Yoga in practice
OURMALA: Yoga for refugees
Non-profit I founded and ran for over a decade to help asylum-seekers and refugees rebuild their lives in London and further afield. Image: Pete Shiazza.
afghan refugee resettlement
Short consultancy assignment, supporting Afghan refugee resettlement and integration in the UK. Image: xxx.
grenfell tower community
Working with survivors and bereaved from the Grenfell Tower fire, in a project commissioned by the NHS.
Image: Emily Brett.
lululemon:
here to be
Project with lululemon’s global social impact programme to improve quality of life for refugees and asylum-seekers. Image: xxx.
Hackney yoga project
Project in collaboration with the British Red Cross Refugees Services Unity and Hackney City Farm that sparked a movement.
Biodiversity PARTNERSHIPS & MINING
Consultancy, managing cross-sector biodiversity partnerships between global miner Rio Tinto and organisations like IUCN, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew and Conservation International.
security
& human rights
Consultancy for Rio Tinto, focused on supporting implementation of the Voluntary Principles on Security and Human Rights.
off the mat, into the world
Designed and led training programme on how to work most effectively with refugees and other displaced communities, to over 100 online participants from the yoga, health and legal professions.
mother & baby community for refugees and asylum-seeking women
Happy Baby Community started in 2013 as a group of six young women from six different parts of the world. They were all new or expectant mums, who had fled to the UK to seek asylum and protection for their babies.
I started working closely with the group in 2014, teaching yoga to the women, helping out practically and with project development. The group became two when a branch opened in South London and today Happy Baby Community is a charity in its own right.
British Red Cross
Every Thursday for about two years, I volunteered as a case worker with the British Red Cross’ Refugee Services Unit in North London. I volunteered as a case worker for the International Family Tracing Service, working directly with people who were refugees. This service helps families reconnect with loved ones who have lost contact because of an armed conflict, migration, and natural disaster. This includes finding partners of people who are not married and those looking for their same-sex partners.
Through this work, I was introduced to the Refugee & Asylum-seeking Women’s Group, which was held at the Red Cross Destitution Centre in Hackney. This group was for women who were pregnant or had babies or young children and I started teaching yoga there on a voluntary basis. The women wanted yoga every week and as this was not possible due to other services, such as English classes, needing to take precedence, I started a weekly project at Hackney City Farm to meet the demand.