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Worldwide Humanitarian Assistance
"When we establish our oneness with the rest of the world, we feel the entire world as our very own. When I offer something to you because you are in need, I feel that I am only giving to my larger self. In serving you, I feel that I am serving myself. This is the spiritual approach — not charity, with its feeling of superiority and inferiority, but service, which is based on oneness." 1
Sri Chinmoy
The Oneness-Heart-Tears and Smiles programme was founded by Sri Chinmoy in 1991 in order to assist humanitarian aid efforts in countries around the world. Working closely with individuals and agencies in the recipient country, Oneness-Heart-Tears and Smiles distributes aid and educational supplies in response to relief requests and regional development projects. The organisation is comprised of volunteers and concerned individuals who seek to identify with the many challenges and suffering people can face. Through targetted aid and concern, the organisation seeks to bring hope in a tangible way to people across the globe.
The Oneness-Heart-Tears and Smiles was founded and inspired by Sri Chinmoy after an appeal for help was received in 1991 from the Research Institute of Paediatric Haematology in Moscow for children suffering from leukaemia. Since then the organisation has grown to offer charitable service in many different parts of the world.
Programmes of the Oneness-Heart-Tears and Smiles have included "Kids to Kids" - which was developed in 2002 in response to a request from Under-Secretary-General Ibrahim Gambari, to send food, educational materials and medicine to the children of war torn Angola. The Oneness-Heart-Tears and Smiles organisation facilitated children in more privileged parts of the world to contribute items and feel part of the process of giving and receiving. The aim is to create a mutual empathy between children and individuals around the world. Sri Chinmoy has said of The Oneness-Heart-Tears and Smiles:
"Our humanitarian service is not our self-motivated, condescending act of charity to the poor and needy. It is a gigantic opportunity to feed, nourish and strengthen our own poor brothers and sisters so that they can, side by side, march along with us to proclaim the world-oneness-victory of God the Creation."
Sri Chinmoy
Sri Chinmoy, Sri Chinmoy answers, part 20, Agni Press, 1999↩︎