Support for Our Adopted Family in India!

The Reiki School and Clinic, in partnership with The Astanga Yoga Mandir (an astanga yoga studio in Philadelphia 215 238 1008), have adopted a family in India. All funds raised support the 3 children of a widowed mother, to help them with school, food, shelter and medical expenses.

Our Family's Story:
I met Nagama when I was in India studying yoga. I stayed with one of the families that employ her. Her strength and spirit moved me. She did her household work with joy and love. While living with Shaila, her employer, I came to know her quite well. I met her children when they came home from their boarding school at the ashram. And this was when Shaila told me Nagama's story.

Nagama is a 32 year old widow living in Mysore India. She has 3 children, 2 boys: Kiran Kumar (age 15), Arun Kumar (age 12), and 1 girl Rangitha (age 10). She has struggled to keep her family together since the death of her husband. He left her with a large debt as well as the children to support. She comes from a poor village and has very little education. There is no public education in India.

Nagama is currently working in 5 households cooking. Cleaning. and doing laundry for the families that employ her. She is financially unable to send the children to school and is unable to stay and watch them because she has to work. She doesn't want to leave them home alone with neighborhood children to beg in the streets, so she has sent them to a boarding school about 3 hours away. This decision was difficult for Nagama and it has been very hard on the children.

The education the children receive is basic. They are still not learning the skills they need to move beyond their station in life. They are far from home and only receive dal and rice for meals. When I met them, they were terribly under weight. They are living in a very poor ashram, but it truly is preferable to begging on the street while their mother works.

There are boarding schools closer to home that provide a much higher level of education and proper nutrition, but they cost money. The children would learn English, which is a language that would broaden their employability, and higher levels math. They would be prepared to attend college if the opportunity presented itself. In their current situation, they will be faced with a lifetime of poverty. Rangitha may end up married at a very young age like her mother. With proper education, these three children have a chance to improve their quality of life, but also to provide that quality to future generations. For $400 a year, per child, Nagama's children could live closer to home, eat healthy meals and receive an education that will provide them with the skills they need to improve their quality of life.

I found Nagama to be such a beautiful soul. She has been faced with such hardship. Married at 13 and then widowed with 3 children. The love and courage it took to make the decision to send her children away to keep them off the streets is unfathomable. And yet the light and joy that Nagama spread throughout the house as she worked is a reflection of the greatness of her spirit.

Money donated to this family will go directly to the children. Funds will go toward education for all 3 children. Additional money will be used for medical expenses for the children, as there is no medical assistance for families in India.

-Zoe Mai, Director of The Astanga Yoga Mandir

Click here to make a donation to this family.