Who are the Friends of Vanadis?

Friends of Vanadis is anyone who wants to support our dojo and our mission to share the Aikido we practice today in Vanadis. This is the style of aikido that we learned from our teachers – mainly Endo Shihan, Tissier Shihan and Noêl Shihan, but it is also an Aikido created and developed by us here in Vanadis, together with the whole community around us – in Sweden and abroad.

Who is Vanadis Dojo?

Vanadis Aikido Dojo is a non-profit sporting organisation with the purpose of promoting Aikido training. Our dojo has been located in a central part of Stockholm for over 30 years.

During that time, we have arranged many seminars with many esteemed Aikido teachers including Endo Seishiro Shihan, Christian Tissier Shihan, and Frank Noel Shihan.

Additionally, several Vanadis teachers have travelled all over the world to share our way of training over the years.

Community

These many years of training and teaching have cultivated a large network of practitioners who seem to feel a deep connection to our dojo in Stockholm. We are delighted to regularly host guests from all over the world, both for individual seminars and to stay for regular trainings. We have come to realise that our dojo is important for many people around the world.

Gradings

Apart from training together we have also realised that many people and dojos around the world are now looking for Vanadis when it comes to kyu and dan gradings. We have had many people grading with us over the years and it only seems to grow. This service of gradings is an important part of our contribution to the Aikido community and it’s thanks to the very many years of close connection with our teachers and Hombu Dojo and the Aikikai Foundation that this is possible. We know that this is greatly appreciated by many people and we hope to continue this path.

Getting by with a Little Help from Our Friends

The last years have really been a testing time for our dojo, and our community, in many ways. There were moments when we were not sure if we would survive in our current location in the city center of Stockholm.  In common with many dojos here and abroad the lockdown created by the Covid 19 global pandemic meant that we unfortunately lost many members. This came at the same time as an increase in our rent and the recent necessity to carry out a long overdue renovation of the dojo – all of which has combined to mean that at this time our dojo is ‘running on empty’ without enough paying members to cover our costs. So far, we have been able to balance this out thanks to government support due to covid – but this support is ending from the beginning of next year. After that we are on our own. As it looks at the moment we don’t have enough members to cover the new rent. 

We hope of course that at some point in the future the recruitment of new members will allow us to break even again, and we are actively pursuing this, but at this time we are surviving only thanks to some savings from previous years.

Friends of Vanadis

Over the years many people have very generously offered to help support our dojo financially. many people have given generous donations. We are incredibly grateful for this support. Many people have also offered to support us for the future since they feel our existence is important to them on many levels. From all of this the idea of creating a program called ”Friends of Vanadis” came up. 

Donations

Therefor we will be deeply grateful to receive any donations to help support the upkeep and running of our Vanadis dojo (basically paying the rent!) to allow us to keep teaching Aikido in this special wonderful space at Odenplan in central Stockholm.

In return – in the beginning of every year we will publish a list of all our supporters (who wish to be included) from the past year on our website under the “Friends of Vanadis” banner to express our sincerest gratitude.

Donation Options

We are grateful to receive any and all donations, please choose the option that suits you best:

Monthly Member

A monthly donation of 5, 10 euros/dollars, or even more money if comfortable, would go a long way to supporting our dojo. Please choose from the following options or create your own custom payment.

One-off donation

We would also be very grateful to receive one-off donations per year of any amount to help us keep the lights on at Vanadis. Suggested amount for one year could be 50 – 100 euro. Please use one of the payment options below to make your donation.

All of us at Vanadis who love to share our dojo and Aikido with you offer a deep bow of gratitude for your kindness and generosity.

Dojo donations box

For in-person visitors to our dojo, there is always the option of leaving money in our ”Dojo Donations” box.

To receive an acknowledgement for this on the website, as mentioned above, please deposit any cash donations in an envelope on which you have written your name or organisation.

Payment

Inside Sweden:
Plusgiro 6455570-9 
Swish 123 351 3173

Outside Sweden:
International payments by bank transfer or paypal

IBAN: SE86 9500 0099 6034 6455 5709
BIC/SWIFT: NDEASESS

For Paypal, please visit our donation page.

With Thanks