Giving Back

We appre­ci­ate the pow­er of the com­mu­ni­ty that allows the Lamu Yoga Fes­ti­val to thrive — it would not be a suc­cess­ful project oth­er­wise. That is why we sup­port sev­er­al local ini­tia­tives and give back to the beau­ti­ful com­mu­ni­ty of Lamu island! Please check out our four sup­port­ed local ini­tia­tives, pick one (or more!), and help us Give Back by either donat­ing direct­ly to the orga­ni­za­tion or when you fill out your reg­is­tra­tion form. 

OUR COVID-19 RESPONSE:

After the Lamu Yoga Fes­ti­val in begin­ning of March 2020, the tourism in Kenya, has com­plete­ly stopped due to the Coro­na virus cri­sis. Lamu island is 100% depend­ing on tourism and as the Covid-19 relat­ed mea­sures con­tin­ue, many peo­ple liv­ing at Lamu island have found them­selves job­less and thus with­out any source of income. At the same time, chil­dren and young peo­ple face the fact that their edu­ca­tion is inter­rupt­ed.

We take respon­si­bil­i­ty to help the local com­mu­ni­ty, espe­cial­ly young girls who are the most vul­ner­a­ble, to over­come these hard times. That is why we decid­ed to sup­port the Shela Bright Girls Sec­ondary school, based in Shela vil­lage.

Lamu Yoga Organ­i­sa­tion and Banana House have been part­ner­ing with this school for past 10 years, dur­ing that time we have sup­port­ed the school with new class­rooms, study mate­ri­als and equip­ment, and giv­ing yoga class­es and cre­at­ing aware­ness on health among the girls. At this point due to Coro­na virus pan­dem­ic the school is closed but the girls and their fam­i­lies need our sup­port now more than ever.

Here is what we’ve been doing since March 2020:

WE CREATED FUNDRAISING CAMPAIGN and raised amaz­ing 6000 USD from peo­ple all over the world, Lamu Yoga Fes­ti­val par­tic­i­pants and Banana house guests!

WE DISTRIBUTED FOOD PACKAGES! Thanks to our suc­cess­ful fundrais­ing cam­paign we man­aged to dis­trib­ute essen­tial food sup­plies (such as flour, rice, maize, beans, oil, salt etc.) to all 300 stu­dents of the Shela Bright Girls Sec­ondary school and their fam­i­lies.

WE DISTRIBUTED REUSABLE SANITARY PADS! Each year Lamu Yoga Fes­ti­val also donates dis­pos­able san­i­tary pads to the school, as most of the girls can­not afford buy­ing them and there­fore lack afford­able and hygien­ic men­stru­al prod­ucts. This year we part­nered with Pad­Mad Social Enter­prise and we man­aged to sup­port all 300 girls with a pack­age of Reusable san­i­tary pads, to ensure that no girl miss­es the school dur­ing her peri­od. Pad­Mad Reusable pads are biodegrad­able, sus­tain­able and long-last­ing – up to 5 years! – and pro­duced local­ly in Kenya.

WE TALKED TO GIRLS who received the Reusable San­i­tary pads. One month after the dis­tri­b­u­tion, we organ­ised a focus group dis­cus­sion with stu­dents of the Shela Bright Girls Sec­ondary school to learn about their opin­ions. We chat­ted about girls’ expe­ri­ences with reusable pads and about Men­stru­al hygiene in gen­er­al. All girls were very sat­is­fied and said these pads are com­fort­able and ben­e­fi­cial. They gave us very valu­able and detailed insight that inspired us to con­tin­ue this project.

For more infor­ma­tion about our activ­i­ties and about how you can sup­port our com­mu­ni­ty projects, please send email to info@lamuyoga.org.

Asante sana! Thank you!

