Buddhist Global Relief

By David Braughton

In the Middle East, suffering does not pick sides. Whether it is a people seeking retribution for grotesque acts of violence or a militant group seeking redress for years of deprivation and oppression, the carnage and daily horrors, both individual and collective, are beyond comprehension and nearly impossible to endure.

Here is what we know:

More than 1,200 Israelis were killed by Hamas on October 7, 2023, and another 240 people, both Israeli soldiers and civilians, were captured and taken hostage. The Israeli military reports that 174 soldiers have died since the fighting began in Gaza. The economic toll of the war for Israel is estimated to be in the billions of dollars. Rather than improve security, the war has strained Israel’s relations with many countries, including the United States, and undermined efforts to normalize relations with Arab and Muslim countries, such as the UAE, Bahrain, Sudan, and Morocco. 

In Gaza, almost 1.7 million of the territory’s 2.1 million inhabitants have been forced to leave their homes and seek shelter in overcrowded and unsanitary U.N. facilities in the south of the Gaza Strip. More than 24,000 people, at least 70 percent of them women and children, have died by Israeli airstrikes and shelling. Another 60,000 people have been injured, overwhelming a healthcare system that has also been largely destroyed by Israeli military operations. 

According to news outlets, between 28 percent and 50 percent of Gaza’s population is facing emergency levels of food insecurity, and two-thirds of people living in southern Gaza report spending at least one full day and night without food. Potable water is nearly impossible to come by and, in the last 20 days, Gaza received only a trickle of the aid that it did before the war; truckloads of relief supplies have been rejected for containing so much as one banned item. The cost of rebuilding devastated apartment buildings, hospitals, and infrastructure is estimated to be in the hundreds of billions of dollars. 

Israelis have one more thing in common with the Palestinian people living in Gaza: They both have suffered intense psychological trauma because of the horrific scenes of death and destruction, and the loss of loved ones, homes, and livelihoods. Many already suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, anxiety, and other mental health issues, which will take years, if not generations, to heal. 

The Buddha teaches that compassion, like suffering, does not pick sides. He extends his compassion impartially to all, and he bids us to follow his example. In this instance and in all cases where hatred, greed, and delusion direct most persons’ responses, his followers are urged to do what they can to ease the hurt, feed the hungry, and care for the sick and injured, no matter who they are. 

When BGR assessed what was happening in Gaza, we knew we had to respond. We determined that the Palestinian people, who have been disproportionately impacted by the war, needed our help the most. Thus, BGR’s Board approved a $50,000 emergency donation to help the victims of the conflict in Gaza. The grant has been divided equally between two reliable relief organizations: the World Food Program–USA, and the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA). Once we know that aid is getting through, we are prepared to do more.

The World Food Program has reported that it is using BGR funds to extend its reach to the displaced people in Gaza with food parcels, wheat flour, fortified biscuits, hot meals, and complementary feeding for pregnant and breastfeeding women, in addition to funding bakeries and community-led kitchens throughout the region. For its part, UNRWA reports that it is using BGR funds to deliver food assistance, consisting of wheat flour and “Ready to Eat” food including canned meat/fish, high energy biscuits, and bread. 

The Buddha stressed that one can find peace and end animosity only by putting winning and losing aside. It is our fervent wish, as engaged Buddhists, that all the warring parties will realize this truth, lay down their weapons, and work for peace. Choosing otherwise will not only increase suffering in the short term but assure that the seeds of this conflict will mature and erupt again and again in the future. To choose the path of nonviolence, starting with a complete ceasefire, is to open the possibility for a resolution of this decades-long conflict. 

David Braughton is the vice-chair of Buddhist Global Relief. David has worked in human services for over 40 years in fields related to a range of human needs including refugee resettlement, employment, and youth services. He has a Masters in Social Work from the University of Chicago.

By David Braughton

It is easy to be overwhelmed by the suffering we witness daily, especially the suffering of persons who already literally live hand-to-mouth. Whenever tragedy arises—natural disasters, political unrest, armed conflicts, crop failures, pandemics, economic downturns—the world’s poor are the ones most directly affected. It is as if circumstances are conspiring to take away whatever semblance of hope they cling to, whatever shred of dignity they still maintain, indeed, whatever desperate ties to life they still claim. 

