Warming Heads, Hands, and Hearts

MA Center Chicago learned that many Waldo Middle School students in Aurora live below the poverty line and were in urgent need of hats and mittens to keep them warm when walking to and from school this winter. Many of these children don’t have bus service and walk long distances to school without any cold weather protection, making it difficult for them to attend school regularly. MA Center Chicago, located at 41W501 Keslinger Road in Elburn, operates under the umbrella of Embracing the World, a non-profit international collective of charities founded by renowned spiritual and humanitarian leader, Mata Amritanandamayi, known affectionately all over the world as Amma. MA Center Chicago teamed up with another Embracing the World initiative for women in Uttarakhand, India, to help the Waldo Middle School children in a way that truly warmed both hearts and hands this holiday season.

After the devastating floods of 2013 in Uttarakhand, in which many women lost their husbands who typically provided all of the financial support for their families, Embracing the World trained flood survivors to give them work and life skills that would enable them to earn an income and become financially self-sufficient.  Many Uttarakhand women learned knitting as a trade and, inspired by the plight of the Waldo Middle School children in our area, knit hundreds of hats to help these children weather the freezing temperatures typical of our area.

Just before the Christmas holiday, MA Center Chicago donated over 650 hats and pairs of mittens to the children of Waldo Middle School.  The effort to help these children provides an inspiring example of compassion in action, and it’s especially heartwarming to see such an example of service spanning continents and bringing diverse communities together.

For more information about Embracing the World, please visit www.embracingtheworld.org. For more information about MA Center Chicago, visit http://amma.org/groups/north-america/ma-center-chicago.