Over the past few years, the team at Morgan and Morgan have been fortunate enough to partner with some inspiring non-profit organizations – both locally on our home island of Mallorca and beyond. As we have witnessed the lasting and impactful change these organizations have brought to people’s lives, the community and the planet, it has made us even more determined to ramp up our engagement and to do everything we can to lend them our support.

YOGA PURA VIDA

One of the foundations closest to our hearts is Yoga Pura Vida, a non-profit organization working since 2013 to bring the healing power of yoga to children, youth and vulnerable communities suffering from mental, emotional and physical health disorders. The idea of Yoga Pura Vida was born in an Indian ashram, and was inspired by founder Dharmajyoti’s mission to share the yogic culture and lifestyle with the most vulnerable members of society. As an accredited yoga therapist and instructor, Dharmajyoti has dedicated himself to the study and practice of millennial techniques of classic and traditional yoga for 20 years. For the last 10 years, he has focused exclusively on the development of Yoga Pura Vida Foundation projects, having already helped countless children, youth and adults develop self-awareness, tranquility and inner peace. 

Currently, the foundation is focusing on two major projects in Sierra Leone and in Malawi, at the Refugee Camp Dzaleka.

To explore in more detail the aims, vision, purpose and projects of this incredible organization, read on below. Any donations can be made directly via the Yoga Pura Vida website https://yogapuravida.org/en/donate/ and will go a long way to helping shape a brighter future for those whose lives have been uprooted by conflict and poverty. 

Aims

“Share the tools that promote well-being which classical yogas offer as psychosocial support, to generate a positive, gradual and profound change in a global society and ecosystem.”

“Foster self-sufficiency, prosocial education (behavior that benefits others or that has positive social consequences) and the creation of opportunities to Serve, beyond differences of gender, race, socio-cultural or economic and religious condition.”

“Generate new job opportunities and self-employment to contribute to the reduction of poverty and inequality.”

Source: Yoga Pura Vida 

Purpose

“The fundamental objective of the Foundation is the training and education in human, ethical and universal values, as well as the promotion and dissemination of these values ​​among the general public, and especially among children, youth and vulnerable groups. We pursue the teaching and reflection of those positive values ​​that affect people in their everyday lives, primarily through the millenary yogic culture, both within Spain and in other impoverished and developing countries, and through development cooperation.”

Source:  Yoga Pura Vida

Sierra Leone

“We have selected and awarded 30 local participants for our Yoga teacher training courses: Yoga for Children, Youth and Adults. The project will impact 1,770 children and 530 adults during 2022.

Our project focuses on sharing tools that promote a peaceful and gradual social and environmental change, generating new habits that help improve the mental and physical health of residents of Sierra Leone, and to create better living conditions in the present and possibilities to build with dignity, a fair and decent future.

Children in Sierra Leone face an array of interlinked obstacles which inhibit the fulfilment of their human rights. Most pressingly, children are at risk of early child marriage and adolescent pregnancy, child labour, female genital mutilation and gender-based violence. These risks, combined with systemic poverty, poor health conditions and educational challenges, endanger all children in the country. Less than 50% of children complete secondary education, leading to a national literacy rate of less than 60% for the population under the age of 15. The infant mortality rate for children under the age of five is 96.3 per 1,000 live births and 35% of children in Sierra Leone are subject to child labour. Malaria is estimated to account for up to 20% of all child mortality.”

Source:  Yoga Pura Vida

Refugee Camp Dzaleka – Malawi

“We have already impacted 1,660 children and 340 adults and in the next 2 years we will impact 6,000 children and 4,000 adults.

Our project focuses on sharing tools that improve psychosocial support, mental and physical health of refugees and the host community. Almost 50,000 refugees and asylum seekers live in Dzaleka. Over 30,000 are children of which more than 21,000 are out of school. Post-traumatic disorders, the precariousness of life in and around the settlement, added to the effect of the covid-19 pandemic, has worsened the mental conditions of the entire population.

To continue with the project from this fifth phase, we have partnered with the Jesuit Refugee Service organisation, which, in turn, are official partners of UNHCR. This partnership secures the strength and success of the project, which may bear more fruits when replicated in new refugee camps in the near future. Right now we are starting the selection process to award scholarships to 35 participants.”

 Source:  Yoga Pura Vida