For many youth in the area, crime and gangs are a means of survival, and the Africa Yoga Project aims to transform the lives of their communities by providing teacher training and financial support to those who want to teach yoga and offering free yoga classes to many others. There are now at least 43 young teachers leading more than 100 class per week with roughly 3,000 students each month in the women's prison and other impoverished areas in Nairobi and nearby villages. They are able to support themselves by offering private fee-based classes for the middle class and expats in Nairobi.

Those who receive the yoga classes appreciate the sense of peace and calmness the practice can bring. Many who are teachers claim that the employment has indeed changed not only their lives, but also those of their students. One young teacher who lost his parents as a kid said he would have been a thief without yoga. Others report improved overall health, including less stress and better eating and hygiene habits.

This is the goal for Elenson, she wants the project to do more than just teach people yoga. “What’s going to change the continent is to create jobs and give people an opportunity,” she says. “The scope of yoga is so much bigger than teaching asanas. It's service and connection to the self and others. You [can be] a means of community transformation."

Do you have any experience in sharing yoga with the global community? 

Light Leaders: ...

Thank you for an inspirational article. We have shared it in our newsletter :) Light Leaders has trained children's yoga teachers from all over the world... but none from Africa..yet ;)

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March 16, 2012

AmberB: ...

Thank you Light Leaders!

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March 16, 2012