Home - Maharishi World Development Fund

Maharishi World Development Fund was founded in 1990 on the direct inspiration of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, pioneer in the science of consciousness and its application in all areas of life, to play its part in the fulfilment of Maharishi’s vision to eradicate poverty and suffering.

The provision of assistance,
without regard to any religious denomination,
to those in need, or suffering hardship,
in any part of the world and, in particular, in developing countries.

MWDF TRUST DEED

HIGHLIGHTS FROM AROUND THE WORLD

Some highlights from projects spanning the globe, initiated, run, or supported by MWDF, its sister charities, and its partners.

Organization of American States & David Lynch Foundation

The Organization of American States (OAS) and the David Lynch Foundation (FDL) of Latin America agreed today to work together to help diverse vulnerable groups in Latin America and the Caribbean and to seek more rights for more people. ...“Through this agreement we can help millions of people in Latin America and the Caribbean. In the areas of migration, health, agriculture, drug addiction and all areas where human and democratic rights can be improved, we will do our best to help people.”...

Heal the Healers Now

A new initiative to provide Transcendental Meditation (TM) to US Medical Providers battling Covid-19 from the "Center for Health and Wellness" of the David Lynch Foundation. The Center has a long track record of providing TM to first responders, including police, firefighters, and military personel. Today, our doctors, nurses, and other healthcare providers are true first responders – they are on the frontline in a literal life-or-death battle against a pandemic that threatens the very life of society.

PTSD Relief in Africa

PTSD Relief Now, in collaboration with the David Lynch Foundation (DLF), uses Transcendental Meditation (TM) to provide relief from PTSD in Africa. Scientific studies have shown that, by providing the experience of inner peace, the opposite of traumatic stress, survivors of war reclaim their lives by overcoming the effects of traumatic stress and re-establishing a positive state of physical, emotional, and social well-being. Esperanza, a Sudanese refugee, describes her experience: “The soldiers tortured me, almost killed me. Now, I feel like it happened to a different woman – not to me. I am a free woman!”

Stress Management & Community Development to Empower Women

AWAGO recognises that mental wellness is a core skill for any woman to be successful. During 2020, AWAGO has continued to deliver the Transcendental Meditation stress management programme to serve the mental health needs of women and children in Uganda. By giving vulnerable women and children access to Transcendental Meditation, AWAGO is able to reduce toxic stress and violence, overcome gender inequalities, further their education, and ultimately help them start businesses, get jobs, and improve their family’s overall quality of life.

PROJECTS & PARTNERS

Maharishi World Development Fund, its sister charities, and its partners support a vast array of initiatives across the globe – from the introduction of consciousness-based education, to prevention-based health programmes, sustainable and economically-viable agriculture, life-supporting housing and community development projects, and the promotion of economic self-sufficiency.

ThailandTransforming Lives at a Buddhist Girls School

The girls at the Dhammajarinee Witthaya School come from all over Thailand – some from poor families or broken homes; others orphans, violently abused, or at-risk of being sexually abused. The Buddhist nuns who founded the school have introduced Transcendental Meditation and found it to be an invaluable element in the daily life of the students.

TanzaniaThe Maasai

Almost 6,000 Maasai have learnt Transcendental Meditation during recent years – often on the advice of the Village Women Leaders – and enjoyed great benefit with health issues and high stress levels often deriving from a lack of proper healthcare and their subsistence lifestyle.

BaliEducation for World Peace

More than 11,000 students at over 50 World Peace Schools applying Consciousness-Based Education to enable students and teachers unfold their full potential and help bring peace to the world.

UgandaIdeal Girls School

The first Consciousness-Based school for girls in Africa, providing non-sectarian, mostly-residential education to over 100 students in the Mbale District of Eastern Uganda.

ColombiaSaving the Disposable Ones

Father Mehia is a Catholic priest in Colombia working to provide street children relief from the struggle for survival and support to create a better life. He directs 52 shelters for homeless children and youth offenders in Colombia and throughout South America.

South AfricaMaharishi Invincibility Institute

“Stepping stones to educational and economic freedom” – through distance learning, work experience, financial support, and personal development.

IndiaRevival of Vedic Education

Maharishi Mahesh Yogi Vedic Vishwavidyalaya (MMYVV) was established in 1995 to offer “life-oriented Vedic education” and “job-oriented modern education”.

KenyaGarden Children’s Home & School

A school and orphanage in the Riruta, Kawngware low-income district of Nairobi where 160 students, teachers, and staff practice Transcendental Meditation.

NepalRevival of Vedic Education

Eighty-eight Vedic educational institutions in Nepal, training both Acharyas (teachers) and approximately 3,000 student Pandits, as well as over 200 Vedic experts, many of them graduates of these Vedic schools, conduct traditional Vedic performances for the good of the individual and the benefit of society as a whole.

