Pujya Tai Maa’s Health Update

We are happy to inform you that with your love and prayers, Pujya Tai Maa is very well and her health has improved post Covid. Pujya Tai Maa travelled to Pune for post Covid tests and has been under the supervision of expert doctors at Jupiter Hospital in Pune. She was looked after so well and we are pleased to inform that all her results are normal. Pujya Tai Maa sends her love and blessings to you all. On behalf of the Veerayatan family and the Sadhvi Sangha, we wish to thank you all for your unflinching love, support and prayers.

Pujya Tai Maa is traveling back to Rajgir soon. Tai Maa is already planning for Paryushan in Rajgir and all the information regarding this programme will be sent to all in due course.

Veerayatan’s Covid 19 Relief Efforts

Veerayatan is a leading name among voluntary organizations working selflessly for the welfare of mankind, without any discrimination as to religion, caste or sect. Veerayatan’s contribution throughout India and abroad in the last 50 years in humanitarian relief work, especially during calamities, has been remarkable

The Covid-19 pandemic is devastating the lives of people all over the world. The last eighteen months has seen millions impacted by the economic problems and grief from loss of loved ones caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. Over this period, thousands of desperate and disadvantaged people affected by the Covid-19 pandemic have been and continue to be supported by Veerayatan with an abundance of compassion and love. With the blessings and inspiration of Pujya Acharya Shri Chandanaji (fondly known as Pujya Tai Maa), her dedicated Sadhvi Sangh, hundreds of volunteers and experienced workers are accomplishing humanitarian work in a beautiful and respectful way.

Distribution of Food parcels

Food parcels containing essential food items (such as flour, rice, pulses, sugar and oil) have been regularly distributed to those in need in the remote villages of Kutch and Bihar. Medical kits (containing masks, sanitizers, soaps, oximeters, thermometers and other essential medicines) have also been distributed so that people can take proper care of their health in these challenging times and avoid hospitalisation.

Feeding the victims of Covid-19 in Ahmedabad, Gujarat

Feeding the victims of Covid 19 in Ahmedabad, Gujarat

Veerayatan started an initiative of preparing and delivering hot pure vegetarian food to families in quarantine or suffering with Covid-19 in the city of Ahmedabad where millions have suffered in this dreadful situation.

An astonishing 9,842 meals over 41 days were prepared and delivered to people in need with love!

The gratefulness of people affected has been so humbling:

to not just cook for us but to bring it every day to our very own front door – this is something for which we have no words to express our feeling.

We, a family of 4, have all got Covid and have no strength to prepare food – we feel that God has descended upon us and showered us with prasad.

Watch the video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lktm5Rnee3E

read further and find out about the work being done by Veerayatan....

Veerayatan Kutch

Covid 19 relief efforts

About 3000 food parcels and medical kits have been distributed to the economically challenged families of Jakhania, Kodai, Talwana, Nana Asambia, Mota Asambia, Kandharai Chowki and Rudrani. The Share and Care organization, based in America, made a special contribution towards procuring kits and Veerayatan also appreciates the cooperation received from the Sarpanch (village heads) of the villages and other leading dignitaries in society for the smooth functioning of the distribution process.

Alongside this, an ‘Oxygen Concentrator Bank’ has also been developed. Patients requiring oxygen in the villages can access these concentrators from Veerayatan free of cost and after recovery they are returned back to the concentrator bank, which after hygienic cleaning can be used by other covid victims. Hundreds of patients of villages have benefited from this system and have avoided hospital admissions.

Supporting students in these challenging times!

In 2001 after the devastating earthquake in Kutch, Veerayatan took an important step with special emphasis on education and nurturing children who were traumatised by losing one or both their parents. Veerayatan, once again during this Covid-19 pandemic, is embarking on supporting children who have lost one or both their parents by providing them with free education, along with food and accommodation and giving them the love and affection needed at this very difficult time to nurture these fragile lives.

Covid has not only affected the mental and physical health of people but also weakened their financial status too. Along with waiving the fees of all deserving students, Veerayatan, Kutch also invested tremendous effort and energy in ensuring students have access to great employment opportunities. This year 65 students from the Faculties of Pharmacy, Business Administration, Computing Administration and Engineering succeeded in getting jobs. This is a great relief for their families who are struggling to make ends meet.

Pujya Tai Maa, Sadhvi Sangh and all Veerayatan supporters sends their blessings to these students. We really appreciate the efforts made by faculty staff to motivate and prepare students for their interviews and future careers!

Veerayatan Kutch: UNEP Faith for Earth Councillor 2021-22

We are very delighted and honoured to announce that Veerayatan, Kutch has been selected as a United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) Faith for Earth Councillor 2021-22. This accolade has been given for creating and cultivating a culture of peace, justice and healing for all especially mother nature in and around the Veerayatan Kutch campus and amongst the people in the vicinity.

Veerayatan Palitana

Tree planting programme reaching great heights!

Tree planting programme reaching great heights!

The severe cyclone in May 2021 left a trail of devastation in Gujarat – people’s lives lost, their livelihoods destroyed and uprooting tens of thousands of trees! And this came at a time when there was already so much suffering due to Covid infections!

