Yoga instructor takes part in the Global Seva Challenge

August 15th, 2012

Lauren Rudick and Avigna Yoga have taken on the biggest challenge to date: Raise $20,000 by the end of 2012 in support of Off the Mat into the World, a non-profit organization which uses the power of yoga to inspire conscious social change.
The goal of the Global Seva Challenge is not just to raise $20,000 but become an activist and bring a voice to the issue of sex trafficking and the global sex trade. Participants will partner with organizations that not only rescue victims of sex trafficking but are actively working to rehabilitate and provide a healing process for survivors.
Across the globe, 187 individuals have signed up for the Seva Challenge. To date, participants have raised over $268,000 since last December. Rudick is among just eight Canadians signed up, as well as the first and only person from Quebec taking the Global Seva Challenge.
Teaming up with Pazit Perez, a local Montreal photographer, Rudick and Perez have produced a calendar of yoga nudes to raise awareness and funds for the cause.
"As a yoga instructor, I use my body every day to earn my living,” said Rudick. “Yoga empowers me. Yoga helps me feel strong and beautiful. My body is my temple and I have complete ownership over it. Globally, women and children are stripped of the fundamental right to use their bodies freely when they are trafficked into sexual slavery. So now I am selling my body in a way that I feel is tasteful and inoffensive so that these women can have theirs back."
One hundred percent of profits from these sales go toward rescuing, rehabilitating and empowering women who have been victims of trafficking and sexual slavery.

Calendars can be purchased at the following retailers:
Sunshine Gallery: 4916 Sherbrooke Street West, Westmount.
Westmount Stationary: 887, Sherbrooke West, Westmount.
Studio Bliss: 3841, Saint-Laurent Blvd., Montréal.
U.N.I Training center: 1751 Rue Richardson #5.303, Montreal.
Or online at http://avignayoga.bigcartel.com

For more information, visit www.avignayoga.com