U okviru akcije ACT4Ukraine kao volonter ACT FOUNDATION Srbija dve nedelje sam provela na relaciji Rumunija – Ukrajina. Ovo je bilo ogromno iskustvo za mene na više nivoa na kome sam beskrajno zahvalna. I dok ovo pišem još osećam i blagi umor ali i jednu lakoću, i radost jer sam dala doprinos. Naravno, zahvalnost nije prisutna što tamo vrišti sukob, i što je zbog tog sukoba meni data mogućnost da učinim dobro delo, već je zahvalnost tu kad je već tako da sam mogla da dam svoj mali doprinos. I molim se da to što pre sve stane i da se ljudi vrate svome domu.

Naime, bili smo smešteni u jednom gradu na pola sata od granice, Dorohoi. Mali i simpatičan gradić. Baš u ulici gde je bio smeštaj smeštena je i pravoslavna crkva te su me zvona budila svako jutro. Jedne nedelje sam otišla na liturgiju i bio mi je predivan momenat u kome su svi kleknuli na kolena i spustili čelo na pod. Taj sam poriv imala više puta u našim crkvama, a kada sam jednom to i ispoštovala neka gospođa me je vukla za duks ne bi li me pitala šta mi je, da li sam dobro. Bila sam, samo sam imala potrebu za poklonom, za spuštanjem i predajom.

Nakon dugog puta iz Beograda, koji je potrajao 17 sati sa sve pauzama legla sam premorena ali i zadovoljna jer sam sve vreme vozila pa je to bilo prvo pomeranje granica i test izdržljivosti. Nekome je to možda kao dobar dan, ali za mene je svakako novo iskustvo toliko sati vožnje. Prvo jutro u Dorohoiu započelo je sa zvukom zvona, a potom je usledio susret sa volonterima koji su bili tamo i nas troje koji smo došli. Predočena nam je situacija, šta se do tad uradilo, na čemu se radi i šta se planira i već prvog dana smo otišli u Ukrajinu. U Ukrajini smo u periodu od dve nedelje, sarađivali sa dve škole i jednim domom koji neguje napuštenu decu sa smetnjama u razvoju, a svako od nas je davao doprinos na svoj način. Nismo ulazili dublje u Ukrajinu već se aktivnost odvijala na nekih pola sata od granice. U te dve škole koje se nalaze u selima Boyan i Mahala, smešteni su i ljudi koji su izbegli iz dela Ukrajine gde je sukob, kao što su Kijev, Odesa, Harkov itd. Kada je počeo čitav taj haos, i kada se aktivirao tim ACT4Ukraine u tim školama je bilo mnogo više izbeglih ljudi, ali su mnogi našli prebivalište u porodicama koje žive u tim selima, a neki su produžili dalje. Oni koji se nisu snašli ostali su u školama. Nije bilo lako svedočiti porodicama koje spavaju na dušecima u školama, koje tu obeduju, provode dane, kupaju se u lavorima i ostalo, a koje bi vrlo volele da mogu da se vrate svome domu. Većinom su to majke sa decom dok su očevi ostali u rodnom gradu kao vojno aktivni. Bilo mi je drago da posvedočim da se naš tim ACT4Ukraine aktivirao i da se u jednoj školi izgradi kupatilo sa par tuševa.

Dok sam bila tamo dobila sam informaciju da je dosta fondacija koje doniraju hranu, hemiju, lekove i druge potrepštine, ali smo se samo mi angažovali i oko ljudi. Više o tome šta je sve rađeno od strane naše ekipe možete ispratiti na ACT Foundation Global.

Kada je u našoj grupi volontera objavljena informacija da se traže volonteri koji bi išli u Ukrajinu prijavila sam se. Odmah sam imala sličicu šta ću tamo raditi. Videla sam sebe sa decom i odraslima kako radimo različite aktivnosti koje imam u svom isksutvu a koje su kao takve delotvorne u smislu oslobađanja stresa i podizanja vibracije. Kada sam se prvi put obrela tamo htela sam da osetim šta im najviše prija pa je to bilo jedno druženje koje je počelo muzikom i plesom, potom smo prešli na smeh jogu, pa na jogu (asane i kratku pranajamu) i onda smo druženje završili jogom zagrljaja. Sve im je prijalo a svako je sebe pronašao više u nečemu, dok su se u zagrljajima pronašli svi.  Dragi kolega Peđa koji je skoro sve vreme bio sa mnom i koji je napravio većinu foto i video zapisa, na kraju joge koju sam vodila bi puštao i meditaciju Freedom (sloboda) koju je dao Mohanđi. To je jedna lepa desetominutna meditacija osmišljena za decu ali je dobra i za odrasle. Kratka, ali efektna. S obzirom da je prevedena na ukrajinski, puštana je na njihovom maternjem jeziku. Što se ostalih aktivnosti tiče uvek je neko morao da prevodi sa engleskog na ukrajinski.

