HELPING HANDS NEWSLETTER
Spring 2026 • Volume 18, Number 1
Walking for Peace, Marching Together from Love
By Ven. Bhikkhu Bodhi • Sometimes an event that begins in an inconspicuous way suddenly gains momentum and delivers a colossal impact no one could have foreseen. A random spark spreads through dry brush and sets off a forest fire. A gust of wind on a mountaintop starts an avalanche. Something similar happened in late 2025, when twenty Theravadan Buddhist monks of diverse ethnicities embarked on a long Walk for Peace. Starting in obscurity, by the time they finished they would be known all around the world.
When Aid Narrows and Suffering Widens, Compassion Must Step In
The shuttering of USAID in 2025 is predicted to result in an estimated 8 million to 14 million additional deaths globally by 2030, including more than 4.5 million children under 5. The moral question raised by this defunding is not partisan; it is profoundly human: What happens when hunger programming, agricultural development, and maternal–infant health supports shrink at the precise moment they are needed most?
BGR Crisis Grants Provide Urgently Needed Aid
In February, the Board of Buddhist Global Relief approved crisis grants to UNICEF and the World Food Program USA to provide urgently needed meals, health screenings for children, aid for water and sanitation projects, and support for school nutrition programs in Afghanistan, Burkina Faso, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, and Sudan.
Training Farmers in Holistic Agricultural Methods in Kenya
A project led by BGR partner Farmers Alliance for Restoration–East Africa is providing local smallholder farmers with knowledge and tools to improve their food security and income through a training program based on the holistic agricultural methodology known as permaculture, which emphasizes the use of renewable natural resources and the enrichment of local ecosystems.
BGR Community: A Seamstress in Brazil
Marla, a seamstress in São Paulo, found both education and community through a program with BGR partner GAIA. The project helps women to lift themselves and their families out of poverty through training in pattern making, sewing, and entrepreneurial skills.
Satipatthana Part 3: Mindfulness of Dhammas
On Sunday, February 8, 2026, the worldwide BGR community gathered online for the final session in our Satipatthana in Practice series: Mindfulness of Dhammas. Led by Thai Forest monastics and BGR Sangha Council members Ajahn Kovilo and Ajahn Nisabho, this online event explored how we can use the fourth Foundation of Mindfulness, variously translated as “mind objects” or “dhamma categories,” to cultivate beautiful qualities of mind and heart, in both formal meditation and daily life.
HOW YOU CAN HELP
Buddhist Global Relief funds projects providing food, education, and other necessary support to the world’s most vulnerable people. Many of the communities we serve worldwide are experiencing hunger and malnutrition due to deeply entrenched poverty, systemic inequality, and environmental degradation. If you have the ability to help, please consider making a donation to BGR. You can contribute by PayPal or credit card here or by check mailed to our secured Chase Bank lockbox at: Buddhist Global Relief, P.O. Box 24832, New York, NY 10087-4832 USA. Please continue to send all other mail to: Buddhist Global Relief, 2020 Route 301, Carmel, NY 10512, USA.
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