REGION FOUR
Upon Bhagawan’s instructions, Region Four’s mission was to serve the homeless, and serve the children. In the USA, Sai Ashraya Street to Stability was founded to “find a permanent solution to homelessness.” All across the country, from California, to Texas, to Alabama, the youth mobilized by doing weekly and monthly Seva to help serve the hundreds of homeless scattered across each
city. Making breakfast and lunch for them, and just interacting with them as they would with anyone else, bringing pure joy to the homeless faces. But, most importantly, youth are talking the steps from temporary fixes to permanent solutions to get the homeless back to stable, productive
lives. After all, by serving humanity, youth are indeed serving Him.
As per Bhagawan’s divine command and instructions for Canada, the youths were asked to get together and form a group as “Peace Pilgrims”. The youths took steps and initiatives to fulfil and adhere to the Divine request. Regular monthly food packets were distributed on the streets of Edmonton, Surrey and Vancouver. A group of youths from Toronto also did similar food packets for the needy friends. The youths joined in with the adults to conduct regular workshops on Values Based Education to unemployed youths and assisted in educating teen mothers to nurture and develop their child with a strong vision of reducing homelessness.
In Argentina, the youth serve child patients who received ambulatory treatment in Rivadavia Hospital by giving gifts and interacting with them wearing clown costumes. Items like clothes, toys, and school supplies as well as the time spent laughing and playing with them give the entire family love and support and hope that the children’s health can improve.
In Mexico, the youth were guided by Swami to a man, who himself is a reformed drug addict and ex-gang member, that spent every afternoon giving free boxing lessons to children ages 6 to 21 in the community. The gym, “Salvando Angeles” (Saving Angels), was created because he wanted to save his own children from joining the gangs. After joining his mission, the youth have strategically planned on how to grow the gym.
It has now been conducting weekly values classes for the children on reading comprehension and mathematics. This is a remarkable example of collaboration between the youth and individual citizens and how, with Swami’s direction, we can find unsung heroes in our community and help them all serve the underprivileged.
2018 YEAR AHEAD
As we have seen, there seems to be an endless amount of challenges facing society today in every corner of the world. But with each problem comes even more opportunities for youth to help the community. This was the case in 2017, as there were countless natural disasters like hurricanes, earthquakes, and fires testing the faith and will of people across the world. But humanity is resilient. What challenges they may have are no match for how people are all alike, and that is all are human
beings. No hurricane is powerful enough; no earthquake is destructive enough; no fire is intense enough to stop any one of us from coming together and serving another. Whether it be Hurricane Harvey in Texas, the earthquake in Central Mexico, or the wildfires in California, no natural disaster can stop Swami’s unbounded and unconditional love. But how can youth help? Youth can take a page out of India’s or Greece’s books by teaming up with organisations to serve the community. Annapoorna partnered with Oracle in India, and the Greek youth collaborated with Microsoft to provide food to the children and homeless.
And, everyone can share in this joy by using technology to communicate experiences and journeys. Inspirational radio programmes like the ones in Italy and Singapore allow youth to reach even more people, and spread the message of service, love, and peace. It allows all to come together. And this is a must do…come together as one country, as one region, as one world. Swami willing, let the youth continue to build on what they have started in 2017, and achieve even greater feats of service in 2018 and beyond.
Youth should take inspiration from all the wonderful people around the world who selflessly serve their community. Let the youth embrace technology, but also understand the purpose and love behind it so they can utilise it to benefit those who are less privileged. Let the youth come together from different parts of the globe and serve those less fortunate. For it is not a matter of ‘us serving them,’ but a matter of ‘Him serving Him.’ Once this is understood, youth can fully immerse in His love, and share it with all. Keep up the wonderful work done in 2017 brothers and sisters, and all join hands and hearts to realise this immense potential together.