ARC Community Services
Ananda Marga of Madison has been involved with a number of service projects in our area over the years since 1971 when this yoga group first started in Madison. Later in that same decade a preschool, Sunrise School, and an alternative to incarceration for women offenders, ARC House, were opened by members of our local group. While Sunrise School is gone, ARC Community Services has since grown to a major community resource for women and children. They now run 12 innovative programs in Madison, WI and Fond du Lac, WI. Their website will help you see the full scope of their work. ww.arccommserv.com
Uma Niva
Currently, we are helping support Uma Nivas, an orphanage for girls in rural India, run by nuns of Ananda Marga. The girls attend Ananda Marga high school, and live together in a dormitory. Many go on to attend college. Photos show the recently graduated girls, living quarters, and some of the repairs to their dorm which we funded.
Bhutanese Refugees
We have also worked with a local group of Bhutanese refugees. Bhutanese refugees started settling in Madison in 2009. About 500 people have , by now, arrived here. Several of our members trained with the Madison Literacy Network and were placed with families to help them learn English and get oriented to life in this culture and this city. We also helped put on clothing drives for these families quarterly in conjunction with the Catholic Multicultural Center, coordinate with the Community Action Coalition to a help Bhutanese families get established in community garden plots and connect them with opportunities to earn and maintain a bicycle from Dream Bikes by undertaking a certain amount of hours of community service.