Respected as a neutral party with unquestionable integrity, HH Sri Sri Ravi Shankar has inspired many groups to adopt peaceful means to resolve conflicts. He has engaged all the stake holders in the peace process in areas such as Sri Lanka, the Balkans, Iraq, Kashmir, Israel, Lebanon, Afghanistan, and the Ivory Coast. Trauma relief programs have been conducted extensively in these areas to help individuals release negative emotions such as anger from the past, revenge, and frustration, which can hamper the peaceful resolution of disputes.

IRAQ

Art of Living volunteers have been working in Iraq on a sustained basis since September 2003 to facilitate the physical, mental, emotional, and social well-being of the Iraqi people. To date, 5,000 Iraqis have benefited from the trauma relief, and community empowerment projects in Baghdad, Basra, Suleimania, and Karbala. In May 2007, HH Sri Sri Ravi Shankar visited the nation on a three-day peace mission at the invitation of Iraqi Prime Minister, Nouri al-Maliki. The Prime Minister requested HH Sri Sri Ravi Shankar to expand the Art of Living programs to more parts of Iraq, including the prisons.

During the visit, HH Sri Sri Ravi Shankar urged Iraqi leaders to give non-violence a chance. He met with a wide spectrum of Iraqi society including senior political figures, Shiite leaders, tribal heads, representatives of humanitarian organisations, women, soldiers, and youth. Following HH Sri Sri Ravi Shankar's visit, the Iraqi government sent 55 youth to the Art of Living international headquarters to attend a month-long training. As a result, Iraq now has many more change agents for peace.

SRI LANKA

Since 2004, HH Sri Sri Ravi Shankar has been actively involved in resolving the Sri Lankan crisis. He has been instrumental in the formation of the 'Committee for Peace in Sri Lanka' comprising Hindu and Buddhist leaders, including the Dalai Lama.

HH Sri Sri Ravi Shankar had extensive meetings with the President, opposition leaders, Tamil leaders, and the general public during one of his visits to the nation in April 2006. During the visit, he was inundated with letters from the public seeking his help to bring about peace in Sri Lanka. In September 2006, HH Sri Sri Ravi Shankar ventured into LTTE stronghold Kilinochchi for peace talks.

In two separate visits, former Prime Minister Ranil Wickramasinghe, and two parliamentary delegations from the United National Party (UNP), and Tamil National Alliance (TNA) visited HH Sri Sri Ravi Shankar in India in 2006 to discuss the Sri Lankan issue.

Since 2005, over 1,000 Tamil youth, mostly from Jaffna, have undergone the Art of Living youth leadership training program after which they have given up violence, and taken up community empowerment projects.

JAMMU & KASHMIR

• HH Sri Sri Ravi Shankar's peace initiatives in Jammu & Kashmir focus on:

• healing the trauma of decades of militancy

• facilitating dialogue between people from different ideological groups

• improving the inhumane conditions in migrant camps

• reforming prison inmates

• de-stressing army, and police personnel

• channelling misguided youth toward constructive activities.

HH Sri Sri Ravi Shankar has visited the state three times in as many years to open up avenues for dialogue, and negotiation. His visit in 2006 culminated in a rare dialogue between leaders of several Kashmiri groups, including both factions of the All Party Hurriyat Conference and representatives of the Kashmiri Pandits. Inspired by HH Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, thousands of youth who had been trained in terrorist camps, have shunned the path of violence.

In 2005, IAHV established a child care centre to provide education, and a safe haven for children affected by militancy, and the 2005 earthquake.

CLASS CONFLICT IN INDIA

HH Sri Sri Ravi Shankar's teachings, and initiatives have transformed many villages in the Naxalite-infested areas of central Bihar and Andhra Pradesh. During his visit to Bihar in 2002, more than 100,000 youth from warring factions such as Ranvir Sena, CPI-ML, People's War Group, and Maoist Communist Centre vowed to spread the message of non-violence.

As a result of HH Sri Sri Ravi Shankar's timely intervention, there was no retaliatory massacre in the aftermath of the 2006 gruesome Jehanabad killings. Instead, warring groups came together soon after the incident for a community gathering organized by the Art of Living in Ekwari, the nerve centre of Naxal violence in Bihar, which avoided further escalation of violence.

