Life Foundation UK - Timeline
Projects of the Life Foundation The Life Foundation was founded in 1978 by people who share a common vision to work together to make the world a better place. People associated with the Life Foundation from many different professions, cultures and faiths and so they connect with different aspects of that vision. Over the years the Life Foundation has created many different initiatives. Participants in its activities or events have come from all walks of life, including the professional, corporate, humanitarian aid and voluntary sectors, as well as on occasions the armed forces and emergency services.
Some of the arenas covered by the Life Foundation course and projects include:
Dru Yoga: This integrated approach to yoga, health and self-empowerment aims to quickly and effectively help people optimise their health and well-being at every level: physically, emotionally, mentally and spiritually. The word ‘Dru’ translates as ‘still point’. This variation to traditional yoga originated in India and has been passed down over many generations from teacher to student and is now practised across the globe.
Meditation: The popular Dru Meditation courses place particular emphasis on developing inner strengths and fullness, rather than emptiness of mind. They offer a wide range of meditation approaches and techniques that can take you efficiently from whatever mental state you may find yourself within to a point of still, energising and refreshing silence.
Overcoming Stress and Trauma: We have over the years provided courses on coping with trauma and stress that have helped people in conflict zones like Bosnia, the North Caucasus and Northern Ireland, including carers who have suffered great trauma themselves. We have also trained the army, police and fire services in overcoming stress and optimising personal well-being, as well as a wide range of corporations.
1978 – Five university students from diverse academic disciplines formed the Life Foundation Group and began teaching Dru Yoga and self-help approaches to well-being at University College of North Wales, Bangor, UK.
1985 – 1008-mile walk was undertaken across England, Scotland and Wales promoting awareness of personal and global responsibility for health and peace.
LFST Projects
1988 – Life Foundation School of Therapeutics (UK) Ltd (LFST) was formed to build on the work of the Life Foundation Group and to meet increased requests for products and retreats from people from all over the country.
1992 – Friendship without Frontiers, an 18 month worldwide tour, was launched. Rita Goswami, John Jones & Andrew Wells taught seminars in 39 countries. They were joined at different points of the tour by Anita Goswami.
1994 – Life teams led by Cherry Knight and Shona Sutherland helped to collect medical supplies for the national Operation Angel campaign, which was sending medical aid to Bosnia. The project ‘LifeWalk 2000’ was launched to raise awareness on issues of health and well-being. Team leaders Julie Hotchkiss and Andrew Wells co-ordinated nine separate walks in which therapists and yoga teachers walked and taught throughout the UK.
1995 – Eurowalk 2000 commenced with a walk and convocation at Auschwitz led by Julie Hotchkiss and Ruth Boaler. The team then walked part of the way from Auschwitz to the UK. The LifeAid project co-ordinated the collection of food, clothing and medical aid which were sent to Bosnia and Croatia.
LFST received the Gordon Wilson Peace Award. Teams supported three stages of the Nipponzan Myohoji peace walk from Auschwitz to Hiroshima. Eurowalk Ireland began with seminars and a continuing programme of seminars on health and well-being throughout Ireland, as well as undertaking reconciliation and detraumatisation work in Northern Ireland.
1996 – Kamala Wood and Savitri MacCuish co-ordinated Eurowalk Bosnia – the first war-zone detraumatisation seminars for the UNHCR (United Nations High Commission for Refugees), the Red Cross, the Medical Centre for Human Rights, and the Croatian Association of Psychotherapists. Training was also given to other NGO groups. LifeAid co-ordinators Jane Clapham & Julie Hotchkiss organised the collection of seven tonnes of food and medical supplies which were sent to former Yugoslavia.
1997 – Eurowalk UK was launched with three parallel walks covering 3,000 km of Britain, 150 seminars and more than 100 media appearances. The team was headed by co-ordinator Julie Hotchkiss. Shona Sutherland co-ordinated a nationwide shoe collection for children in Moldova and Romania. 7,000 pairs of children’s shoes were collected and sent via the charity ‘Wales Romanian Aid’.
1998 – John Jones and Savitri MacCuish headed a Eurowalk 2000 team running seminars and trainings in Russia. This included the beginning of a detraumatisation project in North Caucasus.
1999 – Eurowalk Africa organised seminars and trainings in various locations including South Africa and Kenya which included refugees from neighbouring countries. Team co-ordinators were Andrew Wells & Anita Goswami. UN representatives were trained in Dacca, Bangladesh. A nation-wide collection of hand tools, sewing machines, and bicycles as aid for Africa was co-ordinated by Julie Hotchkiss. Jane Clapham and a group of international youth leaders co-ordinated the collection of 10 tonnes of food and emergency aid for Kosovo and shoe-box collections were sent to refugee children.
The World Peace Flame initiative was launched, co-ordinated by Savitri MacCuish and Julie Hotchkiss. Flames from different continents were flown by military and civilian aircraft and united to form one flame of hope – the World Peace Flame.
2000 – Andrew Wells co-ordinated the collection of more than 70,000 people’s signatures for peace at the turn of millennium. On 1st January 2000, the signatures were delivered to the United Nations in New York, to Downing Street in London and to the European Parliament in Brussels.
2001 – The World Peace Flame continued to be presented to people worldwide. Annie Jones and John Jones coordinated a peace walk from the UK to the NL, in the lead-up to a World Conference on Spirituality and Peace attended by 1,800 people, which was organised by Life Foundation International, based in the NL.
2005 – Detraumatisation programmes were taught to relief workers from Nepal and to women in Belfast.
2005/6 – Trees for Peace - Over a thousand trees were planted by groups in the UK and Europe as an environmental initiative.
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Further Activities of the World Peace Flame
(Now coordinated by the World Peace Flame Foundation, registered in the NL.)
2000 – A team walked between Assisi and Rome where the World Peace Flame was presented to HH Pope John Paul II.
2001 – The World Peace Flame was presented to people worldwide. Life Foundation International organised the World Conference on Spirituality and Peace in The Hague in the Netherlands. This was attended by 1,800 people
2002 – An eternal World Peace Flame monument was inaugurated outside the Peace Palace, the home of the United Nations International Court of Justice, at The Hague, in The Netherlands. A permanent World Peace Flame was installed at the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis, Tennessee.
2003 – An eternal World Peace Flame Monument was established in North Wales. The World Peace Flame opened the large Cinema for Peace Gala at the Berlin Film Festival.
2004 – All 197 of the worlds’ countries united in creating a World Peace Pathway around the World Peace Flame monument in The Hague in The Netherlands. In an inauguration ceremony attended by more than 100 ambassadors, a historic World Peace Declaration was presented that was signed by the ambassadors of all of the countries of the world, stating that peace is now achievable, and acknowledging that peace is the responsibility of every individual in the world. A World Peace Flame monument was installed in Cadzand in The Netherlands.
2005 A permanent World Peace Flame monument was installed Venlo (Netherlands). Colorado Springs, USA, proclaims September 11th to be World Peace Flame day. Life Centre India
2005 – A free medical clinic was set up at the Life centre in India which distributed free medical aid to the local villagers.
2006 – The second free medical camp offered free consultations, medicines and nutritional supplements to the local community. An eye clinic at the Centre gave out over two hundred free pairs of high quality prescription glasses.
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