How I’m Transforming My Social Change Approach With Wellbeing How I’m Transforming My Social Change Approach With Wellbeing

Stories from the Hearth

Guest post by:

Amos Leuka

Director, Living Culture and Climate Alliance (LCCA)
🌍 Loita Maasai community, Loita, Narok County, Kenya

Amos Leuka, director of the Living Culture and Climate Alliance (LCCA), from the Loita Maasai community in Loita, Narok County, Kenya, attended The Wellbeing Summit Dakar-Thiès in November 2023. Listen to his journey of learning, inner reflection, and motivation as he shares his reflections on the gathering.

The LCCA promotess culture and climate adaptations in Africa and in particular, Kenya. It enables indigenous communities to promote their bio-cultural rights and supports them to be economically and culturally resilient, capable of managing their land systems and biodiversity. By building this solid base, providing leadership, technical and facilitative support, and using Participatory Video, LCCA creates a space to connect all indigenous communities and enable them to gain influence on climate issues affecting them, maintain their languages and use indigenous knowledge systems to manage their lands, social change and shape their future.

EXPLORE THE REGIONAL SUMMITS FURTHEREXPLORE THE REGIONAL SUMMITS FURTHER

Dive Into Stories From Around the World

Discover the Wellbeing Movement in Africa Discover the Wellbeing Movement in Africa

Meet and hear stories from the changemakers championing the wellbeing movement in Africa.

Building a Brighter Future for The Gambia, Africa, and Beyond Building a Brighter Future for The Gambia, Africa, and Beyond

Stories from the Hearth

Guest post by:

Dr. Margor A. Green-Harris, MD

Medical Officer, Edward Francis Small Teaching Hospital

🌍 Banjul, The Gambia

Once upon a time, in the heart of Sengeal “Rew Taranga” a diverse group of changemakers gathered for The Wellbeing Summit Dakar-Thiès —a transformative event that promised to reshape the future of the continent. Among them was I, a passionate advocate for social and behavioral change and holistic wellbeing.

As the Summit unfolded, I immersed myself in a rich tapestry of workshops, discussions, and cultural exchanges. I eagerly participated in sessions on yoga and mindfulness, recognizing their potential to enhance my wellbeing and activism.

During a panel discussion on “The Africa We Want,” I experienced a profound shift in perspective. Inspired by the vision of a continent united in peace and prosperity, I realized the power of collective action to bring about meaningful change.

However, I also became more aware of the challenges facing grassroots movements and community initiatives. Too often, well-intentioned projects were sometimes derailed by external interests and agendas, leaving local communities disenfranchised.

Determined to make a difference, I resolved to prioritize the voices and needs of my fellow activists and volunteers. I refused to let external sponsors dictate the direction of our work, advocating for autonomy and integrity in all our endeavors.

As The Wellbeing Summit Dakar-Thiès drew to a close, I felt a renewed sense of purpose and possibility. Armed with new insights and connections, I returned to my community with a commitment to holistic wellbeing, grassroots activism, and the Africa we all wanted to see.

And so, inspired by the spirit of unity and determination I had witnessed at the Summit, I continued my journey, knowing that together, we could build a brighter future for The Gambia, Africa and beyond.

EXPLORE THE REGIONAL SUMMITS FURTHEREXPLORE THE REGIONAL SUMMITS FURTHER

Dive Into Stories From Around the World

Discover the Wellbeing Movement in AfricaDiscover the Wellbeing Movement in Africa

Meet and hear stories from the changemakers championing the wellbeing movement in Africa.

Strengthening Community Resilience in Kuwait with Storytelling Strengthening Community Resilience in Kuwait with Storytelling

Insights from en.v’s Eleanor Burton and Mohammed Marafi

With a vision of a united, compassionate and resilient society, a small organisation is making a big impact on collective wellbeing across the Gulf states.

en.v facilitates positive social transformation within Kuwaiti society with an integral focus on empowering Kuwait’s migrant population – as well as youth and other traditionally silenced communities – through storytelling. Recognised by the International Labour Organization (ILO) for its impactful work supporting the human rights of migrant workers, en.v practices community-building through socially responsible ways. We talked with Eleanor Burton, en.v’s training and relationship manager, and Mohammed Marafi, en.v’s programs manager, about their use of storytelling as a tool for social transformation. Here’s how they do it.

