BLUE LOTUS BUDDHIST FELLOWSHIP
INTERNATIONAL WELFARE FOUNDATION
&
BLUE LOTUS SANGHA SABHAVA
INTERNATIONAL MONASTIC FOUNDATION

“GO FORTH, O BHIKKHUS*,
FOR THE GOOD OF THE MANY,
FOR THE HAPPINESS OF THE MANY,
OUT OF COMPASSION FOR THE WORLD,
FOR THE GOOD, THE BENEFIT AND HAPPINESS
OF GODS AND MEN!”

*bhikkhus is normally translated as monk.

POST ADRESS:
SRI RAHULA CULTURAL LIBRARY
TOTAGAMU RATHPATH RAJA MAHA VIHARAYA
TEMPLE ROAD
TELWATTA 80242
SRI LANKA
TEL. (0094) 091-4922772
(0094) 077-6958796 (mobile)

WHAT ARE WE DOING AND WHO IS WHO?

What Are We Doing in the BLUE LOTUS BUDDHIST FELLOWSHIP and the BLUE LOTUS SANGHA SABHAVA?

We would like to introduce to you the members of our foundations in Sri Lanka, we are all people who have been working, very hard, together for the last year to help and support the poor, the handicapped and those persons and institutions in need. Some of us like the Ven. Holland Sri Devamitta Maha Thera (Bhante Devamitta), and ”Fidu” have been doing this kind of work since January 2005 after the Tsunami disaster hit this beautiful country of Sri Lanka , the Rev. Baddegama Ariyadhamma Thero, a young Buddhist monk and pupil of Bhante Devamitta, joint us during the last 11/2 year. Recently we where joined by Kumara (our new treasurer), he's the district officer for Baddegama in charge with sport activities and Anura (in charge of logistics and buying the materials needed).

First though we would like to inform you about the purpose and functioning of the foundations.
Because of the complexity and the shear amount of help needed we decided to establish the above mentioned Foundations. The Blue Lotus Buddhist Fellowship is there to organize the social and medical welfare part of our work, a part of the educational work and some of the self-employment projects we hope to develop. We work for the benefit and the uplifting of the poorest of the poor, and the purpose of providing to those who are now chanceless an opportunity to get the chance and change their future and that of their children.


WE ARE CONVINCED THAT THE ANSWER TO OUR PROBLEMS LAYS IN OUR DOUBLE APPROACHE OF CARE AND EDUCATION!!!!!!!!!!!

We specially want to focus on the children, woman and handicapped in our society. They are the most vulnerable group and in need of direct care and the opportunity’s to get a chance to create a better life. Many of them are in need of medical support and facility‘s (medicine, artificial limbs, wheelchairs, eyeglasses, hearing devices etc. etc.), they need professional training and education.

WE URGENTLY NEED HEARING DEVICES AND WHEELCHAIRS ETC. ETC. !!!!!!!!!

ABOUTH 1/3 OF OUR CHILDREN NEED FOOD! THEY ARE MALNUTRICIONED!!!!!!!!!!

Lately we have been asked by the Medical Inspector of the Schools to try and help some 19 children to get eyeglasses, they needed these eyeglasses already for a long time (some of them for 2-3 years!!!!!). When they where being tested in the Karapitiya Teaching Hospital it turned out that tough 6 of them needed eyeglasses their real problem was malnutrition!!! Before this we had already a cry for help of a school principal that one of his students, a 10 year old boy, was badly malnutritioned. A few days after we started to feed these children and give food supplements there came a request from a local doctor for 5 more children!!!!! We could get food supplements from Unesco and bought them , and gave those kids also meals. This we could do because of a donation given to us from a German family; the family Holger. But now after more then 6 months the money is finished. We would like to organize an ongoing program in which we accept a small group of kids to be given meals and /or food supplements during a period of 3-6 months (in consultation with the doctor). We would like to take the opportunity here to thank this family for there great help to us!!!!!. We got (true the assistance of Mr. Alexander Sandkuyl; “our Sander“) also a donation from Mr. Jaap Plugge from the Netherlands which enabled us to supply the needed eyeglasses, thank you Jaap!!!! And by the way: The PC on which we are working now is a laptop donated by Mr. and Mrs. John and Claudette Velenturf from the Netherlands, friends of Sander, our sincere thanks is also going to them for this great donation!!!! This people are wonderful!!! They give being sure not to get anything back for it except our gratitude and the knowledge that they support our work for the poor and needy. This is what the Buddhist concept of Dana (generosity) is all about, and they are not Buddhist but real compassionate people touched by Human Suffering, a big Sadhu Sadhu Saaa for all of them!

A TRAUMA WHICH IS NOT HEALED, IS GROWING AND GROWING!!!!!!!!!

There is a great need for trauma healing, not only because of the Tsunami, also because of the war against terrorism which has made many victims! Also many are traumatized because of violence in schools and their home‘s.

