Ourmala: Yoga for refugees
I founded OURMALA in 2011 to help people, who had been forced to become refugees and asylum-seekers, rebuild their lives.
This followed a successful year-long pilot project, for refugee and asylum-seeking women who were destitute or facing destitution, supported by Hackney City Farm, Big Lottery and the British Wheel of Yoga.
From the start, this was part of my meditation/yoga practice ‘off the mat’ and it was also an attempt to address social justice locally, at Hackney City Farm in East London, where I lived at the time.
OURMALA provided a safe space to breathe and heal through yoga. This was yoga, sensitive to trauma, gender, cultural and religious differences and the reality of refugee and asylum-seekers’ lives. We also incorporated feedback from the refugee and asylum-seeking clients into how we taught and organised the yoga classes.
In addition to the yoga, we provided facilitated social time, hot lunches and other support services, such as English classes and access to essentials (from medical and legal advice to sanitary towels and clothes).
As founder and CEO, I was involved in all parts of the organisation. I taught the yoga, developed and managed our services and built a team of 30+ yoga teachers (and 70 other volunteers and members of staff). I also raised funds, developed the governance framework, brokered cross-sector partnerships, developed the charity’s training programmes and personally trained hundreds of yoga teachers in our approach.
I was dedicated to OURMALA for over a decade and expanded the charity’s work across London. We worked in partnership with Edinburgh Community Yoga in Scotland and also advised organisations and groups overseas.
My work supported hundreds of women, men, young people, children and babies in the refugee and asylum-seeking community and, later, survivors and bereaved from the Grenfell Tower fire.
To enable access to OURMALA’s programmes, all our services were free to clients, the cost of travel was refunded and special consideration was given to language barriers, cultural and gender differences, awareness of the reality facing people who have been forced to become refugees and seek asylum, sensitivities and best practice in delivering projects for and with this group, the UK’s asylum-system and self-care for all involved.
OURMALA’s work inspired great public generosity, the model has been replicated internationally and I was invited to share best practice with others in the field internationally on a number of occasions.
My greatest thanks to Chris and Charlie at Hackney City Farm and all those who supported this work.
GRENFELL WOMEN AT KEW GARDENS
Afghan refugee resettlement
At The SPACE Community Centre near Grenfell Tower, co-funded with The Grenfell Foundation, I ran a programme of therapeutic yoga sessions for local women (2022 - 2024). This included a number of yoga days in partnership with Royal Botanic Gardens Kew, held in the Davies Explorer (glass) House and in the gardens. The yoga significantly improved the women’s mental and physical health and reduced loneliness and isolation. The yoga days at Kew were beautiful. Everyone loved practicing yoga, breathing near so many trees, our silent walks through the gardens and visits to the Japanese Peace Garden. All the women wanted to continue, the impact reports provided strong evidence for the positive effects of the programme but funding to continue was not available.
2021: Short consultancy assignment to help Afghan refugees settle and integrate into British society by:
- Providing strategic advice on sustainable development to the Afghanistan and Central Asian Association regarding the organisation and its services
- Leading on relations with the government, councils across London, the Mayor of London’s Office and companies
The Afghanistan and Central Asian Association (ACAA) is the UK’s main charity that supports Afghan refugees and the diaspora in Britain and abroad. It has over 20 years’ track record of successful project delivery specifically to this group, including projects funded by FCDO and is the only charity supporting Afghans in London with its own centre.
The founding director, Dr Nasimi, fled Afghanistan with his young family in 1999. They travelled for three months across Europe before finally arriving in the UK to claim asylum. The challenges he faced trying to integrate into British society motivated him to establish ACAA and develop services that were missing in his experience.
In 2021, ACAA become the first point of contact for government, councils and newly-arrived Afghan people after the recent assumption of power by the Taliban in Afghanistan.
grenfell tower community
The NHS asked me if OURMALA, the charity I had founded to support refugees and asylum-seekers, could adapt our therapeutic yoga programme to support survivors and bereaved from the Grenfell Tower fire. I developed the programme in collaboration with the NHS, led the project and taught yoga at Grenfell United and in the community. After the successful pilot project, the NHS then funded a two year programme.
LULULEMON: HERE TO BE
Here to Be is lululemon athletica’s global social impact programme and OURMALA was selected to be its first ever European non-profit partner. This partnership enabled an expansion of yoga classes for refugees and asylum-seekers across London, case studies to gather testimonials about the impact of yoga from the most hard to reach, the training of many more yoga teachers and the sharing of best practice in the US at lululemon’s Here to Be summits, which brought together leaders of ‘yoga service’ organisations from across the US and, later on, from other parts of the world.
HACKNEY YOGA PROJECT
After studying and practicing yoga and meditation in Europe and India, volunteering with children who had learning difficulties at Chethana Trust, and who had been trafficked, at Odanadi, when I returned to England, I started volunteering with the British Red Cross (BRC) Refugee Services Unit in north London.
This led to me teaching yoga at the British Red Cross centre in Dalston, for refugee and asylum-seeking women, who were pregnant or had babies or young children, who were either destitute or facing destitution.
The women wanted to practice yoga every week, as they found it so practically helpful, but this wasn’t possible as other activities had to be delivered, such as learning English and how to navigate the London transport system.
To enable this group to practice yoga every week, I founded Hackney Yoga Project at Hackney City Farm. Women were referred into my yoga classes for this project by the British Red Cross Refugee Services Unit, Freedom from Torture, Poppy Project, which used to work with trafficked women in London and Ellat, which works with newly arrived women.
We provided yoga and a hot lunch and then built-in English classes, access to other support, such as legal and housing advice, and arts and crafts activities.
The yoga alone made such a positive difference to the women’s mental and physical health, as well as reducing their isolation and loneliness and ability to take part in life more.
Over time, Hackney Yoga Project transitioned into OURMALA, with the aim of continuing the work as a registered charitable organisation, on a sustainable basis, to enable access to yoga for more refugees and asylum-seekers.
My hugest thanks to Charlie and Chris at Hackney City Farm for believing in me and giving me funding from Big Lottery. Thanks also to the British Wheel of Yoga for its seed funding, Yoga Matters for giving me free yoga equipment, and for the collaborative spirit of all those working at the referring organisations and Anna, Tamsin and the other volunteers.