Meni je bilo slatko da kada bih uhvatila neku reč kako se izgovara, uvela bih je u vežbu. Pa na primer, kada bih rekla da se sada spuštamo na kolena, engleski knee, shvatila sam da oni govore na koljena. Onda je to: on the knee i u mom izgovoru bivalo „na koljena“.

U početku, kad smo tek došli, deca su bila pomalo stidljiva, ali nakon prve radionice zagrljaja pri sledećem dolasku sami bi prilazili i zagrlili bi me. Bilo je prosto predivno kada sami priđu u zagrljaj, a drugi stoje u redu i čekaju da se grlimo. Razmena ljubavi je bila predivna i prevelika, a mališanima beskrajno potrebna. U Bojan školi nastavnica Danijela mi je ispred svih zahvalila što sam im pokazala tu  vežbu zagrljaja jer kako kaže: sad je možemo praktikovati sa decom. To su zagrljaji koji traju, u kojima se diše i blagosilja biće koje grlimo. I nastavnici su se grlili i zaista je razmena bila divna. Svi ti ljudi tamo su zaista posebni, nekako veseli duhom bez obzira na situaciju i vrlo verujući. A ti zagrljaji su nešto najprirodnije od čega mi se čini da smo se odrodili.

U Smeh jogi ima jedna vežba koja se zove smeh mrtvaka. I odlična je. Ideja je da osoba koja leži da se pravi mrtva a da je ostatak grupe smehom oživi. Kad je radim sa decom, onda kažem da se prave da spavaju a mi ostali treba smehom da ga probudimo. Ovu vežbu sam u okviru radionice smeh joge  održala u Ukrajini u Mahala školi.  Skoro sva deca nisu mogla da se uozbilje uopšte do jednog plavog dečaka koga nismo mogli da zasmejemo. Ostao je da leži potpuno mirno. Svi smo mu čestitali iz prve. Par sekundi kasnije videla sam ga u zagrljaju drugarice da plače. Prišla sam, zagrlili smo se i pitala šta se desilo. Nastavnica engleskog mi je prevela da je rekao: “Mislio sam na tatu koji je ostao tamo gde je rat i nisam mogao da se smejem.” Duša je zabolela.

I jednog dana taj dečak će biti odrastao muškarac koji će verovatno poneti traumu. I zato budimo obazrivi prema svakome na našem putu jer nikad ne možemo znati šta je nečija prošlost ispisala na životnim stranicama osobe ispred nas. Neki lakše nose traume, neki ih isceljuju na vreme, neki se uopšte nažalost ne bave time. Zato negujmo saosećajnost za svako biće ispred nas. Neki dan je jedna žena rekla: “Pa odrastao je muškarac.” Da, ali da li je odrastao dečak u njemu? To ne znači da ćemo nužno opravdavati svaki postupak, al’ ćemo se truditi da ne osudimo i ne odbacimo iz prve.

Poseta domu za decu sa smetnjama u razvoju mi je najteže pala. Stajali smo na dvorištu i poneka deca bi prišla da se zagrlimo, da se rukujemo, a jedan dečak me je povukao za ruku i poveo do drvene kućice. Tu smo igrali taši taši ta. U nekom momentu nakon dok sam stajala u dvorištu i posmatrala prizor i dečije zvuke, osetila sam nešto u grudnom košu i počela da plačem. To nije bio plač, to je lilo, tako da sam se sklonila i shvatila brzo da tu neću biti od velike koristi. Jedan deo našeg tima se zauzeo da im se pomogne u smislu doterivanja igrališta, dopune, bojenja itd. Pre situacije u Ukrajini taj dom je na čuvanju imao desetoro dece, a sada je tamo pedesetvoje dece.

