The Buddhist Peace Fellowship (BPF), founded in 1978, serves as a catalyst for socially engaged Buddhism. BPF's programs, publications, and practice groups link Buddhist teachings of wisdom and compassion with progressive social change. Through their Prison Program, Youth Program, and Buddhist Alliance for Social Engagement and network of chapters, their vision is to bring peace where there is conflict, to promote communication and cooperation among Buddhist sanghas, and to alleviate suffering wherever possible.

They strive to:

• Offer a public witness, through practice, for peace and protection of all beings
• Raise humanitarian, environmental, and social justice concerns among Buddhist communities
• Bring a Buddhist perspective to contemporary peace, environmental, and social justice movements

The Gateless Gate Zen Center's prison program is comprised of volunteers who share their practice in assorted confinement facilities throughout North Central Florida. Gateless Gate will be implement a series of meditation retreats for imprisoned women, beginning in January 2007. Dana and material assistance is needed to meet the start up costs that include — meditation mats and cushions, yoga mats, printed material etc.

The program will be held at Lowell CI, a women’s prison with over 2,500 inmates. The program receives no state or federal funding and there are no grants or philanthropic foundations providing money or support. This is a total volunteer effort. All volunteers not only are taking time of from work but are required to meet their individual expenses associated with the program.

Program details:

• Four — 5 day meditation retreats
• Four — 10 day meditation retreats.
• More than ten — 8 week Mind, Body, Stress Reduction programs
• Four — 8 week Mind, Body, Stress Reduction programs for imprisoned pregnant women

The International Campaign for Tibet (ICT) works to promote human rights and democratic freedoms for the people of Tibet and to protect their culture and environment.

The ICT

• monitors and reports on human rights, environmental and socio economic conditions in Tibet,
• advocates for Tibetans imprisoned for their political or religious beliefs,
• works with governments to develop policies and programs to help Tibetans,
• secures humanitarian and development assistance for Tibetans,
• mobilizes individuals and the international community to take action on behalf of Tibetans, and
• promotes self-determination for the Tibetan people through negotiations between the Chinese government and the Dalai Lama.

Help make the Beijing 2008 Olympics a catalyst for change in Tibet. Click here to watch the short animated video, Help China "wake up!"

The Sangha Fund was started to help with the daily needs of monks and nuns in India and Nepal by Lama Migmar Tseten, the Buddhist Chaplain of Harvard University. Since the Communist invasion of Tibet in 1959 and the subsequent flight of hundreds of thousands of Tibetans to India and Nepal, the exile Tibetan community in India and Nepal has worked to rebuild and preserve their religious tradition under very adverse conditions.

The life of Tibetan monks and nuns in India and Nepal consists of hard work, all day long, studying, practicing, and taking care of their monasteries for which they receive no pay.

One of the key things that these hardworking Tibetan monks and nuns need is adequate and healthy food, medical care, shelter and clothing. Often the monks and nuns live in cramped quarters, with inferior food, poor medical care, and clothing badly in need of repair or replacement.

Learn what you can do to help.

• Two million blind people see again, through operations performed by Seva partners in India, Nepal, Tibet, Cambodia and Tanzania
• Thousands of Indigenous People in Guatemala and Chiapas deliver healthy babies, drink clean water and learn to read and write
• Native American communities throughout the United States reclaim their health and culture

The Silent Spring Institute is dedicated to identifying the links between the environment and women's health, especially breast cancer.

The old question, "Why did I get breast cancer?" has been transformed to, "Why do we have breast cancer rates higher than generations before and among the highest in the world? What can we do as a community of women and men to change the legacy for our daughters?" Silent Spring Institute was founded as an alliance of scientists and activists to address these questions, in the search for breast cancer prevention and improved women's health through environmental studies.

"For the first time in the history of the world, every human being is now subjected to contact with dangerous chemicals, from the moment of conception until death."

—Rachel Carson