—no question about it. When you don’t listen to your own fundamental needs, something will happen, and it will not be pleasant.

So what is pleasant? Pleasant is when the priority of life is acknowledged and my heart is filled with gratitude. When I know the friend within, when my house is built on the foundation of knowing—not beliefs, wishes, and ideas—it is very, very pleasant. This is what life is all about—filling yourself with the pleasant, filling yourself with infinite joy.

Can life really be filled with infinite joy? Is that possible? If you doubt this, you don’t understand the nature of what resides within you, because what resides within you is complete joy, complete clarity.

Think of life like this: It is your opportunity to spend time with the best friend you ever had. It is your chance to be with the ultimate clarity, the ultimate kindness, the ultimate joy. That’s what a life is. It’s not promised to be forever. But the possibility exists that you get to spend time with that which is the most beautiful. And that resides in your heart.

So, wherever you go and whatever takes place, just remember this: Life is not just ups and downs. They happen. That’s our doing. By our unconsciousness, we allow greed, anger, and fear to overtake the sanity of being alive. If there is suffering on planet Earth, it is brought by the people, for the people. We are the ones that set the expectation of how everything should be. “You should be like this, live for this long, look like this, look like that.”

Did God create the problems in this world? No. We did. It is about human beings. If you could just know that this life is the chance to spend time with that which is the truest, unconditional love… This is the opportunity for every living being to spend time with the Beloved within, to feel gratitude for life and rejoice. When that happens, you feel alive, and you begin to live. And the most magnificent movement is the coming and going of the breath. It needs no proof, no buildup. Its blessing is obvious. Is it obvious to you?

You exist. You are alive. Gather your strengths, not your weaknesses. What are your strengths? Your strengths are consciousness, kindness, understanding, acknowledging, rejoicing, loving. And when you walk with these, the outcome is beautiful. Every second you spend with the beauty inside of you, you are liberated. You are free.

Prem Rawat

America’s Second Harvest delivers aid to communities in five states

Los Angeles, July 2008 — The Prem Rawat Foundation (TPRF) has granted America's Second Harvest – The Nation’s Food Bank Network US$40,000 to provide food and water to those stricken by recent flooding in the Midwest. America's Second Harvest, the largest charitable domestic hunger-relief organization in the United States, will use this grant to work closely with local food banks to bring food and water to those affected by floods, many of whom have been forced to evacuate their homes.

“Thousands of homes, farms, businesses and jobs have been lost,” says TPRF President Linda Pascotto. “Lives have been threatened and disrupted by this ongoing disaster.”

While recent storms have caused extensive damage throughout several states in the Midwest region, Iowa remains one of the hardest hit with 83 of its 99 counties declared disaster areas. From 35,000 to 40,000 Iowa residents have fled their homes and farms as floodwaters surged over nearby levees. Supplies remain scarce, and many people are still in dire need of both fresh food and clean water. TPRF's grant will enable relief efforts throughout the region, helping to facilitate the transportation of goods to local food banks currently supporting displaced people.

For every dollar donated, America’s Second Harvest provides 16 meals to Americans in need.

According to ASH, even after the initial recovery period, it is expected that the need for food will be ongoing. Individuals without adequate flood insurance will be facing significant financial hardships in the coming months as they clean and rebuild their homes. In addition, individuals whose livelihoods were affected by the floods—such as those whose crops or livestock were destroyed—will also be facing economic difficulties. Many of these individuals will turn to ASH food banks and their network of food pantries and soup kitchens for help. 

“We are extremely grateful for The Prem Rawat Foundation’s interest in supporting our efforts to respond to the unprecedented flooding in the Midwest,” states Vicki Escarra, President and CEO of America’s Second Harvest.

One of America’s Second Harvest’s Members is the Houston Food Bank (HFB), which was the recipient of a TPRF grant of $125,000 to provide food for evacuees of Hurricane Katrina in the U.S. in 2005 and $50,000 to provide over 80,000 meals for at-risk children at the HFB’s Kids Café earlier this year.

