Welcome to the Indiana Buddhist Center
3rd Annual Losar Children's Clothing Drive
Losar is Tibetan New Year.
The tradition in Tibet is for children to receive new clothes during Losar, so in honor of this tradition IBC will again be
collecting new and gently used children's clothes to be distributed to children in need via a local social service agency,
Families First. Families First served nearly 9,000 clients in 2011, and is one of the larger agencies of this type in the area.
Families First also has the distinction of being one of the oldest non-profits around, as they celebrated their 175th anniversary
in 2011. Please consider helping to put some clothes on a needy child, and bring your donation with you to any IBC event.
We will be collecting donations up until the actual date of Losar, which is February 22nd, 2012.
For an idea of how your donation could help, consider the situation of Jane Doe (named change to protect client confidentiality)
as just one example. Jane was in an abusive relationship with her boyfriend, George, who was the father of one of her three
children. George was very controlling of Jane, and didn't let her talk to her friends or family very much, even on the phone.
She was not allowed to leave the house, except when with him, or when she was going to the grocery store alone, occasionally.
If another man attempted to talk to her or looked at her in a way he did not like, he would blame her and take it out on her.
Sometimes he would escalate from emotional abuse to physical abuse, and often in front of the kids. He threatened to hurt her
and the kids if she ever told on him or tried to leave. Once she had finally had enough, she came to Families First for help.
With case management and counseling services, she was able to get to a place where she was ready to leave George for good.
The difficulty was she had to leave her house and what little she owned in order to get away from him so that he wouldn't know
where she was and couldn't follow her. Families First was able to provide her and her three kids with some basic needs, such as
rent assistance to her own apartment, as well as clothing for her children. With the gracious support of kind donors and the
programing at Families First, Jane and her kids are now able to live a life free from abuse.
Keep in mind that children come in all shapes and sizes. Some are just cute, cuddly little babies with the smallest of clothes.
Others are older teenagers with more adult sizes, such as XXL shirts or 40 inch waist pants, or size 12 shoes. So, clothing for
boys and girls in all different ages and sizes is needed. New clothes are nice, but gently used clothing works just as well.
The Indiana Buddhist Center is here...
to serve the public by being a local resource for the people of central Indiana and beyond by providing a source of accurate
information on the religion and philosophy of Buddhism in the lineage of His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama.
to facilitate meeting places for meditation, prayer, retreats, and religious services for Buddhists and those interested in
the Buddhist Dharma.
to provide a center for spiritual services that are Buddhist in nature.
to procure and make available weekly instruction on Buddhism from a qualified teacher.
Click here to view our latest project list and ways you can help!
The Indiana Buddhist Center is located at 9260 E. 10th Street Indianapolis, IN 46229. Classes are free of charge and open to the public.
Dedication
May the virtue accumulated in viewing this web site cause all sentient beings to cease suffering and realize complete happiness in this life.
Teachings on Buddhist Psychology by Geshe Jinpa Sonam
