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International Voluteers Help Victims

Japanese Students Build Homes
March 15, 2005

Ask your average college student what he intends to do on his vacation and most likely the response is going to involve some combination of the words "beach," "dance" and "partying." But about 100 students from Japan decided to get respite from their studies in another way: travelling to India to unload cement blocks and dig foundations for Amma's tsunami-relief free-housing project.

The students are part of IVUSA (International Volunteer University Student Association), which has established a relationship with M. A. Math, in that almost every year since 1998 some of its members have come to participate in the Amrita Kuteeram free-housing programme (for the destitute & paralyzed) — helping in places from Kerala to Gujarat. (news)

With the tsunami laying waste to thousands of homes throughout South India, this year the students set up camp in Kerala's Ernakulam District, focusing on the village of Edavanakkad, where the M. A. Math is building more than 50 homes.

"They worked so hard," says Vivek, a citizen of Japan who has helped coordinate the IVUSA students for several years now. "They have fun, but they find the fun in working. They are so enthusiastic. They would start work around 8:00 in the morning and then go on to sundown. After that, we would sing bhajans. One time Swami Poornamritananda came and played his flute. It was like a flute-meditation for them."

"Their attitude is very in tune with how Amma teaches us to be in our work, as far as willingness to transcend their bodily comforts," says Brian Harvey, from the U.S. who was also involved in coordinating the project. "One of the plots was marked right on top of this muddy bog. I told them that we had to clear it out, and they just jumped right in and spent most of three days shovelling out all the muck. In the end they looked like mud people."

Other jobs the students participated in included the unloading of some 30 truckloads of cement blocks, digging foundations for 18 homes and general land-clearing duties.

Although the students have paid what many young people would consider "the ultimate sacrifice"—paying to fly to another country to work, for free, on their vacation—the IVUSA students feel that they have received more than they have given.

"When I come here, I see that even the eyes of poor people are shining so brightly," says Hayato Eto, a young man studying in Tokyo who has come three times now to participate in the Ashram's project. "I keep asking myself why that is. I believe it is because they are rich in heart. I also learned a lot about adjusting. Construction in Japan is very different; everything is done with machines. Here we are carrying all the bricks by hand. You really learn to adjust."

Every day the students were shuttled from their lodgings to the construction site. As the last kilometre of road was too narrow for the buses, they would have to get out and walk, and each day more and more of the villagers would come out to greet them as they passed by. "It was really beautiful," says Brian. "The last day it was like a procession. All beneficiaries (some of whom were from Muslim families) greeted every volunteer as they walked by. It was such an example of Amma's teaching of how love is the universal language."

Before the students returned to Japan, they made a short trip down to Amritapuri to have Amma's darshan. Most people meet Amma and then become inspired by her example to start serving the world. For these students it was the other way around.

"Darshan was so warm," says Akina Tomimatsu, a 20-year-old girl from Tokyo. "It was a kind of love I've never experienced before. All the people I met here were so warm-hearted. When I go back to Japan, that is what I want to try to take with me—to treat everyone with kindness and love."

- Kanadi

Helping Frightened Children
March 15, 2005

It was only a week after the tsunami that Amma first mentioned her idea of providing swimming lessons for the village children in the M. A. Math swimming pool. Amma wanted to help the children to overcome their fear of water, as so many had become petrified of Mother Sea since the day she flooded through their streets, washed away their homes and, perhaps, even drowned a friend or family member. "Only through water will they be able to overcome their fear of water," Amma said.

Now lessons are in full swing, with two one-hour-long classes taking place each morning—one for boys and one for girls. The course, Beginning Swimming & Water Safety, is being taught by Sneha Albione Becnel, a 62-year-old American woman who has lived in Amritapuri for the past five years, during which time she has successfully taught more than 100 people to swim.

"You can't talk someone out of a fear of water," says Sneha, a former Red Cross Water Safety Instructor. "However you can teach them skills that will give them control, and that will give them the confidence. That's what we focus on—things such as getting them to put their face in the water, rhythmic breathing, treading water, bobbing, floating on your stomach and back, the crawl stroke. We also teach them how to do a standing front dive and to jump in feet-first and then swim to safety. We try to get them in water that's over their head as safely and as quickly as possible."

Sneha says that the most important thing is to give the children what she calls "buoyancy experiences," incidents that show them the body's natural tendency to float. "You can't teach that with words," she says. "They must experience it. One thing I like to do is to tell them, 'Go sit on the bottom of the pool.' Well, of course, you can't sit on the bottom of the pool. They find that out and experience the water pushing them up."

All this helps the children gain confidence. "You have to get them to experience feeling safe in the water," says Sneha. "All activities we do here are for that purpose." Once the children overcome their fear, Sneha and her assistants work on getting them mobile in and under the water. "That's important," says Sneha. "Just teaching them to swim is not enough. They have to be able to go under water too. That's a whole different experience. If you can swim, but only with your head above water, it isn't going to really help you in an emergency."

The first batch of kids finishes its course on Sunday, and the competent swimmers will all be given certificates to take back home with them. The students who are not quite up to snuff will sit in again with the next batch

Halfway through the course and the children are doing very well, says Sneha, reporting that about 70 percent of the boys can already dive in and then swim to the other side of the pool. "That's the most rewarding thing: seeing a child who was absolutely terrified of the water when we started—who was afraid to even put her foot in the water—six days later being able to dive in and swim the length of the pool."

—Tulasi

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