Photos Courtesy of America’s Second Harvest

 

---

About America’s Second Harvest
America's Second Harvest – The Nation’s Food Bank Network is the largest charitable domestic hunger-relief organization in the United States. Through its network of more than 200 member food banks, America's Second Harvest annually provides assistance to more than 25 million people in need, including more than 9 million children and nearly 3 million seniors in all 50 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. Each year, America's Second Harvest secures and distributes more than 2 billion pounds of donated food and grocery products to support feeding programs at approximately 50,000 local charitable agencies, including food pantries, soup kitchens, emergency shelters, after-school programs and Kids Cafes. 
http://www.secondharvest.org/.

About The Prem Rawat Foundation
The Prem Rawat Foundation was created in 2001 by Prem Rawat, known also as Maharaji, and has a dual mission of bringing his message of peace to people around the world and providing essential humanitarian aid to those in need. TPRF partners with other humanitarian organizations to bring food, water and rapid disaster relief where it is most needed. To learn more about TPRF’s humanitarian initiatives, Prem Rawat and his message of peace, please visit www.tprf.org.

 

Someone told me that they wanted peace so that they could give it to others. But you can’t give your peace to anybody else, just as you can’t give anybody your time. You cannot give a person who is dying even five more minutes.

Peace is very personal. By having peace in your life, you can become a catalyst for others, this is true, but you cannot give them peace. They have to find their own thirst, have their own understanding, and find that peace within.

That possibility is always there in your life. If you have the wisdom, you will take advantage of it. Sometimes people think wisdom is enlightenment. They see an old painting of a saint with a light over their head and think, “Oh, that’s an enlightened person.” But true enlightenment is when you recognize, and wisdom is deciding to choose the joy that is within you. It is not about knowing what’s coming tomorrow. Problems come and go. If you have a problem, one day it will go just like it came. Things will change—you will change—but the passion for joy, for clarity, will remain with you for the rest of your life.

My thirst for clarity, for joy, has not changed since I was very little. Everything else has changed—my likes, dislikes, what I eat, what I don’t eat. Everything has changed, but that thirst has not changed.

Choose that in your life. This is a choice that has to be made every day—to enjoy your life. You have to come as a free person, not with baggage, not in fear, because that won’t work. Problems come in different shapes and sizes. Sometimes they change their appearance. But what do you want in your life? This is a choice you’re going to have to make.

People have hesitation. I cannot do anything about that because this is you. Personally, for me, hesitation is a waste of time. I can tell you a story about hesitation.

Once there was a man who went to a fair. His teeth were really dirty—almost black. As he was walking along, he came to a display where a doctor was selling medicine for 15 cents. The doctor was showing it to people and offering that if somebody came from the audience with completely black teeth, they could wash their mouth with the medicine, and their teeth would become sparkling clean.

This man wanted the medicine, but he couldn’t decide. Maybe it’s too expensive. Maybe he doesn’t really want it. Maybe he does want it. Does it work? He’s standing there thinking, “Should I? Shouldn’t I? Should I? Shouldn’t I?” He’s got a five-cent coin and a ten-cent coin, and he’s rubbing the two coins together over and over. “Should I? Shouldn’t I? Should I? Shouldn’t I?”

Finally, all the bottles are gone except for one. So, the man takes his coins, throws them at the doctor and says, “Here, I’ll take it.” The doctor picks up the coins and says, “With what?” The man said, “Well, I just gave you 15 cents.” And the doctor said, “I’ve been watching you going, ‘Should I? Shouldn’t I? Should I? Shouldn’t I?’ And in this process, you have totally worn down the coins. They are no good now.”

Hesitation is like that. The coins are our time. “Should I? Shouldn’t I? Should I? Shouldn’t I?” If you are ready to make the commitment that joy is what you want in your life, you will be welcome. It’s never too late, but don’t hesitate, because in hesitation, you’re wasting your time.

When this breath comes into you—and it just did—nobody can say, “I have been breathing for 60 years, so it’s okay if I don’t breathe for six hours.” No, it’s not okay. Each breath is needed. Every day joy, peace, needs to be accepted, felt, understood. This is the dance. This is the symphony of life.

