OUR STORY
Beginnings & Growth
Incorporated in 1992 as a global, non-sectarian humanitarian aid organization, The PRASAD Project, now known simply as PRASAD, has its roots in the 1930s, when Bhagavan Nityananda offered food and support to villagers in the Tansa Valley in Maharashtra, India. Swami Muktananda continued this great work through the 1960s and 1970s.
In the early 1980s, Gurumayi Chidvilasananda began expanding philanthropic initiatives in the Tansa Valley, including treatment for malnutrition and tuberculosis and providing sight-restoring eye surgery.
In 1992, Gurumayi initiated the incorporation of The PRASAD Project as a centralized, independent non-profit organization to oversee and support humanitarian projects around the world, including PRASAD Chikitsa in India, PRASAD de México, and the PRASAD Children’s Dental Health Program in New York State, which were established shortly thereafter.
Watch this upbeat animated video for a brief history of PRASAD’s beginnings, growth and global programs.
This video features Warli art, a traditional expression from the Tansa Valley, India, that PRASAD has helped keep alive through art classes for youth.
Take a tour through the virtual PRASAD Gallery to see our programs in action and learn more about how we help people in need.
Looking to the Future
The world and community needs are evolving at a faster rate, almost constantly, and we, as stewards of life-changing programming, helping those who are socially and economically vulnerable, must step up to this challenge.
To do this, we are building our organizational capacity to reach the next level so that we can do what we do well even better, advancing our mission of helping more people in need.
