About

Our Mission

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Insight World Aid (IWA) is a nonprofit organization rooted in the Insight Meditation (Vipassana) community, dedicated to alleviating suffering worldwide. Our mission is to provide volunteer services and resources to communities in distress across the globe. Since our founding in 2012, IWA has supported communities both in the United States and internationally, including in Burma, Cambodia, and Uganda.

Many in our communities live a daily experience of unnecessary, aggravated, and truly dire suffering. It’s estimated that across the United States 13.5% people are food insecure in 2023 and food insecurity reached highest point in 2024, almost 780,000 people are housing insecure in 2024 up 18% from year before, and 256,610 people are unhoused, living on the streets in 2024. [Source: National Alliance to End Homelessness]

Climate change is, and will only continue to, challenge the ability of the most vulnerable populations to access quality housing, food, healthcare and other vital resources. UNHCR stated that climate change caused 120 million forcibly displaced worldwide. And in US 2.5
million are displaced in 2023 and 50 million US residents are projected to become climate migrants in the coming decades according to First Street Foundation.

Insight World Aid emerges as an answer to the question: How might Buddhist Sanghas serve the urgent and unmet needs of our community, with the spirit of dignified and compassionate care? How do we care for our volunteers as they serve? Insight World Aid is at its organizational beginning, actively exploring these questions, and reaching out to other groups and individuals that are also responding to the call to serve.

We have a vision of a larger network of Buddhist communities, working together, learning from one another, to address the human suffering of our time with understanding, empathy, and a commitment to service. We would like to invite you to participate in the ongoing creation of Insight World Aid. We serve with the spirit of the bodhisattva. The needs of our communities are innumerable. We cannot meet them all. Yet, we try anyway. If not us, then who?

Grounded in 2,600-year-old Buddhist teachings, IWA brings services with mindfulness, loving-kindness, ethical conduct, compassion, wisdom, and equanimity for others as well as for ourselves.  IWA provides support as a secular entity to all regardless of nationality, ethnicity, gender, age, sexual orientation, or religion. 

Our services encompass addressing community needs related to hunger and environmental challenges, educating on climate change, and offering a unique program dedicated to alleviating burnout and stress among volunteers and caregivers who selflessly serve communities worldwide.

Our Charter

Humanitarian Services

Serve marginalized people and communities worldwide, where they are, as they are. IWA focuses on understanding the needs of marginalized people and communities, and co-develops services that are appropriate, sensitive, and meaningful.

Caring for Caregivers

Serve volunteers and caregivers who selflessly devote their time, energy, and attention to all forms and types of service.

    IWA Values

    Heading of Insight World Aid, being held up by 8 columns, which are: equity, community, enrichment, collaboration, care, compassion, education, and diversity

    EQUITY: We are dedicated to ensuring equal access to our volunteers and partners for all, while prioritizing systemically excluded and underrepresented communities and empowering and amplifying their voices.

    COMMUNITY: We focus and prioritize the benefits to our extended communities in all our programs and decisions. Supporting our communities is of utmost importance to us.

    ENRICHMENT: We are delighted to provide rewarding and engaging experiences for our volunteers, partners and overall community.

    COLLABORATION: We cherish the beauty of collaboration within our community, inspiring collective efforts that foster meaningful change for the benefit of all.

    CARE: Our foremost commitment to the world is compassionate care, meeting distressed communities where they are and extending our services with love and empathy, fostering mutual well-being.

    COMPASSION: We bring our actions with utmost compassion for all beings, and we support and encourage our volunteers and partners to prioritize self-compassion and self-kindness.

    EDUCATION/LEARNING: We are committed to offering a meaningful and impactful platform where volunteers can contribute, share, grow, and discover a deeper sense of purpose.

    DIVERSITY: We are committed to inclusion in everything we do, and we celebrate the power of diversity to harmonize our global community.