Join Us
Congratulations! If you are reading this then it means you have decided to join YOGA STOPS TRAFFICK 2012, to take a stand against human trafficking in India.
United against human trafficking The purpose of this worldwide sponsored sun salutation is to unite yoga practitioners across the globe in support of Odanadi. By taking part on March 10th 2012 you will be helping to spread awareness about the serious, rapidly escalating exploitation of women and children in India and also raise funds to support Odanadi’s crucial work in the field of prevention, rescue and rehabilitation.
How to take part
- If you are a yoga teacher then you could run a YST group sun-salutation on March 10th at your yoga shala. Invite your regular students to take part and charge each participant a $20 (USD) minimum suggested donation. Or alternatively, every participant could be responsible for raising his or her own sponsorship.
- If you are an individual interested in taking part, you can email us at yogastopstraffick@gmail.com to find out whether a YST event is happening at a yoga shala near you, or check out our ‘Global events’ page for more information.
- Get together with a group of friends and organize something at your home, local community centre, beach, park – or anywhere else you can think of!
Event guidelines
Each participating group should organise their event according to their individual location, style, tradition and ability. The most important thing is that you take part. However, the following information might be useful:
- The traditional number of sun salutations (or surya namaskar) usually undertaken for this kind of event is 108: a sacred number in Hindu, Buddhist and many other belief systems. The average distance of the sun and the moon to Earth is 108 times their respective diameters. There are also said to be 108 energy lines converging to form the heart chakra; 108 pithas, or sacred sites in India and, in astrological traditions108 also represents the nine planets.
- We recommend that you do however many surya namaskar you can manage comfortably, or in divisions of 108 (54, 27, 13 etc) according to your ability. There are no prizes for the most number of sun salutations!
- Make sure you are comfortable, wear appropriate clothing, stay hydrated and take regular breaks if need be.
- At the Mysore event, the surya namaskar will be led by the Odanadi children, and counted on the podium using a big flip chart. You can count the number of sun salutations this way too, or alternatively by using stones or dried beans as counters.
- To complete the full 108 surya namaskar takes an estimated 2.5 hours. You could save time by reducing the number of breaths in down dog, from five to three.
Spread the word
- Join our YST group on Facebook and post information about your event on our event wall.
- Email all your friends and relatives and get them to join your event, or sponsor you.
- Approach your local newspaper or radio station and tell them about your YST event.
- If you need more Odanadi information, YOGA STOPS TRAFFICK posters or flyers you can download our flyer here and our poster template here.
- Record your event and upload the video clip on our YOGA STOPS TRAFFICK blog (listed under ‘Gallery’).