SOUTH AMERICA
NHE Schools in Paraguay
By Brcii. Sutanuka Ac.
Our Neohumanist School is in Toledo Cañada, Capiatá, a rural zone about an hour from Asunción in bus. It was started in 1993 by Didi Atmaprama with 32 preschool children. Today there are 286 students from preschool to 9th grade. It is the biggest school in the area. The official Paraguayan curriculum is complemented with the curriculum of Neohumanist Education. The children’s families are horticulture workers that live nearby. Many of them come from devastated families that live under infrahuman conditions and whose parents have no energy or time to educate them. Thus they leave the children’s entire education in the hands of the school. Despite that, our children are recognized to be the most respectful and educated in the area.
We allow the children to study inclusively even if they can’t pay the fee of 1.5 dollars per month per child. The school is subsidized by the Paraguayan government and Ananda Marga pays the administrative expenses that include the salary of the director, secretary and the cleaning maid.
The school building has five rooms and an area for preschool and an office. All students perform meditation and yoga asanas with Didi Sutanuka who coordinates the project. The children have medical and psychological assistance too. There are workshops for the teachers and parents about universal love, solidarity and self-esteem. Ydalina, the director and one of our oldest teachers, is one of the witnesses of the constant growth of the school. The parents are grateful as they notice the results of the education we are giving their children.
The Children Universe School has 45 children and is located in the Central Market of Asunción, the biggest fruit and vegetable market of the city. The children sleep with their parents in the market and go to school while their parents work. The school is a paradise for them, as it is a big contrast with the noisy and contaminated surroundings of the market. The director, Anandamayii, with the help of Didi Sutanuka, leads the project using the Circle of Love curriculum and every day starts with the morning circle. Most of the children don’t pay anything as the project is financed since 2002 by the city government. The school building belongs to the Central Market and was renovated by members of Ananda Marga. This school was started with Didi Giitika.
NHE Teacher Training
Florianópolis, Brazil
A NHE Teacher training was conducted in Florianópolis, Brazil, May 22 and 23, by Didi Ananda Sushiila and local members of Ananda Marga and attended by 15 people from the community interested in learning more about NHE.
The program began with an introduction to Neohumanist Education based on the 6 principles of NHE and their application in the classroom. There were sessions on creative movements, yoga asanas for kids, circle dance and spiritual education. After the yoga for kids session, groups, were asked to create their own yoga asanas presentation with dance, stories or creative movement. Everyone really enjoyed being like children, moving with their imaginations, creativities and dancing. For the spiritual education session, the students learned how to introduce and teach med itation to the children including the use of visualizations, reading of children’s poetry, use of mudras, soft music and games.The program also included a presentation on story telling, a drama presentation by a theatre group and a session on sharing and exchanging experiences working with children. In the end everyone made one sun ray out of origami and wrote one word on it about how they felt. All rays were joined together to form a colourful sun of joy, peace, happiness, love, etc.
