FFL Vrindavan is dedicated to the poorest of the poor, educating and guiding them in pursuance of a fulfilling life, enabling them to become exemplary members of society. FFL Vrindavan is also dedicated to protecting and developing Vrindavan’s natural environment.

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June 2007
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October 2008
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December 2008

As the winter chill began to deepen at the turning of the new year, Food for Life distributed blankets and clothes to the mothers of some of Sandipani Muni Schools neediest children; those children whose fathers have either died or abandoned their families. Each woman received one saree and one thick blanket. Among those who received cloth was Manju. Manju lost her husband three months ago to AIDS and her five year old son the year before. Now Manju, who is also HIV positive, is left to raise her remaining four children alone. Another of the women who received cloth is an elderly lady named Saraswati who earns money by begging. She is too old to do physical labor and has only one arm. She raises her two grandchildren alone on the money she receives by begging, and on rations supplied by Food for Life Food for Families program. Another is Anita, who lives in an orphanage with her two sons and one daughter. She does cleaning work at the orphanage in exchange for a closet-sized room for her and her children. Raising children alone is not an easy task, all the less so for these women who have very few skills and few work opportunities and who are often illiterate. The sarees will be the first new clothes these very poor women have worn in a long time, and the blankets will provide much-needed shelter from the harsh cold of the Vrindavan winter for the mothers and their children.

Every year, Food for Life Vrindavan distributes gift packs to the poorest school children in Vrindavan. This year’s gift packs contained a school bag, ball, a pencil box with pencil, sharpener, rules and rubber, tooth paste, tooth brush and various snacks and chocolate. This year, due to the credit crunch, we received around half the usual donations. Despite the world economic crisis, Italian supporters were determined to show a spirit of, "All together we can make it anyway". When added up, donations from Italian sponsors came to $8,500 (6,400 Euros), which made up 3/4 of the total $10,500 raised. Of all the donations received, the biggest contribution was from Italian school children and their families at the Rigola school in Venaria Reale (near Turin in North Italy). The Rigola School organized a moving event where the pupils made angel shaped Christmas decorations and sold them at a school fair. The angels collected $1,800 (1,350 Euros)! In the same region, parents and teachers at the kindergarten of Serravalle also got together to raise funds and collected a substantial amount for the children of Vrindavan. Many others responded to a mail-out by Nikunja Santagostino who worked tirelessly to raise enough funds for the gift distribution. One donor said, "When I went to the post office to send my donation, I was already seeing all those happy faces around me with their gift in hand".

On 23^rd December 2008, Sandipani Muni school children participated in a sports day. The sponsorship of the event included prize money for the winning teams. At the request of the sponsor, the teams decided how to spend the money by a democratic decision process, where everyone's opinion was counted and a vote was taken. Dhatreyi Spencer, a volunteer English teacher from America said, "Encouraging the children to make their own decisions about how to use the funds was a unique experience for me. I went into eight different classes with the objective of having them brainstorm about what each group wanted to do with the alloted funds". She continued, "What was suprising to me was that seven of the eight classes wanted to use the money on a collective event rather than dividing it to buy something for each individual. They also really enjoyed deciding what to do with the Rs 10,500 ($US229) that 240 kids would share". "The brainstorming began. The word 'picnic' was echoed throughout the classes. When I asked them what a picnic was, none of the children could really explain, but they knew it involved having a day out. After I explained to them what a picnic was, we started to discuss where to have it... Delhi, Goa, UK, Switerland, USA, Agra... all these suggestions were put on the board". Dhatreyi said, "We talked about whether the funds would cover all the expenses, (passports, plane tickets, accomodations, trains, petrol for our bus, etc.). It was wonderful to see how the kids accepted that most of the suggested places were out of the question. So it was finalized that the winning team would go to Agra to see the Red Fort (two hours away by bus) and the runners up would go to Nandagaom (one hour away by bus)."

