Friends of Mysore Children Inc.

At some point in our lives, we all need help. Help comes in many forms. A child has an aspiration towards music, but her parents have no money for lessons. A musician sings with mastery, but has no audience. A 2-year-old is left on the doorstep of an orphanage after her parents discover she has polio. Wounded soldiers are cold because there aren’t enough blankets. Animals live in factory farms waiting to be rescued. Scriptures are rotting in libraries where no one is really in charge.

Small amounts of money, when placed in the right
hands can help.

In my life I’ve been given the opportunity to help. Friends of Mysore, established in 2008, is a non-for-profit that brings joy to others. My friend Shakunthala needed a prosthetic leg, so money was raised amongst my students to pay for it. We also bought one girl eyeglasses, one hungry family rice, a year’s supply of food for one dog, rescued several ancient copies of the Yoga Sutras that were rotting in an abandoned library, and took them to a monastery where they were restored, studied, memorized, and taught.

Friends of Mysore was inspired by the Jois Charaitable Trust, which was founded by Sri K. Pattabhi Jois, to raise funds for those with extreme hardships, to protect the forests, and to encourage and maintain the ethical treatment of animals in India.

Last year, a donation was given through the Jois Chariitable Trust to the Chethana Trust, a small school in Mysore, Karnataka India, where the Jois family lives. The school teaches skills to people of all ages and backgrounds, whom society calls “disabled.” The money we offered multiplied, because it was used to establish a program where individuals make peanut, coconut, and cashew chocolates, shaped like seashells, and wrapped in colored foil, which many people buy. The earnings pay for the program, as well as supplying salaries to those who otherwise would be unemployed.

Every year, when I arrive in India, I offer my landlady chocolates. She opens them all and makes a plate. She adds fresh pineapple and pomegranate seeds, and immediately offers back my offering. It is in that spirit that donations are encouraged, accepted, and will be offered.

– RUTH LAUER-MANENTI, FOUNDER