Krama Yoga is a Cambodian NGO run by young men and women who have changed their lives with yoga and now provide Kids Yoga, Teen Yoga and Yoga Therapy classes for others.
The seeds of Krama Yoga were planted in November 2008 when seven young Cambodians began intensive yoga training under NataRaj director, Isabelle Skaburskis, assisted by Yan Vannac. By 2010, the training evolved into an organized apprenticeship program geared specifically to the needs of Cambodians from underpriviledged backgrounds, and came to include outreach classes taught by the apprentices for up to 250 kids across 5 other organizations. Finally, in 2010, the yoga apprentices consolidated their independent status as a Cambodian-run organization called Krama Yoga.
Krama Yoga is the organization that will ensure gainful and fulfilling careers for the core team members, and for others who are now growing up with yoga and can choose to pursue it as a life path. This NGO is the tangible outcome of these kids’ climb from poverty and trauma, to leaders of their community and artists of their own lives.
Who is Krama Yoga? |
|
Yan Vannac, DirectorVannac first started yoga in 2005 when he came to NataRaj Yoga as a receptionist. He started training under Isabelle Skaburskis and received his first RYT certification at Knoff Yoga in Australia in 2008, his Yoga Therapy certification in 2009, and has completed his Kundalini Yoga Level 1 teacher training; he has been assisting Isabelle in outreach classes since 2007 and has been teaching expats and Cambodians at NataRaj and Kundalini Yoga House for several years. By leading Krama Yoga, Vannac has reconciled his two life goals of running his own company and making a positive change in his society. His new goal is to see yoga explode in Cambodia because he sees that people in his country suffer from competitiveness and victimization. Vannac believes that through yoga, people learn to find contentment, power and the capacity to bring peace to themselves. |
|
Lun Piseth, Project ManagerPiseth started as the NataRaj groundskeeper. He was clearly very bright but terrible at his job, playing with the neighbourhood children and creating problems to solve instead of quietly completing the menial tasks that he was assigned. NataRaj needed a better groundskeeper, and it was obvious that Piseth would be much better off in a position where he could exercise his innate leadership skills and problem-solving mind. He is now an inspiring teacher to children and teenage boys, and Assistant Director of Krama Yoga. He believes that his country will be a much better place if people grow up knowing that they can take control of their own minds and do not have to be slaves to their own desires and social pressures. |
|
Chet SopharyPhary has been living at the Kien Khleang orphanage center, studying accounting at university and working as NataRaj Yoga reception on the weekends. Now, Phary works half time at Krama Yoga as finance officer, balancing the books and the budget. |
|
| back to top | |
Teachers |
|
| The other core members of the Krama Yoga team started yoga with the first NataRaj outreach classes. | |
En Dara
|
|
| Neth, Li Ya, Channy, Lita and Srey Nich all started classes with the girls of Transitions Global. When the Krama Yoga teacher training program started in November 2008, Neth, Li Ya and Channy were volunteered by their organization to give it a try. | |
Chan SinethNeth did not like yoga at first, and was focussed on becoming a spokesperson for Transitions Global as a way of helping other young women who have endured similar experiences as herself. Through the teacher training program, Neth has learned how to process these life experiences, as well as the memories and associations that made her uncomfortable doing yoga to begin with; she uses her practice and her teaching to stay centered when reaching out to people about life in Cambodia. Her main focus is teaching other teenage girls and her goal is to help young Cambodian women and girls directly through yoga, and indirectly by speaking to foreigners who have the means to make a difference in the lives of those who have suffered like her. Learn more about Srey Neth at www.transitionsglobal.org. |
 |
 Li Ya and Channy have used the broad-reaching curriculum of the Krama Yoga apprenticeship program to overcome Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, a condition that affects each member of the team to varying degrees, including the men. Yoga and meditation practice, a cohesive team and professional training has been instrumental in addressing dissociation, low self-esteem and combativeness, and has shown these girls that they have the capacity to relate to their world in positive ways. Through the physical practice of yoga, moral education, teamwork, and job opportunities, these girls, like the others, have seen for themselves that they are capable of so much more than they thought they were. As Li Ya once said in class, “I know now what it means to have value for myself. Before, I did not know.” |
|
Chang Li YaLi Ya has discovered the power of her own voice; she demonstrates her intelligence to herself and to others with every contribution she makes to the classroom—both as a student, and as a teacher. Combining intelligence and will power, she has tranformed herself is on her way to changing the lives of many people. She has already started with her students and her family, and as her skills and confidence progress, she will one day play a major role in the management of Krama Yoga. |
|
Dim ChannyChanny is discovering through the physical practice of yoga that inhabiting her body can feel great, and she is discovering the beautiful things that happen for her teammates and her students, and now her tv audience, when she looks up and smiles. By teaching children, she is discovering that she has something of value to give to the world; when she concentrates in yoga practice, she finds that she has the strength and the capacity to do things that were previously overwhelming. |
|
| Lita and Srey Nich came to Krama Yoga a bit later than the others. Having seen their Transitions colleagues grow into teachers and leaders, they were inspired to do the same. | |
Ly Srey NichNich, always diligent, conscientious and hard working, knew for a long time that she wanted to pursue psychology and that helping others brought meaning to her life. As she progressed in her yoga practice, she noticed how much she learned about herself when she was practicing, and that her yoga time helped her process different emotions relating to her past and to her life as a client in an NGO. Nich has strong ideas about who she wants to be and how she wants to contribute to her society, and at Krama Yoga she has the opportunity to live out her ambitions and is making the most of it. |
|
Emi LitaLita is the youngest member of the team at 17 years old, and is treated by the others as a promising younger sister. She grew up in the countryside and joined the Krama Yoga team not long after her life was pulled out from under her and she was rescued by Transitions Global. Being open-minded, hardworking and focussed, Lita has adapted quickly to city life, NGO life and the concepts of yoga. Her dream is to work with kids, and Krama Yoga sees her as our future Kids Yoga Teacher Trainer. |
|
| back to top | |
Dara was living in Kien Khleang orphanage center when Yogeswari, director of AZAHAR Foundation, came to Cambodia to set up a sponsorship program for promising young people living at the center. This sponsorship program entails English classes, private school education, and weekly yoga classes at NataRaj. Dara showed tremendous initiative in her studies and her yoga practice and before long she was living at the studio so that she could work as evening receptionist, go to the local high school, follow extra English and Computer classes at a private school, and learn to teach yoga. Dara will graduate high school in July 2010—we are very proud of her, knowing what obstacles this impressive young woman has had to brave to achieve her goal.