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Astanga Yoga in Rwanda Project - Summer 2009 georgina-evans.blogspot.com

It is estimated that up to 500,000 Rwandan women and girls experienced rape and sexual violence during the genocide in Rwanda in 1994

14 years after the mass killings and rape crimes of the Rwandan Genocide, many Rwandan women and their families are HIV positive and still struggling to gain access to health care and to reclaim their lives. Like all women who have suffered traumas of sexual violence, they deserve support in their efforts to regain a sense of personal power, inner peace and feelings of integrity and interconnectedness of their bodies, hearts and minds.

Why Yoga?

Yoga is a powerful therapy for managing post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The organisation, WE-ACTX, offers health care and support, including free yoga instruction, to HIV positive women genocide survivors and their children.

"I feel well. I have better morale and no longer feel unhappy. My mind is calmer and my thinking is settled...."

Mary (name changed), a participant of the ‘Inyange Girls’ yoga group facilitated by Project Air

I volunteered my services as a yoga teacher with Project Air (formerly We-Actxyoga) for three months during summer 2009, working with counsellors to support women in their ongoing efforts to recover and overcome the experience of sexual violence. Volunteers and donations are always needed to keep the hands on services going.

Project Air has been endorsed by the UN and is the only organization in the world that uses yoga to help girls and women overcome the devastating effort of genocidal rape, sexual violence and HIV/AIDS. Project Air aims to expand its services from Rwanda into neighbouring Eastern Congo.

People in Eastern Congo are experiencing one of the deadliest conflicts in the world today where systematic rape, mutilation and sexual violence are the preferred weapons of war. In this conflict, the lives of hundreds of thousands of girls and women – some as young as 18 months old - are being destroyed.

Please join the yoga community worldwide as it comes together in an unprecedented effort to raise £1,000,000 in 100 days to support the work of Project Air in Rwanda and its efforts to expand into Eastern Congo

http://project-air.org/donate.html


108 sun salutation fundraiser for Astanga in Rwanda project - all photos by Tracey Fahy. See more on Tracey's Flickr page.

Visit the blog for the story of my volunteering experience: georgina-evans.blogspot.com