Learning beyond Borders - An initiative by Kyokan

As a college student I worked with little children from the streets of North Kolkata, living in ardent need of care and protection. Most of them stayed with their single parents, an extended family member (grandparent) or at times simply in the care of their neighbour. I used to encourage them to have a safe space of activity based learning besides providing motivation to study and stay away from habits which might seem to offer temporary safety but will become harmful in the long run.  Many times, their mothers came to me and spoke of their stories of survival. Stories that broke my heart, stories that inspired me and stories that led me belief in the power of hope, resilience, strength and forgiveness. This was 2008 and I knew that there was no looking back. At present, I am working with children, adolescents, young mothers and community people to co-create safe spaces for expression and healing through somatic practices, movement, art based therapy work, socio-emotional learning, mindfulness practices and multimodal forms of expression. I completed my Master's in Psychology, am a dance movement therapy practitioner, certified trauma informed yoga instructor, certified in Trauma Resiliency Model Level 1 and 2 from Trauma Research Institute and certified in Trauma informed Expressive Arts Therapy Level 1 and 2 from Trauma-Informed Practices and Expressive Arts Therapy Institute. I founded my organization Kyokan Foundation - a not-for profit (NGO) aimed to create a mental health and educational model for early childhood care and education through a trauma sensitive framework. Kyokan means oneness or compassion in Japanese and through my initiative I aim to create childhood journeys wholesome and holistic filled with resilience and activity based learning.