OBITUARY

Rev. Amrita Dhammika, M.Ed., M.Phil., priest of the Order of Amida Buddha, 1955–2006, spent her life working for the destitute, the sick, and for animals.

She was born as Linda June Dolan in Eccles, Manchester on 30^th June 1955. She died on Sunday 26th March 2006 at 11am local time in Zambia where she was overtaken by an asthma attack during a humanitarian mission. She leaves a husband, adopted daughter, elderly mother, and one brother.

Her most important work was done in Africa where she was universally known as Linda. However, she also did significant work in Thailand and Sri Lanka. Her mission culminated in the foundation of the Tithandizane Primary Health Care Project at Kamulaza in Eastern Province, Zambia, which she built up from nothing to a thriving centre serving 72 villages. For this centre, the senior chief Nzamane IV made available 5 hectare of land. Grants were found from a variety of charitable foundations. A team of Zambian people was assembled. Local villages made bricks and contributed labour and five buildings were constructed. The centre provides medical care, training, counselling and a variety of community services.

Linda trained and worked as a laboratory technician then as a teacher, obtaining a B.Ed. in 1978. She went to Nigeria on V.S.O. from 1981 to 1983 and was deeply affected by the disease and destitution she encountered there. She saw the importance of primary health care and community involvement to empower people to take control of their own welfare. In 1985 she worked at Balaka Leprosy Hospital in Malawi. In 1986-7, back in UK, she worked as a community worker with the elderly in Salford. From 1988 her work focussed on Zambia. There she married Jack Edwards on 30th March 1994 and adopted her daughter Perry, who was born on 29th April1989.

She became a Buddhist, adopting the name Dhammika, early in her adult life, inspired by the Theravada monks, Ven. Bodhidhamma and Ven. Kassapa. She was, for many years, Projects Officer for the International Buddhist Relief Organization under Ven Kassapa’s patronage. In 1998 she met Dharmavidya David Brazier, a Pureland Buddhist priest. In the July of that year she took vows with him and became a member of the Order of Amida Buddha. In 2004 she received a further ordination becoming a chaplain in that order. In this capacity she conducted marriages and funerals, offered spiritual counselling, education and other support to the local people in Zambia. IBRO and Amida Trust supported her. She also received assistance from a number of other religious and secular welfare organizations including the Beit Trust, The Lions, St Albans School, Rotary, Pax Christie, Amaravati Monastery, the Canadian Government, and many others.

Amrita Dhammika’s Buddhism took particular shape in an intense concern for animals. She was a strong campaigner for vegetarianism, cared for animals wherever she went, was not averse to sharing her living accommodation with adopted baboons or other rescued creatures, and was, throughout her life, a walking example of kindness and harmony between species.

In addition to the founding of the Tithandizane Centre, she, in 1993, began the first rural self-help group for HIV positive people in Zambia, in 1996, a free nursery school in Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania, in 1996 worked to help AIDS victims in Thailand, and in January 2005, she, a Buddhist, travelled with a Moslem friend to northern Sri Lanka to help Hindu victims of the tsunami in a demonstration of inter-faith solidarity. In Africa, she organised projects to create bore holes in rural areas, conducted immunization, dental, eye care, family planning, and health information campaigns, distributed famine relief, effected improvements in nutrition, sanitation and education including introducing craft training workshops, and introduced beneficial crops. In 2001, on the 150th anniversary of the founding of Manchester University, she was awarded the John Owens Award for her outstanding work in Africa.

She was remarkable for the extent and intensity of her concern for her fellow creatures, which she attributed above all to the love shown her by her grandmother and the inspiration she received from her religion. She was a forceful personality, innocent, imaginative and deeply caring. Her achievements will be long remembered especially in her adopted land.