In honor of our 10-year anniversary, we will be highlighting 10 remarkable Earthchildren from the past and present. Sisonke Sifo is the second of our dedications to the youth. Sisonke is 9 years old and attends Sakumlandela Primary School in Khayelitsha. She has been doing yoga with her older sister, Soso – an Earthchild Project Gap Year Intern – since she was only five years old. Sisonke is a talented young yogi who is excited to share her story, which she starts with a huge smile on her face.

©Amanda Norrlander

1. What is the role of Earthchild Project in your life?
Yoga is a big part of my life. I love to do yoga all the time. I do it with my sister SoSo. She is a Gap-year student at Earthchild Project. I started with yoga (with Earthchild Project) in 2012. It has changed my life. I do more exercises like running and jumping and drink and eat more healthy food like milk and veggies. It makes me feel
strong all the time and stress will be gone.

2. How has Earthchild Project affected who you are today?
In the future I want to do something with yoga. My dream is to go abroad and travel to different countries, for example New York or Johannesburg. It is a dream to start my own yoga studio in one of those big cities. Earthchild Project helps me to figure out what I want to do in the future.

©Amanda Norrlander

3. How have you passed on what you have learnt with Earthchild Project to your friends and family?
My sister Soso is involved with Earthchild Project. We do yoga almost every day before bedtime.  We do the different poses and then we pray. My parents like that I do yoga. I like to teach them too, but they don’t have enough time to do yoga. Some of my friends don’t like yoga, I think that’s really stupid because, yoga brings so much fun in my life!

4. When you do a yoga position in silence, what do you think about?
I think about people that I love: family, friends and neighbours. I have a lot of friends in school!

5. Do you think that yoga can make a change in Khayelitsha?
Yes!  My sister, Soso went to an event in Khayelitsha and invited a lot of people on Facebook. And most of the people came to this event. So that is evidence that a lot of people love to do yoga.

It makes the people in Khayelitsha more healthy, strong and people care more about each other.

6. What is your favorite yoga position, and why?
I like the spider the most! I feel very supple when I do this yoga position.

©Amanda Norrlander

After the interview Sisonko showed me her yoga skills. What a beautiful and powerful young women she is! She is very talented and I’m sure that she would be a really good yoga instructor in the future.

Stay connected with us to learn about the next Earthchild spotlight and details regarding our 10 year anniversary! #CelebrateECP10

Written by Earthchild Project intern, Romy De Jongh.