YOGA OUTREACH 2023
For the last ten years, Yoga Pura Vida has been spreading the teaching of Satyananda Yoga in Africa. It is present in Tanzania, Malawi, Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda and Sierra Leone. The projects reach out to: refugees of all ages living in the Dzaleka (Malawi) and Nakivale (Uganda) refugee camps; schooled and unschooled children; teenagers in cities, small villages and slums; children undergoing chemotherapy, autistic children, abused children, street children, and children in orphanages and schools; also elderly survivors of the Rwandan genocide, hospital caretakers, vulnerable adults, Muslim women living in very traditional Muslim communities, and other vulnerable communities and individuals. The other project coordinated by Sannyasi Dharmajyoti is the training of yoga teachers who will be able to teach yoga in their own community.
In 2023, free weekly yoga classes were held for homeless street youth at two alternating locations in Freetown, Sierra Leone. After each yoga session, participants receive a warm nutritious meal, and once a month they are visited by a mobile nurse. The classes are usually offered by a team of four yoga trainees; from April to June two, members of the team were at Ganga Darshan, Munger, for the two month Yogic Studies course. The remaining team members carried on offering classes in Freetown to inspire homeless street youth with free weekly yoga classes, followed by a music and poetry jam, and a warm nutritious meal.