Prem Rawat

Grant to China Disabled Persons’ Federation brings clean water and food to survivors

Los Angeles, June 2008 — The Prem Rawat Foundation (TPRF) has donated US$15,000 to the China Disabled Persons’ Federation (CDPF) to provide food and bottled water for survivors of the 8.0 magnitude earthquake that devastated southwestern China’s Sichuan Province on May 12. A respected charity that specializes in attending to the needs and rights of disabled people in China, CDPF was quick to respond to the staggering affects of the earthquake that left almost 70,000 dead and more than 370,000 injured.

“TPRF’s grant helps meet immediate needs of food, water and shelter for the hundreds of thousands affected by the worst disaster to hit China in 30 years,” says TPRF President Linda Pascotto. “Within ten days of the disaster, CDPF teams spread out through Sichuan, bringing food and water along with medical professionals and equipment.” Team members included experts in spinal injury, traumatic brain injury, orthopedics, amputation, rehabilitation and psychology.

Recognizing CDPF’s work on behalf of the disabled, TPRF gave the organization US$150,000 at the end of last year, to be disbursed over two years to fund the “Nutritional Plan for Students with Disabilities.” The grant is providing nutritious food to 480 visually impaired, deaf and intellectually disabled students at special schools in Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region's Baise City and to 320 visually impaired students at special schools in Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region.

“I would like to express my sincere gratitude to The Prem Rawat Foundation for the concern and support to the disabled children in the two regions,” says Chen Ya'an, Director General of CDPF’s International Affairs Department.

---

About The Prem Rawat Foundation
The Prem Rawat Foundation was created in 2001 by Prem Rawat, known also as Maharaji, and has a dual mission of bringing his message of peace to people around the world and providing essential humanitarian aid to those in need. TPRF partners with other humanitarian organizations to bring food, water and rapid disaster relief where it is most needed. To learn more about TPRF’s humanitarian initiatives, Prem Rawat and his message of peace, please visit www.tprf.org.

About the China Disabled Persons’ Federation
Established in 1988, the China Disabled Persons’ Federation (CDPF) is a unified organization of/for the 83 million persons with various categories of disabilities in China. Headquartered in Beijing, it has a nationwide umbrella network reaching every part of China with about 80,000 full-time workers. http://www.cdpf.org.cn/home/home.htm

It’s so important to understand the subject of this life. I don’t think the importance of truly grasping what this means can be over-emphasized. As human beings, we have an incredible brain, incredible talent. We can accomplish so many things—almost too many. Because we are alive, we can experience peace and joy. We can go to the moon and create space stations. We can peer into the deep, deep reaches of the universe. And because we are alive, we can also create wars, decimate this planet, and make it impossible for everything to exist.

Cell phones have saved many lives. But the same technology that is saving so many lives is also being used in weapons and a weapons delivery system that is wiping out more lives than it is saving. And the saving might happen over a period of a year, but the destruction happens within days.

So, it becomes obvious that we have to choose. And what should our choice be? Well, to put it in context, there is a place you can go that is not really real. It’s virtual. There, you can create an alter-personality of yourself. You can fly. You can do all the things you’ve always wanted to do but could never do, but only virtually, not really. In this virtual place, people buy apartments and sofas for apartments. But when you buy the virtual apartment and the furniture, you pay for it with real money. It’s a million-dollar-a-day business—$365,000,000 a year. And it’s growing. People even meet in this virtual place and get married!

I bring a message about reality, a message that says, “What you are looking for is inside of you.”

Who are you? What are you? What is your core? We need to know that in this day and age more than at any other time. Otherwise, our choices will be virtual or make-believe, but the consequences will be real. Unfortunately, consequences are always real.

What is your real potential? There is a power, a beauty, that resides within. When I turn within, my heart is filled with joy, peace. I have to choose this every single day, because in this world, the line between the virtual and the real can become too faded. And I choose reality, because it is far more beautiful.

An Indian writer named Tulsidas once said, “All that you see is illusion. As far as your eyes can see, it’s all illusion. If you want reality, turn within.” The problem is that we don’t like what we see, but we don’t understand why. So we create an alternative world in which our fantasies can come true. People like Tulsidas said, “Turn within and all your fantasies will come true. The truest wish will come true.” But we have to choose. Every single day, we have tochoose.

