Local Care Networks, an initiative of the Abhayaratna Trust, have been around for a few years now. The concept of the initiative is simple: to help local Sanghas develop a more explicit, organised, proactive and collective framework of care and support. An important context for the initiative comes from the ageing demographic of the Order and the anticipated increase in care and support needs which may swamp more informal care and support provided through friendship.
Read MorePlease have a look to see how things are going and what we have been doing over the last year. You will find a director’s report from Mahasraddha, as well as reports from each of the team on their particular area of work and a foreword by Dharmashura who is chair of the Abhayaratana Trust.
Read MoreThe Abhayaratna Trust team (pictured) and our board of trustees wish you well throughout this festive season. In 2024 we will continue, with your support, to enable a flow generosity and care for Triratna Order members experiencing hardship.
Read MoreMahasraddha writes: ‘In the context of the suffering and confusion that I see around me in everyday living and encounters, I am often profoundly struck by how fortunate I am to have encountered the dharma and, moreover, to have stuck at dharma practice through the many ups and downs, through the many periods of doubt, towards greater clarity and sraddha.
Read MoreSadhanandi talks about why she has left a legacy to the Abhayaratna Trust and how a random act of kindness led her to reflect on the importance of keeping the gesture of giving alive.
Read MoreTaradakini writes: Nagabodhi’s message (click on video image to view) is the start of our appeal to raise £10,000 a year. Not for a specific Order member, like you often see in these newsletters, but for our work worldwide. Because for every appeal for an individual you see, there are at least another 9 Order members requesting support that you don’t hear about.
Read MoreWe love regular donations and there are also other ways to give. One of our supporters, Prakashadhi, recently wrote to tell us that when she lets out her flat in mid Wales she gives most of the money to Triratna charities, including Abhayaratna Trust. We love your ways of giving.
Read MoreTaradakini writes: Dear friends, Bodhipaksa needs our help. This may surprise you. He’s a well-known figure in the Triratna and wider meditation world, leading retreats, and teaching courses from his Wildmind.org platform since 2001. But he has been living close to the financial edge for the past few years and now something has tipped that balance.
Read MoreHarshaprabha writes: I first met Amoghavajra at the opening of the London Buddhist Centre in 1978, which led to us keeping in contact, and we were ordained together at Il Convento in 1982. In 1997 Amoghavajra moved down to help establish the Colchester Buddhist Centre and our friendship deepened as we then lived together. I got to know more about what it was like to live in his world, with his disability.
Read MoreThe Abhayaratna Trust recently responded to an elderly Order member in India living with dementia. The local sangha have been kindly supporting the person in the last couple of years but as other medical problems connected to the dementia emerged professional care was needed.
Read MoreMaitrikaya is the Abhayaratna Trust representative in Ireland. In this short video he gives a brief introduction to the Abhayaratna Trust and the work that we do in supporting individual members of the Triratna Buddhist Order throughout the world.
Read MoreKarunada ist der Repräsentant der Abhayaratna-Stiftung in Berlin. In diesem Video gibt er eine kurze Einführung in die Abhayaratna-Stiftung und die Arbeit, die wir leisten, indem wir einzelne Mitglieder des Buddhistischen Ordens Triratna in aller Welt unterstützen.
Read MoreWe are putting together our Annual Review of 2022 but here is an advance glimpse of what you’ll find in it relating to the grants and appeals work we carried out last year: We made 76 grants totaling more than £86,000 to Order members around the world for a variety of purposes,
Read More2022 has been another successful year for the work of the Abhayaratna Trust in responding to Order members in need of financial assistance, which is only possible due to the continuing generosity of our donors.
Taradakini and I thought we would take the opportunity to thank you for the tremendous support that the many donors to our appeals and those who donate regularly to the work of the Abhayaratna Trust have given.
Read MoreImagine being in an accident and having important, even life saving, treatment and then being presented with a bill afterwards that you can’t pay. Or being in immense physical pain with a back issue that the free state health service is not able to sort beyond painkillers. Or perhaps you paid your hospital bill but there is no sick pay and it will be months before you can work again.
The Abhayaratna Trust has launched a fund to support Triratna Order members health in just such cases
Read MoreWith free health services faltering in some countries, and limited or unavailable in others, the Abhayaratna Trust has launched an Order Health Fund.
This fund will help to support Order members worldwide when an acute or chronic health difficulty arises, and the Order member has limited savings (less than £10,000 or equivalent currency) and other funding is not available.
To do this we will need several hundred thousand pounds – as we age more health issues manifest – and our initial fund target is £25,000.
Read MoreAl inicio de la pandemia del COVID en la India lanzamos una recaudaciónd e fondos para reunir una modesta cantidad de £5,000 (casi 6 000€) para enviar dinero en efectivo a los miemobros de la Orden que allá necesitaban pagar gastos médicos, alimentación, renta y otros costos de vida, porque muchos de nuestros miembros de la Orden perdieron la manera en que se ganaban el sustento en ese momento. Reunimos poco más de £200,000 (239, 000€ aproximadamente).
Después de enviar apoyo varias veces durante casi dos años, esta primavera comenzamos a apoyar a miembros de la Orden que contaban con finanzas muy limitadas para echar a andar su propio negocio.
Read MoreAt the start of the Covid pandemic in India we launched a modest £8,000 fundraiser to send cash to Order members there to pay for medical care, food, rent and living costs, because many of our Order lost their livelihoods at that time. We raised just over £200,000.
And after sending support several times a year for nearly two years, this spring we began making grants to Order members with very limited finances to set up their own business.
Read MoreMahasraddha, the director of the Abhayaratna Trust writes: ‘The Abhayaratna Trust is pleased to publishing its 2021 Annual Report which gives you a well-presented overview of our work to help Order members support each other where there is hardship.’
You can also read about our continuing strategic work to respond to key issues in the Order including health, housing issues and non-financial support.
Read MoreMaitrinanda lives in Kraków and was ordained in 2020 - the first Triratna ordination to take place within Poland.
A kind and good 71 year-old man, known for his extensive Dharma knowledge, he is a retired policeman living on a low income.
In recent years he has given his time and energy generously to the Kraków Sangha and to supporting his family. His teenage son has autism with violent outbursts.
After a heart attack, Maitrinanda’s health has deteriorated and his living situation is now such that he needs to find a new home urgently.
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