BOL Foundation
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BOL Foundation
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about us

What is BOL Foundation?

Bread of Life (BOL) Foundation is a registered and Indian government-approved interfaith and caste-free trust non-profit organization (NGO). 


We have successfully obtained trust registration under the Bombay Public Trusts Act, 1950 of Govt of India along with 12A and 80G Tax Exemption, as per the provisions of the Indian Income Tax Act, 1961. As our work matures, we will begin registration for foreign contributions aka FCRA. 


Trust Registration No: MH/AHM/E-1360

Trust Registration Date: 05 April 2022

Darpan Registration ID: MH/2022/0315738

12A Registration ID: AAETB7321DE20221 (From AY 2023-24 to AY 2025-2026)

80G Registration ID: AAETB7321DF20221 (From 22-06-2022 to AY 2025-2026 )

CSR1 Registration ID: CSR00044380


What is our mission statement?

We exist, “To offer the bread of life, by providing works of charity to address various forms of poverty within the society". 


What is our vision statement?  

“To allow people, to reach their ultimate fulfillment more fully and more easily.”


What are the objectives of the foundation?

The core objective of the B.O.L. foundation is to ‘exercise the works of mercy’ (Punyā kārya or Dayā kārya), by fulfilling physical and emotional needs of the poorest of the poor.

OUR OBJECTIVES

FULFILL PHYSICAL NEEDS OF THE POOR via SDG

Our objectives align closely with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) by addressing both physical and emotional needs through initiatives that promote health, education, justice, poverty reduction, and sustainable community development for the poorest of the poor.

Feed the Hungry - Zero Hunger

SDG-2

End hunger, achieve food security, improve nutrition for the poorest of the poor. 

Providing Drinking Water - Clean Water & Sanitation

SDG-6

Ensure availability and sustainable management of water for the poorest of the poor.

Clothing the Naked - No Poverty

SDG-1

End poverty in all its forms everywhere. 

Shelter the Homeless - Sustainable Cities & Communities

SDG-11

Ensure access to adequate, safe, and affordable housing for all. 

Visit the sick - Good Health & Well-being

SDG-3

Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all ages. 

Visit the imprisoned - Peace, Justice & Strong Institutions

SDG-16

Promote inclusive societies, provide access to justice, and humane treatment. 

Bury the dead - Dignity & Public Health

SDG-3/11

Promote dignity in death, safe burial practices, and respectful urban spaces. 


FULFILL EMOTIONAL NEEDS OF THE POOR via SDG

Our objectives align closely with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) by addressing both physical and emotional needs through initiatives that promote health, education, justice, poverty reduction, and sustainable community development for the poorest of the poor.

Counseling the doubtful - Mental Health & Education

SDG-3/4

Promote mental well-being, personal development, and access to guidance.

Instructing the uneducated - Quality Education

SDG-4

Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and lifelong learning. 

Admonishing the sinners - Peace, Justice & Strong Institutions

SDG-16

Promote peaceful societies, justice, and ethical behavior. 

Bearing wrongs patiently - Good Health and Well-being

SDG-3

Promote patience as a virtue, well being of the afflicted. 

Forgive offences - Peace, Justice & Strong Institutions

SDG-16

Foster reconciliation, peacebuilding, and restorative justice.

Comfort the afflicted - Good Health and Well-being

SDG-3

Promote health, well being of the afflicted. 

Praying for the living & dead - Solidarity & Global Cooperation

SDG-16/17

 Foster unity, solidarity, and collective efforts for global well-being. 

Our Impact

You have a right to know how we operate & what impact we bring through your help. We have pledged to be transparent to our benefactors. Transparency implies openness, communication, and accountability. We operate in such a way that it is easy for others to see what responsible actions are performed. 

Learn More

Works of Mercy

Empowering Communities with BOL Foundation

The core objective of the B.O.L. foundation is to ‘exercise the works of mercy’ (Punyā kārya or Dayā kārya), which are charitable actions by which the foundation comes to the aid of our neighbor in their bodily and spiritual necessities. The core objective is divided into seven corporal, and seven spiritual objectives.


Each of the below seven corporal works of mercy remedies a deficiency in our neighbor’s bodily need: 


  1. Feeding the hungry
  2. Giving drink to the thirsty
  3. Clothing the naked
  4. Sheltering the homeless
  5. Visiting the sick
  6. Visiting the imprisoned
  7. Burying the dead


Each of the below seven spiritual works of mercy remedies a deficiency in our neighbour’s spiritual need: 


  1. Counseling the doubtful
  2. Instructing the uneducated
  3. Admonishing the sinners
  4. Bearing wrongs patiently
  5. Forgiving offenses willingly
  6. Comforting the afflicted
  7. Praying for the living and the dead


 

The existence of the foundation is aimed to address the harsh reality of our neighbor’s misery anguished with extreme material, cultural, and spiritual poverty.

Under the patronage of the Noble Peace Laureate, St. Mother Teresa of Calcutta, the foundation strongly believes that “Service to mankind is service to God”. And thus, the B.O.L. foundation holds firmly, nearly, and dearly to its heart, the principle of common good.  The common good indicates “the sum total of social conditions which allow people, either as groups or as individuals, to reach their fulfillment more fully and more easily”. (CCC 1906). The B.O.L. foundation takes pragmatic steps to fulfill the common good of the society by recognizing that the indigent neighbor who is to be loved is everywhere and everyone in the “society” irrespective of caste, creed, color, culture, race, sex, etc. Hence, BOL Foundation is an equal opportunity organisation and will not allow discrimination based upon age, ethnicity, ancestry, gender, national origin, disability, race, size, religion, sexual orientation, socio-economic background, or any other status prohibited by applicable law. We are willing and are able to attest that we do not discriminate on any of the above grounds in order to provide resources from BOL Foundation.


