Get Involved +


		Meetings
		Working Committee
		Volunteering Experiences
		Raising money for Amma's visit
		Advertise in the programme guide

Get Involved

“Those who are engaged in selfless service... may receive hundreds of thousands of dollars but will deliver the equivalent of millions to people in need.

This is because their motives are selfless; they simply desire to benefit society. Rather than take any remuneration for themselves they give all they can to those who are suffering.”
—Amma

Calling Health and Safety Professionals!

One of the biggest challenges we face in running the programme at Alexandra Palace is ensuring we manage Health and Safety issues successfully. A lot depends on making sure we get things right and this year we’re looking at different initiatives.

In view of this we would be very interested in hearing from anyone who is professionally qualified in the Health and Safety field; if this includes experience in event management that would also be helpful.

If you have these qualifications please do get in touch and don’t worry, you won’t be overwhelmed! It would be very helpful to discuss some of the issues raised in planning and running the programme with you. Your contribution would be very much appreciated! Alternatively if you know of anyone who is qualified and may be willing to help that would also be of great interest.

If you want to have a chat and find out more please contact Tom Jones on tajmail@hotmail.com.

I’d like to help out.. How do I go about it?

There are several ways to help :

Fundraising before the event
Donating your time during the event
Volunteering your skills during the year

OK. What about fundraising?

One way of making a difference is to organise your own event, no matter how small. Every contribution will help. (It could be a jumble sale, a car boot sale, a sponsored walk or run, whatever you feel comfortable doing).

Amma herself has asked us to get involved in raising money for the UK Programme so that more of the funds raised at Alexandra Palace can be sent to India for her charities.

Donations

To make online donations click here.
To set up Give as you earn or for details of one off or monthly donations all the details can be found in the Contact Us Section. To donate towards this years visit go to Raising money for Amma's visit.

Donation Information

» Click here for Online Donations
» Click here for Give As You Earn
» Click here for Gift Aid Scheme
» Click here for Cheque Donations
» Click here for Direct Debit Donations
» Click here for Standing Order Mandate

Use Everyclick to raise
money for Amma's Charities

By selecting Friends of Amma at search engine www.everyclick.com you can raise money every time you make a search on the internet. Everyclick pledges to donate 50 percent of all money raised to charities, shared out depending on the number of times each charity is selected.

Seva (Volunteering): taking the initiative

It's very easy to start doing seva, volunteering. You don't have to start a project to start volunteering. There are so many easy ways you can start which require little or no training (see below). Selfless activity (seva) is something that can be done every day of the year. Amma encourages just that (see Amma on selfless service, below).

Opportunities for seva

Bringing help to the needy covers a vast range of activities and issues from the special needs of the elderly (those in sheltered housing, in care homes), poor one parent families, orphans, children with special educational needs, the blind, battered women, the hard of hearing, immigrants, the illiterate, the homeless, the lonely, those with suicidal tendencies, prisoners, ex-prisoners, those in hospices, long term hospital inmates. It's a very long list and there are literally thousands of charities and voluntary bodies dedicated to meeting these needs. But for virtually every one of these areas of need there are gaps in provision. So there are countless opportunities to offer aid and many organisations which exist to channel people to where aid is needed.

Starting to offer seva

You can start now by contacting a number of different organisations, such as: go to the "Volunteering England" web site/"I want to volunteer" section - there is a wealth of information on this site; or contact your local volunteer bureau. Such bureaux exist throughout the country.

Ways in which you can help

Just a few examples of help that requires little or no training:

Singing/ individually/as a group/ singing bhajans in care homes, sheltered housing.
Helping single parents with shopping, looking after children
Taking people (frail elderly, handicapped etc ) for walks to say a park
Corresponding with lonely people, prisoners
Taking blind people shopping, to GP, hospital
Kitchen assistant in soup kitchens for homeless people
Hospital "buddy" (i.e. providing friendship to people in long term care)
Hospital visits with a dog (if permitted)
Assistant in children and women's groups

There are thousands of opportunities like this. Once you have started please let me know via stuart.zwalters@virgin.net. We'd like to know how you find it and encourage others to do something similar. Please contact me if you need any help or advice. When speaking to various organisations it isn't important to bring Amma to people's attention. It is more important to do the work.