We believe that yoga only makes sense when it is rooted in the realities of the world. It is a practice of connection, care, and responsibility towards others. In a world where structural inequalities strip thousands of people of their fundamental rights, we strive to respond to urgent needs by collaborating with other associations and solidarity actors.
In refugee camps in Uganda, yoga classes are accompanied by distributions of meals, beverages, essential items, clothing, and school supplies. Weekly classes, led by refugees trained in yoga teaching, are financially supported by De la Douceur pour Soi throughout the year, ensuring the sustainability of both the practice and essential distributions within these communities.
In Paris, during our afternoon sessions for families experiencing extreme precarity and hosted in emergency shelters by Utopia56, we provide participants with sweet and savory snacks, as well as clothing and hygiene products.
These moments do not claim to solve issues that are structural and must be fought politically every day, but they do build a fragile bridge between urgency and hope.
These actions embody a conviction: we are responsible for one another. And in a world that sometimes seems to be crumbling, choosing solidarity is an act of resistance.
A Political Commitment Above All
Yoga is often portrayed as an individual refuge. For us, it is an invitation to look at the world with clarity, to refuse to turn a blind eye to injustice. It is a practice that compels us to confront systems of oppression, reject indifference, and act—not out of obligation, but out of choice. Out of moral necessity. Yoga embodies unity, transcending individual practice to embrace collective existence. It teaches us that our personal well-being is intrinsically tied to the health of our communities and the world. This undeniable connection calls us to dismantle divisions and foster social cohesion.
Our actions are deeply rooted in a radical commitment to human rights. We stand for the right to free movement for all people, regardless of nationality, skin color, or status—a right that continues to be obstructed by neo-colonial policies marked by systemic racism. We envision a world where every individual, no matter where they were born, has access to the same opportunities, safety, and well-being.
We work in spaces where systems have failed. With exiled individuals, families living on the streets, and women in precarious situations. Not to save, but to co-create alternatives with them, however small they may be. Our classes are not neutral. They challenge a world where the most vulnerable are consistently marginalized, where survival is a daily battle, and where indifference has become the norm.
We cannot ignore that practicing yoga in the West is a privilege. We live in societies that prioritize individualism, performance, and accumulation, often at the expense of solidarity and mutual care. Our commitment is an imperfect but sincere attempt to reintroduce softness where it is most needed—not as a posture, but as a quiet act of resistance.
We believe that politics is also enacted in our daily gestures, in our ability to stand alongside those who have been forgotten. Because yoga, if it does not transform the world, is merely a physical exercise. And because hope, fragile as it may be, is born from small acts of resistance.
All of these actions are inseparable from an ongoing political struggle, so that one day, associations like ours will no longer have to compensate—each with limited means—for the consequences of policies that stigmatize, marginalize, and oppress migrant and/or precarious individuals. We refuse to normalize these systemic injustices and firmly believe in the necessity of structural change, so that humanity and dignity are no longer battles, but certainties.