I recall several years ago walking through the mud-rutted streets of Cité Soleil, an extremely impoverished community on the outskirts of Port-au-Prince, Haiti. The black flies swarmed incessantly among the raw sewage that flowed in shallow ditches crisscrossing the fields of windowless, cement huts.  The children of parents who are little more than children themselves played on heaps of garbage, running between the crumbled buildings and the numerous shelters made from tarps that many called home. More than anything, Cité Soleil depicts a world that seemingly doesn’t care, a world that would allow so many innocent lives to be wasted in such utter misery. I have been to other slums, like those surrounding Mumbai in India, where my experience was much the same. 

When we survey the desperation and squalor that constitutes the lives of so many people, it is difficult to imagine how any act of kindness on our part, any gift of money, time, or talent can make a difference. Yet, it is often here, among the most abject living conditions and impoverishment, that the transformative power of the Dhamma is most evident. The fact that our gifts, no matter how modest, can ensure that a hungry child eats a nutritious meal, or a family has clean drinking water or a young woman can escape societal chains and make her own future, or a dry-land farmer can learn how to grow enough food both to feed her family and sell the surplus at the market, is testimony to the Buddha’s central teaching that suffering is not the final word, that compassion, born of loving-kindness and equanimity, is an essential step in the liberation of others and ourselves as well. 

I reflect on the Lotus Outreach Garden of Peace Project, an oasis of progressive education in Tamil Nadu, India, where for the past four years BGR has provided two meals daily to 174 school-age children whose parents are subsistence farmers or who work at the brick kilns or in construction as daily wage laborers. According to staff reports, the children who take part in the Garden of Peace Project are healthier than their counterparts in the Tamil Nadu community and their families are better off because now they have more food for the rest of the household. The cost: $2.60 per child per day.  

At first, I marvel and wonder if what I’m reading is correct. How is it possible to supply two meals for so little? For $2.60 I can’t even buy a cup of coffee at Starbucks, much less a gallon of gas. Then I realize that it is the power of the Dhamma—manifesting in the compassion of the people who run the school feeding program and their supporters—that makes such extraordinary feats possible. 

I also reflect on Helen Keller International’s clean water project in central and southern Senegal. With BGR’s financial support, Helen Keller International is able to supply clean drinking water and clean water for crop irrigation to five villages, enriching the lives of nearly 5,000 people. When I think about how many people are infected by dysentery primarily for the lack of clean water, over 100 million annually, and how many people die as a result, over a million each year, I am amazed at what this project is accomplishing. Where before people drank contaminated water, cooked and bathed in contaminated water, and irrigated their crops with contaminated water, how different these people’s lives will be. And the cost: less than $4.60 per recipient!

What is so remarkable about the transformative power of the Dhamma, manifested in compassion and generosity, is that it is not only the recipient who is blessed, but the giver, you and me, as well. Certainly, through our gifts we gain merit. In one of my favorite suttas the Buddha is asked whether only gifts to his followers produce merit. He answers: “I say that one acquires merit even if one throws away dishwashing water in a refuse dump or cesspit with the thought: ‘May the living beings here sustain themselves with this!’ How much more, then, [does one acquire merit] when one gives to human beings!” (Anguttara Nikaya 3:57)

But the giving of gifts blesses us in another way: this simple act causes us to turn away from a preoccupation with self, away from thoughts of “mine, this is what I am, myself” to thoughts of others, their suffering, their needs. As such, giving slowly erodes our attachment to self, to the roots of our own suffering, to lust and aversion, both fed by the delusion that somehow, someday, I will get enough, be enough, do enough to be truly happy and fulfilled! Rather than seeing the world from the futile vantage point of self and self-interest, the activity of giving empowers us to embrace hope. 

It is easy to be overwhelmed by suffering and to despair that I can make a difference. That is, until we gain confidence in the power of the Dhamma to transform our generosity into two meals a day for an impoverished child living in Tamil Nadu or into clean water to drink and grow crops in Senegal. Until we realize that there is a universal law, the Dhamma, supporting us and magnifying our meager efforts into what is truly good and life-changing.

For some of us, $2.60 may be all we can spare, given our earnings and responsibilities to our families. Others are able to give much more. By giving whatever you can give, not only will you cast a stone at despair, but you will also hasten your own journey toward true liberation, toward a happiness, peace, and fulfillment that truly lasts.

David Braughton is the vice-chair of Buddhist Global Relief. David has worked in human services for over 40 years in fields related to a range of human needs including refugee resettlement, employment, and youth services. He has a Masters in Social Work from the University of Chicago.

