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Dr. Satya Mitra has journeyed from a childhood of poverty and homelessness to a successful career as a financial advisor, motivational speaker and community leader. Now in a position to give back to give back to the community, and inspired by his Guru (family priest) he uses his experiences to positively affect the lives of underprivileged people. The programs and initiatives of JOYGURU HUMANITARIAN SERVICES include, but are not limited to, those listed below.
Helping the blind and visually impaired is a primary goal for Joy Guru Humanitarian Services. It is a mission inspired by Dr. Mitra’s life experience. Growing up in India, his father became blind as an adult. The medical cause of his blindness was treatable, but there was simply no money to afford it. The elder Mitra died without regaining his sight.
Today, that experience inspires a number of JOYGURU initiatives. Among these is our support for Audio Journal, “a nonprofit radio service that seeks to inform and empower” the visually impaired. One service reads newspapers to blind subscribers. The program is free and staffed by volunteers, but requires special listening devices for its subscribers – which are sponsored by JOYGURU HUMANITARIAN SERVICES.
JOYGURU HUMANITARIAN SERVICES helps to fight the effects of poverty by providing food, clothing, medicine and education to the poor and disadvantaged.
One JOYGURU initiative helps provide clean clothes for inner-city school children. When educators reported disadvantaged children wearing the same soiled clothes day after day, Joy Guru stepped into propose purchasing clothing for the children, as well as clothes washers and dryers for inner-city schools.
Other programs include purchasing school books for poor students and providing scholarship assistance to pay for educational opportunities.
As a child, homelessness was a fact of life for Dr. Mitra and his blind father. They depended on the kindness and charity of people in their community for food and temporary shelter. Today, JOYGURU HUMANITARIAN SERVICES helps the homeless through such programs as the 12 Days of Christmas feeding program. Here, hundreds of area homeless individuals enjoyed meals, a little holiday cheer and a break from the cold Massachusetts weather during the 12 Days of Christmas.
JOYGURU HUMANITARIAN SERVICES works to provide opportunity for women and girls in America and abroad. Conditions for poor women and girls in Dr. Mitra’s native India can be very harsh. Among poor farming families, male children are more highly valued for their physical labor. Girls are often sold into bondage as street beggars and prostitutes. And educational opportunities for them are non-existent. For girls like these, JOYGURU HUMANITARIAN SERVICES sponsors special boarding schools where girls can live in safety and receive a vocational education.
Meanwhile, even in our so-called modern world, women still face dangers such as crime and violence. In fact, Dr. Mitra’s wife Sheema was a victim of a violent street mugging. Upon her recovery, the Mitras launched “The Guru Self Defense Classes for Women,” a free course that has already trained 350 to 400 women and girls in Worcester, MA.
Beyond providing for day to day needs, disadvantaged people must have within them a hope for the future, a feeling that they could join productive society and help impact it in a positive way. JOYGURU HUMANITARIAN SERVICES wishes to promote this idea by establishing a School of Good Citizenship in the community. Here, using Dr. Mitra’s decades of financial planning experience, people will learn budgeting and personal finance. Students will also learn public speaking, a skill that instills discipline, organization and personal confidence. Finally, if one wants to improve society, one must know how it works. Lessons in modern Civics will impart this knowledge. And students will learn the leadership skills necessary to bring positive change in their community.
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Our ultimate goal is to house our blindness, poverty, homelessness, female empowerment and good citizenship initiatives within the JOYGURU HUMANITARIAN CENTER, where deserving people in the community will come to receive services and training.
If you wish to contribute to JOYGURU HUMANITARIAN SERVICES’ mission of creating “A Much Stronger, Much Better Community,” or you know of deserving persons or initiatives that could use our assistance in any way, please visit our Support page.