U školama sam vodila i časove joge kao sertifikovani instruktor i svi su lepo reagovali, i deca i nastavnici. Video izveštaj sledi. Prijala im je iako su neki mislili da nisu za jogu, i možda i nisu jer je joga tu za nas. Kada povežemo disanje sa vežbanjem i to postane svesno vežbanje, onda dolazi do relaksacije tela, do oslobađanja stresa i samim tim dobijamo više kvalitetne energije za dalje. Čak su i tražili da snimimo pozdrav Suncu kako bi mogli da nastave sa redovnom primenom u mom odsustvu i za slučaj da neka nova postava volontera nema instruktora joge. U međuvremenu su mi pisali iz Mahala škole da deca pitaju kad će opet joga. 🙂

Pred povratak u jednoj školi organizovali smo mini festival koji je bio timski rad. Svako od nas je dao doprinos na svoj način a festival je uključivao svesno hodanje, mai tri, radionicu sadnje, vežbe istezanja i zagrevanja, svesno plesanje, meditaciju Sloboda, i amaterski kratki koncert violine. I mi ali i svi učesnici od najmlađih do najstarijih smo tog dana bili posebno nadahnuti i ispunjeni dobrom energijom. Da Bog da da se sve te aktivnosti što pre odvijaju u miru.

S obzirom da smo mi na Balkanu svašta prošli, neki iskustveno a neki kroz svedočenje drugih, lako je saosećati istinski sa situacijom u kojoj se ovaj narod našao. Nije to pitanje nacije, prirpadnosti nekoj državi, već istinska brižnost za sve ljude sveta. ACT FOR PEACE. Deluj za mir. To svima treba da nam je na pameti a i u srcima. Da se manemo tih nacionalnih gluposti bez obzira gde smo na planeti nastanjeni i da širimo energiju ljubavi i mira svuda oko nas.

Takođe, isksutvo od dve nedelje sa određenom grupom ljudi takođe može biti izazovno. Osmoro ljudi različiti sa različitim navikama, osobinama, ali opet kada smo svi sa istim ciljem i svrhom, onda se i dobra saradnja dešava. Važno je znati skloniti svoje sve po strani i napraviti fokus da delovanje zbog kojeg si otišao bude istinski nesebično, da se namestiš tako da kroz tebe sve protiče bez svojatanja učinjenog a sve što se kroz tebe manifestuje predaš Bogu u dlanove. Njegova Volja, njegova manifestacija, a tvoja svesna pažnja i zahvalnost. Verujem i osećam da smo mnogo više mi dobili na svim nivoima nego što smo dali. Čarolija je bila prava družiti se sa tim mališanima, ali i sa nastavnicama iz škola.

Neke od pisanih poruka koje sam dobila su sledeće:

„I very glad to meet you. I want to say thank you 🙂 for your help, kindness, smile, yoga. Just thank you for all. I hope next time we will meet each in better condition I mean with no war.“ – Veoma mi je drago da sam te srela. Želim da ti kažem hvala za tvoju pomoć, ljubaznost, osmeh, jogu. Hvala ti na svemu. Nadam se da ćemo se sledeći put sresti u boljim uslovima, mislim bez rata.

„We are also very grateful for your big hearts, for the light you’re emitting , for making our days a little brighter. I know that for all your kindness and great work, you have a special place in paradise. We hope to meet in peacetime. Embrace with all our hearts❤“ – Mi smo takođe veoma zahvalni na vašim velikim srcima, na svetlosti koju emitujete, što činite naše dane malo svetlijim. Znam da za vašu ljubaznost i odličan rad imate posebno mesto u raju. Nadamo se sresti se u vreme mira. Grlimo vas celim srcima.

U povratku smo koleginica i ja prenoćile u gradu Alba Julija, nekad zvani Erdeljski Beograd. Bilo je previše odjednom putovati tolike sate, pa smo podelile put na dva dana. Po ustajanju napravile smo kratki obilazak tvrđave u tom gradu i uputile se ka Srbiji. A onda sam imala i milost da drugog dana puta prenoćim u Mohanđi centru u Novom Sadu na poziv drage koleginice Aleksandre sa kojom sam putovala.

Mir i Radost svima i Svetlost svetu.

S ljubavlju,

Sanja Dejanović.

Pogledajete i sledeće linkove/ Watch links belove.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S6HFOnS55eE – njihovo iskustvo/ their testimony

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bBvMLPiWJuE – Mahala school/ škola

mhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XrKf3vKLTWQ – Boyany school/ škola

ENGLISH VERSION

Volunteering for ACT4Ukraine

As part of the ACT4Ukraine campaign, as a volunteer of ACT FOUNDATION Serbia, I spent two weeks on the route from Romania to Ukraine. It has been a huge experience for me on multiple levels and I am endlessly grateful for having had it. As I write this, I still feel a little tired, but I also feel lightness and joy for contributing.

