Question of the Day: World Yoga Day

[the_siobhan]

22 – World Yoga Day: Do you do yoga? How do you benefit from it?

I do yoga. It's good for my vestibular issues and for my very inflexible body, and I feel infinitely physically better if I do even a little bit of yoga. But as I have said in this space before, I fucking hate yoga. So I do a ten minute video as soon as I wake up and a fifteen minute one right before bed and that way I can get myself through it. Any longer and I can't even force myself to start.

***

There are a couple of charities I support. Dcotors Without Borders is my main one, but there are a few others. I used to just buy Christmas presents through Plan International's promotions to like, buy some people a bunch of cows or dig a well or something in lieu of gifts. Somehow this got segued into regular donations to their Because I Am A Girl program.

Late last year they changed the program so instead of just donating a sum that got put into a pool of money, now they have moved everybody into sponsoring individuals. So I got this info package about a 10 year-old girl who I am apparently sponsoring along with some pictures and a letter.

And I'm feeling all kinds of weirded out about it. I liked being anonymous. And I kind of get why they want this, "engagement" is the word of the unroaring 20s and donors are much more likely to send extra money to a smiling child who says "thank you" when it means she can get books for school or something. But I am completely skeeved by the idea that this kid or her family might think that they are called upon to like, perform gratitude for me or something.

Ugh. I am probably thinking too much about this.

And I should probably write her back. (What the hell do you say to a 10 year old?)

Comments

[cornerofmadness]

Interesting. Back in the 90s I was doing sponsorship like this but moved away when I stopped getting the info packets (they stopped doing it in the United States which disappointed me) The kids seemed quite eager to do it in my experience vs being made to do it

[the_siobhan]

You mean the kids who are being sponsored? It must be pretty neat for them, finding out about remote places. It's more the adult motivations I'm questioning.

[cornerofmadness]

Ah okay, yeah misunderstood that entirely and it's hard to say with the adults

[greylock]

I did Wii Yoga when that was a thing, and it works!

But, surely, doing it just before bed is a bad idea? I an NOT a doctor (or even a chiro) but wouldn't it release chemicals or thetans that need cooldown time?

Also, you know about (and we have discussed) Black Metal Yoga, right?

But I am completely skeeved by the idea that this kid or her family might think that they are called upon to like, perform gratitude for me or something.

It;s weaponised guilt. It's marketing.
World Vision used to do this as their thing, in simpler times.
Is her letter even real?
Are there pen indentations?
Why would you, a Western World Fatcat deny her simple plea for money?

[houseof9cats]

^^^ Yes, this. It squicks me out for this reason, too. It's marketing. Plus, then you get ppl who sign up and then flake out and the poor kid gets no note when the rest of the class does or something, and ugh. Also great point, is it even real? You can probably find that out easily enough.

I mean, if they're not from here, maybe talk about what it's like where you live and send photos of Toronto. Snow if there's no snow where they are or something like that. Pen pal stuff seems appropriate.

[the_siobhan]

That's part of my realization about that, I have a face now so I'm committed.

Yeah, snow, pictures of my neighbourhood I guess. She seems to live in a pretty rural area. Maybe I'll see if I can look up some simple phrases in her language.

[the_siobhan]

Well it's not the original letter - she speaks Luo so it's a translation.

[the_siobhan]

RE: Yoga before bed, this is specifically yin yoga designed to be soothing and relaxing at the end of the day. It actually does help me sleep better if I do it regularly.

[dissectionist]

My understanding is that it’s never a 1-to-1 relationship, because that places the kids in a far too precarious position (if your one sponsor quits, you’d be fucked). So it’s actually an m-to-1 - one child is sponsored jointly by a group of people. She’ll be responsible for doing a certain number of communications and those communications will be sent to all her sponsors.

Kids do love getting mail, so feel free to send her stuff if you want. But don’t feel that by doing so you’re putting more work on her or making her perform; that’s happening regardless of whether you ever send a message, and I can pretty much guarantee that for any family and child in dire enough straits to need sponsoring, they’d consider it a very easy requirement in return for getting their basic needs covered. (Should they be having to do it at all? No. But agencies have figured out that getting families to do this increases revenues and then they can help even more people.)

If you want to send her something and you’d like some advice from a previous Beaver and Cub Scout leader (ages 5-10): keep it short and sweet, just a few sentences telling her how things are going here and that you hope things are going well for her, and hit Dollarama first so you can include a package of stickers with your letter. The shinier and fancier the better. They’re pretty, they’re fun, they’re a shiny frivolity that won’t be taken away from her because they have no financial worth that can be used in other ways, and stickers are something she can share with her siblings and friends if she wants. Children love fun little trinkets like that, and that’s even more true for kids who get very few luxuries in their life.

[the_siobhan]

Stickers! What a fantastic idea. That's what I'll do.