Halo Gaia -HOLISTIC TOURISM in South Africa & Mozambique

COMMUNITY YOGA IN AFRICA

There is an amazing programme being developed in South Africa at the moment to help children deal with the crises of their times including extreme poverty, high rates of abuse, death of caregivers and displacement.

20,000 Drums conducts workshops in schools and communities using positive poetry and African drumming and Little Gurus teaches children in schools and orphanages yogic techniques that are fun and increase body awareness. Together they have formed Beats and Breathing, a programme that aims to improve health and fitness, to increase a child's awareness of safety, security and engender a sense of self, and to build leadership, motivation and discipline.

TWENTY THOUSAND DRUMS and LITTLE GURUS in partnership have created a
BEATS AND BREATHING FOR HEALING initiative to implement in
schools in South Africa.

Due to the present teaching situation, which is in a state of crisis, we are providing two experiential and participatory activities, which give children tools to help them develop self-confidence, self-respect, and self-discipline. Learners need to be exposed to various art forms in order to make informed choices, which in turn create changes in attitude and builds a more civil society.

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By Oriana Levin
“Children are naturally radiant, aware, and full of innocent wisdom. Yoga helps them maintain their natural radiance, or if their light has been dulled by events in their lives, it helps them regain their inherent state of being.” - Shakta Kaur Khalsa

Rena Le Lona is a special place. Located in Diepkloof on the edge of
Soweto, Rena Le Lona literally means: “We are with you.” Rena Le Lona acts as a place of refuge for some 60 orphans, aged 6-16 who have lost their parents to AIDS. Rena Le Lona’s mission is to help the orphans meet intellectual, physical, emotional and spiritual needs; essentials that a society would normally render to its children. This stems from the conviction, that by helping a child meet their needs holistically, one is in fact providing them with a springboard from which they are equipped to lead more meaningful and fulfilled lives.

The centre’s director and co-founder, Michelle Friedman expresses that: “The greatest need that these children have is a spiritual need. They have a need for meaning to understand what has happened to them. They have a need to belong. They have a need to feel their own sense of inner power … Yoga will do this.”

The centre offers the children a range of after-school creative activities such as Yoga, art, drama, music and dance. The focus is on creativity because the centre advocates that it is through creativity that children are allowed to explore both their positive and painful experiences in ways that are necessary and unique to them. In the process, they learn to integrate their emotions whilst simultaneously developing their imaginations.

Imagination here is seen as a crucial tool in a child’s development, because it assists children to generate their own ideas, to work with others and to ultimately visualize and thus create their own futures.

Rena Le Lona’s approach is particularly beneficial. The establishments meets the children’s needs on a basic level by providing them with a safe space of belonging and a healthy balanced meal upon arrival from school (which for many of them is their first, if not the only meal of the day). Moreover, both the children’s emotional and spiritual, “higher order” needs towards the realisation of their full potentials are also cultivated.

Coming predominantly from structurally disadvantaged backgrounds, most of the children welcomed by the centre live in conditions of poverty and lack access to basic resources. Due to their vulnerable status, many of them are prone to exposure to violence, child abuse and the misuse of drugs and alcohol. The orphans either live with elderly grandparents, community or extended family members. Some of them run their own households. It is Rena Le Lona’s hope that with the support of teachers, funding and other resources, that Yoga can be practiced by the centre’s staff and the children’s care takers as a means of stress management and holistic healing for the community at large.