Yoga centre puts Ubuntu on the map with voluntary work

OVERLOOKING the shanty community from the slope of a mountain, the Yoga Shala Peace Centre invites between 30 and 40 overseas students to experience living in Africa and the concept of Ubuntu in Masiphumelele.

Naisa Baibeiino, 22, an International Studies student from Brazil, chose to volunteer at the centre after she found out that the work done there correlates with her studies.

Baibeiino, who is going to work with the UN on her return to Brazil, is among 12 students who are at the centre this month.

“I came here to have a better understanding of Ubuntu, which is an important value in the United Nations’s projects,” she said. “I am here to get to experience South Africa and experience working with people.

“When you do volunteer work, it helps you develop personal and professional skills,” Baibeiino said.

On Monday, she will start community work at Masiphumelele, she said.

Sydney Ryan, a co-ordinator at the centre, said when the idea for the centre came up, the Ubuntu concept had been on his mind.

“We tried to figure out what to do with the concept. We knew we needed to project Ubuntu,” he said.

Ryan explained that the centre wasn’t an organisation for poor people, and said it was multi-dimensional.

He said when the students went back home they hardly believed the change their voluntary work made in Masiphumelele.

“We might be third-world Africa, but we have a lot to offer. This little thing called Ubuntu is what we offer.”

He said the centre was more than an NPO because instead of expecting cheques, the centre gave the volunteers resources.

Ryan said volunteers were not under duress to fund the centre as it had a culture of not expecting handouts, and the children in the six crèches that work with the centre understood that.

On the short-term and longterm goals of the centre, he said: “We would like to have the volunteers stay for longer, and we would also like to have all our crèches in proper buildings instead of having them in (corrugated-iron) structures.”

The centre houses one of the crèches in a house. “In the long-term, I would really like us to avoid having to do this in the form we’re doing it. I would like it to be organic with everyone to want to volunteer.”

The centre relied on student funding, which went to the six crèches. Candi Horgan, a co-ordinator, said: “We always try to address a practical need. In 2007, when the global economy got tough, we looked and asked how we could put Project Ubuntu to use.”

She said every community knew how to solve its problems, but often they lacked resources.

Nyameka Ndashe, a teacher at Yoga Shala, said the centre also helped children who came from broken, drug- and alcohol-abusing homes.

“Here we treat them as our own. We are a team so it is heartbreaking when the volunteers have to leave.”