22/05/2006 South Asian Quake
Many of you will be aware of the devastating earthquake that affected South Asia in late October. Both the Indian and Pakistani parts of Kashmir were affected. To date 1,300 people have been killed in India and 73,000 in Pakistan. Thousands more have been made homeless, and their livelihoods destroyed. Mr. Lal and Mr Roop Lal Lagah have travelled to the affected areas to provide assistance to the ongoing relief effort. Their intensions were to distribute tents to the homeless, but after assessing the situation decided that the tents were not appropriate for the weather and instead provided corrugated sheeting to make huts. Alder Coppice Primary School in Sedgley also made a donation to the charity for Mr Lal to spend on children victims of the quake. There donation was £7----as well as 3 tents.

22/05/2006 Volunteers to India
November 2005 through to January 2006 saw volunteers visiting India, as well as Mr Lal's visit to monitor the projects. Long standing volunteers Mr T L Raillay and Mrs C R Raillay along with their daughter Anita spent a month in Jharkhand and Orissa where they sponsored the construction of a temple in Orissa.

Neil Hudson from York and his physiotherapist partner Pauline spent 10 days visiting the projects assessing how Neil could help in the future with a water system. After touring around various parts of India sightseeing, on their arrival in Jharkhand they wished they had come straight to the orphanage as Neil said that it was one of the most beautiful places they had seen in India and a life changing experience for them both. Neil is planning to return in the near future.

Roop Lal Lagah accompanied Mr Lal to Kashmir and then to Jharkhand and Orissa where he stayed for a week to see the projects, before returning to Kashmir with more aid.

Steve Bullock owner of The Rocking Horse Works in Newport, Shropshire a company making wooden rocking horses has been volunteering a month of his time this April. Steve has been using his expert carpentry skills to teach the children in the orphanage in Jharkhand to make wooden puppets. Steve hopes that they will gain the skills through his training so they can later earn a living.

Charanjit Singh of Divine Onkar Mission accompanied Steve to the orphanage for a weeks visit to monitor ongoing work at the projects and check progress.

20/05/2006 School Hall Completed
he school hall is now completed, and opened in November. This is now being used at meal times as the kitchens sponsored by Rupert House School last year are attached to the side of the hall with a servery into the hall building. The children also attend assembly in the hall and practise dance and performances. On opening day the children put on performances for all the visitors including the local Army Sergeant, who had come to look around the school.

19/05/2006 5 Children Awarded Black Belt
5 of the children were awarded the rank of blank belt - Shodan 1st dan, by the Shito Ryu Karate-Do federation of India affiliated to Nepal Olympic Committee on 22/04/06. All reside at the Divine Onkar Mission orphange in Ramgharh. Their names are Mahavir Kumar Karmali, Birsa Munda, Ramesh Munda, Dhaneshwar Bedia and Ganga Sahu. Congratulations!

19/05/2006 Brand New Website Design We hope you like it

18/05/2006 Excellent Exam Results and a Letter from the Children
We have just received the exam results for the children from Jarkhand School. They are excellent and all the children and teachers are extremely pleased and proud. Click here to view the exam results. Below is an extract of the letter of thank you the children sent to our UK Office.

Respected Friends,
Thanks for your kind help. We thankful to you all. We are very lucky, because if you not show us true path. We can't be success in our life. So we want to very very very thankful to you.
THANKFUL TO YOU

Lots of love from
All D.O.M. Children

17/05/2006 Videos From AsthaTv Documentary
We have added a new videos section containing clips from recent Astha Documentary on the work we do. We hope you enjoy watching the clips - we are working on an english translation and we will publish them as soon as they are complete.

11/04/2006 Charity Fundraiser/Administrator Required - Click here

10/09/2005 National Express Group donate £5,000
On Wednesday afternoon the Mayor met with Mr Phil White CBE Chief Executive of National Express Group one of the largest Mass Transit Companies in the UK, in the Mayors Parlour. National Express Group were directly donating £5,000 to The Divine Onkar Mission a Wolverhampton based charity. Which is helping India's rural poor, to improve their health and life chances. "The Divine Onkar is one of my main charities in this my Mayoral year " explained the Mayor, "but this donation is significant as it is the second part of a £10,000 donation that National Express Group had pledged to make, as part of its own corporate charity arrangements. This is so that an eye hospital, that is supported by Travel West Midlands (also part of National Express Group of companies) in Jharkland can develop and perform surgery that can treat cataracts along with other eye diseases." Councillor Bateman commented "I am pleased to have been able to use my good offices as Mayor, to introduce Mr Lal and Mr Singh from Divine Onkar Mission to Mr White, and allow the handover of the £5,000 cheque to take place in my Parlour. Many Wolverhampton residents will know that I also work for Travel West Midlands. I am proud that our staff have been so generous in their charity fund raising. Bus drivers in the West Midlands County have had a long relationship with the Divine Onkar Mission. Having built scores of water wells, a school and a hospital with donations from their own pay packets. This relationship has been in existence for over 10 years, and is making a real difference to hundreds of youngsters in India and to the rural poor who suffer desperately from poor health facilities."

