Thank you for visiting our fundraising page. We are NNBY – the National Network of Buddhist Youth in India.  We are part of TBMSG, the Indian wing of the world-wide Buddhist Sangha also known as the FWBO.  We need your help in our great work!  Read on to find out more, and how YOUR donation will help us...

In India at present very small numbers of youth are attracted towards Buddhism.  Until recently there were no effective ways to reach out to them and help them to understand the value of the Dhamma in life. NNBY – the National Network of Buddhist Youth - is a response to this very serious situation.  NNBY has adopted a policy of ‘conscious experimentation’ in this field which is proving very successful. 

In practice this means training a new generation of youth leaders and then the devolution to them of all operational responsibilities.  In short our aim is to establish new ways to bring youth to the Dhamma and thereby secure the future of Buddhism in India and world.  We reach out to youth by addressing the immediate concerns of their lives.  We teach them various skills and learnings that they think are important, Dhamma teachings are there too but in the background.

Since youth are the best people to understand and teach one another, using their own language and understanding their own situation better, we develop youth leaders who have a firm basis in the Dhamma and who will be the most effective Dhamma teachers.  To such youth leaders we handover the total responsibilities of running the youth organization. Therefore various levels of training for youth leaders are fundamental to this project. 

NNBY started with the initiative of youth who attended first retreat organized by Dhammakranti and led by Subhuti in Dec-06. From then on, this collection of youth kept coming together to expand and establish youth activities for youth throughout India. In the first year of their formation the group met once a month, named the organization ‘NNBY’, created a relationship structure for it and organized the first proper National Conference in Dec-Jan 2007-8. Youth from 14 Indian states attended.

After the conference more young people from various parts of the Indian nation got involved and youth activities expanded  . Now we are engaged in establishing effective training for the youth members so they can take care of their own regional affairs. Therefore the focus of our next year’s activities are -

1. Training leaders
2. Supporting leaders to teach and organize
3. National Annual Conference
4. Advertising and publicity
5. International relations

Some more details for each is given below, together with simple budgetary information.  Our total need is UK 4,500 for 2008 and the same in 2009.  Please give as generously as you can!

1. Training leaders
We have established one centre at Nagpur and two centres in Mumbai and Delhi are in process. There will be weekend every other month for leaders in these three regions, which are in the north, west and centre of India – a total of 18 weekend retreats across the three centres, plus 3 one-week retreats in a year.  The budget for all this is UK £1,900/year..

2. Supporting leaders to teach and organize
Once trained, the youth leaders will choose their field of  actions and visit various places in twos and threes.  NNBY is fundraising to provide them with food and travelling expenses.  We expect to spend 80,000Rs. on this and aim to fundraise 50% of it, ie  Rs.80,000 or UK £1,100.  

3. National Annual Conference
This is a very important feature of NNBY’s work.  We bring together youth from many different states, people fundraise for this locally but many are very poor and have to travel great distances.  We need to raise 30% of the total cost of this Conference which comes to Rs.50,000 or UK £625.

4. Advertising and publicity
NNBY publishes booklets that explains the objectives, rules and regulations to newcomers.  These are a simple explanation of the Buddhist precepts, together with publicity material to raise money locally in India for our various activities.  We need Rs.20,000 or UK £250 for this.

5. International relations
We would like to establish the connections of Buddhist youths in India with the youth of other Buddhist countries and we will be sending our youth leaders to participate in youth trainings and conferences organized by WFBY (the World Fellowship of Buddhist Youth).  Our first delegates went in March 2008 to their international conference in Singapore.  The necessary costs are Rs.50,000 or UK £625.

So we need total UK 4,500 - and we are hoping you will help!  Donating through this site is simple, fast and totally secure. It is also the most efficient way to sponsor us: the money will go immediately to our UK sister charity FWBO (Dhammaloka) who will transfer it to us in India.  Therefore we will receive your money faster and, if you are a UK taxpayer, an extra 28% in tax will be added to your gift at no cost to you.

So please dig deep and sponsor us online!

Many thanks for your support.

Kumarajiv and all at the NNBY