KOSOVO

In Kosovo, the Art of Living has successfully carried out programs to promote dialogue between people on both sides of the ethnic divide, thus expanding the circle of belonging to transcend narrow identities based on ethnicity, and nationality.

The Health Ministry of Kosovo directly supports the Art of Living's trauma relief efforts which have helped thousands of people including war veterans, prisoners, health workers, victims of war crimes, UN peace keeping forces, and children in Kosovo.

HH Sri Sri Ravi Shankar in dialogue with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri -al- Maliki during his three-day peace mission to Iraq in May 2007, undertaken at the invitation of the latter.

HH Sri Sri Ravi Shankar in discussion with Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa at Columbo in 2005. In his efforts to resolve the Sri Lankan crisis, HH Sri Sri Ravi Shankar has engaged the government, parliamentarians, Tamil leaders, and the general public, particularly the youth.

Thousands of people in Jaffna, Sri Lanka attended HH Sri Sri Ravi Shankar’s public program in 2005. HH Sri Sri Ravi Shankar was inundated with letters asking him to intervene to bring about peace in the lives of people in Sri Lanka.

HH Sri Sri Ravi Shankar with Kashmiri leaders during his visit to the state in 2006. The visit led to a rare dialogue between leaders of several Kashmiri separatist groups, including both factions of the All Party Hurriyat Conference, and representatives of Kashmiri Pandits.

Kashmiri children at the Art of Living International Centre in Bangalore, India. The children were previously staying in refugee camps, and have found a safe haven at the centre.

Women learn breathing techniques at an Art of Living trauma relief course in Plemetina Camp, Kosovo. The 105 participants, mostly Albanians, Serbs and Roma people, were also suffering from severe post-war trauma.

HH Sri Sri Ravi Shankar leads a worldwide network of volunteers to bring immediate relief, and long term rehabilitation to people affected by disasters. The Art of Living has implemented disaster management, and trauma relief initiatives for affected people in the aftermath of almost every major disaster in the world, including most recently:

• Bihar, and Assam floods, India (2007)

• Virginia Tech Campus shootings, USA (April 2007)

• Vidarbha farmer suicides, India (2007)

• Surat floods, India (August 2006)

• Lebanon war (July 2006)

• Mumbai train blast, India (July 2006)

• Kashmir & Pakistan earthquake (October 2005)

• Hurricane Katrina, USA (August 2005)

• Mumbai floods, India (July 2005)

• Gujarat floods, India (June 2005)

• Indian Ocean tsunami, India/Sri Lanka (December 2004)

• London subway blast, United Kingdom (July 2005)

• Beslan school hostage crisis, Russia (September 2004)

• Madrid train attack, Spain (March 2004)

• Iraq War (ongoing, 2003)

• Bam earthquake, Iran (December 2003)

• Jakarta floods, Indonesia (February 2007 & January 2002)

• River Elbe floods, Germany (August 2002)

• Gujarat riots, India (2002)

• Kosovo conflict (2002)

• Afghanistan War (October 2001, ongoing)

• 9/11 terror attack, USA (September 2001)

• Gujarat earthquake, India (January 2001)

• Orissa cyclone, India (October 1999)

HH Sri Sri Ravi Shankar consoles the victims of the December 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami in Nagapattinam. This coastal town in Tamil Nadu, India was among the worst affected areas.

The Art of Living conducted trauma relief programs for army personnel (involved in rescue operations), families, children and school teachers in the aftermath of the Beslan school hostage crisis.

Art of Living volunteers provide emergency relief in remote areas of Assam,and Bihar in the September 2007 floods.

Through grassroots initiatives, the Art of Living has empowered rural communities to become partners in the process of sustainable development.

5H PROGRAM

HH Sri Sri Ravi Shankar started the 5H Program (Homes, Hygiene, Health, Harmony in Diversity and Human Values) in 1997 to engineer a socio-economic transformation that will eradicate poverty, misery, disease, and ensure peace and harmony among communities. The 5H program is implemented by rural youth trained under the Art of Living's Youth Leadership Training Program In India, 56,146 trained youth leaders are working in 32,000 villages The 5H projects are operating in villages and slums across Africa, Asia, and South America.

EDUCATION FOR THE MARGINALIZED

86 schools have been set up providing free education to 7,500 children every year in the tribal, rural and semi-urban belts of India, where child-labor, and poverty are widespread.

