Ananda Vasundhara Master Unit

Ananda Vasundhara Master Unit – Brasilia, Brazil

http://anandavasundhara.org/


“Universal Land of Bliss”

A new master unit (MU) has emerged in Brazil and it is run by WWD. It is located about 45 km outside of Brasilia, the capitol of Brazil. Out of the city surroundings the cerrado of Brazil shows its vast areas of beautiful but rough and wild nature. The winters are very dry and a little cool and summers wet and hot. Near the MU there is a canyon with beautiful waterfalls and green lush nature. In contrast to this beautiful natural environment is the cerrado transformed into agricultural land in this area. Due to bad maintenance and excessive use of the land it is exhausted and degraded and as a result of this intensive farming the land does not have much value and the harvests are poor. To recover the land it needs a lot of investment. The local people do not have not many sources of income and are too poor to do anything against this vicious circle of survival and exhausted land.

Most of the locals live scattered here and there, with or without some land. Their houses are small board constructions, some covered with plastic to survive the rainy season and if they have little money they have small unplastered brick houses. They live mostly from agriculture but as was said it is not a good source of income. The families are poor, many times they cannot feed the children properly and many of the people have drinking problems spending the little money they have. (The only places that do make money are the small bars in the end of every street). As well most of the people here are uneducated and many cannot read and write. There are not many job opportunities in this area, and if they get a job in the city it is very far and public transportation is not very good, as a result separating the families.

5 hectare of land and a service project started by local margiis have been given to WWD to develop this rural area. The service project exists out of a kindergarten cum daycare centre where the children get 3 meals a day and besides this an adult education centre. As well AMURT/EL has been distributing clothes, blankets etc. especially in the colder winters.

The school has now 23 children from 3-5 years old, one dedicated teacher, a cook, and a driver. We do not own a minibus/van, but we are lucky to have a temporary sponsor lending a combi bus so that we can pick up the children every morning and return them to their houses in the late afternoon as some of their houses are to far to walk. The children receive 3 nutritious meals a day (breakfast, lunch and an afternoon tiffin). This is a great service for the community, the children are happy and they have a full stomach after going to school. We have a capacity for 40 children, but then we need to hire another teacher, which we cannot afford right now.

The adult education centre has been idle for sometime as well due to lack of funds. Hopefully soon again we can open this centre.

The land of the MU is now wild and not taken care of, there is a plan to recover the land and start again some eco agricultural activities and reforestation of the area. As the climate now is very dry there is also danger of fire. Already we had some fire near our school, so we need take necessary precautions for this as well.

Now that things are getting clear of what needs to be done in this rural area, we would like to ask your support in order to turn this land really into a universal land of bliss, providing for all.

Funds are needed to:

run the school and improve it (the current funds are of temporary nature)
increase the number of students and get another teacher
purchase school materials
purchase a mini bus/ van for school transportation so that we can be independent
develop the adult education centre
start sowing centre for local women
medical camps
recovery of land
reforestation of the land
construction of living quarters and volunteer quarters.
etcetera….

Volunteers are needed as well, if you are inspired to give your services in any of our projects:

assist in the school
assist in the adult education centre
agricultural activities, reforestation
construction
medical assistance in medical camps
any service that you can think of that would help us is welcome!

Thank you very much for your time to listen to our appeal for help and we hope that your support can do many miracles in this area and make this MU really a growing rural development project.

Rector Brasilia Ananda Vasundhara,
Avtk. Ananda Advaeta Ac.