The B.O.L. foundation will come to the aid of our neighbor in their bodily need, where he or she experiences, consistent lack of resources, whether internal (food, thirst), or external (cloth, shelter), or suffering (diseases, imprisonment and burial). Not only bodily, but human persons suffer deficiencies in their spiritual dimension too, to which the spiritual works of mercy respond, either by imploring the help of God (prayer), intervening by instructing or advising others (treats deficiencies through teaching, provide counseling), comforting (in suffering and sadness), or by reacting to the disorders of their action (admonishing, forgiving, bearing with them). The spiritual works of mercy are therefore more valuable than material aid, although there are situations in which the latter is more urgent (Noye, 1980).


All of the above works of mercy would be exercised and provided, without charge, to people regardless of their religion, gender, social caste, creed, color or nationality. These works of mercy will serve as a testimony of the preferential love for the Poor. It is needless to say that these works of mercy for the indigent are not an optional or an “extra”, but rather its very core, since “God shows the poor ‘his first mercy’” (Evangelli Gaudium, 198). 


This option and preferential love for the poor involves a perception and understanding of the different kinds of poverty to which the corporal and spiritual works of mercy refer. It can be observed that the listings of fourteen works of mercy – seven corporal and seven spiritual – corresponds to four kinds of poverty (Kasper, 2013):

  1. Physical, or economic poverty: The most basic, poverty of such as having no food, or drink to satisfy hunger and thirst, no roof, no clothes, no shelter, to which could be added unemployment and serious illness or disabilities. This poverty is attested to in the first four corporal works of mercy.
  2. Cultural poverty: Physical poverty is followed by cultural poverty, with illiteracy at its root, along with the absence and lack of education opportunities, and, ultimately, the lack of future with the social and cultural exclusions it carries. This poverty is met by the first three spiritual works of mercy,
  3. Social and relational poverty: This poverty stems from solitude and withdrawal, the death of a spouse, the death of family members and close friends, external and internal difficulties of social communication of all kinds, discrimination and marginalization, to isolation by imprisonment and exile. This poverty is addressed in the fifth, sixth, and seventh corporal works of mercy and the fifth and sixth spiritual works of mercy.
  4. Spiritual poverty: Spiritual poverty means disorientation, inner emptiness, distress, and even despair about the meaning of one’s own existence, moral and spiritual confusion, self-abandonment, the absence or marginalization of the religious dimension, apathy or overwhelming indifference. This poverty is attested in the sixth and seventh (comforting and prayer) spiritual works of mercy.


Obviously, the corporal and spiritual works of mercy need cross-fertilization to ensure that the indigent need not remain in a permanent state of dependency, but to progressively become a “help for self-help” (Kasper). Hence it is important to take comprehensive approach to the works of mercy that is cognizant of the different dimensions of poverty. Finally the B.O.L. foundation embraces the relationship between charity and justice: "When we attend to the needs of those in want, we give them what is theirs, not ours. More than performing works of mercy, we are paying a debt of justice..." CCC, 24 

Our historical timeline

The Bread of Life (BOL) Foundation came into existence as a result of a religious vision experienced by the founder Mr. Gaurav J Patole in the year 2012. This vision was so vivid, it left Gaurav in a state of awe and weeping. This life-changing encounter would then inaugurate and sow the seeds of the future BOL Foundation. As time went along, the foundation started shaping by the ardent support of Mr. Joseph J Patole, Mrs. Shobha J Patole, Mrs. Shruti G Patole, Mr. Amit Joseph Patole, & family. In 2012, BOL Foundation started working at the grass-root level for the poorest of the poor by serving them one-time meal & mineral water bottle. The 10-year discernment period of whether to officially register & form BOL Foundation completes, post a miraculous near-death experience by the founder Gaurav. The foundation got officially registered on April 5, 2022 and continues to work for the poorest of the poor in the thematic areas of Poverty, Hunger, Education, Health & Livelihood.

Our values

Altruism

Transparency

Altruism

The essence of care is selfless service; and such 'service to mankind is service to God'. We care for the poor and the vulnerable by practicing 'Preferential love of the poor'

Respect

Transparency

Altruism

All humans especially the neglected ones have the right to be treated with respect and dignity. So, we recognize that the thoughts, feelings, and backgrounds of others are as important as our own. 

Transparency

Transparency

Transparency

Transparency implies 100% openness, communication, and accountability. We operate in such a way that it is easy for others to see what responsible actions are performed.

Our CULTURE

Results-based

Diversity & Inclusion

Results-based

We prioritize achieving measurable results aka outcomes and goals above all else. We focus on delivering specific & quantifiable results that are aligned with our overall mission and objectives.

Integrity

Diversity & Inclusion

Results-based

 Integrity is within our DNA, which helps us to choose right actions and take right decisions even when no one is around us 

Diversity & Inclusion

Diversity & Inclusion

Diversity & Inclusion

 Diversity refers to our cultural trait and characteristics that make us unique and inclusion refers to the behaviors and social norms that ensure people feel welcome.

OUR RATINGS

It begins with charity and ends with justice, but from start to end it's an act of love.


Gaurav Joseph Patole | Founder

© 2022-2025 Bread of Life (BOL) Foundation. All Rights Reserved.

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