It is with great joy that I write this letter to inform you that The Great Balance (TGB) has reached a new stage of development. We are registered as an NGO, 501 (c) (3) nonprofit in the State of New York, with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). This allows all contributions made to The Great Balance to be fully tax deductible in the US. We are also qualified to receive legacies, inheritances, transfers and donations, all tax deductible. Since January 2018 we are also legally registered as an NGO in Bogotá, Colombia, with the Chamber of Commerce, the Bank of the Republic and the DIAN.
To reflect the spiritual and physical nature of The Great Balance, we have established a spiritual council composed of several Mamos (spiritual leaders of the Arhuaco tribe in Colombia).
Starting this year, TGB has a new board of directors, due to the resignation of our dear friend Hamilton (Ham) Hayes as treasurer, and of our friend Gloria Harrison as vice president. Ham and Gloria continue to work actively, accompanying us in our work in the Sierra Nevada. The two vacant positions are currently occupied by Ruth Bernal and Susan Stanton, two friends who have worked with The Great Balance since its inception. You can find additional information about this new board of directors by visiting our website, www.thegreatbalance.org.
TGB’s mission has become stronger in promoting the finding of balance in all areas of life, between humanity and nature, and in the search and integration of the spiritual and material aspects of life. An important goal of The Great Balance is to restore harmony in the world by gathering feminine and masculine energies in our society and in each of us.
Our Circle of Dreams continues to expand as more people accept our invitation to be active members of our dreamers’ spiral. Thanks to this, today we have a select group of mentors and advisors who make up what we call the International Council of Advisers to TGB. Members of this council are experts in different disciplines. Our list of The Great Balance ambassadors has now been extended to nine countries and includes Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, England, Germany, Spain, the United States, and Uruguay. Through our work, The Great Balance has found other organizations as allies who also work to make our world more human and more authentic by responding to our call to be part of the foothold to change our individual and collective reality by inspiring a more harmonious and balanced world.
The largest and most important circle that constitutes the base of our organization has extended to more than 350 participants. This is how The Great Balance aims to fulfill one of its dreams: to be a global organization to balance our planet. We are getting there project by project, dream after dream.
In the Sierra Nevada of Santa Marta, Colombia, TGB has begun to clothe the Heart of the World with the project of One Million Trees of which Arhuaco children, their parents and teachers have already planted more than seven thousand in the basins of rivers and in eroded sites. The Great Balance thanks the The Pollination Project and the Sisters of St. Francis of Philadelphia organizations for providing the necessary resources for the different communities that have carried out this planting. Seeing the success of the project to heal its damaged world, new communities and Arhuaco groups are enthusiastically preparing their proposals to join the project.
In the field of health, I must mention the project of antivenoms to help those in the Kogi, Wiwa, Kankuamo and Arhuaco communities who have suffered accidental encounters with poisonous snakes. Thus far, we have saved the lives of seven people. Special mention and gratitude for her support of this initiative goes to Katherine Cross.
One of the biggest projects we are promoting has to do with a model education project for all the children of the Simonorwa center in the Arhuaco Resguardo. The main objective of the project is to create a unique education system designed by the members of the community which the project will serve. Teachers, Mamos, leaders and authorities have shared with us their ideas, dreams and concerns on how to educate their new generation of young people, making sure they continue with their traditions, customs and wisdom, for the future Mamos, and the traditional, bicultural and bilingual education for those children who decide to go to school. The proposed educational model will guarantee the education of authentic Arhuaco youth capable of maintaining and respecting their culture with pride and able to go on to higher education if they wish. The project of balancing this traditional education incorporating the two worlds is ambitious, expensive but innovative. It is designed to save the traditions and wisdom of an indigenous group that still keeps it almost intact. That is why I extend the invitation to work together to advance the projects of The Great Balance and help to restore the beauty and natural resources of Mother Earth by preparing leaders who will be able to take care of the balance of our planet and continue with the ancestral legacy of the Sierra Nevada. Let us work together to support this people and Mother Earth so that together we can fulfill the divine cosmic plan designed for her, for the Sierra and for humanity.
Thank you for being a part of The Great Balance and sharing our dreams.
Amanda Bernal-Carlo, President of The Great Balance Incorporated
Our Mission
The mission of The Great Balance is to promote authentic balance as a mechanism for social transformation, cultural understanding and personal and spiritual development. The Great Balance seeks ways to restore balance between humanity and nature, supporting the integration of the spiritual and material aspects of life. The Great Balance aims to restore harmony in the world by bringing together the feminine and masculine energies within each of us and in our society.
Our beneficiaries are individuals, groups, communities, organizations and institutions who are seeking to achieve attainable, realistic, functional and optimal balance in all walks of life. Our mission will be achieved by sponsoring and supporting educational, social, economic, and artistic projects and personal growth development, both nationally and internationally.
The journey of The Great Balance is to open the heart, to embrace Mother Earth and to listen from that deep place of inner rhythm and connection to the sacred I AM. From this sacred place within all, we invite you to join us in exploring the idea of Great Balance –what it means and how to facilitate its expression and embodiment in the world.
Our Vision
Our vision is based on an invitation to all of us to become leaders of The Great Balance initiative by working together to advance the mission of The Great Balance and help Mother Earth in restoring her beauty and natural resources. We are supporting Mother Earth so she is able to fulfill the divine cosmic plan designed for her and for humanity. By sharing our experiences, documenting our progress, noting where we have fallen short and identifying the challenges that lie ahead, The Great Balance can help us to travel toward a new humanity and a new world. The challenge of creating a sustainable balance is global and requires a global response. We believe that it begins with a simple idea: balancing ourselves to balance the world.