World Yoga Day 2013 Supports FIAN International, Right to Food
FIAN International has been named beneficiary for World Yoga Day
November 2012 – FIAN International, a human rights organization advocating for the right to food has been named as the beneficiary for World Yoga Day 2013.
FIAN International is extremely grateful and excited to be the World Yoga Day 2013 beneficiary,” said Secretary General Flavio Valente. “It is very motivating for our work to know that thousands of yoga practitioners around the world will dedicate their practice to the defense of human rights, especially the right to food.
“FIAN International is the first organization advocating for the right to feed oneself. It exposes and addresses violations of people’s right to adequate food worldwide through analysis and documentation of concrete cases. With protest letter campaigns, advocacy and recourse to the law, FIAN exerts public pressure in order to hold governments accountable for these violations.
The donations from World Yoga Day 2013 will be used to support FIAN International’s work for the promotion and protection of the right to food, like its support of peasants in Bajo Aguan, Honduras, where more than 50 organized peasants and human rights defenders were killed during the last three years; small farmers in Mubende, Uganda, who were evicted to make way for a German company’s coffee plantation; and indigenous people in the village of Kusum Tola, Jharkhand, India whose survival is threatened by open cast coal mining, destroying agricultural lands, forests and water sources.
Started in 2007 by film director and yoga teacher Samira Radsi, World Yoga Day 2013 will take place on Sunday, February 24. Participating yoga schools, studios, teachers and students will take part in a 2-hour donation class, with the proceeds going to fund the work of FIAN International.”I am pleased to have FIAN International as this year’s beneficiary,” said Radsi. “Devoting our thoughts and energy globally to the right to food will generate a powerful impact.
“Those wishing to take part in World Yoga Day 2013 to show their solidarity with those fighting for their right to food can organize or attend a donation-class in any yoga style on 24 February 2013. Students attending the event will donate whatever they can afford. All contributions are welcome, as well as students who can’t pay at all.
Participants can register and download materials here.
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For more information, please e-mail Marina Litvinsky.