Athens-Paris-Berlin
Focus on the EU project. Athens-Paris-Berlin. Research and testing of a method addressed to refugees. Encounter of Yoga and Poetry. Create a safe space. Objective for facilitators over Europe working with refugees. Objective to give skills to refugees.
Lotus Project was born as an idea in Paris, which is a
combination of yoga and poetry. It is an Erasmus + program in which three partners are participating:
La Transplanisphère from Paris, France, Yoga Family Violet Alignment from Athens, Greece and Sur Mesure from Berlin, Germany.
Our vision is to increase awareness, create a safe space for expression, mental clarity and new skills for immigrants and refugees. To offer artists and facilitators working with migrants-refugees groups new methods and skills to run activities with them. Creating an innovative methodology which will provide the opportunity of learning new knowledge and skills through yoga and poetry.
All together, the three partners are creating the
methodology through research from scientific articles and from their previous experience. The team of 6 trainers exchanged tools, ideas, practises, etc. from previous experiences and knowledge aiming to produce high quality and efficient activities.
The research findings helped us elevate the context of our workshop/training. By enhancing the effectiveness, adaptability of our activities and making them more easily applicable by any youth educator wishing to approach the topic.
The collaboration with the refugee organizations from Paris, Singa and the House of refugees plus the Home Project, from Athens, helped the team with their valuable experience and played a significant role to enrich the methodology of the project. They shared with us their good practices for increasing the effectiveness of the project.
We agreed to start applying the methodology in Athens, Greece in a collaboration with the Home project organization. The feedback of the youth for the workshops was very positive. Some youth told us that they feel stronger to follow their dreams, others decided to start going to school, and in general that they felt more relaxed and concentrated.
Afterwards, we applied the method in the House of refugees, in Paris, France.
In an environment that will make you feel welcome, with minimal space and friendly people smiling to welcome you.
At the poetry session one of the participants draws herself being on the ground and then on the top of the mountain.
She explained to us that she wasn;t feeling well before the session but after the session she felt much better. We can relate to the research findings from a study at Thomas Jefferson University indicating that art therapy yields a “Connection between the body–mind and creativity” and therefore has a positive impact in the realm of quality of life. (Talwar, 2007, Art Therapy and Yoga with Mental Illnesses and Substance Abuse 7 7 p.24)