Reality is beautiful. Don’t try to measure it, because contentment, joy, love, understanding cannot be measured. There is no scale for them. Understand. Open your heart. Look within and see how beautiful it is. Feel your life filled with joy, filled with gratitude, not explanations or ideas. This is reality; no formulas or philosophies are needed to truly receive the gift every single day.

You are the vessel for the sweetest satisfaction, joy—the pure clear water of contentment. When you are filled with this, you come alive, because that’s what life is. You can understand. You don’t have to be confused. It’s that simple. Realize the pulse of life.

What an incredible opportunity it is to choose a gratification that is given every day when you turn inside. It’s not about the struggles you’ve had or the list of failures, but about each success that took place. You will still make mistakes, but the beauty is it’s not about mistakes or failures. It’s not about the length of the night. It’s about the rising of the sun. The light comes, and a new day begins.

Prem Rawat

Los Angeles, May 2008 —The Prem Rawat Foundation (TPRF) has offered a US$50,000 challenge grant through the Facebook “Causes” page to help thousands of people at risk of starvation in Haiti due to the recent dramatic rise in food prices. TPRF’s challenge to Facebook members is to raise an additional $50,000, for a total of $100,000, which can supply food for 60,000 people for one month.

“Through TPRF’s partnership with Friends of the World Food Program, the fundraising arm of the United Nations’ World Food Program, food will be distributed directly to Haitians at risk of starvation,” says Linda Pascotto, President of TPRF.

The crisis in Haiti made international headlines last month when thousands rioted in the streets to protest the rising cost of staple food like rice and beans. Haiti is rated as the poorest country in the Western hemisphere and one of the least developed in the world. The World Food Program reports that half the population lives on less than $1 per day. The average per capita income is $485 a year. Chronic malnutrition has long been a problem in Haiti, but with the cost of basic foods nearly doubling in the last few months, the situation has reached panic proportions.

The rise of food prices worldwide has had disastrous effects in many countries, but in a country such as Haiti, there are no reserves to fall back on. Most of the once-rich farmland has been depleted of nutrients and destroyed by erosion and flooding caused by tropical storms. Now Haiti imports 80 percent of its rice, the main ingredient of the typical meal. When prices go up, there is only one result possible: some will starve unless outside aid comes their way.

“The riots in Haiti have drawn the world’s attention to the crisis of rising food prices,” said Karen Sendelback, President and CEO, Friends of the World Program. “TPRF’s generous contribution will not only help the people of Haiti through this critical time but also encourage the online community to donate.”

So far, over US$9,000 has been contributed by more than 6,500 people on Facebook Causes for “Feed Hungry Children in Haiti.”

 

Photo credits WFP/Anne Poulsen

 

I want to tell you a story. It is a very different story, because it’s not about a king or a queen  or romance or victory or failure. The purpose is not to occupy your time or entertain you. There is a simple and beautiful reality, and it’s the most magnificent story. It is about what is—this beautiful creation in an incredibly hostile universe.

We’ve been given an opportunity to be here. Is that good or bad? That’s not the point. Let me give you an analogy. Let’s say there is a very beautiful painting by one of the masters—trees, ocean, clouds, sun—but you have never seen it. Then one day you do. However, the painting was packed improperly, and it rubbed against the box. The greens, blues, oranges, and whites have all gotten mixed up. It almost looks weird. All that is left is the master’s signature. And you think, “He painted that?”

Everybody looks at reality with a twist and wonders why reality isn’t beautiful. When it comes down to this little thing called peace, I have found that nobody in this world has a clue what peace is—none, zip, nada, no idea. It’s so sad that it’s almost humorous.

Some people think, “Oh, the end of war is peace.” So you mean that before the wars began, there was peace, and peace led to wars? Some say, “Eliminate the hunger in this world, and there will be peace.” Listen, there are people who purposely go hungry trying to lose weight. If you created a “hunger detector” and drove down all the roads in the world with it, and anybody who was hungry would get food shoved in their mouth, would there be peace? You would have more wars.

