Our Story : Eurasia Association & Foundation
Eurasia Learning Institute for Happiness and Wellbeing (ELI) is a program of Eurasia Association, a Swiss based, secular and apolitical non-profit organization. ELI offers experiential programs and collaborative processes linking inner transformation to social innovation, for a happy and sustainable world.
Eurasia Association and Foundation’s founders, Lisi and Tho Ha Vinh.
The commitment of ELI was born with the very first Eurasia training courses that responded to the immediate need for professionals to be trained in the fields of special education and social therapy from 1999. From 1999 until today, training courses have been organised several times a year around special education and sociotherapy, mainly in Hué.
In 2009 we created The Peaceful Bamboo Family, a vocational and living community for youths living with disabilities in Hué Vietnam. Today this community is the living embodiment of the work of Eurasia and ELI and of the values of Gross National Happiness. Tinh Truc Gia in vietnamese (TTG) is very often the host for ELI trainings in Vietnam, which contributes largely to participant's learning journey as they are able to experience first hand what is taught in the training.
With time, the subjects of our training courses expanded to include ecology, biodynamic farming, team building, training of trainers, mindfulness and ethics, Gross National Happiness, and social and emotional learning. You can explore past trainings given by ELI here.
In 2015 we created more formally ELI, in order to share Eurasia’s practical experience and training courses more widely, not just in Vietnam but also internationally.
Today, through ELI, Eurasia offers transformative learning programmes by creating participatory spaces leading from inner transformation to social change.
The roots of Eurasia
Tho Ha Vinh, the co-founder of Eurasia, is of Vietnamese origin on his father’s side. He and his wife Lisi lived for twelve years with seven youngsters living with various mental disabilities in a Camphill community, named “Fondation Perceval” in St Prex, Switzerland.
When Vietnam reopened its borders after the war in 1982, Tho took the opportunity to return to the homeland of his father. He was deeply touched by the suffering of the people, and the wounds of war which were still visible everywhere. The life of people living with mental disabilities and their families was very difficult. It was evident that there was an immense need in the country. Eurasia started its engagement by helping those who took care of people living with disabilities.