Storytelling to Build Trust, New Narratives, and Healing Bridges

As an organisation committed to the collective wellbeing of communities in Kuwait, an integral focus for en.v is on the country’s migrant population, whose wellbeing is significantly impacted by the grave consequences they often face working under the Gulf labour market’s kafala system. Broken trust, mistreatment, and abuse are common, as are trauma and mental health struggles. Beyond legal frameworks, cultural attitudes in Kuwait have helped normalise the effects of the kafala system: with certain long-held beliefs about migrant workers and commonplace employment practices, de-facto segregation and a deeply ingrained power balance are the norm.

While important efforts are in motion to update migrant worker schemes in the Gulf and protect migrants’ wellbeing, en.v recognises migrants themselves are missing from these conversations. In response en.v passes the mic to the migrant community in Kuwait to support systemic change from the ground up. Working with employers of migrant workers and the migrant community, it offers spaces for both groups to meet and begin to build healing bridges. The process is complex, but it is working, and its Global Migrant Workers Network (GMWN), Compassionate Communities programme, and BUILD Ideathon community projects have been recognised as important actors in this process.

“The insight and connection with and from the vast network and community that en.v has nurtured over the years is unrivaled. Their ability to get straight to the beneficiary and those most in need has been inspiring to witness, and a great honour to support.” – International Labour Organization

en.v’s Theory of Change (Credit: en.v/@blancheillustrates)

en.v’s community-led approach to social change is founded on bringing different groups together to work across differences. Building bridges that lead to social change is a complex process – and for en.v, it all starts with a story.

“In every single piece of our work, whether it’s with labour inspectors, activists in the migrant community, domestic workers, students, academics, or officials from the ministry, we always start with storytelling and connection,” says Eleanor. “We start with some sort of space where we try and get people into an intimate, authentic conversation with each other. It’s in every single thing that we do – having that first moment of building trust and connection, but in safety.”

As different people come together – many for the first time – to express themselves and listen to each other, these moments of connection are rich with opportunity. They help pave the path to reconciliation by the way of self-exploration, bonding, and movement-building. With long-held beliefs contributing to divisions within the community, this is an important step towards sustainable behavioural change.

“It changed my viewpoints on others around me. I lived in a bubble and thought that there wasn’t a community of people who genuinely wanted change too.” – en.v BUILD Ideathon Participant

The AWAKEN journey.

In supporting the migrant community, this storytelling can involve facilitating conversations between workers and employers and creating space for both groups to reflect on their experiences with their peers. For example, generations-long employment practices in the Gulf shape how employers view domestic workers and how domestic workers view themselves. Through dialogue, en.v encourages everyone to practice self-inquiry and reflection. Sharing one’s story and listening to others serves as a foundational, and often emotional, step towards reconciliation.

“With storytelling, we can think about roots and forces shaping our value systems,” says Eleanor. “We can ask questions: what’s your power in the society? What privilege do you have? How do you move through the society? It’s ultimately a practice in building empathy, deconstructing a lot of the cultural norms, and thinking about how we relate to one another.”

One example of a project defined by storytelling is en.v’s Women’s Circle Project. Held in partnership with the International Labour Organization’s FAIRWAY Project, it brings together female employers of domestic workers in safe spaces to talk about employment practices. These Women’s Circles help to shift employer mindsets, leading to improved relationships and increased fair treatment of workers.

Storytelling with the migrant community also focuses on understanding values and shifting mindsets, while also caring for the deep traumas felt by the community. Their experiences in Kuwait are often defined by deep feelings of loss: a loss of self while facing exploitation at work and having to support family back home, and a loss of community due to the transient, impermanent type of residency available under the kafala system.

In response, en.v uses storytelling to help the members of the migrant community create a new sense of self and belonging, which can help strengthen their resiliency, increase feelings of agency, and promote healing – an empowering process that helps unlock doors to a new future.

