By Madhava Smullen
Volunteers have established several Vaishnavas CARE teams each in Argentina, Chile, Mexico, and El Salvador, as well as Spain, after attending the “Art of Caring for Vaishnavas” Zoom webinar by Vaishnavas CARE co-founder Sangita Dasi in November.
Devotees from other countries such as Colombia, Bolivia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Guatemala, Puerto Rico, Peru, Dominican Republic, and Uruguay also attended the webinar and are expected to form their own teams.
Meanwhile Sangita has been asked to give her four-day webinar in March 2021 to devotees from 25 centers across Brazil where they also hope to establish CARE teams.
“I can’t even begin to tell you how excited and enthusiastic the Latin American devotees are about this,” says Sangita Dasi, a Certified Hospice and Palliative Care Nurse (CHPN). “They are so incredible!”
Co-founded in 2000 as an official non-profit organization by Sangita and her late godsister, Jusaniya Dasi, the acronym in Vaishnavas CARE stands for “Counseling, Assistance, Resources, and Education for the terminally ill and those in need.”
Along with Giriraja Swami, Sangita Dasi played a major role in opening the Bhaktivedanta Hospice in Vrindavan, India. She also offered training for staff at the Bhaktivedanta Hospital in Mumbai, and wrote the book “Final Journey: Complete Hospice Care for Departing Vaishnavas” published by Torchlight.
More recently, with the help of Taravali Dasi from Toronto, Sangita established a private Vaishnavas CARE grief support group on Facebook.
“With so many losses this year, we saw the need to start a Vaishnavas CARE Grief Support Group on Facebook for those devotees of Lord Krishna who are grieving the loss of a friend, spouse, child, adult child, other loved one, or guru,” she says. “This is a closed, private and confidential group for both men and women. It is the only virtual, online Grief Support Group specifically for devotees of Srila Prabhupada and Lord Krishna. We currently have 147 members.”
Finally, Sangita has inspired devotees to form many Vaishnavas CARE teams around the world, which have been instrumental in caring for Vaishnavas in need.
The recently-formed Latin American teams came about after a group of devotee women from various countries including Kandarpika Dasi, Govardhanesvari Dasi, Kala-keli Dasi and Chaitanya-priya Dasi volunteered as the Latin American communications department for Vaishnavas CARE, and spread word about Sangita’s webinar to every temple in the region.
Team leaders for the Latin American Vaishnavas CARE teams include clinical psychologist Mathura Kumari Devi Dasi and naturopath Bhaktin Thamis Duarte in Argentina; temple vice-president Kala-keli Dasi and sankirtan devotee Nidra Sila Dasi in El Salvador; and administrator Raga Sindhu Das in Chile.
Read more: https://iskconnews.org/multiple-vaishnavas-care-teams-established-in-latin-america,7638/
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