Where It All Began:
Whilst living in the community of Auroville in South India, I had the great pleasure of working across a handful of rural village educational settings both at the primary school level and also for young people once they had finished school, to acquire vocational skills and be income generating.

My experiences there were deeply enriching and I learned a great deal about working with individuals from diverse cultural and social backgrounds. An integrated part of the vision for Lotus Blue is that its resources be available to people from all walks of life, regardless of their social and economic standing.

The Sangamam Trust
To this end emerges the Sangamam Trust. Sangamam means literally the confluence of a river, or figuratively a meeting place of people, ideas and things.

The specific objective of the Sangamam Trust is to make personal development tools and strategies freely available to young people coming from rural village backgrounds, in order that they too may be better supported in their life’s work.

The Life Education Centre, Kottakarai
My work at the Life Education Centre in Kottakarai was an especially powerful rite of passage. Not only did I find a level of sisterhood and empathy amongst my co-workers, but I also had the privilege to work together with a group of young women, whose openness to change was humbling to witness.

Once a week I would share various creative exercises in a group discussion setting. Looking back all these years later, I realize that some of these early experiences also inspired some of the workshop processes now incorporated in the Celebrate Your Self workshop model as it currently stands. Perhaps more critically for me and my visions for Lotus Blue, it was the young women’s receptive and willingness to work with me that so inspired me to carry on.

Essentially a therapeutic learning environment for young village women aged 15-21 years, there is much good work that continues to take place there, including:-

• Providing a livelihood and income generating activities for young village women
• Providing a safe haven where women may feel supported by one another and free to share    their
   experiences and difficulties with one another.
• Offering a therapeutic learning culture where young women are introduced to a variety of personal    development tools, including diary-writing, participating in group discussions and using different art    forms as a means to reflect and explore social and cultural issues and concerns.

Lotus Blue Profit Share
A percentage of profits from all of Lotus Blue’s activities will continue to support this incredible outreach initiative via the Sangamam Trust. It is also hoped that there will be opportunities in the future to host Celebrate Your Self workshops at the LEC in India. If you would like to volunteer your support for such a project, please do feel free to get in touch. Contact.

Making Donations
It is of course also possible to make donations directly to LEC either via their website
(www.life-education-centre.org) or by sending a donation to us here at Lotus Blue.