Mohammed explains this process is essential for empowering community-led action: “If you want for people to really feel like they want to change this place, they first have to feel like they belong here. A lot of what we try to do in our work is try to create a space within Kuwait where they can at least feel like they belong to each other.”en.v helps create these spaces physically – with community gatherings such as its AWAKEN festival or its Aswatna program promoting inclusion in the country’s schools– and figuratively, through various activities such as Mapping Belonging and art therapies. Through different methodologies practiced in safe spaces, migrant and other traditionally silenced or marginalized communities are offered the opportunity to own, share, and rewrite their stories.

While the process of behavioural and systemic change is complex and challenging, these meaningful moments of storytelling are also important marks of progress. At the heart of this storytelling is a true sense of compassion and unity, says Eleanor: “It’s very intimate. It’s really loving work we do, that creates a space where people can really connect.”

With a vision of solidarity among communities in Kuwait, these emotional connections are the first step towards community wellbeing and healing.

en.v is a proud member of The Wellbeing Project’s Wellbeing in Higher Education Network. Learn more about en.v’s work to foster transformational leadership and community-building in the Gulf at www.envearth.com.

Welldoing ToolWelldoing Tool

Mapping Belonging

Contributed by en.v (Kuwait)

“Mapping Belonging” is a social cartography exercise that consists of identifying the different emotions that we associate with the different places where our lives (and the lives of other members of our society) take place. It encourages us to explore, from a place of curiosity, our conceptions of identity, belonging, difference and otherness, and gain deeper insights about our individual and collective lived experiences.

It is a tool that serves as a participatory and experimental research method, while also creating a positive impact on the participants in the process of being implemented: it increases our ability to understand social diversity and empathize with other perspectives and values.

Collective emotional mapping takes us out of the bubble of our individual worldview and shows us that we are part of a larger system where many different people find many different sources of meaning. A higher sense of self-awareness and social awareness are both key ingredients to the process of strengthening community bonds from a place of compassion and resilience, and they establish the grounds for positive interpersonal interaction and transformative change.

en.v has been working with its AWAKEN Community of Practice to further refine and test out this tool, and facilitate it across diverse communities in Kuwait, collecting valuable data and promoting self-reflection and connection.

How to Practice

What you will need: a map of your location, coloured stickers corresponding to the emotions chart, cards, and writing materials

Step 1

Welcome participants into the space and tell them a little bit about the exercise. Facilitators can add whatever they consider suitable to this explanation and refer to examples from their personal experiences.

Step 2

Introduce a warm-up / ice-breaker. Before the mapping activity, invite the group to do a short exercise to warm-up and break the ice for about 10 minutes. The activity is called “story-slam”: participants will be asked to get into two lines facing each other and give a 1-minute answer to the person in front of them (at each turn) to the questions that the facilitators will ask out loud. After one minute, one of the lines will move one spot and each participant will be facing someone new and giving an answer to a new question. Facilitators can choose any of the following questions during five rounds:

What is your favourite place in [location]?

Where do you live and have you ever lived in that area?

What place in [location] brings up happy memories and why?

Where do you go when you want to relax?

Where in [location] do you eat the best food?

What are your favourite family spaces?

What is a space that doesn’t feel like [location]?

Are there places in [location]that you avoid? Which ones and why?

What are the places you frequented as a child?

If you have a friend coming to visit [location] for the first time, where would you take them and why?

Step 3

Begin the Mapping Belonging exercise. Start by explaining the activity: it’s an exercise that consists of identifying the different emotions that we associate with the different places where our lives take place. Facilitators will ask the participants to look at the map of their location, with its different zones and areas, and identify the places where they feel these emotions:

While looking at the map and identifying the areas where they feel the different emotions (they can choose 3-4 places for each emotion), participants can take coloured stickers that correspond to the emotions and place them on the chosen areas of the map. This part of the activity can last 10-15 minutes.

Step 4

Go deeper with story cards. After they have finished placing the stickers in the corresponding areas, facilitators will give them a set of cards that contain some questions about the mapped emotions and ask them to write their answers on the cards. Encourage participants to keep their answers short and sweet and use only the space on the cards. This part of the activity can last 20-25 minutes.

Step 5

Conclude with a group discussion. After participants are done filling in the cards, host a short collective debrief (5 minutes) around the two following questions:

What did it feel like to place the emotions on the map? Are there any reflections or emotions that this exercise brought up for you?

How can we make spaces in [location] more inclusive?

