Over the years Ashtanga Yoga Malmö (Isabella) has been involved in volunteer work with organisations such as Project Air (yoga tuition of genocide survivors) and Odanadi (trustee 2010). Both organisations work for women’s (and children’s) rights in Rwanda and India respectively. You can read more about them by clicking on the links above.
In 2015 Ashtanga Yoga Malmö also arranged a fund raiser for Syrian refugees that contributed to the Swedish campaign “På Flykt” led by Radiohjälpen.
In 2016 Ashtanga Yoga Malmö teamed up with Yogashala Stockholm to help support the work of V-Care Mysuru (Vision for Culture, Arts, and Research Enhancement); a small NGO based in Mysore India. V-Care works for social change and the empowerment of girls and young children though cultural, arts and musical projects. The organisation is run by Kumudini, wife of Stanly who is the director of Odanadi (see above). Every school-year V-Care organises holiday camps for children from the poorest villages around Mysore. Through playful activities the children are trained in gender equality and respect. V-Care also helps children, mainly girls from the most vulnerable groups in society, to receive adequate schooling. Young women are also given vocational training in sewing etc. to be able to become self-sufficient.
In cooperation with Yogashala Stockholm we regularly arrange special fundraising events to raise awareness of and sponsor V-Care Mysuru and it’s work with children in caste-less communities in the outskirts of Mysore. Our planned planned events are to be found the events calendar. If you’re interested in knowing more or want to help/donate, please contact us. Read more about V-Care below.
V-CARE STANDS FOR 'VISION FOR CULTURE, ARTS AND RESEARCH ENHANCEMENT'
V-Care is a non-profit organisation based in Mysore that was founded in June 2009. It works to create a better world for children and young people in India and for them to grow up in a safe, secure and developing environment. V-Care offers education (basic and vocational), healthcare, personal development and cultural activities to specifically vulnerable groups at the margins of Indian society. V-Care’s also arranges summer camps for children from poor villages. The camps offer art, music and theatre classes through which the children are taught about equality, self-empowerment and respect. These camps have produced very positive results and the enthusiasm of the children has spread to the parents.
V-CARE'S FOCUS AREAS
- Education & work
- Establish schools and institutions to increase the self-sufficiency for the poorer groups
- Design and form intercultural exchange programs for social work, development and to combat human inequalities beyond all borders
- Run projects for leadership and personal development for young people
- Work to empower women and children
- Environment & health
- Work for communal harmony and support all efforts to achieve world peace
- Establish and promote mental health and counselling
- Address the health issues of women, children and youth
- Run a therapeutic centre with performing arts, yoga, meditation and adventure sports
- Promote environmentally friendly projects
- Art & culture
- Create a resource and research centre for sustainable development and art
- Encourage talents in the field of arts, sports, education and entrepreneurship
THE FOUNDER
The foundation's chairman is Dr. Kumudini Achchi, Assistant Professor and Social Worker at the Department of Social Work Studies at JSS College in Mysore. Kumundini is also a professional dancer. Kumudini and her husband Stanly are very passionate about helping the most vulnerable people in society and they are constantly working against dark forces in India. But despite the headwind they make a difference every day and they never give up.
OUR STORY
In the spring of 2010, Isabella became involved with the first Yoga Stops Traffick event ever organised in London in support of Odanadi, an anti-trafficking organisation based in Mysore India. The event of 108 sun salutations was held in several countries as well as in the square in front of the Mysore Palace. Through the event and people at Triyoga London, Isabella came into contact with the board of Odanadi UK and was selected a board member (a post she had to leave upon her move back to Sweden in the end of 2011). Since 2010 the Yoga Stops Traffick campaign has grown and each year yoga schools all over the world join the 108 sun salutations to raise funds for Odanadi.
When Isabella in 2012 travelled to Mysore, India, she visited the Odanadi headquarters and the orphanage where the young women and children rescued from trafficking get a refuge and rehabilitation. She met with the founders Stanly and Parashu and some of the children and has returned to visit every year she’s travelled to Mysore – sometimes teaching the children a yoga class or helping to create a permaculture garden to ensure the orphanage’s self-sufficiency in fruits and vegetables. She continued to raise funds in support of Odanadi through annual Yoga Stops Traffick events at the shalas in Lund and Malmö.
During a trip to Mysore in 2015 Stanley asked Isabella to begin supporting his wife Kumundini's organisation V-CARE. A year later during a joint stay in Mysore with Lisa Lalér from Yogashala Stockholm we decided to team up and support V-Care together. With the funds we’ve collected throughout the years we’ve been able to support schooling and help with homework for children from the untouchable cast in the suburbs of Mysore. The collected donations have paid for a teacher to teach the children in the villages. In order to get the children and parents motivated to come to the lessons, a nutritious meal has also been included on each occasion.
The funds collected have also helped hire a counsellor to identify children who are socially vulnerable in the local schools around Mysore in order to prevent abuse and trafficking. The children from the lowest castes often live in terrible misery and are often at risk of violence, abuse and trafficking. The houses in the villages where they live lack toilets and the needs are done in a nearby field. This means that children and young girls are exposed to great risks of being assaulted and raped every time they go to the toilet. In the “untouchables” village there are only small muddy roads and people are very isolated. V-Care puts in important efforts to create positive change for these people through knowledge, education, empowerment and hygiene. To help young women become self-sufficient V-Care empowers them through vocational training which minimises their vulnerability to being trafficked as maids or sex-slaves.
Even with small funds, we and all of Ashtanga Yoga Malmö and Yogashala Stockholm’s students continue to contribute to creating a future for these children and young people; a future that all children should have a right to. Your contributions at our regular yoga events, breakfasts and product sales are invaluable to keep V-Care’s important work running. Thank you for helping make a difference!