Education News: Top Stories

Father Gabriel Mejia of Colombia includes Transcendental Meditation in rehabilitation of street children
by Global Good News staff writer

Claret Homes Foundation Translate This Article
22 July 2016

Father Gabriel Mejia is founder of a network of over 40 rehabilitation centres throughout Colombia, Fundacion Hogares Claret, (Claret Homes Foundation). He provides sanctuary for displaced street children, taking in anyone who needs help. Father Gabriel has helped over 45,000 young people get off the streets, away from drugs and crime and has helped transform their lives.

While travelling to treatment facilities around the world and observing many different therapeutic methods, Father Gabriel realized that the traditional methods his centres were employing were not enough. He saw a way to improve the traditional therapeutic approach applied in rehabilitation programmes, by introducing yoga, Transcendental Meditation, and its advanced techniques. These new programmes have proved very effective.

The mission of Fundacion Hogares Claret is stated: to go hand in hand with people affected by marginality, addiction, violence or with behavior problems, in order to help them to find a sense of their lives with the intention of re-establish their rights and include them in different areas of society.

Father Gabriel is convinced that a major aspect of rehabilitation is giving an individual a purpose in life among trusted, peaceful comrades, enabling them to create a reality in tune with the orderly flow of Natural Law and infinite bliss within themselves.

Staff and students at Fundacion Hogares Claret have expressed in many ways that their change towards a more peaceful, orderly life has come from within the individual through practising TM. An important aspect of the therapy at Hogares Claret is students taking responsibility for their own rehabilitation, for their own orderly routine of school, work, and rest—day after day—in which a top priority is regular, twice-daily practice of TM.

However, 'The basic therapy is love', says Father Gabriel Mejía. 'When a child starts to practice yoga every day, morning and afternoon. When a child closes the eyes and begins to meditate . . . they open themselves up to a field of infinite possibilities as Maharishi says. The world opens up for the child, and then the child discovers their essential nature, which is love . . . we must globalise love.'

Learning of Father Mejia's success, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, founder of the Transcendental Meditation programme, referred to him as 'the saint of Colombia'.

New assembly hall at Hogares Claret's Sasaima location

At the Fundacion Hogares Claret location an hour south of Bogota, a recently finished hall for classes, meditation, and assemblies is an example of support from the community. Students from among the facility's 110 boys, aged 9 to 17, aided in work on the 32 by 50 foot (10 by 14 m) structure, learning construction techniques, including use of natural materials obtained on-site. Principal among the supporters of Hogares Claret was the organization 'Clay Hands'. Operating under the directorship of teacher of TM and emerald dealer, Ron Ringsrud, the purpose of Clay Hands is 'teaching and promoting alternative earth-based construction in Colombia; creating employment, sustainability, and cultural integrity.'

Related videos and articles:

∙ Listen to Father Gabriel in 'Love and Transcendence: The Secrets of Lasting Rehabilitation', Parts 1 and 2

∙ 'Saint of Colombia' uses Transcendental Meditation to successfully treat drug addiction
∙ 'Decreased drug use: Transcendental Meditation naturally gratifies the unconscious craving for wholeness, fullness, and inner joy

Visit Fundacion Hogares Claret (Link to English-translated pages available on home page)

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