YOGA GIVES BACK
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Mission Statement
"For the cost of one yoga class, you can change a life." Thirteen years ago, Yoga Gives Back (YGB) was founded in Los Angeles to express our gratitude for the gift of yoga by mobilizing the global yoga community to empower women and children in Mother India to build sustainable livelihoods. Yoga Gives Back has grown to be a global campaign with 150 Ambassadors in more than 20 countries. YGB programs provide nearly 1400 underserved mothers and children with micro loans and education funds in India by partnering with a reputable local NGOs Deenbandhu in Karnataka and NISHTHA in West Bengal. Estimated 300 million people enjoy the practice of yoga, generating 80 billion dollars globally. If a fraction of this can be redirected to help the poor in India, birth place of yoga, we can make a difference. In the last ten years, YGB has proven that this can be done and we can do much more with your support.
About This Cause
Yoga Gives Back is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization dedicated to raising awareness and funds in order to alleviate poverty in India. We started in Los Angeles in 2007, determined to find a way for the global yoga community to help the poorest people in the country that gave birth to YOGA. Many charitable organizations have emerged from within the yoga community, but Yoga Gives Back is a very unique campaign which mobilizes the global yoga community to express our gratitude by supporting impoverished mothers and children in India. In 2007, inspired by Nobel Peace Prize Recipient Dr. Muhammad Yunus' revolutionary micro financing breakthrough, Yoga Gives Back began supporting micro credit programs in India. Through the Grameen Foundation, we funded programs who lend small loans to women who are otherwise excluded from the conventional banking and financial systems. YGB partners with local NGOs NISHTHA in West Bengal and Deenbandhu Trust in Karnataka. Annual donations to YGB have grown steadily (average of 34% per year over the last 5 years), enabling us to fund over 1300 mothers and children with micro loan programs and education funds with a minimum of five-year commitment to each person for a real transformation. In the last ten years, YGB has developed a series of effective programs: Sister Aid, SHE (Scholarship for Higher Education), Ambassador Program , "Thank You Mother india" Annual Campaign and One Million Yogis Campaign. "Sister Aid" : India ranks 122nd of 138 nations on gender equality. In some rural areas, more than fifty percent of girls are married before age fifteen. An estimated six thousand women are killed every year due to low dowry. Female literacy is still considerably lower than male literacy. However, women make the best poverty fighters. Women use their earnings not only to feed their families, but to improve their families' quality of life as well as fund their children's education, giving the next generation a much better chance to live out of poverty. In 2010, YGB developed "Sister Aid" to directly provide impoverished mothers with micro-loans and young daughters and orphans with education funds. So far, we have selected, visited, and partnered with successful Non Governmental Organizations NISHTHA in West Bengal, Deenabandhu in Chamarajnagar, Karnataka. "SHE (Scholarship for Higher Education)": In 2012, YGB also launched a new initiative "SHE Scholarship for Higher Education" which is now funding 200 high school girls in rural villages of West Bengal and 100 teen boy and girl students in Chamarajanagar, Karnataka with five-year commitment so that they can finish high school education and aim for college degree. These students were selected by YGB local NGO partners and Deenabandhu and NISHTHA, who have absolutely no other way to continue their education due to extreme poverty and related family problems. This program will be able to seed an opportunity for each student to become a real change maker in their communities and beyond. "Ambassador Program" : Our yoga teacher ambassadors are charged with conducting at least one donation yoga class per calendar year. These global YGB representatives provide viral communication to an invaluable and dedicated audience. Spreading our message to the yoga community throughout the world has the power to bring about immediate change in the lives of mothers and children in India. This program continues to grow every year and YGB now lists over 150 Ambassadors in more than 20 countries. “Thank You Mother India” Annual Campaign: YGB hosts an annual global campaign we have named, “Thank YouMother India”. The worldwide yoga communities are invited to host just one awareness sharing and fundraising event between the months of September through January. This annual campaign raises the majority of YGB’s funding to India each year. During 2016, yoga communities in 17 countries participated in this global effort. Together with the Los Angeles headquarters gala event, this campaign raised nearly $130,000. At the Los Angeles Gala event, YGB has awarded its original humanitarian Namaste Award since 2015 to Mallika Chopra, David Lynch and Alanis Morissette. "One Million Yogis Campaign" : To mark our tenth anniversary, YGB launched the ONE MILLION YOGIS CAMPAIGN. This global sustainable fundraising effort leverages the power of social media to inspire a million yoga practitioners to give a sustaining monthly donation of as little as $5 or more through YGB’s new online donation tool. Sustaining donations are crucial to supporting our structure of providing program recipient support. Estimated 300 million yogis enjoy the benefit of yoga in the world. If we can reach just one million yogis, we can create a tremendous socio-economic impact as well as creating a structure for YGB to sustain itself and grow as a non profit with a real impact. Achievements We receive regular reports from our NGO partners in India to update you on how your donation is working there. Here are some highlights: Nearly 500 mothers are funded with micro-loans, the average income increase is 600%, each mother is also saving every month for her daughter’s higher education. About 500 young daughters remain in school, avoiding child labor or child marriage. 300 destitute teen students are either in high school or college level degree. 31 orphaned children are being funded for their education and living, one girl graduated from college and lives independently working as a tailor. One boy entered into the master’s course at Dental Medical College, expecting to become a dental surgeon. 50 rescued young girls to live in a safe group home and get higher education. Kayoko Mitsumatsu, the Founder Prior to moving to the USA in 1992, Kayoko was a producer/director forNHK Japan’s National Public Broadcaster, working on prime time national broadcast current affairs and documentary television programs; and cultural attaché at the Embassy of Japan in London. Her passion for documentary filmmaking to bridge diverse values and cultures is rooted in the perspective gained from years of living abroad including Australia, Brazil, United Kingdom and USA, where she is now a citizen. Kayoko co-founded Yoga Gives Back in 2007, from her yoga class in Los Angeles, which has now grown to a global campaign. Kayoko has been filming YGB’s fund recipients’ lives and transformation in India since her first trip there in 2007. These short films are the best testament of how YGB’s programs are making impact in many lives in India. YGB FILMS (http://www.yogagivesback.org/ygbfilms) has become one of the most powerful tools to share our mission and impact with the growing global yoga communities and beyond. “As a middle-aged woman, feeling my life being so enriched by the practice of yoga, I felt a strong need to use all my resources to help others. I learned a lot about Dr. Muhammad Yunus’s revolutionary micro financing while working on a documentary about Social Entrepreneurship featuring Kiva.org. I was struck by the incredible impact which micro financing could bring to alleviate generations of poverty. And 25 dollars can make a fundamental difference on somebody’s life in India. As a happy and healthy yoga practitioner, I realized that I could contribute a little to India’s poverty issues. I hope to invite everyone who benefits from Yoga to join in our campaign by giving back and making difference together.”