About en.v

We are a culturally diverse and interdisciplinary team of current and former Kuwait residents and nationals working together to foster a more united, compassionate and resilient society – locally and globally. Over the past decade, we have been working with and building bridges between a wide array of stakeholders, including corporates, governmental, intergovernmental and international institutions, foundations, educators, youth, civil society organizations and migrant community groups. Leveraging our own and our partners’ learnings, experience and networks, we design and facilitate inclusive and participatory processes that support the development of more equitable solutions and narratives. Specifically, we:

Develop training and programming which promotes informed empathy, critical thinking, and intersectional frameworks

Support the development and institutionalization of more inclusive and equitable processes and policies

Bring together multiple stakeholders to collectively address complex problems, envision possible futures and promote social transformation.

Cultivating a Thriving Inner Landscape Where Our Potential Can Bloom: 7 Learnings on How Mental Health Helps Achieve Social Change and PeacebuildingCultivating a Thriving Inner Landscape Where Our Potential Can Bloom: 7 Learnings on How Mental Health Helps Achieve Social Change and Peacebuilding

Guest post by:

Catalina Cock Duque

Co-Founder and President, Fundación Mi Sangre

Growing up in Colombia, a country with an armed conflict, filled with bombings, massacres, and displacement, I always felt the need to heal our wounds of violence and work towards the construction of peace. Fundación Mi Sangre, co-founded with songwriter and singer Juanes, has been my primary vehicle for pursuing this purpose. Since 2006, Mi Sangre has played a pivotal role in fostering systemic cultural change in Colombia by involving youth and the actors surrounding them as key contributors to personal, community, and systemic transformation. This model equips participants with life, leadership, and entrepreneurial skills, empowering them to co-create positive changes in their communities, including solutions towards peace.

Our work encompasses a multifaceted vision of leadership, emphasizing the development of both individual and collective skills. It involves nurturing awareness, empathy, critical thinking, and curiosity while fostering collaboration. We address the challenges young people face due to living in impoverished and violent environments, providing comprehensive mental health support as a valuable resource for personal and collective transformation. With this emphasis on inner work, mental health, and wellbeing, we have seen positive results not only in our participants’ lives but in the systems all around us.

From more than 15 years of service to young people in Colombia, here are some of the lessons from our journey that have now become integral to our work.

1. We can support the individual through the collective.

In dealing with trauma and other mental health challenges, some specific cases require individual psychosocial support. However, our organization and country lack the resources to provide it individually at scale. Therefore, we have integrated mental health skills into leadership programs, to offer support in a collective setting while integrating a preventive approach. These programs blend self-discovery and introspection, with safe spaces, fostering social connections and a sense of belonging. The mental health dimension of our leadership programs holds a special place in the hearts of our participants. From our retreats, I recall with emotion their warm hugs, the tears of healing they shed, and the laughter that set their spirits free, all within the safe space we helped create for them.

2. Holistic wellbeing – connecting mind, heart, body, and spirit – is essential.

Our programs prioritize a holistic approach encompassing the mind, heart, body, and spirit. Engaging the mind fosters critical thinking, self-awareness, and informed decision-making. Emotional aspects, represented by the heart, nurture empathy and meaningful relationships. Physical well-being, supported by the body, ensures energy and vitality, offering valuable wisdom through a strong mind-body connection. Nurturing the spirit, which encompasses purpose and resilience, provides inner strength to face challenges. Collectively, these dimensions empower individuals to lead authentically, while achieving significant change. Our young participants have successfully created more than 1,800 change initiatives, achieving profound systemic transformations in areas such as violence prevention, reconciliation, gender equity, migrants’ inclusion, and prevention of forced recruitment to armed groups.

3. The creative arts and nature are our biggest allies.

Creative arts and nature are central to our programs. We offer creative outlets like painting, music, and writing to serve as therapeutic outlets, hellping to alleviate stress, anxiety, and depression. Art encourages mindfulness, fostering social connections and deep interactions. Simultaneously, nature provides purpose and tranquility and teaches the vital concepts of oneness and interconnection. Whether it’s a simple walk in the park, incorporating plants, or outdoor experiences in natural settings, these holistic approaches significantly enhance our program’s effectiveness. My heart fills with gratitude when I remember a participant who shared that she had discovered the wisest counselor in nature and had never received such profound guidance from anyone else.

