Last week, CIDA City Campus, a beneficiary of support from the Diamond Empowerment Fund diamondempowerment.org, celebrated its 10th anniversary and the 7th graduating class as Africa¹s first virtually free college. These kids are very special, sweet, and focused on getting their business degrees and helping build their communities. I will never forget my first visit to CIDA nearly four years ago where I had a group meditation with the students a thousand young Africans and me, all experiencing stillness and quiet time together. That helped me center myself as I was taking in so many new experiences on my first trip to South Africa, and I saw how it helped the students recharge and refocus to do well in academics and in service.
I’ve been a meditator for many years and I am dedicated to spreading this practice that brings many benefits when offered in a school environment. Where quiet time is a central part of the education experience at schools like Dr. George Rutherford¹s Ideal Academy in one of the roughest areas of Washington, DC, health issues plummet, grades and graduation rates skyrocket, distraction in the classroom returns to focus, and violence in the schoolyard is replaced by play.
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The clinical research on the benefits of Transcendental Meditation (TM) when offered as quiet time at the beginning and the end of each school day shows this technique works. Where just about every other form of intervention, counseling or punishment fails to address the stress our kids are under, quiet time and connection to one¹s inner voice is so simple and so effective. To be clear, TM is not a religion, philosophy or way of life. It¹s a simple mental practice that any child can learn and benefit from. I¹ve seen the impact meditation has on Ming Lee and Aoki Lee, and I wish the same stillness and peace for every child busy absorbing knowledge at warp speed.
Meditation is not currently part of the CIDA curriculum, but I hope that one day it will be reintroduced, maybe with the help of the David Lynch Foundation, who are true leaders in the field davidlynchfoundation.org. They understand the science of quiet time, and they understand the basic need for love that we all have, especially children deserving of unconditional love and so often deprived of it on every level.
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I wanted to share with you my remarks to the CIDA’s graduates, which were read at the graduation ceremony by activist and long-distance runner Suzanne Africa Engo, a strong advocate for the Diamond Empowerment Fund who spent a week with CIDA students in Johannesburg. The daily practice of meditation helped Suzanne in her commitment to a 1,500 mile run on three continents to raise awareness for the issues of AIDS revention/treatment and empowerment through education for Africa. She spent time living on campus getting to know the students and ran from a student¹s home to the CIDA dorms to show the importance of campus housing for the students to succeed. DEFs support for CIDA has been specifically to fund a dorm that houses 300 students, a fundamental need to keep students in school.
<img src='http://lh5.ggpht.com/_4ao7LxJIsgA/TDaYpwE37jI/AAAAAAAABZo/Wm8tgVQ32rE/Suzanne%20running%20throug
