In late 2015, I became aware of the plans of a recently formed non-profit group, Peace Partners, to host an ambitious fundraising gala event in London in support of The Prem Rawat Foundation (TPRF) initiative ‘Food for People’ (FFP). I offered to help with the administration of the fundraiser’s email communications and quickly got very busy with regular messaging about the aims of the fundraiser as well as helping with attendee and donor registrations!

The gala was a tremendous success, raising almost £20,000 for the Food for People programme, and I’d really enjoyed being involved. At that time the programme was active in Ranchi, India, in Dhading, Nepal, and in Otinibi, Ghana. Today, all three centres are thriving, and a further project has recently been started in Cape Flats, South Africa.

The success of the fundraiser led the Peace Partners team to consider how ongoing support for FFP and also the Peace Education Programme (PEP), two of TPRF’s flagship initiatives, could be effectively organised in the UK, and work in collaboration with like minded groups in other parts of the world. While TPRF had a global reach, active friends of the Foundation felt they could often maximise their support through local partnership arrangements. Peace Partners registered as a UK charity in April 2016, when I was able to continue volunteering as before by looking after most of the new charity’s email communications. It was an exciting time because, after our wonderful start with the gala event, we already had several hundred subscribers join our new mailing list. I was especially excited with the charity’s basic approach, suggested by the name, that its goals would be realised to the extent to which successful partnerships, with TPRF and individuals, as well as other groups, were achieved.
 
Now 10 years later, with so much ‘water under the bridge’, including quite a few fundraisers, workshops and events, a lot has changed … with the exception of two constant factors! The feeling of personal inspiration that comes in lending support to two such transformative initiatives as FFP and PEP. And the collective inspiration of being part of a wider team whose aim is to make a practical difference; a rarity it can sometime seem in a social world that often downplays empathy, kindness and the recognition of our own humanity.

It is dawning on me more that in an important way you really do volunteer for yourself, not for others! I don't mean this in a selfish sense, but because it lets you see, very simply, your own innate privilege. A privilege which allows you to feel the gratitude that comes when you participate in a truly creative and human endeavour.

RW.