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Bridge Of Diamonds is organizing ongoing trips to Haiti and is looking for volunteers to teach yoga to children there. The dates of the next trips are as follows:
Bridge of Diamonds Haiti Mission: A Need for YogaBy Stephanie Medlock
When Don Wenig, owner and founder of Dancing Feet Yoga in La Porte, Indiana, arrived in Haiti for his second visit this past August, he found a country still in complete disarray. According to a New York Times report, eighteen months after the earthquake that devastated the country and left more than 250,000 people dead, more than 634,000 people still live in displacement camps, and reconstruction of the leveled Port au Prince and other towns has barely begun. Life in many of the tent cities has grown more dangerous for the residents, particularly women and children. Outbreaks of cholera earlier this year added to the suffering, along with rioting and looting.
Given the problems facing the Haitian population, why was Wenig convinced that yoga would be valuable to the thousands of homeless children and adults who struggle daily to get enough to eat?
Wenig and a group of eight volunteers flew to Haiti with several goals.
“We have been working with two organizations outside of Port of Prince, Partners in Development (PID) and the Haitian American Caucus (HAC),” he said. “Our first goal involved assisting HAC with a Teachers Summer Institute. We pledged to help them train teachers to incorporate yoga into their classroom instruction. Our second goal was to share the fun and benefits of yoga with more children. They radiated joy, self-empowerment and gratitude, to be able to let go of their stress for a little while.
The third goal is to establish a more permanent self-sustaining presence in the country, so that local teachers can earn some extra money and continue the work with children in their communities.”
“They have nothing, and school is not even an option for so many children,” Wenig said. “Through both of our partner organizations we can now reach children who are fortunate enough to afford an education, as well as those whose needs are not getting met. The teachers were very eager and excited to get our materials.”
Martha Clemons, one of the eight international volunteers who paid their own way to Haiti to teach yoga to various groups of students, stressed how poor the educational system was. “I think any group working with these kids needs to focus on educating them,” she said. “We used a large world map and most could not find where Haiti was on it. The land of Haiti has largely been stripped and resources mismanaged. The children suffer that mismanagement everyday.”
Although she was distressed at the level of poverty she saw around her, Martha was equally impressed with the ebullience of the people. “I have never experienced such a resilient culture. People have nothing and yet they seem happy, hopeful and full of love.”
Wenig was reminded of the country’s lack of infrastructure as he planned for the trip. He purchased a camping tent, which he set up on the second floor of the concrete HAC building. The building had bathrooms with showers, but the tent became his little apartment.
Fifty-seven teachers signed up to take an afternoon introductory workshop. None of them had ever been exposed to yoga and were curious and open-minded. In four hours he taught them some yoga basics, focusing on the value of using these tools to support the self-empowerment of their students and to relieve their own stress. Out of twent-five individuals who applied to return and take the advanced three-day program, Wenig selected fifteen of the most passionate teachers and orphanage workers who welcomed the opportunity to integrate this new approach in their classrooms.
Wenig did all of this with an interpreter who spoke French and Creole. Meanwhile the other volunteers taught yoga directly to the children who were transported by PID and HAC to attend daily classes.
“Our volunteers were totally amazed at how quickly and enthusiastically the children took to yoga. Yoga is not part of the culture in Haiti, and we had to reassure a handful of adults that it was not a cult, a devil worship, or a religion.”
Bridge of Diamonds volunteer Belem Acosta, a speech therapist from Houston, Texas, said she thought she was prepared for poverty before her trip to Haiti because she had done previous missions to Africa and Ecuador.
“This is an entirely different level of poverty,” she said. “I had never been in an area where masses of people did not have access to clean water and lived under tarps. Some of the children from the tent city had not drunk water in days when they arrived for their yoga lesson. They wanted water more than anything.”
Belem fell in love with the children – and the Haitian people in general. “They’re great. They are so limited in what they can do. There seems to be little employment – although there is some, and not enough homes are being rebuilt.”
Given this stagnancy, the opportunity to let go, have fun, stretch and breathe, release their stress, read, draw, share their stories and have a meal was beyond the everyday hopes of the children. “We did yoga outside on a concrete patio area in the PID camp,” she recalls. “The younger children in the morning and the older children in the afternoon. They were so open to this and when we weren’t doing yoga, I played with the children, who were hungry for the personal contact and attention.” Belem plans to return. “My first day in Haiti I thought I might not last the week. It was so hot. I asked myself, could I deal with this? But I soon adjusted. And then I fell in love – with the children and the people. I owe it to the children to go back. I have to go.”
Bridge
Of Diamonds is organizing ongoing trips to Haiti and is looking for
volunteers to teach yoga to children there. The dates of the next trips
are as follows:
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“We found that the children live an incredibly stressful life. They
have to fight for everything,” Wenig said. “Yoga allows them to reduce
their stress, to center themselves, to become calm. Having a yoga mat
and space of their own was a luxury their day-to-day life doesn’t
provide. It’s also a great educational approach that the kids loved.
They were incredibly open to the experience. It was a blessing and honor
to be able to “play” with them and the adult Haitian teachers who also
took part in our program. ”
The Yoga Kids organization has a well-developed format for teaching
yoga to elementary school children. Known as Tools for Schools, it
provides teachers with a toolbox of classroom lessons, exercises, poses,
and suggestions for incorporating yoga into the school setting. Bridge
of Diamonds, the nonprofit organization developed by Dancing Feet Yoga
and YogaKids International, is providing these tools to Haitian teachers
for free, to help them establish yoga practices in the under-funded and
often makeshift school buildings in which they work.
“While I loved the actual teaching of yoga to the kids, it was
important to begin to set up a process to teach others to do this. The
Haitian American Caucus (HAC) in Crois des Bouquets (a community outside
Port au Prince known for their beautiful metal work) was sponsoring a
summer enrichment program for 57 area teachers. They picked everyone up,
fed them, and taught them a range of teaching strategies. I worked with
Cory Gifford, acting director of HAC who helped plan the TSI. She had
added a stress management component to the training and I helped lead
that with her. “|
“This is a tremendously rewarding experience –one where you’ll never doubt that your efforts or your money are appreciated.” If you want more information about what is involved, please contact Lauren Rubenstein via email: LaurenRubenstein@aol.com and /or Voice: 301-656-9606 Mobile: 301-928-9606 |
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