Wanting to give back to Mother Bharat/India for the gift of kirtan that she has passed over to the West, Vancouver Community Kirtan uses some of the monies that come from the community kirtans to support families and children in India to have a better future.
January 14, 2026
Thanks to your $15 energy exchange, Vancouver Community Kirtan is sponsoring a second child, Kavya, for their education at International Chandramauli Charitable Trust in Varanasi, India.
“My name is Kavya from class nursery. I am 4 years old. I have one elder sister and one elder brother. They are also studying in this school with me.
We came from Bihar. We live in a rented room. First my father do job in saree shop, but unfortunately he took more and more drinks.
Then my mother loses hope as to how I will get educated. She searched here to study. My mother sells bangles on the road and now my father sells prasad, garland and God’s photograph on the footpath.
In this school I have learnt drawing, dancing, singing and yoga. My hobby is singing. I like religious songs like bhajans and mantras.
Thank you very much ICCT for giving me a chance to study.
— Kavya
July 8, 2025
“We run free after school classes for all children from nursery class up to masters level from 3 to 8pm every day except Sunday. We currently have almost 200 children registered and on a typical day we expect 50 to 60 children to turn up going up to 100 in the holidays.
We have about 11 teachers teaching English, Sanskrit, Hindi, mathematics, science, computer science, accountancy, history, social science and business studies.”
The second organization that Vancouver Community Kirtan is donating to is International Chandramauli Charitable Trust, who also provides support to better lives of children in Varanasi, India.
International Chandramauli Charitable Trust does incredible work, providing an authentic Vedic education involving yoga, meditation, Indian culture to the children.
With this Chandramauli sponsorship ($50 USD monthly), we have the opportunity to develop a relationship with a specific child, being able to receive a letter perhaps once a year, and also to write a letter to them. Lucy Guest, with whom we are liaising with, suggested an idea that they find a child who particularly enjoys singing, after I mentioned that the sponsorship is on behalf of Vancouver Community Kirtan.
The funds we donate to Basic Human Needs go to a single communal fund and isn’t allotted to any one particular family. Upon our request, they will do their best to provide updates on the family of Ram Kishor to let us know what’s happening in their lives.
Here’s some words from the Executive Director, Arwyn King about the beneficiaries:
April 16, 2024
“It’s not for one person or family, but rather a small community from an Indigenous tribe that used to live in a small village but now lives in the slum.
Most parents struggle with addiction and beg for any money they get. The children are pretty much left to their own devices. We support these children and have been for years.
Many of the children have gone through our different schools and are now working and contributing back to their community.”
June 9, 2024 Update
It’s been a tough month for the Ram Kishore family. They’ve been evicted from their room and have gone back to living in a tent camp.We do take the kids to our place to play, study, sit under a fan, nap etc.
This week the temperature reached almost 50°! I’ll be relieved when school starts again in July.
The boy in the cast is Summer, the youngest brother. He broke his arm playing rough. Another little boy hit him with a stick.
August 25, 2024 Update
The kids are doing really well.
For the past two months they’ve been back in our new hostel, eating well and going on small day trips with Anil and Suraj.
The kids suffered such a huge loss of their house mum, Pooja last November and we’ve been navigating a lot of hurting little hearts.
School just restarted last month and I’ve been receiving some photos to show their progress.
This month there was a new addition of Nisha, little sister of Vishal, making a total of six kids staying together.
The kids names are; Summer, Aarti, Isha, Vishwas, Nisha and Ishan. All are closely related in the Ram Kishore Family.
