Diana looks back over 2010

Some people perceive Theosophists as library denizens and Lodge limpets - too busy researching and delivering talks about brotherhood to get out and do something truly brotherly in the community.  This impression may be erroneous.  See what you think for yourselves after reading this round-up of the latest activities of the TOS.

1.  Current collaborative projects

Theosophists sponsor the education of countless needy children around the globe, either as private citizens or through the TOS.

New Zealand / Philippines

Consider this recent example of creative sponsorship. Members of the TOS in New Zealand have just finished setting up a small endowment fund the interest from which pays for the education of a child at the Golden Link College, a theosophically oriented establishment from kindergarten to tertiary level in the Philippines. Now our fellow New Zealand members can turn their attention to other endeavours, content in the knowledge that there will always be enough secure capital to pay for the education of a child at Golden Link.

The endowment fund created by the TOS in NZ is called The Geoffrey Hodson Memorial Scholarship Fund after the well known theosophical author who was a president of the TOS in New Zealand and the founding president of the NZ Vegetarian Society. Mr Hodson lectured many times in the Philippines and was very fond of the TS members there. Perhaps you and your fellow members have known a special person you would like to see remembered through a scholarship fund?

		In the back centre, we see Mr Hodson seated with some Philippino members around him. Can you guess who the young man in the brown shirt is, front left? Yes, it is the current Chairman of the Golden Link College, Vicente Hao Chin, Jnr. Vic was in his mid or late twenties when this photo was taken.
Geoffrey Hodson		Diana Rose Orilla, aged 7, the first Geoffrey Hodson Memorial scholar. She is a cheerful, self-confident and active girl. Class adviser, Mary Charlyn Valdez, says this about Diana: "She is helpful in the classroom and helps maintain classroom cleanliness without being asked; she voluntarily helps her classmates if they don't understand a lesson; she loves reading and borrows books from her teacher, and on the following day tells stories to her teacher from the book she has read at home."

Pakistan

Another example of educational work supported across-the-seas is the literacy home-schooling offered to children and young women by the TOS in Karachi, Pakistan. The TOS in Australia raises funds to pay for six home-schools and the TOS in New Zealand funds two more.

The TOS in Pakistan chooses to do its principal work in the area of education, believing that this is the way
in which long term change can best be effected.

Aman (in grey) and Fareeda Amir (in red) are seen here with the national coordinator of the TOS in New Zealand, Renee
Sell, her husband Richard and daughter, Lara. Fareeda is the honorary secretary of the TOS in Pakistan and Aman is its treasurer.

Fareeda and Aman face huge challenges in keeping the TOS functioning safely and efficiently in Karachi. It is only their courage and a lifetime of experience in a number of domains that make it possible. Along with their colleagues, they are the TOS's unsung heroes! Behind these words lies a long and sobering story. In a future issue of this newsletter, we will tell you more of what is involved in keeping running twelve literacy home-schools, a Montessori School, an educational sponsorship programme, medical relief and financial help for the elderly in Pakistan. Our loving prayers are with the staff - always.

"Teddies for Tragedy"

A third project attracting international participation is "Teddies for Tragedy". This work has gone quite wild this year! Hundreds of teddy bears were knitted by members and friends in Milan, Forlì and Rome, Italy for the TOS in Tanzania for heart surgery babies, children with leprosy and for the mentally handicapped, for the TOS in Nairobi for the children's cancer ward of the Kenyatta Hospital and for the TOS in Zambia for young patients in Kitwe Central Hospital. A new team of knitters has started in Glasgow, Scotland, this time to comfort babies in Haiti. Since the UK TOS's involvement with the scheme, about 9,000 teddies have been shipped abroad from Britain alone!

 
                                                                                                     Members of the Italian TOS knitting team
  

Cynthia Trasi, the Secretary of the TOS in England. She is thanking the Italian members for their first big batch of teddies.	Atma Trasi, the Coordinator of the TOS in England with the first teddy bear he ever knitted in 2007. How many has he knitted since then?
Members of the Tanzanian delegation at the TS World Congress in Rome in July. They took a batch of teddies home. Note Khyati, the young girl in yellow on the far right. We see her next back in Tanzania….	Malaika Kapur (second right) & Khyati Dubal, present toys to six-month-old Barack Rwegasira at the airport in Dar es Salaam before his departure with his mother for surgery in India. (Photo by Evance Ng’ingo)

 Ebrony Peteli and Jayu L. Sampat brought a bag of teddies home from the TS Congress to distribute to children at Kitwe Central Hospital in Zambia.