On the spiritual path, the first step is selfless service. Through selfless service, one can realise the divinity that is all this creation

Sathya Sai Speaks Vol. 10, Ch. 32, November 20, 1970.

The community service activities of the SSIO are centered at the local center and community service is at very heart and soul of the organization.   These local Sathya Sai centers are distributed throughout the world. The service activities at the centres include providing food, clothing, school supplies, and daily provisions to the needy; building and repairing homes and community buildings; visiting old-age homes, prisons, and convalescent hospitals; mentoring needy students; and providing humanitarian relief to the victims of natural disasters such as hurricanes, floods, and earthquakes. 

SSIO volunteers serving food to the needy in mobile minivan in "We care, We share" program in Ottawa, Canada

Many Sathya Sai centres and groups maintain food banks that supply food and provisions to impoverished families on an ongoing basis. Inspired by Bhagawan Baba’s message, children and youth are also actively engaged in these service activities.  

The SSIO quietly and humbly spreads Bhagawan Baba’s universal message of pure love and selfless service through Sathya Sai centres and groups outside of India.  Members and the beneficiaries include people from different walks of life, ethnicities, faiths and nationalities. Baba’s message of “Serving Humanity” has been the guiding light for members of the SSIO resulting in the transformation of hearts of both the serving and the served. Even though volunteers in the SSIO perform these activites quietly, humbly and without seeking attention, in many countries, these noble and exemplary community service activities have won accolades and awards from the local and national government agencies.

Community Service in Cambodia

About 35 Sathya Sai volunteers from various countries served a low-income community of over 250 villagers in the Leangdoi Commune in Plong, Siem Reap, Cambodia..

SSIO volunteers serving children with disabilities in Ghana

Twenty-one Sathya Sai volunteers in Ghana visited the NOTC on 26th December 2014 to offer encouragement and loving advice to the children.