Meet Africa Yoga Project : a nonprofit organization that Educates, Empowers, Elevates, and Expands Employability for African Youth
Happy Juneteenth, friends!
If you’re like me, you’ve never heard of Juneteenth before this year.
My friend Kenyatta shared this on Instagram today. It hit me, so I want to share it with you.
It's no accident that:
You learned about Helen Keller instead of W.E.B. DuBois
You learned about the Watts and L.A. Riots, but not Tulsa or Wilmington.
You learned that George Washington’s dentures were made from wood, rather than the teeth from slaves.
You learned about black ghettos, but not about Black Wall Street.
You learned about the New Deal, but not “red lining.”
You learned about Tommie Smith’s fist in the air at the 1968 Olympics, but not that he was sent home the next day and stripped of his medals.
You learned about “black crime,” but white criminals were never lumped together and discussed in terms of their race.
You learned about “states rights” as the cause of the Civil War, but not that slavery was mentioned 80 times in the articles of secession.
Privilege is having history rewritten so that you don’t have to acknowledge uncomfortable facts.
Racism is perpetuated by people who refuse to learn or acknowledge this reality.
You have a choice.
Happy Juneteenth! 🇱🇾
Powerful, and true.
I’ll be honest: I’m struggling to blog and use social media in this time. I’m spending my time relearning history and processing it all.
Because of this, I’ve changed a lot of my content to reflect what I’m learning. I appreciate your support and that you are choosing to take this journey with me.
In observance of Juneteenth, I invite you to join me by looking up each of the Black history counterparts our American history has ignored.
last week, I introduced you to Africa yoga project via my feature on Paige Elenson.
You can read the feature by clicking the button below. I’ve added a video and other resources to learn about AYP there.
This week, I want to further highlight Africa Yoga Project. I am also inviting you to participate in two powerful classes led by AYP teachers!
Meet Catherine
Director of Teachers
Catherine Njeri is from Nairobi, Kenya. She is a certified Africa Yoga Project and Baptiste yoga teacher, having completed level 1, 2 and 3 Baptiste yoga teachers training and FIT to lead Training with Baptiste Institute.
Catherine has been teaching and practicing yoga since 2009 and is passionate about creating world class wellbeing leaders through the Africa Yoga Project due to her personal experience of how yoga changed her life. She witnesses daily how yoga impacts the overall wellbeing of her students and encourages a healthy lifestyle.
Catherine is the first Kenyan woman to lead a 200 hour yoga teacher training in Sub Saharan Africa and is a co-facilitator of this training annually in Nairobi, Kenya. When she isn't teaching yoga or leading trainings, Catherine is a proud mum to a baby girl. She also enjoys braiding her daughter’s and friends' hair.
Meet Wanji
Programs Manager
Wanji is the Special Programs Coordinator at Africa Yoga Project.Before this, she was a Mentorship Coordinator, AYP Shine Center Manager, our community wellness and yoga center in Nairobi, Kenya,AYP Brand Manager and Paige’s Executive Assistant.
She has been with AYP since her first class in December of 2009. In that first class, she made up her mind that yoga was the thing she wanted to do in her life. In 2011, she attended Baron Baptiste's leadership workshop and since then she has completed 200hr, Baptiste Level 2 and many more trainings.She has a diploma in Business Management and a certification in computer skills and disaster management.
Wanji is leading change by demonstrating the importance of yoga to the world. She believes when we come together to practice yoga it inspires us to share ideas and release all the stress in our lives.
Meet Eric
AYP Youth Mentor
My name is Eric Ochieng. l grew up in Nairobi, Kangemi slum. l graduated from Kemu college.
l studied a hospitality course and graduated in 2014. I am a good cook. l also play football as a professional. l play in the nationwide level league for Kangemi All Stars and I am a yoga instructor too.
l did my 200 hours teachers training in 2016. l teach both the young and adults. l have taught yoga for over five years now. My role at Africa Yoga Project is to teach and mentor youths.
Doing the teachers training was not an easy decision. What made me do the teachers training was the role models in my community. l can attest that their lives and mine was not easy. After they joined yoga their lives were never the same. Their lives changed for the better. They were able to settle their personal needs and support their young families. That is what motivated me to do teachers training because yoga transformed and generated positivity.
I am looking forward to empowering more youths and adults around the world. Yoga has given me an opportunity to meet different people and different hearts and souls.
MEET Evans
Evans Stoki started practicing yoga way back in 2010 and he did his 200 hour teacher training in 2015. His journey to yoga practice was challenging because his muscles were stiff from doing Acrobatics and he could feel pain all over his body.
He quickly realized that yoga helped relieve his body of pain. Stoki believes yoga is a cure in his body and yoga has helped him to reduce stress and therefore improve sleep and physical fitness and also improve self acceptance and that yoga has something to offer a single person in every stage of their lives.
As he began to practice yoga more regularly, he realized that he wanted more of this peace and calm in his life. We all come to yoga with different needs and goals for the practice, which will likely change and grow over time depending on our life circumstances. Sometimes we may not even know what our goals are but yoga will still be there to guide us.
Evans Stoki hopes to be a renowned teacher and while as a teacher be able to help each student accomplish whatever he or she is seeking and at the end to help students discover how yoga allows them to uncover and embrace their true selves.
I hope to see you on zoom the next two Saturdays!
Be safe and healthy đź’—