Credit: Fundación Mi Sangre/Alejandro Bonnells

Credit: Fundación Mi Sangre/Alejandro Bonnells

“My heart fills with gratitude when I remember a participant who shared that she had discovered the wisest counselor in nature and had never received such profound guidance from anyone else.”

4. Mental health and wellbeing have to be cultivated.

From our community engagement, it is clear to us that mental health and wellbeing are not static conditions; they are cultivated over time through a combination of self-awareness, self-care, and positive life choices. To help our communities make these choices, we have developed several strategies, including an open-source library with tools and resources, along with trainer approaches and curriculums for parents and educators, on how to develop 17 different holistic leadership skills. To our surprise, this library, originally created for our team, has more than 2,500 visitors per month, demonstrating its regular use. We also don’t limit our mental health support to our participants: since the pandemic, our full team holds weekly online meetings to share various practices, encouraging us to lead by example and embody the change we want to be in our communities.

5. We must shift paradigms around mental health.

Transforming mental health paradigms is a crucial piece to this puzzle, given historical stigma that discourages those who are struggling from seeking support. To help change this dynamic, we have launched grassroots and national campaigns at Mi Sangre to normalize mental health discussions, emphasizing the importance of open, empathetic, and non-judgmental conversations. Recognizing that change starts at the individual and community levels, we are committed to creating tailored approaches to mental health, considering differences in ethnicity, gender, and age while incorporating local wisdom. We also seek to expand the dialogue on mental health to include wider audiences: inspired by the Wellbeing Summit for Social Change in Bilbao, we co-created the Wellbeing Summit Bogotá in September 2023. Mental health was a central topic at this event, which convened changemakers from the social change, business, academic, and public sectors. We aspire to extend this initiative to other Latin American cities, further advancing this crucial agenda for mental health.

An example of posters co-designed with local communities, written in Nasa Yuwe, the language indigenous communities of Toribio, Norte del Cauca, Colombia, with an invitation to reach out to mental health support services. Literal translation: “Weaving the good life. Mental health is harmony, source of inspiration and wisdom”. Credit: Fundación Mi Sangre/Alejandro Bonnells

6. Our personal journeys influence our professional work

Leading Mi Sangre has been a profoundly personal journey.My pursuit of inner growth and wellbeing commenced 18 years ago after facing burnout during my first venture. However, this journey evolved recently when I developed a deeper understanding of trauma’s impact on my work, through participation in the Inner Development Program by The Wellbeing Project. In a retreat with fellow change agents, I was transported back to a poignant childhood memory. I overheard the tragic fate of our neighbors, the parents of children my age who were kidnapped and brutally murdered. The re-emergence of this memory unleashed profound emotions, revealing the lasting impact it had on me. This experience unveiled the roots of certain unhealthy patterns in my entrepreneurial drive – a fear of losing what I cherish, an unconscious drive to do everything to survive and protect my loved ones, and a limiting belief that I must accomplish everything now because tomorrow is uncertain. I have undergone profound transformations as a result. When leaders embark on deep explorations of their inner selves, a much deeper layer of meaning emerges about who we are, what we do, how we pursue it, and, more importantly, how we want to pursue it. I have witnessed numerous stories of leaders similarly elevating their modes of operation (and impact!) by embarking on journeys of inner work.

7. Inner work can help heal systems.

In the pursuit of positive social change and lasting peace, inner work stands as a pivotal force that transcends individual growth to mend the very systems that have been fractured by violence and turmoil. The power of inner work is not confined to self-discovery and personal development; it extends to our collective consciousness and societal structures. Mi Sangre’s work involves weaving ecosystems, bringing together a wide array of participants from the public, private, and third sectors – sometimes even including former enemies and victims – to co-create solutions. Through our methodologies, we have witnessed the potential to transcend differences, hate, and fear in order to act collectively towards peace. By delving into the depths of our inner selves, we unearth the empathy, resilience, and wisdom required to reshape these systems.

“By delving into the depths of our inner selves, we unearth the empathy, resilience, and wisdom required to reshape these systems.”

