We plan to gradually implement the following programs, among others:
- Establishing a Permanent School-Office-Training Center in Haridwar
Our free school in the forest and training center for poor girls and widows in Haridwar now need a permanent home, as our volunteers and staff are facing many hardships in teaching and caring for the children in unprotected open spaces in the forest or by borrowing people’s living rooms. In addition, we still do not have a fixed office although the headquarters of the Hariharananda Mission are officially located in Haridwar.
We therefore have plans to purchase a plot of land in the Saptarishi district of Haridwar, and build a little school in order to serve 200 poor students, as well as a head office, and a workshop for the training of poor widows and girls.
- Free Shelter and Training Center for Poor Nuns
Plans are underway to establish a small residential ashram for poor female monastics in the hills of the Champawat district. Supervised by a nun, this small ashram will offer shelter and a basic spiritual and religious training to a few destitute sannyasinis (female monastics) and brahmacharinis (female novitiates) of the area.
- Alcoholism/Drugs Prevention and Detoxification Program
Through extensive contacts with local villagers, priests, and educators, we are putting together a program to deal with the endemic problem of drug and alcohol abuse in the remote villages of the Champawat district, with its devastating chain of consequences: poverty, domestic violence, failing health, and premature death.
This program will include:
- Education about the dangers and social ills caused by alcohol and drug abuse through training of the children and through village theater
- Detoxification programs
- Sacred fire ceremonies and pledges of sobriety (nasha mukti pratijña yajña)
- Adoption of Villages
We are currently designing a five-year adoption plan to eradicate illiteracy and alcohol abuse in a few remote and backward villages of the Champawat district. Our goal is to secure 100% literacy, and 50% elimination of alcohol abuse. If these goals are met, we will gradually expand to other villages.
- Hostel for Poor Students and Orphans
We have plans to build a hostel (Hariharananda Chhatravas) to offer residential facilities to orphans and poor students coming from distant villages. Free coaching and additional training will be provided to the residents.
Later, these hostels may be developped to form an Ashram for Children (Ananda Balashram) where students and teachers live, serve, and study together, as per the tradition of India's ancient gurukulam system.
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