Letter from Ramana's Garden in Tapovan, Rishikesh

Dear friends, family and colleagues,

Thank you so much for your input in this project!

I am glad to announce to you, that the project have found home about a month ago at a children's home in Tapovan, Rishikesh. It is called Ramana's Garden Children's Home and provides home, food and education to over 60 - at risk - children, as well as free education to over 130 students from local underprivileged families. Please check this amazing project out. It won my heart from the first glimpse, it might do the same with yours and there are so many ways you can be of use for them!http://sayyesnow.org/about/ramanas-garden-chilrens-home/

The practice is open to all the children, volunteers and staff members of Ramana's Garden. There are three groups and four one-to-one sessions running on a weekly basis. Attendants are both girls and boys between 7 and 19 years old. We are now on our fifth week of the project, and the service will carry on until mid May, when the school closes. The kids then will escape the heat by moving further up to the Himalayas in another Ramana's Garden home.

Dramatherapy here focuses in providing a non-judgmental, accepting, safe and confidential space for individuals to express through a creative way, feelings & thoughts, release from stress, nurturing self - esteem and expanding potential for growth. The kids seem to enjoy having this time and space, where they can express creatively in both verbal and non-verbal ways, and they keep coming back for it. What is very precious to have been established is consistency of the sessions and rapport.

It has been a very special experience being in India so far, with all the wonderful people I have met. They are all part of this journey. Many of them I met at this particular home or have in some way parts of linking me with it (even if they do not consciously know it). When you answer your 'calling', life just flows. I would like to express my gratitude to Ramana's project for being such an inspiring place to channel this dream into realisation.

I would also to thank the beautiful Aditi Prakash from 'Pure Ghee Collections', who has donated to this project several pieces of cloth in wonderful colours, offering in this way a supportive prop for unlimited hours of play and movement!

In Aditi's 'Pure Ghee Collections', which is located in Delhi's Ayanagar Village, you can find beautiful and unique bags and accessorises that are modern and yet pure Indian. Check them out here!: puregheedesigns.blogspot.com

Finally, a massive THANK YOU to my dear friends, Vidya and Ruda, and their wonderful family members: Mona, Prableen, Diya and Vidyun for their warm hospitality, and for helping out in so many ways!

Thank you again so much and I will be back to you with more updates!

Please continue to support this project by clicking on the Donate link on the right side, or promote it to others that might be willing to support it. We are discussing on resuming it in Autumn! Other dramatherapists are also welcome to join me into helping in establishing this as a regular practice at Ramana's!

Konstantza Maniatopoulou
(Satdeep Kaur)

P.S: Internet connection is exceptionally sluggish here, so please bare with me when it comes to updates...