Global News
Stockholm, Sweden
Dada speaks at the Bliss Cafe in Stockholm.
Copenhagen, Denmark
A Teacher Training Seminar was held at the Sunrise School in August on NHE and the Role of Teachers. 12 teachers attended. Classes were given by Malati and Dada Shambhushivananda.
Iceland
Didi Ananda Kaostubha
We extended our school building. Before the size of the house was 240 sqm. Now we have extended the total size of the house to 490 sqm. We had permission to have 39 kids according to the size of the house and now we have applied to get 25 more kids in the house. In our new building we have an extra-big hall where kids can have indoor activities and staff have their separate working area and resting room. All the parents are very happy to see the standard of our building, education, philosophy, care, and love. There is always a huge waiting list.
Ananda Rtam
Social Garden CSA (Community Supported Agriculture)
Poieni, Romania
This season began with reconstructing a 500 square meter greenhouse that had been destroyed by heavy snows in the winter. We have had again an average of about 30 clients per week receiving vegetable baskets with a variety of organic seasonal produce. In August, we organized another permaculture workshop with Steve Hart, an experienced designer from Australia who studied with Bill Mollison. The concept of mulching was clearly reinforced and put into practice by our staff and participants. We have also had many volunteers this season who helped us to construct several innovative mandala gardens. Already our local staff are inspired by the designs and implementing them also at home! We have also started to gain clients from the Dutch Embassy – one of our new team members is from Holland – so he has been busy spreading the word!
Morningstar Wellness Center – Newly Opened
Bucharest, Romania
In June 2014, a holistic wellness center called Morningstar Center, newly opened in the north of Bucharest. The center offers a variety of courses in yoga, meditation, tai chi, qigong, stress management, vegetarian cooking as well as special programs like drumming circles, detox days, permaculture events and seminars on spiritual topics. In addition, we are collaborating with natural therapists to offer ayurvedic consultations and treatments, homeopathy, bach flowers and massage. The center will create jobs for massage therapists with visual disabilities coming from the school Regina Elisabeta which is specialized in training people with visual disabilities in massage therapy.
Morningstar will provide us with a basis to share Neohumanist philosophy and tools for personal development with a broader range of people. We have also set up a beautiful courtyard with a flower garden and tables for an outdoor teahouse during sunny, beautiful days. We plan to also provide transitional work experiences for our young people in the Vistara program in the future in the cafe.
In October, we organized a lunch party for a group of Dutch embassy representatives, which included a vegetarian meal largely made with organic ingredients from our CSA garden. We introduced the center, as well as AMURTEL’s work, and even led a short meditation experience for some of them.