In 1981, Amma’s charitable institutions were founded. They now encompass a vast array of charity projects and are known worldwide as Embracing the World ® (keep the phrase in english, but translate it in bracets into your local language the first time you use it).
Embracing the World is a not-for-profit international collective of charities founded by renowned spiritual and humanitarian leader, Mata Amritanandamayi (Amma). Embracing the World exists to help alleviate the burden of the world’s poor through helping to meet each of their five basic needs – food, shelter, education, healthcare and livelihood – wherever and whenever possible. We believe that having these needs met is the fundamental right of any human being, and that it is the responsibility of each of us to strive hard to ensure that one day, every human being can live in dignity, safety, security and peace. We also believe that everyone – rich or poor – has the power to make a difference in the life of another, and that no selfless gesture is insignificant. Rather, it is the selfless actions we perform for one another that hold the keys to true peace – peace in the individual, peace in the community, and peace among diverse cultures, nations and faiths. Embracing the World is a global network of charitable projects conceived by the M.A. Math, an NGO with
Special Consultative Status to the United Nations.
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Currently, Embracing the World is active in the following areas:
EMPOWERING WOMEN
Embracing the World is has provided more than 100,000 economically vulnerable women throughout India with vocational training, start-up capital, marketing assistance, and helped them to set up microsavings accounts so they can start their own home-based businesses.
EDUCATION FOR EVERYONE
Embracing the World is working to provide 100,000 scholarships for impoverished children throughout India. We also run schools for the hearing-impaired and mentally challenged, as well as award-winning literacy and vocational training programs for India’s indigenous tribal population.
DISASTER RELIEF
Embracing the World has provided $46 million in aid for survivors of the 2004 Asian Tsunami, $1 million in relief for survivors of the 2011 earthquake and tsunami in Japan, $1 million for victims of Hurricane Katrina, and more than $12 million for victims of severe floods in India. We also sent shipments of relief supplies to Haiti.
CARE HOMES FOR CHILDREN
Embracing the World has run an orphanage in Kerala for more than 500 children for the past 20 years. In 2011, we opened an orphanage in Kenya for more than 50 underprivileged children.
FIGHTING HUNGER
Embracing the World feeds more than ten million people each year throughout India, and more than 100,000 internationally. We also regularly distribute rice, milk and other uncooked staple foods to remote tribal communities.
HEALTHCARE
Embracing the World has provided more than $60 million in free healthcare services since 1998. More than 2.2 million patients have been treated free of charge through our 1,300-bed tertiary-care hospital in Kochi and five satellite hospitals across South India. We also run a care centre for the HIV-positive.
COMMUNITY OUTREACH
Embracing the World provides lifetime financial aid for more than 55,000 widows and disabled people in India, runs care homes for the elderly, meals on wheels programs for the elderly and infirm, sponsored weddings for the poor, and free meditation classes for soldiers, prisoners and the general public.
GREEN INITIATIVES
Through GreenFriends, our international environmental wing, our volunteers promote local participation in conservation efforts worldwide. We also work to create exemplary sustainable living communities at Amma’s centers worldwide.
A member of the United Nations Billion Tree Campaign, GreenFriends has planted more than one million trees worldwide.
RESEARCH FOR A BETTER WORLD
Through Amrita University, Embracing the World volunteer researchers are breaking new ground in a broad range of highly specialized fields. Spanning a diverse array of disciplines, the projects share a single goal: to harness the power of modern technology to provide effective, targeted aid to communities and individuals in crisis.
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PUBLIC HEALTH
The Amala Bharatam Campaign (ABC) is a program aimed at improving public health and restoring India’s natural beauty. Through ABC, our volunteers are cleaning public areas, constructing public toilets and spreading awareness regarding the proper way to dispose of trash. More than 1,000 clean-up drives have already been undertaken. The program is rapidly spreading throughout India.
BUILDING HOMES
Embracing the World has built more than 45,000 homes for the homeless throughout India.
More than constructing houses, Embracing the World works to build entire communities, complete with town halls, roads, electricity, sewage systems and clean drinking water.
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AMRITA INSTITUTIONS
The Mata Amritanandamayi Math (MAM) has established the Amritapuri Ashram and branch spiritual centres throughout India and worldwide; Amrita University, one of the fastest-growing universities in India and the Amrita Vidyalayam primary school system, with 47 value-based schools throughout India.
For more information , go to www.embracingtheworld.org
