Harmony Yoga’s Amanda Rico and Amanda Lytle are back from a “life-changing” 12-day trip to India.
The two returned Oct. 16 from a Her Future Coalition visit to Kolkata. Since 2015, the organization has been working to ensure survivors of trafficking and other genderbased violence, and girls at high-risk, have what they need to remain free, safe and independent. They provide shelter, education and job training.
The United Nations says India is the epicenter of global human trafficking, with 10-18 million of the world’s 40 million enslaved people. And, more than a quarter of Indian and Nepali girls are married by the age of 18, more than anywhere else is the world.
Rico first started fundraising to go to India with the YogaMedicine Seva Foundation in 2018 but shifted her focus to the Her Future Coalition.
Lytle first heard about Rico’s plans when the two were leading a yoga retreat to Mexico last winter. When they got back, Rico found out there was a spot for Lytle on the trip and she went from “zero to 100” beginning to fundraise.
Rico said after COVID and a denied visa, “I was excited. I was ready to go… When you get there and see these women and these children, it’s intense.”
Lytle said their site visits included a fulltime shelter and vocational training centre for women, people with special needs, and students. They also went to a learning centre. They saw spaces where women do vocational training, such as making jewelry, and have access to a library and room for yoga and meditation.
Lytle said after having had so much taken away from them, the job skills give them something back, an opportunity to enter the workforce and make money.
They also visited a resource centre where kids can go 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. while their moms work. It is a place for them to connect with others, be safe, eat, and learn.
Rico explained, “where kids and students from the red-light district have a safe place to be while their mom is working in prostitution.” Without it, children would be in the working rooms, wandering the halls, or put to work.
“It’s horrendous. So, this gives them a place to be safe and connected throughout the day.”
Another site visit was to a joint Her Future Campaign, Kolkata police initiative near the Nepali border, considered a Mecca for human trafficking into India.
Rico said all of the visits were profound. Recalling their first shelter visit, she said they walked in to young girls, dressed up, sitting cross-legged on the floor, preparing to dance for their visitors. She said despite their trip preparation, it was “that moment that hit us.
“When you walk in and see all those faces, their sense of pride in what they were doing and offering to us. They were smiling and laughing. That was contagious. There were moments where you were going to cry and moments where you were smiling with them. You have this reminder that no matter what happened, it wasn’t in their hands, and now they’re in a place where they have opportunity to learn and be educated.”
Lytle said the joy and resilience was moving. After what they had been through, the horrific stories, she said their souls and spirits could have been broken.
“I felt so overwhelmed with gratitude… for us and our experience… for the privilege we have, but for them, they were in a place of love and connection now, for the programming and how that reverberates out into all of these families.”
Rico said the trip was “an absolute emotional roller coaster.” They had nightly debriefings but felt they had enough natural skills to work through their emotions.
While there, the two shared their yoga and meditation skills. “The kids loved it.” Every time they got a thumbs up for a pose, they clapped. During savasana, Rico said “nobody made a peep… just to have time with them on that level in that kind of quiet zone was really touching.”
The Amandas are now brainstorming what might be next.
“I feel at home with it and so lucky I got to go,” Rico said. “All those people that gave money, I can show them photos of these little smiling faces that learned how to make jewelry, how to cook, languages, how to play a musical instrument… to just be able to keep bringing awareness into this community, and global awareness.”
