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Diana looks back over 2011 - page 1
Navigating the pages
Each page of this report is numbered and on each page there is a navigation bar at top and bottom, where you can click on Next or Previous or on any page number, like p4, to go to that page. The impossible choices, because that's the page you are already on, are greyed.
Reading an annual report can be quite soporific but those of you who manage to wade through this year’s TOS report may end up surprised at all that is being accomplished. You may even end up ‘fired up’ to try out in your own country something you’ve discovered.
Actually only a small proportion of the members’ work is mentioned in the report. Whole countries – eighteen to be precise – have not even been referred to! Having to select amongst the many fine projects undertaken by TOS members around the world is positively agonising for the reporter, so if you are pitying yourself at the reading ahead of you, please have a kind thought for the reporter and an even kinder one for the organisers of the major projects that have gone
un-discussed.
Introduction
The main purpose of the TOS is to encourage people to take up the path of service for humanity and the planet. Its mission is to offer:
- a framework in which individuals may work in self-selected lines of service for the relief of suffering and the uplifting of society;
- a framework in which the practical application of theosophical principles to issues of contemporary concern may be explored;
- a framework in which social action and advocacy as spiritual practice are actively supported.
Animal protection, the preservation of the environment and meditation for world peace are amongst the most widespread activities engaged in by TOS members. The TOS’s healing ritual is also extensively performed. Over forty healing groups meet regularly in the USA, for example and many dozens within India. Social welfare, medical and educational work amongst the underprivileged remains the priority of many TOS groups around the world. For example, members run numerous schools, literacy centres, free nutrition services and medical programmes.
International Projects
Last year TOS and TS groups responded widely to the TS in America’s kind offer to channel donations to help the TS in Chile repair its building in Santiago after the earthquake of February 2010. We are happy to report that all donations have been transmitted, the building is well on the way to being repaired and meetings have even resumed. The members in Chile have covered a significant part of the restoration expenses themselves, which is a fine achievement. They have been touched and encouraged by the concern of their fellow Theosophists around the world.
For a fuller report from the TS in America, including ‘before’ and ‘after’ photos, click here:
http://www.theosophical.org/news |
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The TOS’s largest collaborative effort this year has been in emergency relief to the Horn of Africa. The TOS in Kenya identified a starving population in the town of Kitui, 130 km east of Nairobi, and 55 families are being fed for six months, with help from the Nairobi TOS team, from TOS and TS members in Australia, England, France, Germany, Italy, New Zealand, Spain and the USA. The feasibility of putting down a bore hole so that the villagers have not only drinking water but also water for the planting of high quality seeds is being looked into seriously and could well be accomplished before the food distribution project ends. Plans are also under consideration to provide the Kitui villagers with fruit-bearing trees such as mangoes and pawpaw.
A photographic report on the first distribution of food was posted on our website in October. Here’s a link to the report if you missed it.
You ’ll find a full report on the second food distribution in the Featured Project on the website. Don't miss it! |
The TOS United Nations Committee chaired by Lorraine Christensen of Canada has produced its first brochure inviting Theosophists to engage in activities in support of UN aspirations in the realm of world peace, unity and the relief of suffering. The TOS thanks Pedro Oliveira and Ananya Rajan in particular for their help in researching the TS’s extensive history of support for the UN and for its predecessor, the League of Nations.
The brochure is posted in the UN section of For Members on the TOS website. Members of both the TS and TOS are warmly invited to print out this brochure for distribution. |
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| Spanish language co-ordinator, Fernando Pérez Martin, has produced several more issues of an electronic newsletter presenting ideas to our many Hispanic members for supporting the work of the UN. |
Fernando has produced 23 issues of the UN newsletter since December 2008. |
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A Spanish edition of Nelda Samarel’s booklet, Helping the Dying, has been published by the TOS in the Philippines and has been distributed in Spain, Central America and the Caribbean. The director of the TOS in Argentina, Norberto Cicirelli, has completedg a further print run for distribution throughout the rest of Latin America.
Download the electronic copy of the Spanish edition here.
A Portuguese translation is also in progress. |
| The Kern Foundation of the USA, under the impulse of its Advising Trustee, John Kern, has once again provided a matching grant to support the Golden Link College in the Philippines. We are grateful to the Foundation and to John, and also to the TOS in America for processing donations to meet the grant target each year. The college continues to attract considerable interest among Theosophists because of its attempts to integrate theosophical ideas and inner transformation work into the daily life of the students. An article by Vicente Hao Chin, Jr outlining the theosophical content and practice in the curricula from kindergarten to tertiary level is now available at http://international.theoservice.org/articles.html. |
TOS members in Australia, Singapore and New Zealand in particular, have sent thousands more books to the Philippines this year. Well over 50,000 books have been sent in the past three years, not only to enrich the library of the Golden Link College but to help build the libraries of other public and private schools as well. Unloading and sorting these books requires considerable work in which the students of the Golden Link College participate enthusiastically.
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The two-monthly international electronic newsletter called TOS in-touch.online, produced by Geoffrey and Carolyn Harrod, remains the TOS’s main organ of communication. Its distribution list is growing. In every issue of the newsletter, the new material added to the TOS’s website is announced. For example, models of theosophically-oriented funeral services are being posted by Carolyn to help Theosophists farewell their loved ones:
Funeral services
She has also added a long (and growing) list of fund-raising ideas: http://international.theoservice.org/members/fundraising/fr-ideas.html
Members are warmly invited to use any of the website’s resource material in their national and local TOS or TS publications and activities. |
| A great deal of humanitarian service work goes on at our international TS headquarters in Adyar, Chennai, India, principally under the aegis of the Olcott Education Society. This year we have run a series of photographic reports by George and Gailene Wester of Australia on three of the four activities operating under its umbrella: the Olcott School, the Blavatsky Hostel, the Social Welfare Centre and the Annie Besant Memorial Animal Dispensary. TOS groups are enthusiastic and faithful supporters of these four fine projects that the International President of the TS has actively cared for over many decades. |
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