Cambodia - Jivamukti Yoga Retreat Siem Reap & a Week Full of Unforgettable Impressions in Phnom Penh with AZAHAR Foundation

Tears were running down my cheaks as the TukTuk was driving through the night traffic in Phnom Penh and back to my hotel. I had just visited Kien Khleang Orphanage Center to say good bye to the children I had spent the last two weeks with. Only two weeks, but these children have truly found their way into my heart.


Two weeks ago I arrived in Siem Reap still overwhelmed with all the impressions from India and not knowing how much more precious memories there were yet to come. My teacher Yogeswari and Cat from Jivamukti London had organized a retreat in Siem Reap where 20 western Yoga students practiced Yoga along with 9 children from Kien Khleang Orphanage Center in Phnom Penh from age 10 to 20. This week allowed us to experience the meaning of Yoga on a much deeper level. Yoga means to yoke or to unify. Practicing Yoga in the same class room and visiting the beautiful sites of Angkor Wat together with the Cambodian children was a truly unifying experience. It was healing on an individual as well as on an cross-cultural level since we learned so much about the depth of Cambodian culture and history.

The Project
AZAHAR Foundation is an international non-profit organization that promotes cross-cultural understanding and non-violent conflict resolution through Yoga and the Arts. In 2007 my teacher Yogeswari, founder and president of AZAHAR Foundation, traveled to Cambodia with one of her students who had adopted a Cambodian child. Becoming aware of the social difficulties many the Cambodian youth is facing they started to teach Yoga twice a week for a period of ten days at Kien Khleang Orphanage Center in Phnom Penh. It became clear quickly that Yoga helps the children deal with negative emotions and difficult memories. They learn to resolve internal and external conflicts in a nonviolent way and their self-confidence grows.

In collaboration with Isabelle Skaburskis, Director of Nataraj Yoga Center and Kramma Yoga Cambodia, AZAHAR Foundation has developed a vocational program for children and young adults who had qualified through attendance and merits in Yoga. The project pursues a holistic approach that also includes culturally appropriate education in health, life skills, and social development. Basic needs such as food, clothing, and English schooling are included. AZAHAR Foundation is currently providing for basic needs, Yoga classes as well as for part-time or fulltime English schooling for 8 children. They all came to the Siem Reap retreat.

Yoga is Giving
Ever since I became more serious with my Yoga practice and started to feel the benefits of Yoga, I also felt a strong need to give some of those benefits away and help others by giving them a tool for dealing with difficult situations. That’s the main reason I became a Yoga teacher.
I think many of us feel that need to give something back as our practice deepens and we start to understand that Yoga is about relating to others and caring for others. Yet, very often we don’t know where to direct that positive energy. There is so much suffering in the world, where should one start? There are so many organizations out there doing admirable work, but what organization do I want to support?


I started to work for AZAHAR Foundation sometime last summer. Thus, I knew most of the children from pictures and videos. But it made a huge difference to actually be with them, play with them, practice Yoga with them…they are such bright lights and I strongly believe that Yoga helps them to let this inner light shine through more and more.

Sitting at Bangkok Airport, waiting for my flight back to Switzerland, I’m looking through all the beautiful pictures, the little gifts the children have given me, still hearing their warm good byes and feeling their hands squeezing mine. I know that I want to do something for these children, even if it is just a small contribution. I want them to be part of my life, and I want to be part of their life. I want this unifying experience to be a lasting one.

In the plane I was reading Somaly Mam’s book “The road to Lost Innocence” (I really recommend to read that book). I was shocked and deeply touched by her story. As a young Cambodian girl she was sold into slavery and prostitution. Unfortunately that is the destiny of 1 in 8 Cambodian girls. It is difficult not be completely overwhelmed by so much cruelty and injustice. But one paragraph in the book really gave me hope: Somaly writes that she knew she could not change the whole world and rescue all the girls, “…but just one, and then another, and then another….”.

If only my actions make a difference for one single person, it is worth all the effort. One happier person in the world adds to the sum total of happiness in the world. Many small changes add up to a revolution. No person is too small to become active, and no action is too small to make a difference. There is no time to loose! Become active now! For instance by smiling at the person next to you, or by using kind words instead of insults, or by making a gift to someone: For instance to AZAHAR Foundation by clicking here.

Namaste
Lokah samasta sukhino bhavantu

Celine