Ourmala: Yoga for social justice

“Following my heart is how I live my life. Sometimes it’s really easy, and other times it is challenging and terrifying, but by placing my trust in life itself, the most incredible opportunities and experiences have opened-up.”

“And when I can’t hear my heart, I know the most important thing is to get into a position where I can, and then I listen and the answer becomes clear.”

This is Emily Brett, yoga teacher and founder of Ourmala; a small charity in London that helps refugee and asylum-seeking women find strength through yoga. The main group they work with are registered with the UK Home Office to seek refuge in the UK.

I met with Emily at Ourmala’s headquarters, a converted shipping container overlooking the trees, field and pig pen at Hackney City Farm in East London.

Emily has changed the lives of more than 170 refugee and asylum-seeking women living in London since starting-up in 2011. Ourmala now has a waiting list of women wanting to practice yoga and organisations that work with refugees wanting yoga classes at their centres. 

I wanted to understand Emily's story, motivation and actions behind her grand vision.

Photography by Carl Bigmore

You have created something really special; a space for women who have been forcibly displaced to enjoy yoga. Can you tell me more about the situation for these women?

“Sure, I’d love to… Many don’t realise, but the refugee and asylum-seeking community is one of the most marginalised, under-represented, impoverished, vulnerable and stigmatised in the UK. Eighty per cent of the world’s refugees are hosted by developing countries. In the UK, refugees, pending asylum cases and stateless people make-up only 0.27% of the total population (Source: UNHCR 2012 Global Trends Report.)

The women are here to seek refuge and, for most, the situation is dire. I mean, incredibly tough. Many are dealing with mental, emotional and physical issues from the trauma they faced in their home countries. Torture, sexual violence, human trafficking and female genital mutilation are common experiences.

When they arrive in London, they often know no one and are faced with huge language barriers, poverty, malnutrition, over-crowded or unstable accommodation. For a single person, the National Asylum Seeking Support is £36.62 a week which obviously does not go very far in London.

I’ve asked women what they do during the day, and a not uncommon answer has been: ‘Sit on a bench in the park… or pray in my room….’

Many are separated from their loved ones, which can include not knowing whether they are alive.”

Mindful Words

 This

There’s no law against my listening

to this thrush behind the barn,

the song so loud it echoes like a bell,

then it’s further off beyond the lawn.

Whatever else there is, there’s this as well.

There’s no law against this singing –

nesting I suppose – up in the silver birch,

even though we build a common hell,

have done, and will make it worse.

Whatever else there is, there’s this as well.

- Maitreyabandhu (2011)

“I became a Buddhist because I wanted to learn more about my potential as a human being,” said Maitreyabandhu, teacher at the London Buddhist Centre in East London’s Bethenal Green. 

“I realised this when I was a 25 years-old fine arts student who wasn’t all that happy. I was lost, complicated, quite depressed and seeking some sort of meaning,” he added.

Damien Hirst and Sarah Lucas – Maitreyabandhu's close friends who today are both well-known artists– encouraged him to attend a meditation class at the centre in 1986. By 1987, he had moved into the residential community above the centre and by 1990, was ordained into the Triratna Buddhist Order and given the name Maitreyabandhu. Now a teacher of Buddhism and meditation at the centre, Maitreyabandhu introduces beginners much like his former self to the practice.

“Meditation quite literally opened me up to a much more fortunate and fulfilled life,” Maitreyabandhu explained.

“ A divine way of just being really."

Maitreyabandhu

The centre was once a burnt-out fire station, abandoned and mistreated, when a group of men and women saw the possibility of the space in the 1960s and over three years, converted the derelict building into a haven of peace.

“During this time, Bethenal Green was a very poor community, living in very hard conditions. There was a need for something else. A reason to believe that there was more,” shared Maitreyabandhu.

Now the centre is opened six days a week, offering meditation, yoga, art and community events as well as retreats.

Always fascinated by words, imagery, playful puns and clever alliteration, Maitreyabandhu said his love of poetry began when a friend read him the first five verses of Shelley's Mask of Anarchy. "It was one of those moments when one discovers a new ecstasy, even a new calling. After that I read and re-read Shelley and Keats obsessively and used their poetry to explore ancient Buddhist themes," he said.