Recently, an art competition held by a group of artists from Russia, Ukraine, and Armenia gave the whole school an opportunity they had been longing for. The children were able to express themselves on a subject of interest to all. Each child was asked to use their creative abilities (and not outside influences) to answer the question, "Who is God?" The children were all given a large sheet of art paper, markers and paint. The art produced was extremely diverse, heart-felt, and a testimony to the creative potential of all the students. After three consecutive days of hard work, the completed paintings were hung in the hallway for judging. Most children colorfully displayed Krishna amidst the trees, hills, rivers, and flowers of Vrindavan. Some children only drew Krishna's flute, or portrayed Krishna inside a leaf or tree. At the award assembly, the judges emphasized how hard it was to pick winners since every child displayed unique insights and artistic flare. The judges explained that they are professional artists who love art and also make a living from it. They also encouraged the children by promising that they will be back next year to hold another competition. Pooja, from 7^th grade won first prize with a full page painting of Hanuman, the powerful monkey king - a well known and worshipped servant of Lord Ram from 400,000 years ago. Pooja's Hanuman had many highly detailed ornamentations. Next to Hanuman was a book with the words "Rama Rama Rama" continually repeated in the pages, symbolizing Hanuman's ability to see Lord Ram everywhere. Chitra, from 6thgrade won second prize for a thoughtful, soft, color rendition of Lord Caitanya, known as the incarnation of God who came in the form of a devotee to teach people the glories of chanting God's names. Ten supplementary prizes were also given, and every child who participated received a sketch book. The group of artists will travel to two more schools in India and then travel on to Singapore. They plan to exhibit 10,000 pictures done by children from all over the world to raise funds for impoverished children.

On Sunday, 18^th of January, our hard working karate teacher, Gyan Prakash, organized a regional martial arts competition with 140 participants. Prakash said that he wanted to organize the event to encourage the practice of martial arts in the region and to encourage Sandipani Muni school karate students to take their art seriously and measure their skills against other practitioners. Of the fifteen Sandipani Muni school students who attended, four won gold medals. Mohan, 7^th grade, (one of the gold medal winning students) said that he very much enjoyed the competition and didn't even mind coming to school on Sunday to participate. The special guests of the day were the District Development manager of NABARD, Mr M.I. Khan, and the Lead Bank Manager of the district, Mr T.D. Bajoriya. As well as enjoying the karate display, the officials oversaw the selection of candidates for a vocational training course in fashion design that will be run at Sandipani Muni School in the near future.

Last October, staff at Food for Life found a woman lying half starved and semi-conscious next to an open sewer. After several weeks of hospitalization and two months of being nursed back to health in the Food for Life ashram, she gained 35 pounds on her emmacated 64 pounds. There are no facilities in Vrindavan for elderly people who cannot look after themselves, but once she regained enough strength to dress, walk, bath and feed herself, staff got her a placement at Maa Dham, a newly build widows ashram. When she left the Food for Life Ashram after several months spent recuperating, everyone was sad to see her go. Food for Life volunteers would go to visit her weekly at her new home. Last Sunday, a group of Sandipani Muni children went to the widows ashram to sing traditional devotional songs and bring some joy into the lives of the women living there. As the group sat on the ashram's well cared for lawn basking in the warm sun, smiles and singing filled the air. When asked about their reaction to this new experience, Braj Raj, who lives in the Sandipani Muni children's home and whose mother died a year ago wiped tears from her eyes and replied, "I loved it. I felt my mother was right there with all those ladies. I couldn't do anything for my own mother and, later in life, I would like to do something to help these kind of women". Helping one starving, unknown woman who was lying the side of the road, miraculouly opened up an opportunty for love, joy and singing to ninety widows, ten poorest of poor children and two volunteers from the West.

On 24^th January, Shyam Sundar Sharma, former Higher education minister and present legislative assembly member, visited Sandipani Muni school. He watched a cultural program where he saw the children perform several different genres of dance including folk dance, classical odissy dance and patriotic dance. Mr. Sharma went on stage and gave a rousing speach where he spoke of his committment to helping Food for Life and Sandipani Muni school to expand and thrive. Vrinda dasi, a legal advocate who has been working with Food for Life Vrindavan since its inception, said, "I am so glad that the respectable Mr. Sharma visited our school. It was a big honour for Sandipani Muni school that a person of this stature made an official visit and I could see when he went on stage that he was really moved by seeing how far the children have come." Many of the children's parents attended the function to watch their children perform on stage for the honourable member of parliament and, after the program, all were invited to stay have lunch with the children.

Vasant Panchami means 'first day of spring'. On this day Saraswati, the goddess of learning is worshipped and most educational institutions in India hold celebrations for Her on this day. Other devas associated with this day are Kamadev (similar to cupid) and Laxmi (goddess of wealth and incarnation of Saraswati). In line with tradition, and in order to celebrate the joy of spring, staff and students at Sandipani Muni school dressed in yellow and the school lunch consisted entirely of yellow food - yellow pulao rice, chick pea curry and boondi (yellow sweet balls). Sandipani Muni school students celebrated by holding a cultural program with several dances and a drama. The drama told the story of spring coming and pushing winter out and the different ways that people celebrate the occasion - such as offering food to Brahmins (priests) and teaching children their first words.