A Non Governmental Association that sees Yoga as a bridge to learning
Our aim is to enrich the school curriculum with the principles of Yoga. We give Yoga lessons at different schools, school support centres, hospitals, communal dining-rooms and children’s homes, as well as trainings for teachers, parents and health professionals.
Yoga promotes children’s self-value
How was this project born and grown?
It began as a trial project in a public school (Escuela N° 25) of a poor neighbourhood in San Isidro, in the Northern suburbs of Buenos Aires, Argentina. Due to its positive impact, it extended over time. More than ten years have gone by since those first steps. Today , more than 300 youngsters receive yoga and meditation lessons every week at different community centres in Argentina who have opened their doors to this wonderful discipline, thereby proving the efficiency of its practice:
- Support centre “La Casita” in Rincón de Milberg, Tigre, Buenos Aires Province
- Communal dining-room “La Binca” in Boulogne, San Isidro, Buenos Aires Province
- «Dr Notti Hospital», centre of terciary Health Care for Children in Mendoza Province
- Communal dining-room “Mis Pimpollos”, Córdoba City, Córdoba Province
Several other institutions have contacted us asking for yoga for their children. They are on a waiting list until we raise the funds to support both material and human resources.
What is Yoga?
Yoga is a path to deep inner self-knowledge. It is usually associated with body postures, but Yoga is much more than that. In fact, there are many different ways to apply its teachings. One of them is to provide the student with tools for self-discovery in order to uncover strengths and learn to see difficulties as opportunities for personal growth.
Why is Yoga beneficial for children?
In youth population, anxiety and depression are pervasive problems. Approximately 4.4 million children between the ages of 3 and 17 years have been diagnosed with anxiety and 1.9 million have clinical depression. (Ghandour et al., 2018).
Learning yoga provides tools that help develop soft skills such as creativity, empathy, compassion, self-worth and communication. These not only improve children’s academic performance but help reduce anxiety and depression and serve as life tools for the future.
Yoga in the Pediatric Oncology Population
Although survival rates for pediatric cancer have improved, there is still a need to enhance the health-related quality of life (HRQL) for children and adolescents. Negative physical and psychosocial effects from cancer diagnosis and treatment impact HRQL during and after treatment. Fardell et al. (2017) found that HRQL was significantly reduced among children with acute lymphocytic leukemia (ALL) during and after treatment, particularly in the physical and emotional domains. Danhauer et al. (2017) found that yoga can alleviate the effects of cancer and treatments and promote personal control over physical, emotional, and spiritual health.
We are implementing our Yoga Program at the Pediatric Oncology section in a centre of terciary Health Care for Children in Mendoza, and raising funds to extend the program to all pediatric patients at the hospital.
Yoga Teacher Training at Prison
Many incarcerated individuals have a history of complex trauma, which leads to harmful behaviors towards themselves and others. Addressing this trauma is crucial for rehabilitation.
This year, we will train 12 inmates at Penal N°47 in San Martín, Buenos Aires province, in Yoga for Kids. Our goals are to:
- Enhance the inmates’ bond with their children
- Aid in healing their own childhood trauma
- Provide them with the opportunity to work as yoga instructors for our NGO after their release from prison.
How does Yoga en la escuela contribute to the community?
- Yoga en la Escuela promotes peace, health and well-being, helps the healing of trauma and prevents violence, crime, addictions and social-economic difficulties.
- It is generally aimed at kids from broken families with lack of resources, as the communities we work in are usually slums and poor neighbourhoods.
- Its practice seeks to reinforce the public educational system, helping children increase their opportunities for personal growth and prospects for the future.
- Yoga instructors work as tutors who promote the development of intra and interpersonal skills in the child. This is done through the recognition and exploration of body and mind.
- Children are guided by means of stories, songs and games to a series of activities that allow multisensory development and contact with the mysterious inner world.
- This discipline possesses many tools that blend perfectly with the school system, assisting and enriching it; tools which can then be carried through to daily life and the work environment, thereby contributing to a better world.
Do you wish to sponsor Yoga en la escuela?
Thanks to the donations of our sponsors and the fund-raising events we organise, more and more children are benefitting from the tools Yoga can provide for a better future. The money donated will go to fund equipment for the new centres and help keep up those already working.
