ABOUT US
Who we are
Living Mindfully was established in 2009 and now delivers mindfulness programmes and mindfulness-based coaching throughout the United Kingdom. The company has links with Public Health, Education Departments, Local Authorities, Employment Services, Universities, and Charities.
The programmes delivered by Living Mindfully include The Living Mindfully programme (5 weeks), Mindfulness-based stress reduction (8 weeks), Living Mindfully in Education (LME), and T.I.M.E (Mindfulness-based coaching). As an NHS service provider Living Mindfully delivers a referral-only mindfulness service across County Durham in North East England.
As a participating member of the UK Network of Mindfulness teacher trainer organizations Living Mindfully offers the Mindfulness Practitioner Training Programme for those wishing to teach mindfulness.
The company is committed to raising public awareness of the benefits of mindfulness-based approaches, delivering mindfulness and mindfulness-based coaching programmes to the public, private, and voluntary sector.
At Living Mindfully, we aim to work in a safe and responsible way, maintaining an active link with current research, and adhering to relevant guidance on the delivery of coaching and training. In the absence of a regulatory framework written specifically for mindfulness practitioners, we commit to the principles and guidance set out in the UK Network for Mindfulness-Based Teachers, Good practice guidelines for teaching mindfulness-based courses, and the Association for Coaching Code of Ethics and Good Practice.
We also operate a set of policies and procedures designed to ensure the safe and efficient delivery of services.
CODE OF PRACTICE
We operate a set of policies and procedures designed to ensure the safe and efficient delivery of services:
- Disclosure & Barring Service (DBS)
- Employers Liability insurance
- Public Liability insurance
- Complaints Policy
- Patients Satisfaction procedure
- Health & Safety at work policy and procedure
- Incident reporting policy
- Safeguarding Vulnerable Adults & Young people / Children policy
- Confidentiality policy, compliant with Caldecott requirements
- Patients Consent Policy
- Data Protection Act compliance
- Freedom of Information Act compliance
- Record Keeping / Information Management policy
FUNDRAISING
Earthquakes at Bakhang school, Nepal
Tsagam and Bakhang are small and remote villages in Nepal. Over 125km from Kathmandu, the villages are inaccessible by car and can only be reached by walking a steep mountain path for seven hours.
The villages are home to 60 Tibetan families who make a meagre living through small scale subsistence farming, artefact making and semi-nomadic herding. Each of the villages has a small school for the local Tibetan children.
Prior to 2009, there was only one teacher per school and lessons were taught only in Nepali. In addition to the obvious problems of only having one teacher for a school full of children, the village parents were worried that a lack of Tibetan education would mean their children would start to lose their Tibetan heritage and language skills. The parents felt it was very important for the children to learn to read and write in their own language in order to preserve their Tibetan identity. However, with most families barely eking out a living, funding Tibetans teachers at the schools was out of the question.
Since 2009, Tibet Relief Fund has been providing a grant to cover the cost of salaries for two Tibetan teachers (one at each school). Since that time, attendance has risen as parents feel more comfortable sending their children to school.
Initial reports after the two major earthquakes in April and May, 2015 suggested that the area had not been badly hit. However, as news trickled through, we learnt that both Tsagam and Bakhang schools, along with the local nunnery and village houses, were very badly damaged and in need of complete rebuilding.
Two other organisations have managed to find funds to cover the rebuilding of the nunnery and the school at Tsagam. The villagers themselves have been reusing stone from the collapsed buildings and have been working on rebuilding their homes and businesses for some time.
However, the school at Bakhang has no funds to rebuild and the Nepalese government cannot provide any. Students from the school have been studying in flimsy tents for a year now and both students and parents are starting to get disheartened by the situation. The number of students attending classes has already dropped significantly. Before the earthquakes struck, 72 local children were studying at Bakhang school. Now, there are just 35. Encouraging these 35 children to go back to school is vital for their futures.
With the psychological scars of the earthquakes still healing, parents are understandably concerned about the safety of sending their children to study in tents or makeshift buildings.
We aim to get all 72 children back into school by reconstructing Bakhang school using earthquake resistant techniques – providing a safe, warm place for the children to complete their studies. Parents whose children have already dropped out have already said they would send their children to school again if they knew they would be safe.
The plan is to work with local partners to rebuild the school using local materials to keep the costs down. However, given its remote location and the difficulty of transporting machinery and labour, this is still a major project which will cost a lot of money.
Some funding has already been secured but we still need to raise £21,000 in total to be able to cover the full cost of the rebuild.
Added to funds we already have restricted for earthquake relief in Nepal, and some funding secured from an individual, this will provide:
3 x classrooms
1 x office
1 x kitchen/dining room
1 x toilet block
Ideally, the school would need five classrooms to allow students in each year group to study in separate classrooms. However, at this stage, they would be able to use the office as an additional classroom if necessary. We have requested plans from the architects which will allow two further classrooms to be added at a later date (funding permitting).