"If you can dream it, you can do it"
Yoga Pura Vida Foundation was born from the arduous personal work of it’s creator, Dharmajyoti (Marcelo) and of the collaboration of many good people who helped him during his journey.
The idea of this project was born in an Indian ashram. The inspiration was to initiate the Yoga Pura Vida movement, with the purpose of sharing the yogic culture and lifestyle with the most vulnerable and less privileged people of society.
Yoga classes and talks were organised to observe the experiences of children and adults inhabitants of Kikokwe, a small village in Tanzania with 700 inhabitants.
The first stage of the training consisted of 50 hours per week, over a 6 month period. The second stage involved personal self-practice of 21 hours per week for another 6 month period.
The NGO Yoga Pura Vida was created in Tanzania. The first project was launched bringing two local teachers to Arusha, where they received instruction in computer skills and English, and then they started to work as yoga instructors for children, eventually becoming self-sufficient.
The first Teacher Training Course (Yoga for Children) was organized with scholarships granted to 7 participants from different villages and cities in Tanzania. Five other participants joined from the USA, Holland, Germany and France.
New projects are still being carried out in different cities and villages of Tanzania. Each project is implemented within the framework of its own context; taking Yoga to impoverished neighbourhoods and villages, to private and state schools, to orphanages, and several NGOs.
The second Teacher Training Course (Yoga for Children) was organized. Scholarships were given to 25 participants coming from different cities of Tanzania, Rwanda, Uganda, Kenya, a Congolese refugee resident of the Dzaleka Camp in Malawi, and one participant from the USA. In this way, the movement Yoga Pura Vida is being introduced in different African Countries.
We have organized free yoga courses for our resident instructors in Tanzania, Uganda and in the Dzaleka Refugee Camp in Malawi. We have trained two new instructors, giving them the opportunity to deepen their knowledge and experience in yoga. Also taking shape was the preliminary steps to transform the NGO into a Foundation.
During 2020 we have developed new programs to improve our intervention system and programs in Africa
In 2021 we have arrived in Freetown to train 26 students as yoga instructors. Today several of these instructors offer free classes to vulnerable groups and communities.
We focus on the prevention of suicide and self-harm in adolescents.We benefit eldery people with dementia and alzehimer and we start supporting people who have suffered brain damage.