Of course, I am not grateful for the conflict that screams over there for allowing me to do a good deed. But since it is already so, I am glad I could give my small contribution. I pray that it stops as soon as possible and that people can return to their homes.

Namely, we were located in a city half an hour away from the border. A nice, small town named Dorohoi. In the same street where we were lodging, there was an orthodox church. The bells woke me up every morning. One Sunday I went to a liturgy. It was a wonderful moment for me when everyone knelt and got down, forehead on the floor. I had this urge several times in our churches, and the one time I respected it, a lady tugged me by the sweater and asked me what was wrong with me, and if I was okay. I was, I just had the need to bow, for descent and surrender.

After a long trip from Belgrade, which lasted 17 hours with breaks, I went to bed tired but also satisfied because I drove the whole time so it was the first push of limits and test of endurance. For someone, it might be like a good day, but for me, it was definitely a new experience of so many hours of driving. The first morning in Dorohoi started with the sound of bells. Then there was a meeting of the volunteers who were already there and the three of us who just arrived. We were presented with the situation, what has been done so far, what is being worked on, and what is planned, and we went to Ukraine on the first day. For the period of two weeks in Ukraine, we cooperated with two schools and a home that cares for abandoned children with disabilities, and each of us contributed in our own way. We did not go deeper into Ukraine, but the activity took place about half an hour from the border. The two schools, located in the villages of Boyan and Mahala, also house people who have fled the part of Ukraine where the conflict is taking place, such as Kyiv, Odesa, Kharkiv, etc. When all that chaos started, and when the team ACT4Ukraine was active, many more refugees were in those schools, many found residence with families living in those villages, and some continued on. Those who did not manage remained in schools. It was not easy to witness families who sleep on mattresses in schools, have lunch there, bathe in laurels, spend their days, and would very much like to be able to return to their homes. Most of them are mothers with children, while the fathers remained in their hometowns as militarily active. I was glad to witness that our ACT4Ukraine team was able to act and a bathroom with a couple of showers was built in one of the schools.

While I was there, I received information that there were a lot of foundations that donated food, chemicals, medicines, and other necessities, but we were the only ones who engaged with the people. You can find out more about what our team had done at ACT Foundation Global.

When information was published in our volunteering group that volunteers who would go to Ukraine are needed, I applied. I immediately had a picture of what I was going to do there. I have seen myself with children and adults doing various activities that I have experience with and which as such, I know are effective in terms of relieving stress and raising vibration. When I first got there, I wanted to feel what they liked best, so the gathering started with music and dance, then we switched to laughter yoga, then yoga (asanas and short pranayama) and then we ended the gathering with hugging yoga. They liked everything and everyone found themselves in something, while also finding themselves in each other’s arms. Dear colleague Pedja, who was with me almost all the time and who made most of the photos and videos, at the end of the yoga I led, he would play the Meditation of Freedom, which was given to him by Mohanji. It is a beautiful ten-minute meditation designed for children, but it is also good for adults. Short but effective. Since it was translated into Ukrainian, it was released in their mother tongue. As for other activities, someone always had to translate from English to Ukrainian.

I found it sweet to, if I caught a word as it was pronounced, introduce it to the exercise. For example, when I would say that we are getting down on our knees, I realized that they would say “na koljena”.

Then my “on the knee” became “na koljena”.

In the beginning, when we first arrived, the children were a bit shy, but after the first hugging session, on the next arrival, they would approach and hug me on their own. It was just wonderful when they hugged themselves and the others stood in line and waited to hug. The exchange of love was wonderful and too great, and the little ones desperately needed it. At Bojan’s school, teacher Danijela thanked me in front of everyone for showing them that hug exercise because, as she says: now we can practice it with children. These are the hugs that last, in which the being we hug breathes and blesses. The teachers hugged too and the exchange was really wonderful. All these people there are really special, somehow cheerful in spirit regardless of the situation and very believing. And those hugs are the most natural thing we seem to have been reborn from.