ADDRESSING FARMER SUICIDES

The Art of Living is pursuing a comprehensive program in the Vidarbha region of Maharashtra, where farmers have become suicidal due to successive crop failures, and mounting debts. Earlier statistics suggested that one farmer was committing suicide every eight hours. In the 308 villages where the Art of Living volunteers have worked so far, there has not been a single reported instance of suicide. Encouraged by the results, the Government of Maharashtra has requested HH Sri Sri Ravi Shankar to take up the work in all affected districts. The Vidarbha program focuses on:

• Building community support systems;

• Instilling confidence, and enthusiasm in farmers;

• Promoting alternative farming techniques such as organic farming ,and zero-budget farming, to improve the yield of crops in the long run;

• Rainwater harvesting; and

• Implementing the 5H program for overall self-sufficiency in villages.

WOMEN'S EMPOWERMENT

HH Sri Sri Ravi Shankar has inspired numerous initiatives to uplift, and create opportunities for women, especially in rural areas. He has initiated mass campaigns against female foeticide. With female literacy rates abysmally low in some parts of the world, the Art of Living rural schools encourage parents to send girl children to school. At one such school on the outskirts of Bangalore city, 50 per cent of the children are girls, with the numbers rising every year.

Women are given vocational training to reduce economic dependencies, and are given free homes registered in their names. Health education for women covers nutrition, hygiene, and disease prevention, while self-development courses help to instill inner confidence.

Over 25 million people from all walks of life have benefited from Art of Living workshops world-wide.

The Art of Living programs eliminate stress, create a sense of well being, restore human values, and encourage people to come together in a spirit of service and celebration.

More than 200,000 inmates in jails around the world have been provided an opportunity for serious rehabilitation through the Art of Living prison programs.

“A disease-free body, a stress-free mind, and a violence-free society are the birth right sof every individual,” says HH Sri Sri Ravi Shankar. He has designed a myriad of self-development programs to release stress, create a sense of well being, restore human values and encourage people from all walks of life to come together in a spirit of service and celebration.

SUDARSHAN KRIYA

The Sudarshan Kriya, a powerful breathing technique cognized by HH Sri Sri Ravi Shankar forms the cornerstone of a diverse range of self-development programs catering to all sections of society. Customized courses are available for executives, youth, military, children, and villagers. Special programs have been designed for prisoners and individuals with drug, and alcohol dependencies.

Independent medical research from reputed institutions such as the NIMHANS (National Institute of Mental Health And Neuro Sciences), AIIMS (All India Institute of Medical Sciences) have documented the benefits of the Sudarshan Kriya, including:

• alleviation of depression

• heightened awareness, and enhanced brain activity

• reduced cortisol levels (stress hormone); and

• improvements in the blood cholesterol profile, with significant drops in total cholesterol, and LDL (harmful) cholesterol, and increases in HDL (beneficial) cholesterol.

• strengthened immune system

PRISONER REHABILITATION

Since 1990, over 200,000 prisoners in India, USA, South Africa, Denmark, Cameroon, UAE, Serbia, Argentina, UK, Argentina, and Russia have been provided the opportunity to reform themselves and break the cycles of violence, guilt and self blame through the Art of Living program. In Denmark, the nation's judicial system recognizes the effectiveness of the course, and sends juvenile offenders to undergo the Art of Living program in lieu of jails.

In India, 100,000 inmates, including terrorists, in over 100 jails have been provided an opportunity for serious rehabilitation through the Art of Living Foundation. To provide a more holistic rehabilitative intervention, HH Sri Sri Ravi Shankar has also initiated recreational, and vocational opportunities such as theatre, music ,and dance workshops, and vocational training for inmates. In cooperation with the jail authorities, production units have been started in select jails.

DE-ADDICTION

HH Sri Sri Ravi Shankar has initiated programs to help people come out of drugs, alcohol, and substance dependencies which have been highly effective in USA, India, Mongolia, and Bahrain. In India, de-addiction centres are operating in West Bengal, Punjab, Delhi, Kolkata, Kashmir, and Himachal Pradesh. Thanks to the education imparted by the 5H program, thousands of villagers have given up alcohol, and other addictions, bringing down incidence of domestic violence.