So we have concepts. It’s as though we have a film in front of our eyes, while reality is sweetly dancing. All that you see that is so beautiful will not always be there. This time you have is about the opportunity to be alive. It is not about the semantics of your life. It is not about the circuit diagrams of your existence. It is not about all the other things we allow ourselves to be distracted by. Peace is. And peace manifests within the heart of every single human being. That is the only place.

Don’t look at reality through the eyes of all these formulas. Look through the simplest eyes that you have been given, and what will you see? You will see a perfection, hear a rhythm, discover a magnificence greater than what you could ever imagine. That is what this story is about.

The viewpoint we have latched onto because of our ideas is so different that we are incapable of simply appreciating what is—just seeing, understanding the beauty of the breath that comes in and out. It is the simplest act that takes place. It happens naturally. And its existence verifies that you are alive. So powerful is this breath that as long as it is happening, all is well. And if it isn’t happening, the story changes.

The coming and going of this breath is a gift. And absolutely, as long as the breath comes into you, all is well indeed. When you feel that simplicity, you can begin to hear the real rhythm of your life. You can appreciate what you have been given, and the story will be complete.

You will be set free when you understand that you do not need the support of all the ideas, that you can just stand on this bridge of life, and that it is solid, good, strong. You can jump on it, and it won’t fall down. You will be able to appreciate its strength. And then your heart will fill with gratitude for all that you have been given. And when your heart fills with gratitude, you will have the answers without needing the questions. It gets better and better, because there is no limit to that better, and there is no limit to the ability you have been given to enjoy.

Prem Rawat

Los Angeles, May 2008 — The Prem Rawat Foundation (TPRF) has donated US$100,000 to bring immediate aid to the hundreds of thousands of survivors who have been stranded without food, shelter or potable water after Cyclone Nargis hit the country on May 2. Through Friends of the World Food Program, TPRF’s donation will help the UN World Food Program (WFP) provide aid directly to those most affected by the disaster.

“WFP was one of the first humanitarian agencies to be allowed to deliver aid directly to the people rather than through the government of Myanmar,” notes TPRF President Linda Pascotto. “Our years-long partnership with Friends of the World Food Program to distribute aid directly has meant that our donors have been assured that their funds have had a great impact on those most in need. We are again grateful for this partnership, as we are able to assure our donors that their donations are getting directly to the victims of Cyclone Nargis.”

In the three weeks since the cyclone hit, WFP has dispatched a two-week ration of rice for 340,000 people in eight townships in and around Yangon and seven in the Ayeyarwady delta. They have also provided high-energy biscuits for over 107,000 children.

Even so, there are communities that have not yet been reached by any outside agencies. Much of the area is reachable only by boat, which makes the delivery of assistance even more challenging. The Myanmar authorities have now given WFP permission to bring in 10 helicopters, the first of which will arrive from Malaysia on May 22nd. In addition, WFP has now contracted four barges and two tug boats capable of moving large amounts of food and other humanitarian aid. All of this will help to improve the delivery of much-needed aid to these people.

In all, WFP is currently planning to provide lifesaving food assistance for 630,000 people for six months, until the next harvest in October/November. Long-term assistance is needed because the storm has devastated the crops in Ayeyarwady, the country’s largest rice-producing district.

“Time is of the essence,” says WFP Executive Director Josette Sheeran. “We are mobilizing all possible resources to save lives, given the massive disruption in food, water and shelter caused by the storm.”

The damage is widespread and is expected to have long-lasting effects. With an official disaster area that includes 24 million people, which is over half the population of Myanmar (Burma), it is estimated that 1.5 million are in urgent need of assistance. Flooding and seriously damaged infrastructure and communication systems add to the challenge of the rescue effort.

Photo credits WFP/Hakan Tongul

Photo credits WFP/Anabelle Wang

 

 

---

The Prem Rawat Foundation was created in 2001 by Prem Rawat, known also as Maharaji, and has a dual mission of bringing his message of peace to people around the world and providing essential humanitarian aid to those in need. TPRF partners with other humanitarian organizations to bring food, water and rapid disaster relief where it is most needed.