Manchester Buddhist Centre

Local Order mem­ber Shakyajata is back in India, work­ing with young com­puter stu­dents from poor and mar­gin­al­ised communities

We can all sup­port this inspir­ing work through the Young Indian Futures online fun­drais­ing campaign

You can read some of Shakyajata’s won­der­ful diary entries in Triratna Buddhist Community News — here’s just a fla­vour of them:

Shakyajata on her trav­el­ling companions …

… I am trav­el­ling with two of the best com­pan­ions in the good life, that you could ima­gine. Helen Sullivan is just great to be with, resource­ful, patient, kind and hon­est, and highly ideal­istic. She has a strong response to the spir­itual aspects of life in India, and became a mitra (a more com­mit­ted Buddhist) at Bodh Gaya, the place of the Buddha’s Enlightenment, a couple of weeks ago. A hugely spe­cial occa­sion which she shared with nine­teen of the stu­dents we are sup­port­ing at Aryaloka Computer Institute, Nagpur.

Our fellow-traveller is Priyadaka, a thor­oughly com­pas­sion­ate man … unfail­ingly aware and helpful.

And on the project …

… all but one of last year’s intake are now employed, with good pro­spects. Very encour­aging, even though to con­tinue to sup­port them stretches our resources to the limit, giv­ing them this capa­city for self-sufficiency for them­selves, their fam­il­ies and their com­munit­ies, makes all the effort com­pletely worthwhile.

It is the most sat­is­fy­ing thing I have done in my life.