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BREATHE, STRETCH, HEAL
Yan Vannac is set to be Cambodia’s first homegrown yoga instructor. Charlie Lancaster looks into the rehabilitative work of vannac’s employer, nataraj yoga centre. Photography by Vinh Dao
practised silence shrouds the room as a group of six girls follow Yan Vannac’s slow movements. Deep breaths regulate their minds and bodies, and a deep determination stretches their concentration. In Cambodia’s first yoga therapy programme, the girls – all survivors of human trafficking – reach out to 27-year-old Vannac for a better future. In the process, Vannac will help them heal, but he will also start to develop the kingdom’s first generation of yoga devotees.
“Yoga in Cambodia has only emerged in the last few years,” says Isabelle Skaburskis, volunteer founder of NataRaj Yoga. While there is a history of the practice in Cambodia in as much as Buddhism emulates similar core values, it has not existed as a form in itself, until now. Isabelle and Vannac are driving its development.
Vannac happened upon yoga, as karma would have it, by chance, when he came to work at NataRaj Yoga as a receptionist in 2005. “I used to want to be a gangster,” he says. “I dressed and acted like one.” Like many Cambodian youths, Vannac was frustrated by a lack of opportunities, and succumbed easily to the temptations of gambling and alcohol. “I was on a destructive path,” he recalls. But five years later, his story is very diff erent.
“Yoga has changed my life. I am grounded, focused and healthy,” he says. In 2008, after a month of training at the Knoff Yoga School in Cairns, Vannac became Cambodia’s first qualified yoga instructor and now teaches at Kundalini Yoga as well as NataRaj, where he is also GM. He will soon become qualified to certify yoga instructors. “I feel great. I look great,” he says proudly. It’s an experience he wants to share with others.
Since its inception in 2008, Vannac has been working with seven yoga teacher trainees – some of whom are survivors of female trafficking – through the Kramma Yoga Cambodia project, a wing of NataRaj, which off ers trauma rehabilitation. “We use yoga to build confidence and strength, both mental and physical, says Vannac.”
Closely affiliated with Transitions Global, an NGO that empowers victims of human trafficking, the yoga project encourages the young women, who are
generally aged between 17 and 21, to take back control of their lives. In a country where it is uncommon to show emotion, least of all cry, from the safety of their yoga mats the girls are shown how to work through their anger and hurt.
“We use yoga to turn the negative into positive. If someone is feeling weak, we work on powerful positions, such as the mountain pose. We work on muscle strength and we talk to them in a strong voice. It changes their whole persona,” says Vannac.
“Many of these girls do not know how to express themselves, they do not have the luxury of self-analysis,” says Isabelle, adding that the project is hinged on the belief that practising physical awareness and empowerment leads to an ability to process emotions, and control subtler levels of behaviour.
The project is the first of its kind in the region.
One of the women was so traumatised when she first arrived, the organisation wasn’t sure she could be helped. She was suffering extreme disassociation, was prone to violent outbursts and was often found rocking in a corner, her eyes like empty shells. They brought her to Kramma Yoga and after a few months, they saw the light return to her eyes. “She became totally enamoured with yoga, it gave her a new lease of life,” he says.
As for the centre’s future, both Vannac and Isabelle have plans to expand their dream project. They hope to reach out to more women through yoga therapy, expand the reach of their Kids Yoga scheme that already works with 200-plus disadvantaged children, and expand their teacher-training programme to nurture Cambodia’s first generation of yoga teachers.
For Vannac, the learning process goes both ways. “The women have taught me a lot; we’ve had to learn to work with each other. I’ve had to step-up my game to make sure I don’t fail them.”
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