Africa Yoga Project Internship: A Grant for Resources

In May of 2017 I had the opportunity to intern at Africa Yoga Project (AYP), a non-profit organization in Nairobi, Kenya, as part of a study abroad program with Saint Lawrence University. AYP was founded in 2007 by Paige Elenson and seeks to “create opportunities for youth to step into their greatness and become self-sustaining leaders in their communities.” The program gives scholarships to young people in low-income areas or informal settlements across Africa to attend a two-week long yoga teacher training class. Following the class, the teachers become part of an academy in which they must teach 3-5 free classes each week within their communities to empower other young people as well. Since 2007, over 200 young people have been trained to teach yoga and now are earning a living wage. AYP has helped to reduce the high unemployment rates among young people in Africa, improved their mental and physical wellbeing, and given them the tools to become leaders within their communities. During my time at AYP, I worked on an application for a grant that would allow the organization to invest in technological advancements that could help them better assess their impact on the community. This presentation will highlight the goals and impacts of AYP as an organization and in particular my work on the grant application.https://digitalworks.union.edu/steinmetz_posters/1000/thumbnail.jp

Cultural Tourism in East Africa: Assessing the Impacts on the Maasai and Hadza Indigenous Groups

The literature on cultural tourism in East Africa suggests that tourism practices reflect global political, social and economic trends among countries and people. There is much debate among scholars who have chosen to study these links between cultural tourism and larger global trends about who maintains power in tourist-host relationships. Scholars who argue that cultural tourism is a mutually beneficial practice for tourists and hosts claim that it promotes cultural understanding and equality, helps indigenous people maintain their culture and allows indigenous people to gain economic power. In contrast, many scholars argue that cultural tourism is extremely detrimental to indigenous groups as it is an extension of colonial power relationships that reinforces stereotypes, degrades culture, and economically exploits indigenous people. This paper will draw on two ethnic groups that use different techniques to participate in cultural tourism in East Africa, the Maasai in Kenya and the Hadza in Tanzania, in order to explore the components to this debate. Analysis of the Maasai and the Hadza in East Africa will provide insight into whether cultural tourism is an effective way to culturally and economically support indigenous people, or a brutal extension of colonial power dynamics that economically exploits and socially and culturally degrades indigenous people