The Hope Foundation

The The Hope Foundation has been providing homes, safety and healthcare, clothing, education and food to the abandoned street and slum children of Kolkata since 1989. As have many others, I have seen first hand just how desperately the children on the streets and in the slums of Kolkata need our help. At events like these – our fourth Yoga Garden Party and our first Weekend for Hope – we are raising funds for the invaluable work that The Hope Foundation does for so many of the deprived and destitute children of India, the country that has given yoga to the world.

As a small but constant organisation, HOPE UK presents us all with an opportunity to make a difference. Recognising the value that each person carries with them, HOPE continues to reach out to communities, globally, to help change futures, inspire smiles and provide protection. Founded in the UK in 2008, HOPE has grown steadily and quietly, thus far. With opportunities to engage in the delivery of safe futures to children in Kolkata, HOPE regularly recruits volunteers to work on projects and bring life and light to the street children with whom they work and encourage you to be the change you want to see in the world. To enquire further about volunteering, please email Chloe@thehopefoundation.org.uk

“I believe that yoga is India’s greatest gift to the world. Yoga Academy teachers, trainees and I are coming together to give something back. We are raising awareness and funds for the Hope Foundation’s work for India’s street and slum children through donation yoga days and classes, fundraising events and sponsorships. Would you like to help us?

SIMON LOW, PATRON, THE HOPE FOUNDATION UK

FORTHCOMING Events

THE KOLKATA RETREAT IS POSTPONED TO 2023 OR 2024.

INSTEAD WE WILL OFFER ANOTHER HOPE FOUNDATION SERIES OF YOGA CLASSES IN 2022. SEE YOU THERE. 

Below is a brief description of the 2021 trip to Kolkata that had to be cancelled. Please register interest in a future trip with Vikki or Simon.

HOPE Patron Simon Low and long time HOPE supporter Vikki Stevenson, are delighted to announce details of their exciting upcoming Kolkata Yoga 2021 trip! Simon and Vikki will be offering daily morning dynamic yoga practice along with some afternoon restorative yoga sessions. Infused within the classes will be Chi Kung, breath-work, meditation, Indian yoga philosophy, Bengali wisdom poetry, and plenty of relaxation.

The rest of each day will be spent visiting the many varied HOPE funded and run projects, from the streets and slums to The Hope Foundation girls’ and boys’ homes… always allowing time to digest our delicious Bengali lunches and dinners and the wonders we experience on this adventure.

Child sponsorship

Every child deserves the opportunity to be educated. HOPE has been delivering a quality and unique education sponsorship programme since 2005. An opportunity to see change before your eyes, at the cost of two coffees per week, £20 can truly make a difference.

MORE INFORMATION

When Jan May discovered that HOPE supporters and Yoga instructors Vikki Stevenson and Simon Low were taking a group to Kolkata to practice yoga and visit HOPE projects, she knew she had to go with them. Please take a minute to read about Jan’s life-changing experience in the City of Joy.

Sometimes an opportunity arises and you know, instantly, that it is something you have to take up, that it could bring change to your life and how you feel, forever.

Such an opportunity powerfully manifested at the Yoga Garden Party 2016. I was there for a weekend of yoga with Simon Low to support The Hope Foundation of which he is a patron.

As soon as I heard that the Yoga Garden Party organisers, Vikki Stevenson and Ruth McNeill together with Simon were taking a group to Kolkata to practice yoga and visit projects of The Hope Foundation, I knew I had to go with them. The idea of combining a week of yoga with these wonderful teachers and a trip to the City of Joy, capped with visiting some of the 60 projects that HOPE has operating on the ground in the city, became a mission to be accomplished. I wanted to see for myself what life is really like for a ‘street or slum’ child and how our donations make a difference to them in this teeming and vibrant city where poverty and desperation are only a smile away

Arriving in Kolkata, my mantra of ‘Be Prepared to be Unprepared!’ came in very useful. We were very well taken care of by the delightful Hope staff but still, to the uninitiated, Kolkata, India can be an assault on all the senses and takes a little time to get used to!

We dived headlong into visiting the projects interspersed with some sightseeing, some with a link to yoga. Any concerns I had about being a ‘poverty tourist’ or ‘getting upset’ were soon dispelled by the rapturous welcomes we received from the children, the warmth of the staff and the depth of gratitude in the eyes of those who were cheered by our presence. From the Hope Hospital to the Girls’ and Boys’ homes to the Rehabilitation Home for Boys to the crèche and pre-school within a slum community built around the rubbish tip from where they scrape a living and at many more marvellous projects, we witnessed exactly what HOPE does on a day to day basis. By engaging with the staff, volunteers and children we could observe and learn firsthand the real and vital difference that HOPE makes to lives and to actually feel a part of this great work whatever our contribution.

I often saw sadness and suffering eclipsed by singing, laughter, kindness and joy. This, plus meeting my sponsored child, Suraj and knowing that I have given him a better chance in life through HOPE was poignant and inspirational.

Our group was fabulous, our teachers supportive and excellent. The experience of visiting the projects probably surpassed the yoga but yoga took us there, kept us going and was the conduit for an amazing group of like-minded yet utterly different people to enjoy a deeply bonding experience and to profoundly explore their own relationship with yoga and life.

Thank you YGP, HOPE, Kolkata – forever in my heart/mind.

Yoga Garden Party

We are no longer able to run the annual Yoga Garden Party at Bore Place, Kent. If anyone has a suitable venue they could recommend or offer for a future Yoga Garden Party please contact Simon Low: simon@theyogaacademy.org