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Since migrating to the United States in 1982, Pandita Heera Kulkarni has been involved in many community service projects. Some of these took place in the United States and some in India. In 2005, Heera visited Anandwan, established by her father's friend, Baba Amte & Lok Biradari Prakalp at Hemalkasa run by his son Dr. Prakash Amte. A substantial donation was given to both places. Dr. Prakash Amte visited Bay Area in 2007 or so & another substantial donation to his organization was given. He & his family run a hospital, a school & a sanctuary for the abaondoned animals in the tribal area of Hemalkasa near Nagpur. Heera has visited there twice. In 2005, another donation was given to an organization that awards scholarship to needy college students in Rampura, M.P. which is my father's hometown. Akshardeep is an organization in Pune that works with children who are in remand homes. They received a monetary donation twice for the purchase of books in 2007 & 2014. Swadhar organization in Pune was given books for the school they run in the red light district of Budhwar Peth & a brand new HP laptop for their office as a donation. Manzil organization in Delhi received the second new HP laptop as a donation in 2008. Heera has also offered her services in person to many other projects in USA and in India. In 2014, Triveni, Chinmaya Mission, Sacramento, CA was given a donation of $5,000 by Heera towards the purchase of their new building. A beauty parlor vocational project was launched & fully funded by Heera in January 2016 in Upper Indira Nagar near Bibwewadi, for the low income women of the area. This was done in conjunction with Dnyan Prabodhini. Since 2017, Heera has been helping Manzil Mystics in New Delhi by giving them $3,000 so far to run their "Learning through Music" program in the low income schools in Delhi run by the NDMC or New Delhi Municipal Corporation. Weekly sessions are held at several schools where the students are given lessons in life skills, gender equality, hygiene, etc. through songs. Building Blocks to Literacy or BB2L is another project funded by Heera which is run by a retired teacher friend, Kathy Orihuela. Besides these various projects, Heera is always organizing her own concerts & her students' recitals to raise money for the local organizations in USA. She is always offering her services without any pay - such as to analyze & evaluate the new Social Studies Textbook Adoption by the Department of Education, organizing concerts & vegan cooking demos to raise money for Preetirang Animal Sanctuary & producing an hour-long show to launch a play on "Gandhi" by B-Street Theatre in Sacramento, CA. The list is endless but it gives great satisfaction & happiness to Pandita Heera to expand her circle of influence to serve the community she is part of.
