Yoga gets a community face

Donned in Maasai regalia and a blue African Yoga Project T-shirt, Jacob Parit, takes a yoga mat and starts with some simple moves.

He moves with the fluidity and skill of one who was born doing yoga as he follows the lead of Stanley Wangewa, the trainer for the day.

Parit comes from Amboseli where he trains his local community on the basics of yoga. He is a beneficiary of the Africa Yoga Project.
The sight of him and his colleague in their traditional gear shatters the misconception that yoga is only for the elite and the Asian community.

“Apart from Yoga, the Africa Yoga Project has sponsored my community and has also been working to empower women,” he says.

Wangewa starts a brief session, giving instruction pose after pose. Without missing a beat, Parit and his colleagues go through the moves without hesitation.

Wangewa, or Stano as he is referred to sometimes, is also a beneficiary of the Africa Yoga Project.

Empowerment

Started in 2007, the Africa Yoga Project is best known for the community Yoga classes it offers in the slums.

Working with street children, orphanages and other marginalised groups of the community, “we are creating tools for health and empowerment to everyone,” says the executive Director for the project, Paige Elenson.

Originally housed at the Sarakasi Dome, in Ngara, by the Sarakasi Trust, the community-based organisation has now found a new home at Diamond plaza.

If officially opened its new home, the Shine Centre, this week where it has two studios which can host up to thirty classes a week, with a free community class on Saturdays.

The Africa yoga project is a community based organisation that has been working with people across the country to uplift their living and has trained over 70 yoga teacher, to enable them to earn a living.

With such a large number of instructors, the paid classes at the shine centre cannot accommodate all of them, to get the employment.

“We find them jobs at yoga centres and pair them up with people who want private instructors,” explains Billy Sadia, the development director for the Project.

The community trainers are also paired with international mentors who sponsor $135 (Sh11,610) per month, for a year, to facilitate the free classes offered in their localities.

Growing up in Kangemi, Wangewa, 26, was an acrobat and would train at Aboretum gardens when he wasn’t up to his “junkie ways”.

Five years ago, he met Elenson of the Africa Yoga project who introduced him to the art. He is now a community trainer and role model.

“Yoga brings connection, even in acrobatics,” he says. The improved limb movement allows him to move with ease and agility. Coming from a life marred with drug use, he attributes his improved outlook on life and his steady income as a trainer all to yoga.

“It helps you focus,” he explains.

Focused

Sadia, originally a Sarakasi dancer, found his yoga calling in 2008. For him, yoga allowed him to be a stronger and focused performer. “Yoga teaches you to better focus,” he says.

Contrary to popular belief that it is a feminine practise, a larger percentage of their classes are made up of men.

Elenson and his team hope to grow the outreach and the yoga industry to a billion-shilling enterprise. “In the next five years we want to have trained over 1,000 teachers all across the region,” she says.