Drawing great inspiration from an ashram in India that serves thousands of impoverished people in the state of Bihar, the last half of 2011 saw SevaUnite successfully facilitate three large distributions to the local community in Lavender Hill. A distribution requires a number of steps along the way for it to be successful. From assessing what goods are needed and who they should go to, to spreading the word about the collection, gathering all the goods and disseminating them takes manpower and dedication. But thanks to the invaluable energies of our volunteers, three distributions of necessary items were made to Mothers Unite, a local charity that focuses on the well-being of children and cares for kids in an area that is typically marred by poverty, lack of facilities and crime.

The unbelievable efficiency of the Mothers Unite team made identifying what was needed the most, who it would go to, and in what stages, easy. Since children are the focus of the organization, a drive to collect children’s toys, educational material and books was deemed most critical. All it took was a handful of our volunteers to spread the word either at dinner parties, in the office or over Facebook, and within two weeks we had an entire small room packed to the rafters with boxes, bags and bundles. Many of the toys we received were repackaged into Christmas gifts that each Mothers Unite child received over the festive season. That’s over 100 parcels to 100 happy kids. We also were able to completely re-stock their library and boost their educational toy resources.

The other two distributions were more focused around clothing for adults and children. We collected enough clothing to FULLY clothe 14 families, with a minimum of 7 – 8 people in each house which meant that 114 people got clothing. Clothes were sorted into age groups and gender and the community had an opportunity to choose what best suited them in a dignified way.

FACT: many of us come from a place of privilege in the sense that we have one pair of shoes too many or a toaster we never use. Please consider passing on your unwanted things to SevaUnite. We have a wonderful array of partners who could largely benefit from stuff that just clutters your home. Consider us next time you’re doing a spring clean. 

Not too long ago the township of Masiphumelele, (‘we will succeed’ in Xhosa) was just a small blip in a relatively unpopulated side of Cape Town’s coast line. Today over 40 000 people live in an area which, even though largely overcrowded and under-resourced, thrives due to the tenacity and spirit of many of its residents. We’ve been so fortunate to partner with a group of women in Masi, who in 2010 started on a journey with us into the unknown world of yoga. For almost two years SevaUnite has been teaching yoga to them, and has successfully identified and trained Tamara, a long time Masi resident to become a yoga teacher herself with the help of SevaUnite’s Yoga For Africa manual. Once a week on a Wednesday we head off to the Salvation Army Hall where the classes are held. Changing into comfortable clothes and spreading her mat on the floor, Tamara demonstrates and instructs in Xhosa to an average group of seven women. There are 12 programs in the YFA manual and Tamara is slowly working her way through each sequence of poses, further strengthening and deepening participants’ experience of the postures. They also play a 15 minute recording of Swami Pragyamurti’s Yoga Nidra session to completely relax and revitalize after the class.
Moving ahead into 2012 we look to grow the classes, and train one or two more community members to become teachers themselves.

What I do know is that my need to help those who need it the most seems to dictate a lot of the decisions I make or the things I get involved in these days. Being in a place that is entirely dedicated to serving the impoverished was on many levels right up my alley. The ashram gave me the opportunity to experience the true meaning of Seva and thereby learn about myself through serving. I think to serve is part of man’s human nature. We inherently have a desire to be of use to others, to have purpose for others. To truly serve and to give of yourself is to acknowledge your true nature. In serving day in and day out in the ashram, doing whatever job needed to get done, I began to see a shift in my thinking and many aspects of myself started to be challenged. I felt a shift from my head towards my heart, finding it less necessary to explain, analyze or quantify, and more important just to feel and to do, connecting with every human being that crossed my path in the time that I was there.
Being in the ashram is an individual journey where you increasingly learn to consider others and their needs in the context of your own, to recognize what you can give, and to give it. With this in mind SevaUnite was founded, and with the guiding inspiration of the Rikhiapeeth ashram, we at SevaUnite hope to continue to serve, love and give.

- Leela Codron

SevaUnite has been teaching weekly yoga classes in the Pollsmoor Admissions Centre since July 2011. The center consists of over 4000 un-sentenced inmates housed in an area built for 1500. Overcrowding, high stress, illness and aggressive behavior are common problems in this section, and inmates are locked in small cells for over 22 hours a day! SevaUnite sees approximately 35 inmates per class, with an emphasis on stress management, physical and mental health, boosting immunity, and developing mindfulness. The classes have been very well received by the inmates with visible signs of relaxation and peace prevailing after the classes. It’s a wonderful vision to sit in a circle with prisoners and see them with their eyes closed watching their breath. A small handout of yoga practices is given to each inmate and they are encouraged to practice daily in their cells. Mr Keith Court is the Pollsmoor representative who has organized the classes and reported the following:

I didn’t know what the response of the inmates would be, but from what I have seen so far and heard inmates said, I can only be inspired to continue offering yoga to them. They have asked to extend the classes to more then once a week …(SevaUnite) has helped inmates with their self awareness and by participating in the yoga practices they discover that there is a lot more  potential within them.

