How it all started
(as told by our first coordinator Céu d'Ellia)

"São Paulo is a very big city, and consequently concentrates much wealth and also much poverty. Social work has already been in operation for many years, and most of the institutions have financial resources, medical assistance, and psychological help. After visiting many social organizations and institutions, we found that their greatest difficulty (once they had solved the problem of providing shelter, food, medical assistance and clothes) was to stimulate the children in focusing their attention on constructive and peaceful values. What was actually missing was guidance from capable people who can offer to those children and teenagers a larger and better vision of life. We believe that our group of Kriyavans (students of Kriya Yoga) and other volunteers, with their heart and willingness to share and teach arts, storytelling, theater, dance, meditation, gardening, chanting, and yoga to these children, are perfectly qualified to achieve these goals.

Soon we were able to obtain some modest financial resources through donations, come up with a work plan, and form a group of around forteen volunteers to begin our activities. After several visits to different social institutions, we decided to start our work with a crèche (Formação XI) maintained by the "Orsa Foundation", as they were looking for ways to teach the children spiritual and humanitarian values. This crèche shelters thirty children, half of them 3 to 5 year-old, and the other half 6 to 15 year-old. The Fundação Orsa is located in São Paulo's Liberdade District at Rua Barão do Iguape, 926

The children at the crèche belong to families who live from collecting paper. Their way of making a living came as a big surprise and shock to all of us, as their work is controlled by a latifundium model. A latifundium is traditionally a large farm or estate farmed by indentured laborers, which is still very common in Brazil's countryside, particularly in the rubber plantations of the Amazon forest.

But no one had imagined finding something like this system in a mega-city like São Paulo. Here the people who collect paper depend on a person called a "sheriff", who receives the materials and sells them to the recycling companies. As in the rural feudal system, the "sheriff" controls the sales of the product and the percentage allocated to each worker. In Brazil's far countryside and deep forests, most families do not have enough money to pay for their basic needs such as transportation, food, medicine, clothes or utilities, so the "sheriff" pays for it upfront. In this way, the people are always indebted to him and somehow belong to him.

In São Paulo, some of these groups of paper collectors are already socially structured, having organized themselves as a community, and even sharing the care of their children. In the Liberdade District however things are different. Here the parents of these children are concerned about earning as much money as possible to be able to change their lives. They do not have time to care much about their children, who risk ending up on the streets. This is why the crèche was founded in that district—to offer to the kids a healthy alternative to the street life. Besides offering a safe haven, they also provide food, recreational activities, and some basic schooling. And they are very interested in what the ARK OF LOVE offers.

The children come voluntarily from Monday to Friday, and return home at night and on week-ends. This is the ARK OF LOVE's big challenge-to offer a diversity of activities which would motivate them to come to the crèche one day more, on Saturdays, from 8:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. All members of the ARK OF LOVE realize how important that their volunteer work with the children be disciplined, loving, and reliable. The children have high expectations for this special day, and the values they learn from this type of interaction can be life-changing in themselves. It is very good for them to see that people set a date and a fixed time to come together in order to see each other, and that everybody always arrives cheerfully and punctually. This shows them that a routine can be something very good, that people can be trustworthy, and that they can have a relationship with others in a healthy manner.

Our current activities include meditation, mandala painting, sculpture with clay, yoga for children, storytelling (Brazilian Indians tales, stories using the Sathya Sai method, and the Saltimbancos play) with simultaneous story dramatizing with the children. We also show them how to plant flowers and how to take care of their own flowerpots. At Christmas we decorated a Christmas tree and made a manger and the Noah's Ark with clay. We realized pedagogical activities in drawing, painting and cutting. We visited the city's central mark, as well as the "Pátio do Colégio", were São Paulo began. We made magic, celebrated the children's birthdays and played didactic games. We sang. We offered free meals, and which is most important, we shared lovingly moments with the children."

Note: The ARCA DO AMOR HARIHARANANDA SÃO PAULO was incorporated as a non-profit, charitable organization in Brazil in June 2003.