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These people don’t have anything; and they need just a little thing to open a door, to
go to the next level, where they would be able to change. And this alone, it keeps me
going. Because maybe one of these child will [children, who will] be going to this school
– might change the world some day. And this is planting the seeds for them.
Once we were children, too. What do they want? They want to explore. They want to play. They
want to discover. We have to embrace their spirit, and love for happiness.
For most of his life, Prem Rawat has traveled the world, talking to people across all cultures,
bringing a message of hope in response to one of people’s most basic needs – the
need for peace and contentment.
The Foundation is a humanitarian foundation, because our Founder has the most humanitarian
message that can be brought to anybody.
This is what I do – I go and talk to people, face to face. And sometimes, the audience
is 5,000. Sometimes it is 100. Sometimes it is 500,000. But I want to tell people, I want
to evoke.... And there is a response that goes beyond the show – that really goes
to people’s hearts. And, it empowers people – to talk about peace, to want peace in
their communities, in their cultures, in their countries. And this is what I have dedicated
my life to.
He’s been welcomed throughout the world, reaching millions of people through live events,
Words of Peace Television broadcasts and the internet. He reminds people that the key to
peace, both personal and global, lies within each person.
In the heart of every human being is also a want, a wish to be content, a wish to be
in peace. Peace is not, absence of war. We don’t recognize peace as fundamental as
water. Peace is a fundamental human need that needs to be felt from within. That it is from
the hearts of the human beings that peace will be created. We may look different, we
may speak different, but we have the same fundamental needs – that we share this place
called, “planet earth.”
Government, educational and community leaders have acknowledged Prem Rawat’s worldwide
humanitarian efforts.
When I meet with the leaders around the world, what I’m really saying to them is, “Please,
look at peace from an individual’s perspective. Look at peace as a possibility.” There are
7 billion people who have the same request. And to do everything possible to bring peace
to the common person.
The Prem Rawat Foundation, TPRF, started in 2001, through Prem Rawat’s commitment to
reach people around the world who are interested in hearing his message of peace. It was his
vision, his inspiration, his idea. Prem Rawat realized he could help people in other ways.
We started the humanitarian branch, by bringing nutritious food and clean drinking water to
people who didn’t have a chance to have those basic needs.
This is what we are talking about – quality of life. Dignity, peace and prosperity. First
of all every human being should be given their dignity. Then, with that dignity, they should
experience peace. And once they experience peace, the formula is established – there
is prosperity. True peace is when the heart is fulfilled – when you are well and happy
on the inside and on the outside – that’s true prosperity.
In 2004, the Foundation received an unexpected outpouring of donations when the devastating
tsunami hit Southeast Asia. Because it was a young foundation, it formed partnerships
with organizations that reach people quickly and effectively when disaster strikes. TPRF
continues to support first responders like ActionAid, Oxfam, AmeriCares, and many more.
By partnering with these fine organizations and combining our resources, we don’t have
to reinvent the process.
Within days of the 2010 earthquake in Haiti, TPRF teamed up with World Food Program USA
to begin delivering food.
Each day the World Food Program is bringing greater amounts of food to the people who
have been victims of the earthquake. This particular convoy consists of three trucks
carrying enough high-energy biscuits to feed 25,000 people for 5 days.
In Pakistan, after monsoon rains caused massive flooding, the Foundation provided funding
for clean drinking water and hygiene facilities by partnering with WaterAid, and a local organization,
Shirkat Gah.
People who have been touched by Prem Rawat’s message throughout the world, want to help.
Foundation also seeks out grass-roots organizations to support. Mountains of Hope, in Ecuador,
brought 32 tons of food to people in the flooded village of Santa Lucia.
The thing about Mountains of Hope that was so special, I think, was that there was a
person who we knew, contacted the Foundation. We gave them a grant. And, he was able to
work with the Red Cross and other local organizations. He mobilized a lot of volunteers, and they
packaged up the goods that came, and distributed them personally to the people who were destitute
after the floods. We’d like to say a big thank you – gracias
– of The Foundation Prem Rawat and Montañas de Esperanza for giving us this wonderful
opportunity to share the food that you’ve brought us, that we plan to give to all disabled,
the young children and the elderly, in the various rural areas here in Santa Lucia. We
believe, together we can make the difference. Gracias a la Fundación Prem Rawat!
Clean drinkable water can stimulate change, and transform lives.
They get up in the morning at five, and come back from getting water at noontime. Then
they have to go back again in the afternoon, for more. She is working hard collecting the
The Foundation funded the local organization, Water for Sudan, to build three drinking wells,
serving close to fifteen hundred villagers a day.
This is the mud pump. And they will put in the pit. And that water, the water will come
out here. And this one is spinning, cutting the soil, going down and spinning, going down.
The water will flush the cut out.
Got the water now! Fresh water! This place is going to be a town, if you come back next
year. And now we are bringing the water to them – and next year, their life would be
changed.
This market is blooming here. It’s because of that well. Without the well, no one – you
wouldn’t find anyone here in the dry season – it would be just a ghost place.
And this is the Headmaster. He’s going to build the school there, with the support of
My name is Jonas. I am one of the teachers. Without borehole, the school will not be here.
But with the borehole, the school was established. The children are now coming. And maybe we
have lack of school materials. But we shall hope, some years to come, there will be a
change.
