In a major initiative, the Mata Amritanandamayi Math has announced charitable activities to the tune of Rs 25 crore to be launched during the 59th birthday celebrations of Mata Amritanandamayi.
The celebrations will be held at Amritapuri in Kollam on September 27. On the occasion, many new charitable initiatives of the Math will be launched and some of the existing schemes will be extended.
The new initiatives include 200 free heart surgeries and 50 free kidney transplants at Amrita Hospital, Kochi, 500 free houses, financial aid to relatives of the victims in Kannur and Sivakasi explosions, extending the reach of Amrita Nidhi pension programme and the Vidyamritam scholarship.
The surgeries will be for poor people from across the country and those in the BPL category will be given priority. Those who would like to avail of kidney transplants will have to find the organ donors themselves. Those interested can contact the Math headquarters or any branch of the ashram.
The Math will build 500 free houses to the homeless throughout the state. Under Amrita Kuteeram, which began in 1998, has constructed more than 45,000 houses for the poor.
As part of the financial aid to families who lost someone or had someone seriously injured in the Kannur and Sivakasi explosions, the Math will provide Rs 1 lakh to the families who lost someone in the tragedy. Also a sum of Rs 50,000 will be given to families who have someone seriously injured in the explosions.
In another initiative, the Math will extend the reach of the Amrita Nidhi pension scheme by bringing in an additional 3,000 recipients. This will increase the reach of the programme from 55,000 to 58,000 beneficiaries. The Vidyamritam scholarship programme for students will also be extended to cover an additional 3,000 students, thereby taking the total number of beneficiaries from 37,000 to 40,000 across the country.
The intention of the initiative is to help lay a stronger economic foundation for impoverished agricultural families.