Week 45: Mindfulness & Earthchild South Africa
Hi GIVE52'ers! This week, we are getting mindful. Teaching mindfulness in schools, practices like meditation, yoga, tai chi, or other relaxation techniques, seems to decrease anxiety and reactivity and improve emotional awareness and well-being.
This week, I encourage you to research an organization providing mindful practices in your area. Maybe it’s a community garden program for kids, a meditation workshop that replaces traditional detention, or an after school yoga elective in your local elementary school.
As some of you know, I was born in South Africa, and I was delighted to learn about my pick for this week, Earthchild, from my wonderful cousin Bess. They work with children in South Africa on programs that instill mindfulness and a connection with nature in environments that can sometimes be chaotic otherwise.
Earthchild’s project coordinators work within existing school structures to introduce and maintain their programs, which include teacher conventions, yoga classes, hiking clubs, and other classroom activities. Their programs “compliment the academic curriculum helping to develop practical skills for healthy and holistic living, such as stress management techniques or permaculture to use at school and in their lives”. They currently serve over 2,000 children and work in 8 schools in Khayelitsha and Lavender Hill in South Africa.
Over the years, I have come to appreciate mindfulness practice in my own life in the form of a gratitude journal and meditation. I feel it has had a massive positive impact in my own life and would love to equip children, especially those who are in difficult environments, with these simple tools of reflection and calm.
Hit reply and let me know if you find a local program! I’d love to hear about the work they are doing.
Have a lovely week!
Jodi
