Beginning in 1987, Amma has founded charitable, not-for-profit organizations in many countries around the world, including Mata Amritanandamayi Math (MAM) in India, and M.A. Center in the United States. Best known for its massive homes-for-the-poor project, and as the leading nongovernmental provider of relief for Indian victims of the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami, MAM holds Special Consultative Status under the United Nations Economic and Social Council. In the United States, M.A. Center was a leading contributor to Hurricane Katrina Relief efforts and feeds 73,000 hungry Americans every year through soup kitchens in 40 cities across the nation. In Europe, M.A. Center Germany has worked with the European Commission to launch an international service-oriented youth movement.

Until now, Amma's volunteers around the world have carried out service projects through individual nonprofit organizations set up at the national level, each with its own name. This has sometimes made it difficult to engage the world at large as the global movement we truly are. We felt that a more accessible and universal identity was needed as an umbrella for all of Amma's charitable projects worldwide. So while these national nonprofit organizations are still intact, and retain their original names, Amma's charities worldwide are now known collectively as Embracing the World.

Our new name directly evokes Amma's unique vocation. Amma's embrace and her charitable projects are not compartmentalized. We chose this new name because we believe that it is this simplest of gestures - a mother's embrace - that has led to the international collective of charitable projects that makes up Embracing the World. This singular act of unconditional love, repeated day after day for the last 39 years, has become both catalyst and symbol for a movement that grows stronger with each passing day.