‘Health for Humanity’ Yogathon 2013 has begun

Hon Todd McClay lighting the lamp

MEDIA RELEASE (15 October 2013)

‘Health for Humanity’ Yogathon 2013 has begun

Hon Todd McClay, Associate Minister of Health opened community driven, ‘Health for Humanity’ project, Yogathon 2013 at the Rotorua Deepawali festival on Saturday 12th October.

Yogathon is a two weeks long free event. Participation is still open to any member of the public, workplaces, community groups, tertiary institutes, and yoga school around New Zealand. This is the third successive year of Yogathon in New Zealand. The aim is to achieve a total of 108000 repetitions of Surya Namaskars (a sequence of Yoga poses) by participants from all over New Zealand during this period. To register, please visit: http://yogathon-nz.org.

Yogathon 2013 started with 3954 (and counting) Surya Namaskars (Sun Salutations). The opening was held at 12 centres in New Zealand- Auckland (4 centres), Hamilton, Lower Hutt, Rotorua, Wellington (2 centres), Nelson and Christchurch on the launch day.

Hindu Swayamsevak Sangh (HSS) New Zealand is currently leading with 1430 Surya Namaskar’s on the opening day itself. HSS is a non profit organisation that runs weekly development sessions- a combination of games, quizzes, and discussion sessions for youth of diverse backgrounds. Participation to HSS activities is free. “We have participated in Yogathon since the national project started in 2011 and are proud of our volunteers and youth participants who invest in their physical and mental wellbeing through practice of yoga” said Mr Shrikant Bhave, from HSS New Zealand.

“Along with HSS, all organisations participating in Yogathon 2013 have contributed significantly over the weekend and we will endeavour to profile their achievement individually over the 14 day period,” said Ms Komal Shah, national coordinator of Yogathon 2013. “I take this opportunity to thank our supporter, ANZ Bank of Rotorua and Hindi radio partner Radio Tarana”.

Participation is simple:
1. Register for free by emailing (yogathon.nz@gmail.com), call / text (0210353591) with your contact details. Or visit: http://yogathon-nz.org.
Registrations are open for individuals, families, or organisations/groups.
2. Perform sun salutations, in your time, at your own pace and keep a daily count until 26th October.
3. On or a day after 26th October, contact us with your final score.
4. We will total New Zealand’s total. The target is to achieve a collective score of 108,000 Surya Namaskar (Sun Salutations) repetitions.
If you are new to yoga or Sun Salutations, then please contact one of your local coordinators who will try their best to connect you to a yoga instructor near to you.

Yogathon aims to create awareness and practice of Yoga and its health benefits. During this time, organising committee try their best to connect every interested participant to a yoga trainer who can initiate them to Sun Salutations and basic yoga at no cost. This is the third consecutive year of the Yogathon event - collective practise of Surya Namaskars (Sun Salutations) - in New Zealand.

ENDS

Yogathon is an initiative of Yogathon New Zealand, a division of Hindu Council of New Zealand (a not for profit organisation that received special consultative status form United Nation’s Economic and Social Council [EcoSoc]

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