INDIACommunity Health

MWDF helped facilitate funding from AidsArk London for a charitable organisation in India running a preventive and curative HIV/AIDS programme in rural Maharashtra focussed on the health of expectant mothers infected with HIV and their children.

USASilence the Violence

The David Lynch Foundation helps to prevent and eradicate the all-pervasive epidemic of trauma and toxic stress amongst at-risk populations through promoting widespread implementation of Transcendental Meditation in order to improve their health, cognitive capabilities, and performance in life.

ZambiaMaharishi Model School

Consciousness-Based Pre-School. Primary, and Secondary education for poor families in Kanyama, Makeni Villa west of the capital Lusaka.

IndiaMaharishi Vidya Mandir Schools

110,000 students and 7,000 teaching, administrative, and support staff in 165 schools in 16 states have demonstrated the effectiveness of the consciousness-based approach in Indian education for the last 29 years.

NepalHealing Herbs

Creating economic opportunity for rural subsistence farmers through education in organic farming and financial management, as well as technical training and financial support, enabling them to produce ethical, organic herbs, spices, and superfoods of the highest organic standards, nutritional value, environmental sustainability, and social responsibility.

USAMaharishi International University

On-campus and online consciousness-based Bachelor's, Master's, and Doctoral degree programmes in Applied Arts, Sciences, Business, and the Humanities.

UgandaEdapo Students at Peace High School

EDAPO supports 600 AIDS/HIV orphans and children at risk in Central Uganda, using Transcendental Meditation to help the children with high levels of stress and poor health. Despite their backgrounds, these students frequently become leaders in their classes, better able to face the challenges in their lives, creating a better future for themselves.

NepalConsciousness-Based Education

Ten schools in Nepal, with enrolment of over 8000, including a Military and a Government High School, are implementing Consciousness-Based Education in their curricula. Over 4,000 students are practising Transcendental Meditation and over 1,000 students and faculty are enrolled in advanced programmes.

KenyaLiberty Academy School

In the Rift Valley villages around Nandi Hills, more than 800 villagers and 150 students and faculty of the Liberty Academy School are practising Transcendental Meditation – “As a community, we are so happy about Transcendental Meditation because it has brought a lot of happiness and a lot of love in our homes”.

EnglandMaharishi Free School

A top 10 non-selective UK Free School, applying Consciousness-Based Education, with three times the national average pass rate at GCSE Grade A and twice the national average for 5 GCSE Grade C passes. Ofsted reported the school to be “Outstanding” in eleven areas and “Outstanding" overall.

KenyaTransmara Project

From within the Kuria tribal group, 350 students and 20 faculty of the Chamrecc Primary School practise Transcendental Meditation, as well as more than 800 parents and villagers, who have found great relief from PTSD.

KenyaSouthern Sudan Refugee Community in Nakuru

250 refugees from Southern Sudan, mostly schoolchildren, have learnt Transcendental Meditation in Nakuru, Kenya.

Northern IrelandBelfast Peaceline Project

An eye-opening documentary about the children and young people living along the Belfast Peaceline and how their lives were changed through the practice of Transcendental Meditation.

KenyaGlobal One Kibera School

All the faculty and 400 students at primary and secondary school levels in Kibera, a Nairobi slum district, practice Transcendental Meditation as part of the school day.

UgandaEdapo Primary School

With 298 boarders and 124 day-students, the EDAPO Primary School uses Transcendental Meditation to help with high levels of stress and poor health, and to create more hopeful outcomes for its children. The students have high pass levels in the primary examinations and frequently go on to high school, something quite remarkable in rural Uganda.

“Conciousness-Based Education is just plugging us all into the beautiful, eternal field within, and then watching things get better, which is what happens. It’s a field of infinite, unbounded peace within every human being, and when you experience it, you enliven that peace.”

— David Lynch

“The key to growth is the introduction of higher dimensions of consciousness into our awareness.”

— Lao Tzu

“Consciousness cannot be accounted for in physical terms. For consciousness is absolutely fundamental. It cannot be accounted for in terms of anything else.”

— Erwin Schrödinger

“Meditation is the dissolution of thoughts in Eternal awareness or Pure consciousness without objectification, knowing without thinking, merging finitude in infinity.”

— Voltaire

“The process of education takes place in the field of consciousness; the prerequisite to complete education is therefore the full development of consciousness – enlightenment. Knowledge is not the basis of enlightenment, enlightenment is the basis of knowledge.”

— Maharishi

“No problem can be solved from the same level of consciousness that created it.”

— Albert Einstein

“To live in a great idea means to treat the impossible as though it were possible. It is just the same with a strong character; and when an idea and a character meet, things arise which fill the world with wonder for thousands of years.”

— Goethe

“Consciousness is something that is all-permeating. When you improve your own individual Consciousness you are actually improving the consciousness of society.”

— Dr. Tony Nader

“If we make consistent effort based on proper education, we can change the world.”

— Dalai Lama