Yoga Fights Hunger in Africa

This summer, D.C.-area residents have the opportunity to try something new and help raise $10,000 for the Africa Yoga Project. Down Dog Yoga is hosting a guest instructor from Nairobi, Walter Mugwe, and will donate the proceeds from some of its classes and workshops to the organization.

AYP “educates, empowers, elevates and employs youth from Africa using the transformational practice of yoga.” In other words, AYP finds young people in Africa who have a passion for yoga and provides training and jobs for them as yoga instructors.
Mugwe, who has been invited to teach classes at the Yoga Journal Conference, first met AYP co-founder Paige Ellison when he was 17 years old. He says, “Yoga changed my life, and opened up doors that I would never have imagined possible when I was a youth in the slums.” Today he supports himself and his family as an AYP yoga instructor.

Down Dog Yoga is donating the proceeds from its $5 Flow classes at the Clarendon location and all the proceeds from its Neo-Afro Yoga Beat Jam, Down Dog’s most popular and successful workshop. Recently held in Georgetown, the $40 Neo-Afro workshop will be at the Bethesda location on Aug. 8 from 8 to 10 p.m. For details and to register, visit downdogyoga.com.