Paediatric AIDS Treatment for Africa (PATA) is a Cape Town based NGO that partners with affiliated paediatric HIV clinics all over sub-Saharan Africa in an attempt to improve on treatments and services offered to HIV-positive patients. Conferences are hosted throughout Africa and provide a forum for doctors, nurses, councillors and pharmacists from clinics and hospitals all over the continent to share their experiences and learnings.

Roseanne Turner, a PATA employee and SevaUnite Yoga For Africa volunteer started teaching immune boosting practices to three mini PATA conferences in the Eastern Cape, Uganda and Kenya. Following the success of these classes, SevaUnite was invited to teach at the main four day annual PATA conference held in Gaborone, Botswana in November 2011. Forty teams (consisting of a doctor, nurse, councilor and pharmacist) from 23 sub Saharan countries were represented. Yoga classes emphasizing immune boosting practices and stress management where taught twice daily with an average of 20-25 people per class. We also got a few opportunities to teach simple practices that invigorate the mind and body to the entire group of over 200 participants in between their lectures. Handouts were designed by SevaUnite and translated into English, French and Portuguese, and each team also received a free copy of the Yoga For Africa manual for use in their clinic.

Leela, an employer of SevaUnite had this to say about her experience in Gaborone.
Every once in a while an opportunity comes your way that intrigues you, challenges you and terrifies you all at the same time. This is how I felt when Brian told me that we had been invited to teach 200 HIV AIDS care workers from 23 sub-Saharan African countries. Sure, I’d been practicing yoga regularly and had undergone all the necessary SevaUnite training to equip me to become a teacher, but the thought of standing in front of so many people with the perceived expectation of needing to miraculously turn their steel bodies into rubber was frightening. When we arrived in Gaborone and got to meet some of the delegates I was eased by the reality that of course, they too were just people, many of whom had never heard the word yoga before let alone practice it. After dispelling one or two myths and answering questions about what ‘it’ would do, I began the class. Remembering to breathe, I was able to successfully teach a Boost Your Immunity sequence with the knowledge that both expert Brian and the trusty booklet were by my side. Luckily I didn’t need to refer to either, as the experience of feeling out the class and identifying the best way to communicate with them became more natural the more I taught.

We spent four days at the conference, teaching morning and afternoon classes, seeing a lot of the same faces in each class which to us meant they really liked it! What was really notable was that how so many people, from so many different countries, with different languages, religions and social systems could all come together in a unified space. With no judgement, no fear and open minds, many participants stepped into unknown waters and swam beautifully. One of the Nigerian participants who had only ever heard about yoga over the internet, even ended a session with hands in prayer pose saying namaste.
In 2012 we look to strengthening some of the connections we made at the conference, assisting interested parties in further exploring yoga as a possible complimentary treatment in their clinics with benefits for patients as well as care workers alike.

SevaUnite is always in need of yoga mats for the various yoga projects we run, and fortuitously we have partnered with Jade Yoga, suppliers of eco-friendly yoga mats. Jade Yoga offers a 10% discount off a new mat bought from participating outlets in return for the old mat being donated to SevaUnite. So far we have collected 18 mats and have received donations to purchase 20 more. We will continue this drive into 2012 in order to reach our target of 108 mats. This partnership has also been an excellent marketing initiative which has allowed Cape Town based yoga students to become aware of SevaUnite and the work we do.

"Working with SevaUnite has been an experience to say the least, and in the last five months I have worked in a variety of institutions from schools and orphanages, to prison and have met people from many different backgrounds and circumstances. Since starting I feel more aware of all the different communities living in Cape Town that I normally would not be in contact with. The scope to help is limitless, with so many opportunities to connect with people in different places.

Perhaps most striking has been at Pollsmoor Prison where inmates have one hour a day out of their cells and some choose to come to a Yoga class. Rarely have I encountered such a focused committed group of practitioners. Personally I have grown so much from these experiences and gained better insights of myself and others which otherwise may not have been possible. Changing the way we experience others and how others experience themselves is what makes volunteering so rewarding."
- Chris, SevaUnite Volunteer.