Lamu Yoga Festival supports

Safari Doctors

Safari Doc­tors improves access to health­care for remote and mar­gin­al­ized com­mu­ni­ties in Lamu Coun­ty. Every month, the ded­i­cat­ed team sets sail under a full moon on a boat loaded with med­i­cines. They trav­el to iso­lat­ed vil­lages, set­ting up mobile clin­ics and pro­vid­ing health ser­vices for hun­dreds of peo­ple who would strug­gle to access them. In 2017, the UN in Kenya award­ed the Safari Doc­tors team the Unit­ed Nations Per­son of the Year award, “for the out­stand­ing efforts and com­mend­able work pro­vid­ing med­ical care to mar­gin­al­ized com­mu­ni­ties in the far reach­ing areas of Lamu.” Please feel free to drop by their offices in Shela, vis­it their gift shop at the Sea Suq or join their #Jour­ney­For­Change by sup­port­ing a med­ical sail here.

Safari Doctors collaboration with Lamu Yoga FestivalSafari Doctors collaboration with Lamu Yoga FestivalSafari Doctors collaboration with Lamu Yoga Festival

Donate to Safari Doc­tors online

Anidan

Lamu Yoga Festival supports Anidan

Anidan is a non-gov­ern­men­tal devel­op­ment organ­i­sa­tion found­ed by Rafael Selas Col­orado to care for the needs of young chil­dren in Kenya. On the island of Lamu, off the north­ern coast, he has a Shel­ter where he hous­es over 140 chil­dren but feeds, dress­es, cares for and edu­cates around 250.

Since March 2008, in col­lab­o­ra­tion with the Pablo Horstmann Foun­da­tion, he runs a pedi­atric hos­pi­tal which sees more than 17,000 patients a year in the hos­pi­tal premis­es and thou­sands more in extend­ed san­i­tary cam­paigns.

After a decade, our main efforts are devot­ed to help­ing the most vul­ner­a­ble, the chil­dren. Being an indi­gent child, aban­doned or orphan, being exposed to mis­treat­ment or any ill­ness­es impos­si­ble to be cured in their own envi­ron­ment, is enough rea­son for being tak­en in by Anidan. The most threat­ened come direct­ly to our dor­mi­to­ries.

Most of the fund­ing for the orga­ni­za­tion comes from Anidan Spain and its part­ner orga­ni­za­tions: Pablo Horstmann Foun­da­tion and Anidan Italy.

We aim to ensure edu­ca­tion, from kinder­garten through sec­ondary, col­lege and supe­ri­or stud­ies.

Anidan also has a micro­cre­d­it project for women that has empow­ered poor and des­ti­tute women to sup­port them­selves and their chil­dren.

Lamu Yoga Festival supports Anidan

Donate to Anidan online

Bright Girls Secondary School

Lamu Yoga Festival supports Shela Bright Girls secondary schoolLamu Yoga Festival supports Shela Bright Girls secondary school

Bright Girls Sec­ondary School was estab­lished in Shela in 2010, with funds pro­vid­ed by the gov­ern­ment, the com­mu­ni­ty and oth­er donors.

The high pover­ty index in the region often leads stu­dents to drop out due to lack of fees, and girls face addi­tion­al chal­lenges to stay­ing in school, like ear­ly mar­riage.

In 2010 there were only eight stu­dents; by 2013, 135 girls sat for the nation­al exam­i­na­tions. There are cur­rent­ly over 150 stu­dents that num­ber is expect­ed to rise with grow­ing demand. Most of these girls come from pover­ty, often a dis­tance from where the school is.

Banana House and Well­ness Cen­ter & Hands Up for Kids have pro­vid­ed the girls with san­i­tary pads and yoga lessons, help­ing them stay healthy and focused on their stud­ies.

To help, please bring san­i­tary pads to donate at the bazaar dur­ing the fes­ti­val, or choose to add 500 KSH to your invoice for Bright Girls Sec­ondary School dur­ing reg­is­tra­tion.

Reg­is­ter Now

Lamu Community Yoga

Lamu Yoga Festival supports Shela Bright Girls secondary school

We believe yoga should be acces­si­ble to every­one, so we are proud to sup­port free com­mu­ni­ty yoga class­es. Africa Yoga Project teacher Pas­ka Atim John teach­es yoga to local adults and chil­dren in Lamu Town and Shela.

To help sus­tain the effort, we are using 250 KSH from each tick­et toward sup­port­ing the teacher. With your help, we hope to fund the ini­tia­tive for a full year.

To sup­port, you can choose to donate 500 KHS (less than the price of one yoga class in Nairo­bi) on your reg­is­tra­tion form.

Lamu Yoga Partners