Social Services

To get an idea of how we got involved in social services, here are some excerpts from Sensei’s write up in one of our news letter:

“As you may be well aware that we are not only just in to teaching self defence and how to keep well but we are also committed to human values. I remember the last Monsoons, the day when Ahmedabad was flooded, as I drove through the roads turned in to rivers. I happened to see some colonies of tribal labourers submerged in water. I was a little disturbed: how could they cook when the firewood was wet?

Upon reaching home I called some of our senior students and a dozen of them quickly gathered at my residence. We made Puri - Bhaji, bought bananas in bulk and headed towards those tribal huts. A grand dinner at a five-star hotel cannot be compared with the happiness and satisfaction we derived from feeding those hungry, shivering men, women and children.

Then we thought about them spending winters in poorly-made shelters and little to wrap their skinned bodies with. Whereas we literally stuff our wardrobes with unused clothes! As I put this idea of distributing our surplus clothes among the needy, the response from our students was overwhelming! We distributed hundreds of pairs, several car-loads of clothes during the early part of that winter. Perhaps this is the key to happiness and satisfaction: SEWA!

It gives me immense satisfaction that we provide a platform for the youth to contribute in such a manner to the society.

In these pictures below, you will witness ASMA's social activities viz. clothes/ food distribution to the needy living in meager dwellings, nurturing the environment via tree plantation, contributing to disaster relief in Himalayas, and other Samaritan acts.