Children First International, Inc.

Hare Krishna. Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada.

I'm Atitaguna dasi (ACBSP) and I'm writing about a cause that is dear to me and I hope to you. I'm grateful to Children First International, a US non-profit my husband Pancharatna das is a director of, for the opportunity to put this project up on GoFundMe.

In the last 35 years or so since I started helping develop the first Children’s Park in Mayapur, located in the original Mayapur Grihastha Housing area (the photo above is from that park), there has been massive growth of our community with hundreds of apartment buildings and thousands of devotees.

However, there really isn’t anywhere for the kids to play in the new housing areas. In fact, kids are playing on the road and in the construction rubble and on many levels that is not safe.

Another park is sorely needed for Mayapur’s children.

To achieve this, some years back the Mayapur Master Plan set aside about one and a quarter acres of land in the Gaura Nagar area. It is prime land and we are extraordinarily grateful for the vision of ISKCON Mayapur in providing this essential green space in what is otherwise a concrete jungle.

Here's an aerial view of the land, partially developed.

About five months ago, I got involved in the development of this new park for Krishna’s devotee children and I’m asking for your help.

My husband, Pancharatna prabhu, has been involved with the Mayapur Community Sevaks (MCS) in planning and developing this park for the last two years. Initial support from generous community members has developed the land to the point where at least kids can start playing sports there.

Here's a recent football game in progress:

But there is a lot more to be done. Playground equipment like slides, swings and seesaws are needed as well as walkways and landscaping.

On top of this we also need to complete the raising of the land. Like most of the land in that area, it is low lying and most of it still needs to be filled up about 3-4 feet or it will be unusable in the four months of the rainy season.

In order to make the park fully usable year round, we will need a great quantity of earth to fill up the land so we can plant trees and put in play equipment and other facilities for the children and parents.

Fully raising the land will cost about $24,000. Each tractor load of earth is at least ₹1,600 or about $20. We need around 1200 tractor loads to elevate the land sufficiently.

Added to the earth filling we estimate that the play equipment, walkways and landscaping will cost about $10,000 of which we have pledges and contributions of $4,000 so far.

To add to the support coming from the Mayapur community, we are reaching out to devotees around the world to help. By serving the children of Sri Mayapur, we are sure you will enjoy immense blessings from Srila Prabhupada, Sri Sri Pancha Tattva, Sri Sri Radha Madhava and Sri Sri Prahlad Nrsimhadeva.

The MCS committee will be managing the funds coming in for the park and overseeing the development. And we’ll be reporting on our progress here

I thank you for taking the time to read this and I look forward to your support. Srila Prabhupada said the devotee children were Vaikuntha children. Please join me in serving them in Mayapur

Your servant,

Atitaguna devi dasi (ACBSP)