We have to work on programs to stop the violence; the physical, focal as well as mental violence in our society! Violence in schools, at home, in all kind of other institutions and in the workplace. We would like to propagate Non Violent Communication in general. For this we need professional training programs. We further need to give people information about the dangers of marriage’s in the family (often practiced in our arrear), HIV/Aids prevention, drug addiction, alcohol abuse (the use of home brew liquor is a big problem here) and so on. Mr. Peter Sandkuyl donated us a "beamer"for our groupswork.
THANK YOU PETER!!!!!!

Because of this: WE NEED YOUR HELP!!!!!!
WE URGENTLY NEED TRAUMA WORKERS!!!!!!!!

We need funds, that is sure, but not only funds!
We need professional volunteers!
We need volunteers: Students, Nurses, Therapists, Teachers, but also people who just want to work and do manual work etc.!!!!!
We need schooling material! We need training for our workers!!!!!
We need a place where we independently can live and work and train our new welfare workers and monks!!!!!
(DON’T FORGET WE MONKS ARE THE CHEAPEST WORK FORCE).
We need young people who want to come and help us as volunteers!
WE NEED YOUR MATERIAL AND IMATERIAL SUPPORT!

The Blue Lotus Sangha Sabhava has the purpose of organizing the monastic upkeep, educational, religious and social part of our work. (Mediation Centre, Study and Research Centre and a Special Care Home for boys and hopefully later for girls).

On request of the doctors of the Karapitiya Teaching Hospital we are starting a program for Care for the Dieing (counseling those who are dieing, specially children, and their family members); to our knowledge this is the 1st group starting this work in this country!!!!! We are now in a preparing stage and those who are going to join Bhante Devamitta in this work are contemplating the needs and how to reward them.

FOR THIS WORK WE ALSO NEED TRAINING!!!!!!!!!
IS THERE ANYBODDY OUT THERE WHO CAN HELP US TO GET TRAINING AND / OR TRAINING MATERIAL?????

PEACE AND RECONCILIATION, SO MUCH NEEDED!!!!!!!!!!

Since January last year (on an initiative of Bhante Devamitta), we run a quite successful Inter-religious Dialogue and Reconciliation program. True this program we are trying to bring the different groups of the population together, and up till now we have quite a successful group of male and female participants of the four main religions here in the country present and our participants are coming closer and closer together. We would like to expand our activities but…. there is a lack of funds. Up till now we where able to run this program because of the great help we got from the Trauma Resource (Comp.Ltd) organization from Britain. For this we are VERRY GREATFULL TO THEM !!!!!!!!!!!!! But we need to create a fund for this so we can continue this much needed program!!!!! Maybe we can get support from the churches and/or other inter-religious groups around the world, but we need people to organize this we are short of manpower.

True this Sangha Sabhava we also want to provide training possibility’s for young monks and lay people alike in not only Buddhist Teachings and Practices, but also in inter-religious education, modern science, social work, languishes, art, welfare work and computer technology. This way we will be able to train our own people and “outside” workers to support our work and to stimulate them to start working in the same field. Some of the self-employment projects will have to be done by the Sangha Sabhava and the Sangha Sabhava will also control the maintenance of the land and the buildings on it (Sangha property cant be sold, this will secure the safety and continuance of the projects). This way there will be no private interest in “owning” the place with al the dangers of that and we can take care that private financial interests will be kept out. The members of our Foundations will have no financial income from their work. Sometimes we will have to employ workers but this will be noticed in the Program Information of each program.

CONCLUSION:

To conclude the aims and programs oversight we will give you below a short point to point resume of the PROGRAMS AND ACTIVITIES of the Foundations. Behind each separate item there is a short indication of which Foundation is in charge of it; Fellowship or Sabhava or both.

GENERAL REMARK:

In all cases the two Foundations will have to work closely together, one cant exist without the other, we specially planned it that way to insure the continuance of both because we clearly see that if we want to be successful and not become a pray to corruption or financial malfersations we have to be interconnected and depending. This way both will be obliged to check on each other to ensure their own existence.

This on top on our Constitution in which we have build in as much as possible those rules which will serve this purpose also.

MEDICAL CARE;

- Organizing free distribution of medical accessories like eyeglasses, hearing devices, wheelchairs, artificial limbs, implants and other items to the poor. (Fellowship)
- Establishing a fund for those in need of medication and other long term medical care. (Fellowship)
- Organizing support for doctors, medical institutions and a program true which volunteer professionals are able to share knowledge and experiences with local professionals in the medical field .(Both)
- Organizing a volunteer program for students in the medical field to do the same. (Both)
- Organizing an exchange program for this purpose so local medical workers and students can refresh their knowledge and foreign professionals and students can experience the way of working out here. (Both)
- Establishing a program and training workers for it to comfort and counsel those who are dieing and their relatives. (Sabhava)

SOCIAL WELFARE and CARE:

- Organizing any Social Welfare activities which might serve our purpose to uplift our society. (Both)
- Organizing a project to feed underfed children in our society. (Sabhava)
- HIV/Aids prevention program. (Sabhava)
- Anti Hard drug and alcohol abuse campaign and rehabilitation program. ((Sabhava)
- Organizing a campaign against inbreed (marriage in the family). (Sabhava)
- Introducing a campaign against domestic violence. (Sabhava)
- Introducing a NVC (Non Violent Communication) program on schools and other educational and commercial institutions. (Both)
- Introducing a campaign to uplift the status of woman and handicapped in our society (Fellowship)
- Organizing an Employment and Self - employment program for woman and handicapped. (Both)
- Establishing a test garden where foreign herbs, vegetables and medical plants will be grown so we can teach the local woman how to do this in a home garden project. This plants can be sold to tourist hotels and restaurants and there can be produced side products as pesto, balms etc.
(Both)
- Establishing a workshop where rice paper can be produced, a printing shop and a workshop where glass fiber statues can be produced and hand painted. (Both)
- Establishing and running of a special care home for children (boys and later hopefully another centre for girls) who are in need will have a place to live and receive the care and all other facilities needed to develop them in to respectable and valuable members of our society. (Both)

EDUCATION:

- Organizing exchange programs for students of different disciplines. (Both)
- Organizing free and/or low-cost courses on different subjects. (Both)
- Organizing volunteer teaching programs on languages, traditional arts, science, music, etc. (Both)
- Organizing volunteer programs true which professionals are able to stay for a short or long term period in Sri Lanka to teach and work here for the uplifting and benefit of our society in general. (Both)
- Organizing vocational training programs on the field of agriculture, techniques and other professional disciplines. (Both)
- Some of our youth are very talented but can’t continue their education because of a lack of funds; we would like to establish a Scholarship Program for their benefit. (Fellowship)

CULTURE:

- Propagating and preserving different Sri Lankan and Buddhist traditional and cultural aspects which are under treat to disappear. (Sabhava)
- Propagating and stimulating the different arts, traditional and modern. (Sabhava)
- Forming an Art Collective. Painters, sculpturers, musicians and other artist who might be served by participating in it. (Sabhava) – (production and sales; Fellowship)
- Organizing Cultural Manifestations, exhibitions and any other activities which might serve our purpose. (Both)

RELIGIOUS *:

- Organizing the Ordination of a number of new monks.
- Building a Dhamma Study and Research Centre and a Meditation Centre with monastic accommodation for our Sangha in Telwatta and eventually other places, also there should be accommodation for visiting Sangha and Laity who are coming to study and practice Buddhism and Meditation there .
- Establishing a Sangha Fund for the upkeep, education, medical costs, transport cost and training costs of our monks so they will be able to
fully concentrate on their religious duties and do the work for the benefit of our society in general.
- Organizing Dhamma Study, Meditation Courses and retreats for Sangha members and Lay visitors alike.
- Organizing Buddhist Research Programs for example: Use of meditation in the medical field, the use of Buddhist Psychology (Abhidhamma) in Mental Health Care. Buddhist Meditation and Healing. Buddhist Economics. What is the value of Buddhist Politics? (Ashokan period – Milenda Panha). The value of Happiness in a society and its economical consequences. (Worldwide study of the Government of Buthan) Etc.
- Organizing Buddhist Manifestations, Rally’s (propagating Buddhist ethics etc.)which might serve our purpose.
- Stimulating, expanding and continuing the Inter- and Intra- Religious Dialogue with the Aim to come to a Reconciliation Movement.
- Starting an Inter-religious program in the prisons to minister the inmates and get them to practice Buddhist Ethics and Meditation and to counsel those who need that.

As you can see this activities will be mainly organized and runned by the Sangha Sabhava but many of these and the other activities are connected and can sometimes be called under the same heading. Anyhow as stated before the two Foundations are bound to work together, they are inter-dependent and connected.

Anybody who has a special interest in it can make a request for a copy of the Constitution of the Foundation, this is depending on the purpose for which it will be used, the motivation and the decision of the board if a full printed copy will be send to the applicant (costs on account of the applicant). The Constitutions will be always available for viewing at the secretary. Donators can, on request, receive a free copy by email.

Every year there will be a public financial report given, every three months the Newsletter will contain a financial oversight and donators will receive regularly a special report of the spending of their funds given for specific projects. (This will start on April next according to local law the bookyear of any foundation starts on the 1st of April).

FURTHER ACTIVITIES:

Bhante Devamitta had a long term dream to establish in this arrear a children Rehabilitation and Care Centre, and now in corporation with the SRILANCARE FOUNDATION in The Netherlands we are working hard to establish such a Centre. We are founding in corporation with the doctors from Karapitiya General Hospital the SRILANCARE FOUNDATION - SRI LANKA with the purpose to build a Centre where children who are Physically and /or Mentally Traumatized and who need after care and rehabilitation will have the possibility to stay for a period of time to be treated and accommodated so they can rehabilitate under the guidance and in corporation with the Karapitiya General Hospital in Galle.