By BGR Staff

Wawasonqo, a BGR partner based in Peru, has been working since 2006 to break the cycle of poverty that affects rural children and families in the rural Andean foothills near the city of Cusco.

Considered as a whole, Peru is a success story of modern poverty reduction. Between 2007 and 2019, the national poverty rate in Peru declined from 35.5 percent to 20.6 percent. Over the last ten years, chronic child malnutrition was lowered to 13.1 percent, a 50 percent reduction.

However, even as economic growth in Peru has thrived, many rural people have been left behind. In 2020, 46 percent of the largely indigenous rural population were poor, compared to 26 percent in urban areas. In many rural areas, a devastating 33 percent of indigenous children suffer from malnutrition, and levels of stunting due to extreme malnutrition have not decreased among rural children in the last decade, according to the World Food Programme.

Peru has also been severely devastated by the Covid pandemic. With more than 200,000 Covid deaths in this country of just under 33 million people, Peru’s death rate from the pandemic is the highest in the world, at nearly 650 deaths per 100,000 people. (For comparison, the U.S. has lost approximately 300 lives per 100,000 due to Covid.)

Wawasonqo, a BGR partner based in Peru, has been working since 2006 to break the cycle of poverty that affects rural children and families in the rural Andean foothills near the city of Cusco. For the past five years, BGR-sponsored projects have addressed chronic malnutrition in children and young people in the Piskak’uchu, Tiaparo, Olmiron, Palomar, and Chaquepay indigenous communities. In these rural areas, families’ cultivatable land is small, generally averaging between 1,000 and 2,000 square meters, and many people here use their land to raise products for sale, relying on inexpensive purchased food to feed their families. As a result, many children and families consume food of low quality, mostly noodles, rice, and potatoes.

Wawasonqo’s goal is to support families in creating new nutritional habits and customs to enable long-term food autonomy. The projects therefore generally proceed in two stages. The first stage involves raising awareness among families, especially mothers and pregnant women, about good nutrition and the importance of a balanced diet for their children’s growth, health, and well-being. Then, to support parents in putting this knowledge to work in nourishing their families, Wawasonqo provides hands-on education in the cultivation, preparation, processing, and preservation of fruits and vegetables.

The projects provide families with training and resources to cultivate vegetables such as spinach, chard, broccoli, cauliflower, onion, and tomato for home consumption, to provide much-needed nutrients in the families’ diets. Workshops are given on topics including organic agronomy, nutrition, preparation of dishes, and the making and sales of agricultural products such as jams, pickles, nectars, and preserves. Additionally, the projects support the construction of simple greenhouses. In these greenhouses, families use seeds provided by our partner to grow fruits and vegetables rich in vitamins and minerals.

The communities where Wawasonqo works are often small; the Chaquepay community, the focus of this year’s BGR project, is home to about 150 families. The trainings and workshops are freely offered to the entire community, and our partner estimates that a third of the households may participate.

Vicentina Quispe Solis and Juan Huaman Apaza are migrants from the heights of the Peruvian Andes; previously, they lived in the Q’esqa region, located some 14,700 feet above sea level. Together with their two young children and extended family members, the family lives in a modest house in the remote Kabrakancha area of Piskak’uchu. Construction of a greenhouse here involved the arduous leveling of a parcel of steep hillside. After the work was completed, the Wawasonqo trainers joined the family for a meal and, over a supper of chicken soup and boiled corn, together brainstormed ideas for marketing the organic produce they planned to grow.

Alipio Ramirez’s family has a long history in the Olmiron-Piskak’uchu-Kabrakancha region. He lives with his wife, Alicia Chata, and their children on a steep plot of land where harsh winds made building a greenhouse a difficult task. With persistence and ingenuity, the Wawasonqo trainers were able to work with the family to construct a weather-resistant and high-producing greenhouse. Eager students, the family were also teachers, sharing knowledge with neighbors and their Wawasonqo trainers about the cultivation of mushrooms, avocados, peaches, and other locally grown crops.

Crisologo and Eulalia Huaman are the parents of three young girls in the Huarocondo district. A local leader, Crisologo approached Wawasonqo to request that the greenhouse project be brought to his community and worked with neighbors to spread the education and resources provided by the trainings throughout the community. Percy Rodriguez Cámara, executive director of Wawasonqo, was moved by the commitment and collaborative spirit of this small community. “Their effort and perseverance inspires us to continue with the work of helping those who need it most,” he said.

