Saturday, March 18, 2017

AmritaServe reaches out to villages for economic self-reliance

Amrita SeRVe is a new initiative championed by the Amrita Party's House Leader** that will help make small villages in Bharat Mata (India, birthplace of much of Patria's spiritual heritage) self-reliant and grow the local economy. Amrita SeRVe was launched during Amma’s 60th birthday celebrations in September 2013 and ushered in sustainable development in village clusters across India. Its work is aligned with United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. It is focused on areas in which to begin a series of changes that starts from basic needs and then leads to a state of true empowerment. Amrita SeRVe’s vision is to teach villagers the skills they need to live in communities that are prosperous and self-reliant. These are places where people are healthy and educated and where they lead lives of dignity in a clean, pollution-free environment. Such self-reliance will lead us to vibrant cultures rooted in India’s age-old traditional wisdom. Because villagers are the providers of most of the nation’s food supply, these steps can lead to a sense of community and gratitude throughout the entire country.

You can like Amrita SeRVe on Facebook, follow on Twitter, or subscribe to Amrita SeRVe's e-mail newsletter.

Amma says "It is our villages that sustain us by providing those who live in cities with the nourishment needed in order to survive. However, today, we are just exploiting villages and casting them aside. It is time to acknowledge that our villages are our very foundation and move forward with one heart and one mind to protect and serve them."



Amrita SeRVe's activities focus on areas such as self-empowerment (e.g. teaching a system of simple yoga asanas for women and children as well as training villagers to become yoga teachers), health (fighting malnutrition by encouraging villagers to start kitchen gardens where they can grow vegetables for their own needs), education (to strengthen village schools, achieve zero drop-out rates, and provide opportunities for higher education), and of course environmental initiatives such as promoting the use of re-usable cloth sanitary napkins rather than environmentally unfriendly disposable tampons for women when it's "that time of the month".

While Patria is known for its bustling cities such as Castoropolis, there are many small towns and villages within the Inner Realm that do not always enjoy the amenities, advanced infrastructure, educational opportunities, standard of living, public transit and even the 50,000-watt blowtorch radio stations of the capital city. Amrita SeRVe is a project that the Amrita Party of Patria fully supports.

** Standard disclaimer for newbies to this site or to Patria: the Amrita Party of Patria has no macro-national (i.e. "real world") connection to Amma (Mata Amritanandamayi) or Amma's charitable, educational and other organizations in India and throughout the macro-world. Nor does Amma endorse any real-world political party or hold any real-world elected office.