On Saturday, September 17th, Yoga Gives Back will host its first global fundraiser Thank You Mother India . The event, which will raise support for destitute women and girls in India, is an international affair. So far, over 50 yoga centers worldwide have signed up to host community classes benefiting Yoga Gives Back (YGB). I’m excited to lead an open level class at Yoga Sutra NYC in Manhattan at 4:00pm that day.
1 This is Gayathri, a lovely girl from the Deenabandhu Trust. My friend Kumiko and I hosted 2 community classes to raise over 1 year of sponsorship funds ($500) for her education, housing, food, and extracurricular activities for YGB.
2 This beautiful woman is Jayashree, who's benefited greatly from micro financing. Thanks to an additional donation from YGB, her elder son is now able to attend medical school.
3 YGB is working to increase the number of girls sponsored at Deenabandhu. Here I am with Megha, who I have sponsored since 2008 ($500/year)
4 Kayoko filming Deenabandhu founder Mr. G.S. Jayadev during our November of 2010 visit.
5 Women participating in NISHTA's vocational training group in West Bengal.
Yoga Gives Back is a grassroots organization for which I’m honored to be an ambassador. Our mission is to mobilize the global yoga community to empower women in India to build sustainable livelihoods. We do so through micro-credit programs (by supporting micro financing institutions in India partnered with Grameen Foundation, Nobel Peace Prize recipient Dr. Muhamme Yunus’ International Organization), and also through carefully managed, direct donations. While my involvement as an ambassador began in November of 2010, I first befriended YGB’s co-founder Kayoko Mitsumatsu shortly after the organization was created in 2007. It’s been inspiring to see how much YGB has grown in such a short amount of time. In the first six months of 2011, YGB raised more than we did in all of 2010!
During my last trip to India in November of 2010, I visited YGB’s projects in Bangalore and then brought Kayoko and YGB team members Steven Woodruff, Jason Chang, and Bangalore based Anand Varadaraj to the Deenabandhu Trust Children’s Home, an orphanage in the rural Chamarajanagar district of Karnataka that I’ve worked with since August of 2006. Deenabandhu, which was founded by one of my great teachers in life, Mr. G.S. Jayadev, is truly a model organization. The YGB team was so impressed that they were eager to generate support for Deenabandhu’s girls, as well as the destitute women who work there (all of whom have children living at the orphanage).
Since that journey, YGB members joined heads to create our “Sister Aid” program. This program not only raises support for Deenabandhu, but also for women and girls in West Bengal through a partnership with a wonderful NGO called NISHTA. Another dear friend of mine named Barbara Piner, who founded American Service to India (ASTI) in the 1980s, has worked closely with NISHTA for many years. We are all so grateful to work together to help women throughout India, one at a time.
To find out more about Yoga Gives Back’s empowering work, please visit www.yogagivesback.org. Likewise, you can read about my journey to YGB micro financing recipient Jayashree’s house last November here.
Additionally, it’s still possible to host a class to benefit YGB on or around September 17!
Please find out more/sign up at http://www.yogagivesback.org/tymi.php
Likewise, you can find out if there’s a Thank You Mother India day YGB class near you.
Every dollar makes a difference!
Stay tuned: I’m headed back to India in just under a month to visit Deenabandhu.…
Sophie Herbert is an alignment focused yoga teacher (and perpetual student), a singer-songwriter, and a visual artist. She has lived, studied, and volunteered extensively in India; teaches yoga in Brooklyn and Manhattan; and recently released her first full-length album, "Take a Clear Look." Please visit her website at SophieHerbert.com.
From: Leslie Hendry | 8/30/11 at 1:19 pm
Great article. Thanks for illustrating how anyone can connect for a common good and make a difference in someone's life. It's also so important to hear testimonials from people who have reached out and visited the places and people who utilize the funds. Many times our larger organizations have a to organize at such different levels, but here with Yoga Gives Back, it's possible to see what developments are happening in such a short time.
thanks for sharing!!
From: A Letter From South India: Yoga On and Off the Mat | | 10/15/11 at 3:58 am
[...] the next few weeks, I’m eager to share stories from the orphanage, in particular how Yoga Gives Back has assisted some of the women and girls there over the past 9 months. There will be more cooking [...]