FORT LAUDERDALE. FLORIDA, June 26, 2007
More than 200 members of the local community comprising of several faiths including Christianity, Hinduism, Buddhism and Judaism came together at the Hollywood Beach Culture and Community Center, Hollywood, FL, on Saturday, June 23, 2007 to support a unique and noble humanitarian program founded by Her Holiness Sadhvi Ritambhara.

Her Holiness Sadhvi Ritambhara runs a “Village of maternal affection” called Vatsalya-Gram (Vatsalya meaning: Maternal love and Gram meaning: Village) located 2.5 hours from New Delhi, India where she provides permanent families and homes for orphan, homeless and abandoned, infants and other kids, and less-fortunate women of all ages and faiths. These kids and women are then paired up to make a family unit. As a result each woman gets to be a mother and each child grows up having a parent and a family. These kids are then educated to serve the society and the human race.

The program began with dinner provided by Robert Soloman of Royal India Restaurant, followed by devotional songs and inspiring discourse on world harmony and the Hindu tenets of tolerance and peaceful coexistence by Her Holiness Sadhvi Ritambhara.

Local resident Andrew Vaz who supported this event stated “Her Holiness Sadhvi Ritambhara is providing a valuable service to the human race as a whole with her Vatsalyagram project. This concept should be supported by all and be replicated around the world.” Similar sentiments were expressed by Joe Kauffman, Ashrad Bhatti, Farida and Dan Spencer.

Organizers of this event have been involved in several similar causes over the past decade. They have raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for various causes such as Tsunami victim relief, Katrina relief etc….. This group periodically sponsors events to feed the homeless in Broward County.

Many attendees were amused to see about 10 people including small children and women wearing head covering, claiming to represent 15 different organizations, mostly Islamic, protesting against this noble cause.

One of the reasons for the amusement of the attendees was primarily a report published in Miami Herald where Syed Rahman a Member of the Executive Council of CAIR an organization that was named a co-conspirator to the financing of terrorist outfit Hamas from the US (read statements from United States Senators and Representatives Richard Durbin, Charles Schumer, Barbara Boxer, Bill Shuster and Statements From Sept. 2003 Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Terrorism, Technology and Homeland Security and additional information at http://www.cairwatch.org/ ) was maligning the name of Her Holiness.