Yoga for QPASST (The Queensland Program of Assistance to Survivors of Torture and Trauma)

http://theyogapartnership.com.au

QPASST have an amazing group of women who meet in North Brisbane to come together with cultural sensitivity, to promote the health and well being of people who have been tortured or who have suffered refugee related trauma prior to migrating to Australia. They offer various activities and counselling which address the range of physical, psychological and social needs that survivors of torture and trauma have. All services are free and confidential. They welcome people from all genders, sexualities, religions and cultures.

The work QPASST are doing, aligns perfectly with the aims and intentions of The Yoga Partnership so we offered a trial session of yoga funded by our local council member. We found the perfect teacher who is a trauma informed yoga therapist with a BA in Human Rights and Ethics and we had 13 ladies join, with 2 interpreters. The group speak Arabic, Dari, Hazaragi and some English, so the class was designed to honour the physical, emotional and language diversity of the group.

The women loved the class and the teacher and want to continue, but QPASST have limited funding to pay for the teacher. We are seeing funding to provide a weekly class to this group (excluding school holidays), as the feedback from participants, staff and our teacher was so positive. Without funding, this group of women and many more like them, would find it impossible to experience the benefits of yoga, mindfulness and meditation in a safe and caring environment.

We would book a suitable venue in Zillmere and run 40 weeks of Yoga for this group of women. In conjunction with other support services, having a weekly class with a teacher they trust, would build rapport and confidence to feel safe within their physical bodies after traumatic experiences and feel safe within their local community and environment in Australia.

The Yoga Partnership would manage all of the intake, reporting and evaluation and QPASST would manage the necessary transport and translating for the women to get there.