How You Can Help:

For the past three years, Cathie LeVasseur has been involved with a program combining culture and the arts to bring peace to the Balkan Penninsula. She continues to fundraise for similar peace and reconciliation programs through workshops and selling canvas finger labyrinths.

Here are two ways you can help Cathie in this heartfelt work -

1. Purchase a canvas finger labyrinth (approx 16"x16" 11-circuit Chartre design) for $15 each, or two for $28. All the net proceeds will go towards supporting youth programs combining the sharing of culture and the arts for peace and reconcilitation.

2. Please keep this project and the war torn areas of the world in your blessings, prayers and healing circles. If you would like more information or how you might be able to participate in future programs please contact: Cathie LeVasseur at Cathie@mandalaproject.org

SARA LITTLEFIELD:
Like Mother, like daughter...

Cathie's 7-year old daughter Sara has been very much influenced by her mother's altruistic actions and told her mother that she wanted to do something for the children in Kosovo.

Sara created a wonderful illustration that has been applied to t-shirts and canvas bags. With the help from mom, Sara created "Children Helping Children Around the World" which is a non-profit corporation that sells the two products to raise funds for the children in Kosovo.

Sara sends her profits to Dr. Jim (Dr. James Gordon, Chair of the White House Commission on Complementary and Alternative Medicine Policy) who ensures that the donations get to the children in need.

Sara's t-shirts sell for $16 and are available in both child and adult sizes. The canvas bags sell for $10.

For more information about Sara's project please contact Sara and Cathie.

JANUARY 2001
Seminar II - Budapest, Hungary
The Trip to Hungary

At the end of the first Balkan Youth Reconciliation Seminar Series (BYRSS) held in Plodiv, Bulgaria it was decided that the second seminar (to be held in Budapest, Hungary in January, 2001) would primarily be devoted to teaching students a variety of practical skills and techniques they could use personally and bring home with them.

A student who participated in my first workshop in Plodiv, had made a comment in our closing discussion that, "You can't make peace with someone who is not peaceful." This simple yet deeply profound statement remained with me well after my plane had landed at Kennedy Airport in mid-August. During the five months I prepared for the second seminar I thought about the incredible youths I had met from Bulgaria, Macedonia, Serbia, Albania and other Balkan countries - each one a gift in my life. These students had touched my heart - expanding my world, thoughts, values and vision. I hoped to be able to do the same for them.

As many self-employed parents know, it can be challenging to integrate work and family needs. I am no exception! There were days when, amid hunting for stray socks and emptying the dishwasher, I was making calls to media and well-known foundations - telling anyone who would listen about this worthy and innovative program, pleading for them to make my cause their cause. Once, while on hold for a U.N. official, I was carefully cutting the crust off my son's peanut butter sandwich and pouring apple juice into a cup from one of many McDonald's Happy Meals bought on-the-run. I remember being so thankful that person who finally came on the line could not actually see my messy kitchen or take notice of the fact that it was now 1:00 pm and I was wearing a pair of my husband's favorite sweats with a worn, but much loved t-shirt! Friends and family continually questioned my sanity and involvement in this international project. For me, it was a project that lived in my heart and warmly permeated my soul. I felt blessed to be a part of this new journey towards peace.

After my fourth trip to Kinkos in two days, I was finally ready to pack for Budapest, Hungary. In brightly colored folders I packed a variety of breathing and meditation techniques, yoga poses, hand mudras, guided imagery exercises and scientific studies addressing the energy of the heart and of prayer. In a small travel bag I placed two pair of dowsing rods, a twenty foot light weight canvas labyrinth, ting sha bells, candles and a variety of music CD's and tapes.

My trip to the airport was spent calling my two older children on vacation with their Dad in Maine and making last minute lists for my husband concerning childcare for our 4 year old son, phone numbers, back-up numbers, back-up, back-up numbers, triplicate copies of signed and notarized medical and dental releases for no less than 5 different friends and family members and a verbal run down of the latest favorite snacks and foods my son would eat.

The trip to Eastern Europe was spent catching up with previous seminar facilitators and meeting new ones. I worried that I had forgotten something vitally important. I let that worry go when my "mystery meal" appeared, and I then contemplated the benefits of becoming a vegetarian.

As our bus arrived at our destination in Budapest, I wearily picked up my heavy knapsack and luggage carrier and stepped onto the cobblestone street outside our hotel. Too tired to talk, I silently waited for the bus driver to unload my luggage. Somewhere in my personal fog, I heard squeals of laughter and shouts of joy. Not twenty-five feet from me was a young Serbian man swinging an Albanian girl around and around - both participants in the previous seminar. The two were clearly excited to see one another after five months. My eyes teared up and I remember saying to one of my colleagues, "This is what our work is all about. This makes all my time and effort worth it. This is a glimpse into the future."

AUGUST 2001
The Mandala Project Goes to Romania!
Check out this CNN article on the project.