Ananda Marga Pracaraka Samgha (subsequently referred to as Ananda Marga)

Ananda Marga Pracaraka Samgha (subsequently referred to as Ananda Marga) is an international organisation with centres and projects in over 100 countries. In Portugal informal activities started over thirty years ago. Today it is registered as a non-profit association with the aim of helping people achieve personal growth through the practice of yoga, meditation and a healthy lifestyle. It lays great emphasis on social service, sustainability, living ecologically and community development. It has a mailing list with several hundred members. Ananda Marga activities in Portugal centre around 4 main projects: - a yoga and meditation centre in Lisbon, which attracts large numbers of people through its yoga, meditation and related courses, as well as through regular lectures and workshops. - a musical association in a disadvantaged area of Lisbon, where we are trying to enrich the lives of the local impoverished youth by creating in them an interest in music and the arts in collaboration with other local NGOs. - Our Ananda Valley project is an ecological village and sustainable lifestyle learning centre near the village of Paul, half an hour from Covilhã. Activities in Covilhã region started in 2009, in collaboration with other local organizations. Gradually land was purchased and the project started to take shape. Situated today on 50 hectares of land, the project’s aim is to repopulate a deserted hamlet, creating a self-reliant community and experiential learning centre with a focus on personal development and sustainability, based on a feeling of universal family. Along with providing an environment for personal growth, one of the goals of Ananda Valley is to help develop greater resilience in the region by attracting people to the area through a range of programmes and projects and by promoting sustainability, the local economy and a sense of community in cooperation with other NGOs, groups and organisations. - Ananda Cafe, a vegetarian restaurant in Covilhã and Fundão and a yoga room in Covilhã. It aims to promote a healthy holistic lifestyle through vegetarian and vegan diets, cooking classes and other types of personal development programmes. It has also become a social and cultural hub for the exchange of ideas and encourages cultural tolerance by sharing knowledge of different cultures through its cultural nights. Ananda Marga also carries out regular yoga and meditation activities in Porto, Rogil, Fundao, Castello Branco, Viseu, Guarda and Funchal (Madeira), runs international lifestyle training programmes and sends volunteers of all ages to work in schools, orphanages and medical projects in India, Nepal and Africa. In the Covilha area our collaborators include accredited organisations such as AMURT Portugal, Collabora, a social cooperative, OUSEM as well as smaller entities such as the local Transition movement, IIDAC Europe and the Prout Research Institute of Portugal. We also network with other ecological and permaculture associations and are running a cooperative with around 40 organic food producers.