Giving Back Through Yoga: The Africa Yoga Project with Tara Koenig
Unlike a lot of yoga teachers, Tara Koenig didn’t fall in love with yoga right from the beginning. She tried a few different classes and styles and enjoyed the exercise, but it wasn’t until she tried power yoga that she knew she had discovered something awesome.
After practicing power yoga for some time, she decided that she wanted to teach and completed her training through Power Yoga Canada.
When she moved from Ontario to Banff, Alberta, she took her teaching to the next level, telling everyone that she knew or met that she was a teacher and that she wanted to teach.
This was probably my biggest mistake after I completed my YTT, and something I deeply admire Tara for putting herself out there. She wasn’t worried about how good she was, or who she was subbing for. She just knew that she was a yoga teacher and that she wanted to teach.
Tara continued to gain teaching experience, while taking all 3 levels of her Baptiste yoga teacher training. Along the way, she was introduced to the Africa Yoga Project, and she knew immediately that she wanted to get involved.
The Africa Yoga Project provides teacher training opportunities for individuals in Africa. The aim is to empower young people through yoga, and to teach them to become leaders in their communities. Unlike many charities, the Africa Yoga Project is providing local people with a way to make money on their own, instead of just throwing money at them.
Tara signed up to become a mentor to a young yoga teacher in Africa, Simon. She never expected how much she would learn from Simon and how much the mentorship program would help her to grow as a person and a yoga teacher. Now, Tara is fundraising to travel to Seva, Africa to assist with the next teacher training program for the Africa Yoga Project.
Are you interested in giving back through yoga? Do you want to empower young people in developing countries? Do you want to support Tara in raising money for the Africa Yoga Project? You can! Listen to her episode of the podcast & learn more here. Be warned — Tara’s passion for this project is contagious!
Originally published at www.mbomyoga.com on February 23, 2016.