We’re seeing the rising food prices affect virtually every market in the world. The difference
is, for the richer countries there is more resiliency. For people making less than a
dollar a day, there’s nowhere to retreat. And so what we are seeing is – in places
where people were not desperate before, more people hungry, more people cutting out vital
parts of their diet – including some going to one meal a day.
When innovation is needed, The Prem Rawat Foundation will take a chance – as they
did in Bantoli, India, when they teamed up with village elders and a local charity to
build the first Food for People facility. Due to food scarcity in the region, many children
had to work instead of going to school. A daily meal gives them the opportunity to pursue
their education.
It was initiated by Prem Rawat. He often traveled to the region of Ranchi in Northeastern India.
He noticed that the children seemed really thin, really undernourished. He decided to
start a facility there, which he called, Food for People.
Food for People now serves over 120,000 hot nutritious meals a year, to the children and
needy adults in surrounding villages.
Very important things have been learned here, starting with hygiene. Now they’ve learned
to wash their hands before they eat, and they relate this to having less illness. The children
are also staying in school much longer. They go every day, because of the encouragement
The Food for People model was so successful, a second facility was built in the rugged
mountains above Kathmandu, in the village of Tsarpu. Due to the harsh conditions of
the steep terrain, it’s difficult to grow food. 80% of the residents are unable to sustain
themselves throughout the year.
Before Food for People, children often went to school hungry – or didn’t go at all,
because they needed to work to help their families.
Many people supported the planning and building of the facility, because they knew what it
would mean for the village.
Local leaders join the villagers to lay the foundation stone, and bless the ground where
the facility would be built.
When Food for People opened its doors in 2009, it began serving one meal a day to 500 children
and 100 elderly adults.
This is not about philosophy. This is not about statistics. This is about removing the
hunger from their stomach. You’re hungry; maybe we can give you food. You’re thirsty,
maybe we can give you water – so that you can have the future that is not dominated
The program has attracted the attention of local leaders and media, as a model for eradicating
malnutrition and improving literacy. After only one year, the elementary school principal
And one of the things that interesting about the Food for People in Nepal. We just found
out a couple of weeks ago, so many children have been coming and they stay in school – that,
now they need to add another grade to their school in the area.
Plans are underway to open two more Food for People sites by 2012, including one in the
impoverished rural village of Otinibi, near Accra, Ghana, scheduled to break ground in
2011. In collaboration with the local chief, headmistress of the school, and village elders,
it was decided to build Food for People next door to the school. School officials are happy
to report the enrollment is already on the rise.
The Foundation looks for organizations to support, where there is an opportunity for
lasting impact.
We are in Raj Vidya Kender, Delhi, where an eye clinic has been organized. Raj Vidya Kender,
Premsagar Foundation, and The Prem Rawat Foundation have organized this camp where more than a
The Cambodian Children’s Fund rescues children who scavenge for food in the garbage dumps
of Phnom Penh, and provides them with food, shelter, education and medical care. TPRF
has helped St John of Jerusalem Eye Hospital expand in-house and mobile services, ensuring
that the children of Gaza will grow to become active, productive adults. In Soweto, South
Africa, TPRF funds lunches for 500 at-risk high school students.
The impact that the lunch has from The Prem Rawat Foundation is remarkable. The children’s
perception has improved. They have changed their lifestyle. Their school performance
has greatly improved. They’ve got the energy like any other child. Their pride and dignity
I’m thinking that this is the beginning of a lifetime relationship with you, because
these children, without you – really, they would perish!
Peace Education Classes in correctional facilities are expanding.
Here we are in San Antonio, Texas, outside the Dominguez State Jail. And Chantal and
I are getting ready to go in and do our weekly Inner Peace Class.
What Prem Rawat did for me was, he connected me to a feeling of peace.
After doing it for twelve weeks, we decided to continue it on, because within those twelve
weeks it took – it was about a week and a half, we started noticing the change in
the offenders that were part of the pilot program. It is still turning out offenders
that go back out into the society, and do not return.
And I’m learning a lot from this class, you know? I’ve humbled myself, became more
at peace. You know, I talk to people differently, you know – with, like, with a smile....
I’ve been happier in the last six weeks since I’ve seen this thing right here, than
I’ve been in the fifty-six years of my life.
I wanted to find out more and more about this. So I listened to it coming to work, going
home. It showed me a lot of things. It seemed like he was speaking directly to me through
his word. And it felt strange – because everything I was going through at the time,
he was pinpointing it, and, giving me answers to the problems I was going through. Makes
me face it with peace. It gave me the opportunity to change my life – and my kids’ and my
He helped me find inner peace within myself....
We never knew who we were – until we come to see Prem Rawat.
He inspires us like you wouldn’t believe.
And whenever I have the opportunity to speak to those people who want peace in their lives,
it is always my pleasure. But, I have something very, very special to tell you. That, there
is hope – every single day of your life. This is the message I give to everyone. Maybe
you think there are barriers here. But do you know, there are people who you think are
free, and they are not? Look within you. Because the fight is within you, and the resolution
is within you. The war is within you, and the peace is within you. The bad is within
you. The good is within you. Nurture it.
The Prem Rawat Foundation has given over 100 grants, working with more than 50 partner
organizations, to aid people in over 30 countries. With its emphasis on respect for the potential
and dignity of each human being, TPRF provides people around the world a chance for a better
future. �