15/06/2005 Mann Brothers Ltd
Mann Brothers Ltd kindly donated a container of clothes that has been sent to India. Pictured here are the Directors of Mann Brothers Ltd with representatives from the DOM. Visit the gallery for pictures of this donation.<pic>

27/05/2005 Update from Steph Schwarze
My visit to The Divine Onkar Mission is coming to an end, I must confess that I will not miss the heat as the temperature is in excess of 40 degrees celsius every day now.  I never thought that I would miss the English weather. But I will miss all the wonderful children, each morning I wake up to the sound of laughter as they are getting ready for school.  This is a really happy place. I have grown very attaced to the children, they have all warmed my heart.     The co-operation between the children and young people is fantastic.  The older children are always watching out for the younger ones and the family atmosphere is evident all the time.  Everybody is aware of the needs of the children with disabilities.

The visits which Mr Lal makes here are talked about with such love and happiness, the next visit is eagerly awaited.  Despite the fact that so many children are living in such close proximity the atmosphere here is never strained, everyone is always cheerful and in good spirits.  The children have only the most rudimentary toys here, but they always manage to keep themselves entertained.  This week I had lots of fun partying with the children, you really can have alot of fun playing a kind of volleyball with balloons, we soon all got too hot though. It's also been a pleasure to visit some of the other projects that DOM is involved in.  The school and agricultural project at Palu is an oasis of calm with fruit trees and other crops all around.  I was very happy to see that there are is a new playground there for the children when they return after their summer holiday.  There is another school called Kamal Charan also in the area, this is only just starting and has very few facilities, I hope that the school will thrive. DOM is providing education to some of the poorest families in this area, but there are alot of very poor families and the work that DOM is doing is in high demand.     Kitu's efficient system here extends to the records that are kept on all the children.  He really does have his eye on each one of the children and young people here. I will produce a document to accompany the health education teaching that I gave when I return to England.

Whilst I have been here I have spent the majority of my time with the children and engaging in other activities.  Also the computers are in demand by the students and the power supply is very haphazard here. 

21/03/2005 India Untouched
The forgotten face of rural poverty - In India Untouched, Dr. Abraham George provides a compelling, first-hand account of one man’s struggle against a well-entrenched system to make a difference. He offers fresh insight and incisive analysis into why previous attempts to improve the quality of life in rural India have failed, and what must be done in the future. His book is the story of suffering, cruelty, disease, and illiteracy, of corruption, waste, prejudice, and superstition. It is the story of fifty years of poor governance, and a stunning rebuke to the myth that globalization alone will distribute wealth to where it’s most needed. More importantly, the book is about what can be done to improve the lives of millions of poor people. We recommend this book. Please click on the book image to purchase the book from Amazon.

20/03/2005 Online Donations go Live !
You can now donate online using your credit or debit card !! This now makes it even easier to donate to such a worthy cause. Please use the "Donate now" form on the right hand side of this page or click here. Currently we are only accepting UK Credit/Debit Cards, if you are from outside the UK and would like to make a donation please contact us for details on how you can donate. If you would like to setup are monthly direct debit please contact us for further details on how we can help set one up. We will be happy to assist in anyway we can.

19/03/2005 Tsunami appeal
The total amount of money the chartity has raised for the Tsunami appeal to date is £1845.35, many thanks to all the kind people who have donated.

19/02/2005 - Mr Lal Receives Award
On the 19 Feburary 2005 Mr Lal the founder and director of the D.O.M won an award at the 1st annual Awards of The India International Foundation, to honour Indian originals, who have attained distinctions. Mr Lal won in the following field: Social Services.

04/02/2005
Amar kept a weblog during his recent 2 week trip to Bihar visiting the Schools, orphanage and hospital. Check out Amar's Weblog please support the weblog by submitting your comments to the various posts. The Weblog gives a very good insight into life working for Divine Onkar Mission.

03/02/2005
On the 6th Feb, Tersam Lal and his wife Samitri arrive back to UK from their 3 month stay in Bihar and Orissa. We will interviewing Tersam and getting all the exciting updates, stay tuned. In the meantime you can read a past interview with Tersam here .

Michael McCabe
Michael was one of the D.O.M's most dedicated volunteers. He sadly passed away on September 6 2004 aged 54, after being diagnosed as having Hepetitis C and cancer of the the liver and stomach. After spending some time in hospital and having a liver transplant in the spring of 2004, Michael lost his fight against his illnesses. Mr Lal paid tribute to Michael and said that it was through Michael that the D.O.M orphanage started.  Michael found a baby one day whilst in the forests around the hospital in Jharkhand and brought this child back with him to the hospital.  He then helped Mr Lal to bring other children from their leprosy families to the orphanage.  He helped transform the children from being beggars, surviving by picking through rubbish to becoming champions in karate having an education, studing the arts, sports and communicating with the world through computer technology. When Michael visited India, he chose to live with a family of lepers for 10 days. He ate with them, slept beside them and Michael said he also cried with them. An experience Michael said truly made him realise what a selfish life he in England led. Michael would often try to recruit volunteers to visit the projects and hope that their experience would be as life changing as his. Read more about Michaels work with the D.O.M here

02/02/2005 New Website Launch
A New Year and a new facelift for the website. Please let us know what you think. We welcome all your comments and feedback. A special thankyou to Amar, Suni, Monica and Sushil for all their hard work in making this happen.

16/12/2004 Investment Quality
The D.O.M received a certificate for investment in quality, after Zoe one of the D.O.M's members of staff attended the PQASSO (Practical Quality Assurance Small Organisations) monthly group sessions during 2004. This shows the D.O.M's committed to improving the quality of the organisation.