:: July/August 2005 Volume 4/Number 5

Selfless Service : Connecting Many Dots Janice Belson of Medicines Global and Outdoor Youth Ambassadors

By Laura Faye

Knowing that all is one is not the same as oneness in action. While many yogis believe in interconnectedness, only the rare individual can take this primarily intellectual concept of unity and apply it. Acts of seva (selfless service) emanate naturally from those who have the experience of self as whole.

For Janice Belson, the group of extensive projects that she created is born from a mind wired to perceive the world through the lens of wholeness. She talks in stream of consciousness. Conversations shift from her love of photography, to musicians she wants to work with, to bringing aid to Southeast Asia, to this very moment as we sit over a cup of tea, to a song that impressed her when she was in fifth grade, with such fluidity, passion and seamlessness that in minutes, I feel a case of whiplash coming on. But it is precisely this sense of connectivity of every random thought she has, that triggers Belson to take action, to bring people together in awesome and far reaching ways.

Most of Belson’s projects crystallize from an amalgamation of equal parts mystery, convergence and synchronicity — like Medicines Global. Medicines Global is Belson’s nonprofit organization created in the ‘90s. An avid photographer since childhood, Belson believes that her camera’s lens occasionally affords her unusual viewpoints to observe details that others might not notice. In Nepal, her camera’s fine eye stumbled upon cuts and burns on some of the children’s fingers. From that she made the connection that many children suffer from severe nutritional deficiencies. She also learned first-hand that adventure travelers visit some of the world’s most remote places, yet despite the tourism dollars flowing in, many of the countries they visit remain among the poorest in the world.
Shortly after her visit to Nepal, Belson received a $180,000 settlement from an injury. She headed to Bikram Yoga to heal her knee and took the entire sum to launch Medicines for Nepal (now Medicines Glo-bal). This organization coordinates yearly trekking expeditions to Nepal bringing together numerous outdoor industry sponsors and high profile groups to raise publicity and deliver doses of pharmaceutical strength Vitamin A to help reverse early nutritional blindness in children. They also bring doses of antibiotics, individual applications of antibacterial ointment and medical supplies to village health posts and hospitals.

Venerable Walpola Piyananda, seated, was the leader of 2005 Sri Lanka MGOYA Expedition. He is President, North American Sri Lankan Buddhist Council and Director, Los Angeles Crenshaw SL Buddhist Temple. Standing next to Venerable Walpola Piyananda is the Minister of Health, Mahinda Yapa Abeywardana. Through his office the group learned how best
to deliver the supplies they brought and how to find the area of greatest need for further involvement by the youth of Los Angeles for the tsunami ravaged Sri Lankan Coast.

And, as would be expected since the entire affair is Belson’s brainchild, Medicines Global links outdoors and adventure travelers together, convincing them to pack an extra first-aid kit to drop off at a clinic in need. "We are dedicated to inspiring all adventure travelers to give back to the places they visit by delivering basic first-aid supplies to designated medical centers as well as remote community-run health posts along their
journey, even one BandAid at a time," says Belson. To date Medicines Global has helped distribute nearly $2.5 million in medical supplies worldwide.

In 2003 Medicines Global received a grant from Peace Cereal, Golden Temple founder Yogi Bhajans’ “way to support
a more loving planet.” (Medicines Global is featured on the back of Maple Pecan Crisp). Belson used the Peace Cereal award to spread the flow of interconnected sharing to high school students from South Central Los Angeles. Then she decided to engage Jordan High School students in humanitarian efforts at home and abroad by offering opportunities to students with educational and economic challenges, so she created MGOYA, Medicines Global Outdoor Youth Ambassadors to give inner city kids a chance to make a difference.

Aid workers in Sri Lanka are pleased to receive much needed supplies brought over by MGOYA volunteers.

The five Jordan students selected as winners of a photo-essay contest arrived in Sri Lanka in March 2005 where they dispensed $200,000 in prescription drugs and medical supplies to refugee camps and hospitals. Originally scheduled to leave for Sri Lanka in December 2004, just days before the tsunami, coincidence, fate or luck caused the trip to be postponed. Tsunami relief then became the emphasis of their trip. They handed out toys and sang with orphans and they visited the village where money they collected by passing a jar around their school will be spent to build a youth center for the village kids.
Not out of breath yet, Belson has a new project ahead of her — expanding MGOYA to encourage healthful lifestyles among
the Jordan High School seniors. 14 chosen students will become food education emissaries. Each student and their families receive food donations and nutritional counseling from Whole Foods Market and are expected to write a review including ideas about health and nutrition for the well-circulated student newsletter.

What might seem like an array of far reaching projects, is merely one woman’s ability to embrace wholeness and to see the Self in others.

Contact Medicines Global at
(310) 556-0809; www.medicinesglobal.org
and Peace Cereal at www.peacecereal.com

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