Shanti Uganda is a project that I am seriously excited about! The women that started this project are deeply committed to the vision of yoga as a healing tool and are doing wonderful work to spread the love and peace (shanti) of the practice. If you happen to be here in the Portland area I currently teach a weekly class to raise money for the project and I will be traveling to Uganda this winter to volunteer with the project for a few months. Class schedule here.

(Excerpt from site)
The Shanti Uganda Society began with a vision to bring the healing power of yoga to communities experiencing trauma in Uganda. Kim Ridgewell and Natalie Angell began to discuss ways to make this vision a reality and with the support of friends and family created ‘Shanti Uganda’. In 2007, Natalie left for Uganda and worked at a local school, began a yoga program for children and supported birthing women at a health clinic. Here, she met Lubwama Julius, who was a teacher at the school. Over the next year they began to support additional schools in the region and an income generating group for women with HIV/AIDS. The Shanti Uganda Society incorporated in 2008.

Shanti is a Sanskrit word meaning peace. It reflects the belief that peace begins within. In order for communities to develop a greater sense of solidarity and unity, they must first allow themselves to heal from within and act from a place of love and compassion.

Two years ago my dear friend Ryan from One Yoga in Saskatoon brought me to a 3-day workshop with Reverend Father Joe Pereira while he was visiting Toronto. To this day that workshop is one of the most vivid examples I have ever had of the true transformative peace that can come from a yoga practice. Fr. Joe is a senior Iyengar teacher and a good friend and colleague of Mr. Iyengar and he worked alongside Mother Teresa for many years in India. Fr. Joe is the founder of the Kripa Foundation where he works to treat HIV patients and people recovering from chemical dependencies.

Kripa Foundation is the largest NGO in India, affiliated with the Union Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment, working among people afflicted with chemical dependency & HIV Infection. Kripa Foundation has become a module of non-discriminating, supportive community living, empowering people to introspect and bring about a change in lifestyle. Kripa’s strength lies in the eastern disciplines and facilitating lifestyle change, which it propagates in all its centers as Basic Therapy to cope with life’s stresses including addiction, which is an outward manifestation of the turmoil within an individual.  It is this inner healing which is enabling Kripa to realize its dream of becoming a global presence.