By BGR Staff

This spring, BGR’s Board approved 54 projects serving thousands of people around the world. The project funding for BGR’s fiscal year 2022–23 amounted to $1,089,574.

During the weekend of April 30 and May 1, 2022, the Buddhist Global Relief Board and staff reviewed and approved 54 project proposals from partners in 20 countries around the world for our 2022-23 fiscal year, which runs from July 1, 2022 through June 30, 2023. The approved projects will relieve hunger, educate children, provide vocational opportunities and training for vulnerable women, and support sustainable agriculture among smallholder farmers. The projects will take place in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Brazil, Cambodia, Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, Ethiopia, Haiti, Kenya, Malawi, Mongolia, Myanmar, Nicaragua, Peru, Senegal, Sri Lanka, Tanzania, Uganda, Vietnam, and here in the United States.

Once again this year we were joined for part of the meeting by Board members from BGR’s European sister organization, Mitgefühl in Aktion (MiA), which is cosponsoring seven projects with us. These include sponsorship for the families of backpack medics in Myanmar; a girls’ home and community center in India; and a vocational training program for widows and single mothers in Cameroon.

The total spending to be allocated to grants comes to $1,089,574, which includes a contribution from MiA of $42,000, distributed equally over the seven cosponsored projects.

A majority of BGR’s projects are renewable year to year as our trusted partners continue to demonstrate the responsiveness and effectiveness of their work over time. This year, the Board approved three new projects, all from existing BGR partners.

In Sri Lanka, a project with our partner Shraddha Charity Organization will address an epidemic of chronic kidney disease among Sri Lankan paddy farmers. In the last two decades, more than 23,000 deaths have been reported from this virulent disease caused by water contaminated by agrochemicals. The majority of victims are middle-aged men who are the breadwinners for their families, and their passing devastates their family’s livelihood and food security as well as their children’s education. This new project will construct sources of safe water, including deep wells and state-of-the-art water-purification systems, in areas affected by contaminated water in the communities of Kandaketiya and Dakunamahatennagama in Sri Lanka. The project will also raise community awareness of the dangers of water contamination and educate the public about the risks of agrochemical use in farming practices. The project will directly benefit 2,173 people, half of them women and girls; an additional 1,000 people in these communities will benefit from access to new sources of clean drinking water.

A second new project with Shraddha Charity Organization will provide nutritious breakfasts for undernourished schoolchildren in Sri Lanka’s North Eastern Province, where rates of malnutrition are high due to widespread poverty and thousands of children arrive at school hungry each day. This new project will provide 166 poor schoolchildren, half of them girls, with a nutritious breakfast daily for the duration of the 2022–23 school year. The meals will give the children much-needed nutrients and energy to focus on their studies, offering them a path out of generational poverty.

In Cameroon, where Covid has amplified the ill effects of the ongoing civil war known as the Anglophone Crisis, it is estimated that more than a million people are living as IDPs (internally displaced persons), separated from their home communities and without access to their land, livestock, and other means of livelihood production and survival. In the villages of Bulu and Bokwaongo in southwest Cameroon, an influx of IDPs has led to food scarcity, increased food prices, and widespread hunger. To address this issue, long-term BGR partner CENCUDER is introducing an organic vegetable gardening project serving IDPs and others who are experiencing food insecurity. These include widows, single mothers, and young people whose families cannot afford to send them to school. The project will provide training and materials for the cultivation of huckleberry, tomato, eggplant, okra, amaranth, and other small-scale crops. Our partner’s aim is to support participants in harvesting sufficient crops both to feed themselves and their families and to sell on the market, enabling them to earn income for education and other fundamental household needs. The project will benefit 160 people, including 100 women.

To meet the additional stress that inflation is causing for our partners who are initiating direct food assistance projects, the BGR Board decided to provide each of these partners an additional 10 percent supplement to the grant. Thus, for example, if a grant was originally designated for $10,000 to a particular partner, the grant will be increased to $11,000.

We are deeply grateful to all our donors whose donations have contributed to our success, and to all the volunteers who devote time and energy to easing the burden of work on our Board and staff.

May the fruits of our work together be a light in the world, a source of ease, hope, and nourishment for those whom we serve.