2022.12.25 (Vrindavan Today News): She arrived at a time when children of Braj were desperately seeking solace of ‘Yashoda maa’. It was like a dream come true for Jennifer Hans to get an opportunity to move to India from Hawaii about two years back. The country was under the grip of Corona virus forcing authorities to impose lockdown to counter menace of pandemic, when Ms Hans arrived with sole mission to serve the poor and needy children of Vrindavan and dedicate her life in the service of deprived natives. Indoctrinated into Hare Krishna movement, today she goes by the name of Yashoda Gopi Hans and India is her home now.
“I want to do so much for the people and animals here. This is one thing that gives me joy and happiness,” says Hans. With an inspiration from her spiritual guru, Srila Narayan Goswami, she started ‘Bhakta Bandhav Gurukulam’ during lockdown. The aim was to fulfill the basic need – for food for deprived and abandoned children of Vrindavan. The center that she established provided free distribution of lunch to over 150 children every day during the period, at Sri Radha Kunj Mandir on the outskirts of Parikrama Marg. Now, every evening Prasad outreach program feeds about 200 villagers of the region.
“As schools reopened, I observed that most of the kids who attended my lunch programme did not turn up to school and few who occasionally showed up came with tears in their eyes stating that their mothers cannot afford school fees and other expenses.” She laments.
Perplexed by the plight of these children she decided to open a school with zero hidden fees which would encourage them to continue their education. Most of the children attending school were either from marginalised section of the society, financially weak or suffered from learning disabilities. There are others who have been forced to abandon education in order to give helping hand in earning of the family.
She points out that her school is not just about academics, “I also teach them love and Kindness besides basic moral values”. In post Covid era the Gurukulam spread its outreach with not-for-profit education for poor and needy to social reform projects for marginalized youth of Vrindavan. “Our motivation is to bring about behavioural change in youth. All along the streets of Vrindavan you can find beautiful faces of poor children asking for paisa(money) or sweets, we are here to help these children to earn respect and self-confidence for themselves,” Yashoda Gopi explains.
The other focus of Bhakta Bandhav Gurukulam is on providing skill set learning based on traditional curriculum to the youth of Vrindavan. Traditional skill learning includes, Gwala(cowherd) training, weaving, stitching, planting trees in and around Vrindavan and also providing lessons in flute playing, music and dances native to Braj region. Yashoda Gopi says that the aim is to prepare stewards of next generation, and steering the most denigrated section of society to preserve and protect the heritage arts and crafts of the Braj.
Ananda Dham Gaudiya math has been instrumental in providing her Ashram and space for her outreach and skill training programmes.
Despite all her efforts she encounters many hurdles in her day-to-day functioning, “Our challenges are that we do not fit into a standard model of school, our children not only suffer from basic learning challenges but it gets compounded as no one at home knows reading or writing.” However, in the end she is happy to see the progress children have made since inception of the programme.
Yashoda Gopi is a paradigm for what global family is all about. She invokes Radha Rani for being strength behind her initiative. Immersed in the divinity of Krishna, she believes, ‘Briwasis are not common people but special souls who have done great tapas(penance) to be born here in the raj (dust) of Braj’. She wants to devote rest of life to serve people of Braj and preserve culture and heritage of this land.
