Astottara Sata Dasa, a native of Brunswick, Maine, USA, spent several years of his youth growing up at the ISKCON Gita Nagari Farm. Later, he graduated from Hampshire College and is currently a woodsman in the Maine woods.  This week, he will be sharing online about his extraordinary service and experiences in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Astottara Sata is the founder and president of Working Village International, a non-profit organization founded in 2005 with the mission of getting rural people out of poverty. In 2006 Asto started the Ruzizi Valley Project in the far Eastern part of the Democratic Republic of Congo. There his company built infrastructure, irrigation, and farms, primarily growing grains, which increased family incomes by a factor of ten, directly getting 10,000 families out of poverty by growing $30 million per year in crops on 15 thousand acres.

“In 2018, I turned over the project to 100% Congolese control,” Astottara Sata said, “Now in Maine, I am building a small unit of ideal community for my family, living simply and off-grid on 40 acres in the Maine forest, where I can chant Hare Krsna, raise my 4-year-old daughter, and see what Krsna has planned for me next.” 

To join the Zoom call on Thursday, June 22nd, 6:30 pm EDT, click here.

Photos of his work in Congo from start to finish can be seen here.