There is an exercise in Laughter Yoga called Laughter of the Dead, and it’s great. The idea is for the person lying down to pretend to be dead and for the rest of the group to bring them to life with laughter. When I work with children, then I say they will pretend to sleep and the rest of us need to wake them up with a laugh. I held this exercise as part of a laughter yoga workshop in Ukraine at the Mahala School. Almost all the children couldn’t get serious at all, except for one blonde boy who couldn’t laugh. He remained to lie completely still. We all congratulated him at the first. A few seconds later I saw him in his friend’s arms crying. I approached, we hugged and I asked what happened. An English teacher translated for me that he said: “I was thinking about my dad who stayed where the war was and I couldn’t laugh.” My soul ached.

And one day, that boy will be a grown man who will probably suffer from trauma. So let’s be considerate of everyone in our path because we can never know what someone’s past has written on the life pages of the person in front of us. Some bear the trauma more easily, some heal them in time, and some, unfortunately, do not deal with it at all. So let us cultivate compassion for every being in front of us. The other day a woman said, “Well, he’s a grown man.” Yes, but did the boy in him grow up? This does not mean that we will necessarily justify every action, but we will try not to condemn or reject from the start.

A visit to a home for children with disabilities was the hardest for me. We were standing in the yard and some children would come to hug and shake hands, and one boy pulled me by the arm and led me to a wooden house. We played tashi tashi tanana. At some point after standing in the yard and watching the scene and the sounds of children, I felt something in my chest and started crying. That wasn’t crying, that was weeping, so I took cover and realized quickly that I wouldn’t be of much use there. One part of our team was committed to helping them in terms of adjusting the playground, refilling, painting, etc. Before the situation in Ukraine, that home only had ten children, and now there are fifty-two children there.

I also taught yoga classes in schools as a certified instructor and everyone responded nicely, both children and teachers. A video report follows. They liked it even though some thought they were not for yoga, and maybe not because yoga is there for us. When we connect breathing with exercise and it becomes conscious exercise, then there is a relaxation of the body, the release of stress and thus we get more quality energy for the future. They even asked us to record a greeting to the Sun so that they could continue with the regular practice in my absence and in case some new lineup of volunteers does not have a yoga instructor. In the meantime, they wrote to me from the Mahala school to ask the children when yoga will start again. 🙂

Before returning, we organized a mini-festival in one of the schools as a team effort. Each of us contributed in our own way and the festival included conscious walking, mai tri, planting workshop, stretching and warm-up exercises, conscious dancing, Freedom meditation, and an amateur short violin concert. We, as well as all participants from the youngest to the oldest, were especially inspired that day and filled with good energy. May God allow all these activities to take place during peace as soon as possible.

Given that we have gone through everything in the Balkans, some experientially and some through the testimony of others, it is easy to truly sympathize with the situation in which this nation found itself. It is not a question of a nation, belonging to a state, but true concern for all the people of the world. ACT FOR PEACE. Work for peace. That should be on everyone’s minds and hearts. To get rid of all that national nonsense no matter where we live on the planet and to spread the energy of love and peace all around us.

Experiencing two weeks with a certain group of people can also be challenging. Eight people who are different with different habits and traits, but when we all have the same goal and purpose, then good cooperation happens. It is important to know how to put everything aside and make a focus so that the action for which you came is truly selfless. To adjust so that everything flows through you without appropriating what has been done and hand over everything that manifests through you to God. His Will, His manifestation, and your conscious attention and gratitude. I believe and feel that we have received much more on all levels than we have given. The magic was the right to hang out with those little ones, but also with the teachers from the schools.

Some of the text messages I received are as follows:

“I very glad to meet you. I want to say thank you for your help, kindness, smile, yoga. Just thank you for all. I hope next time we will meet each in better condition I mean with no war.”

„We are also very grateful for your big hearts, for the light you’re emitting, for making our days a little brighter. I know that for all your kindness and great work, you have a special place in paradise. We hope to meet in peacetime. Embrace with all our hearts❤“

On the way back, my colleague and I spent the night in the city of Alba Iulia, formerly called Transylvanian Belgrade. It was too much to travel for so many hours at once, so we divided the trip into two days. After getting up, we made a short tour of the fortress in that city and headed to Serbia. Then I had the grace to spend the second night of the trip in the Mohandji center in Novi Sad, at the invitation of my dear colleague Alexandra with whom I traveled.

Peace and Joy to all and Light to the world.

With love,

Sanja Dejanovic.

#Smehjoga #Laughteryoga #yoga #Huggingyoga

#ACT4Ukraine #ACTSrbija

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