Headed by Veerayatan Palitana and Paryavaran Sanrakshan Samiti, 35 local organisations have come together with one aim - to plant 100,000 tree saplings in and around the town of Palitana and beyond! With the blessings and inspiration of Pujya Tai Maa, we are pleased to announce that by 12 July, 89,500 tree saplings have already been distributed and planted in and around 50 kilometres of Palitana with active participation of the various organisations and their volunteers and the local people. We have been overwhelmed by this tremendous positive response. The local government also helped in digging holes and clearing the debris. We now want to plant 11,000 saplings in the town of Gheti and 1,100 in Nondhanvadar.

Additionally, to increase awareness of the importance of trees and the green environment, a Plantation Awareness Programme was launched where children at Veerayatan school and other local schools were inspired to plant minimum of one tree in front of their homes and encouraged others to do so. And they all did so well!

Veerayatan Palitana congratulates and thanks all the volunteer teams, local organisations and donors wholeheartedly for their steadfast support in achieving this huge task with great love, dedication and speed. We pray for every success for this worthy cause and we hope to repeat this yearly during the monsoon season.

Mere Devdoot (My Angels)

Just Cried

‘Mere Devdoot’, a book of short stories written by Pujya Tai Maa describes the people and experiences that have shaped her journey. In one story, ‘Just Cried’, Pujya Tai Maa talks about the love, compassion and the warmth of her divine mother, Pujya Bade Maharaj. Click here to hear the story as recollected by Pujya Tai Maa and also read the full story from this riveting book…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e0gjjrV8kZs

Transforming lives, Building Futures

Tirthankar Mahaveer Vidhya Mandir, Osian in Rajasthan, works for the all-round development of the children from varying socio-economic backgrounds. The school curriculum is designed taking into account the individual needs of each child which enables personality growth, talent and skills development along with the academic education. We would like to highlight the achievement of Divya, a student in standard 6.

She took admission at the school in the academic year 2017-18. She suffers from cerebral palsy and was incapable of walking without assistance. Her father said that he went to many schools for her admission, but when he came to Veerayatan, he was impressed by the facilities and the ethos of the school for individualised care, which influenced him to send Divya to Veerayatan’s school.

Divya had trouble using both of her legs. However, every member of the school ensured that they assisted her in her day-to-day activities making her comfortable in the school environment and she was equally respected and encouraged to participate in all the school activities at par with every other child. This encouraged Divya to continue with her school education aiding her personal, mental and physical growth.

Recently during the Covid-19 pandemic, she underwent a surgery of her legs in Ahmedabad, which has been successful in enabling her to walk with the help of a walker and we pray that she will soon start walking independently.

This motivation to become independent is the testament to the environment provided by Tirthankar Mahavir Vidya Mandir, Veerayatan, Osian in shaping of the future of the next generation, a vision of Pujya Tai Maa. Pujya Tai Maa showers blessings and love to Divya and we all wish her a bright future and fulfilling career!

Veerayatan Kenya

Cerebral Palsy Unit

Since the outbreak of Covid-19 pandemic, Veerayatan Kenya and Young Jains Nairobi have endeavoured to ensure the wellbeing of the Cerebral Palsy Unit children both in the home and in the school environment. Children together with their families were supplied with food during the whole period of the pandemic in 2020.

In March 2021, Veerayatan Kenya and Young Jains Nairobi joined hands with other donors to give food to all children in the CP Units and their families. Apart from food items, each family received two medium size cooking pots. Parents started arriving from 9am to collect the food packs. They expressed immense gratitude and joy for proving this support in their time of need!

Veerayatan UK

The annual Samayik Event

This year our beautiful Samayik event took place online and the children of SCVP Jain School, aged 7-14yrs, took us on a journey, humbly enlightening us on the importance of Acharyas and the role they have played in bringing our beautiful religion to us, as well as reciting the sutras and telling us their meaning.

Here are some words of appreciation from the parents:

With the blessings of Pujya Tai Maa, our family has had the opportunity to attend SCVP’s Samayik event for the third consecutive year. The last two of these have been online virtual events. Our children Siddh (12 years) and Navya (8 years) get excited about this event from the time their teachers mention it. Thereafter, all the SCVP teachers plan and carefully assign the children with their contributions in the Samayik event. The children and teachers put in great effort several times during the week to practice their parts where they gradually mould themselves into perfection.

What we saw on the Samayik day itself was the result of such a dedicated and united effort of both the teachers and our little children of SCVP.

The time spent during the Samayik was immensely peaceful and soul nourishing. A lot of new knowledge came to light by simple means like stories, poems and also dramatisation. The entire family remained seated in their positions throughout and were thoroughly enjoying every single minute of the event.

Thank you Pujya Tai Maa for showering your affectionate blessings and thank you to the visionary and dedicated teachers of SCVP who made this possible.

By Kinjal & Keyur Doshi

Global News

Participation in Global Jain Academic Competition

With blessings from Pujya Tai Maa and guidance from Pujya Sadhvi Shilapiji, Veerayatan registered 4 senior teams and 2 junior teams for the Global Jain Academic Bowl hosted on a virtual platform by JAINA. Our youngest junior team consisted of our students as young as 12 years. The senior teams comprised of participants both from Kenya and UK.

All the participants enthusiastically studied the detailed and comprehensive material provided totalling nearly 500 pages and met regularly for practice sessions. It was a super learning experience and a special bond has been created amongst all the participants with a common goal, to fly high the Veerayatan flag.

We are happy to announce one of our senior teams has reached the finals which will take place against the US senior team!

Many congratulations to all the participants who made a great effort to participate in this competition.

Veerayatan Newsletter,July 2021, Edition-31