Both through my work and personal experience, I’ve learned to embrace pain and struggles as inherent aspects of life. However, I’ve also seen the potential for leading a life filled with profound meaning, even in the face of persistent challenges. Equipping leaders with the skills to address trauma, support their mental health, and enable wellbeing is essential. In doing so, we are able to help them cultivate resilience, enabling them to reach their highest human potential, foster healthy relationships, and serve life with freedom and joy.

Looking back at the dream Juares and I had 16 years ago – working towards peace – I am convinced that including inner work in our systemic approach has been pivotal in catalyzing extraordinary leadership. Without it, we may have never been able to advance the reconstruction of our social fabric, influence decision-makers, and help heal systems that impact over 2 million people who have undergone profound transformations toward peace-building and social change. I invite you to explore how mental health, healing, and inner work may transform your work in social change – with a thriving inner landscape, there’s no limit for our how our potential can bloom.

About the authorAbout the author

Meet Catalina Cock Duque

Catalina Cock Duque, a seasoned catalyst for systemic change with over 25 years of experience, is a passionate leader in sustainable development, peace-building, and social impact. Distinguished as a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum and recognized by Silla Vacía in Colombia, she co-founded Fundación Mi Sangre, impacting over 2 million people in Colombia. As a Co-Founder of Oro Verde and the Alliance for Responsible Mining, Catalina played a pivotal role in establishing the first global certification for artisanal gold mining, expanding its reach to over 10 countries. She holds a BA from the University of Maryland and a Master’s from the London School of Economics, complemented by executive courses in leadership and innovation from top institutions worldwide.

Hear from Catalina's experience on taking part of The Wellbeing Summit Bogotá: Hear from Catalina's experience on taking part of The Wellbeing Summit Bogotá:

Wellbeing in West Africa: How We Gather TogetherWellbeing in West Africa: How We Gather Together

Guest post by:

Carina Ndiaye, Chief Partnerships Office, Tostan

In Senegal, we call it Teraanga. It stands for openness and sharing, meaning: “we invite you to come in.” This cultural norm is present throughout the region and across the continent. Words like Ubuntu in southern Africa portray acknowledgment, respect, and coexistence. In Senegal, through Teraanga, the concept behind the Hindi word Namaste (meaning: “the light in me sees the light in you”) is extended and reinforced to say, “what is mine is yours.” This applies not only materialistically but also to the earth, the sun, the sea, and the unseen. From visitor to member, from transitory to influenced, in our culture, the ‘you’ never stands alone. What affects you also affects me and my community, and community includes anyone who walks our way and crosses our path.

As Tostan agreed to host the first African Wellbeing Summit, joining The Wellbeing Project and key partners hosting similar summits around the world, Teraanga has been a foundational concept for us. It is an entry point into the broader West African cultural systems that value people and their shared history and interconnectedness and that prioritize interdependence over independence.

Our upcoming African Regional Wellbeing Summit Dakar-Thiès 2023 reflects our dedication to embracing community-centered models that resonate with our core values. Locally-driven initiatives and capacity development for communities are critical paths forward, as our CEO Elena Bonometti has pointed out. But at the heart of our vision is Teraanga, where openness and sharing guide us in meeting the multifaceted challenges that our world faces. In Senegal, when challenges arise, a community gathering – referred to as a “pénc” in Wolof – is called to bring together the community for discussion. The Summit will be a globally-connected pénc, embodying the essence of African-based, African-led collaboration and growth in wellbeing. This is not just a “nice to have”; it is essential to our collective wellbeing and social cohesion.

There is a deep respect here for where people come from and for who and how they are. Many traditions create space for people to be seen, acknowledged, and recognized. Through greetings, names, joking, showing respect, and almost countless ways of engaging, we witness and reinforce one another. We see more clearly the threads interweaving our collective well-being. These traditions aren’t technical solutions or abstract topics; they are ways of meeting and gathering together, of creating spaces and openings where we can understand one another, share our perspectives and passions, and work better together.

With over 32 years of experience as a Senegal-based organization, welcoming partners from more than 50 countries far beyond Africa’s border, at our Tostan Training Center, we have come to understand that these ways of welcoming, these traditions for creating space, for seeing and being seen, can be powerful. As our global community seeks to find ways to support increased wellbeing in a context of increasing urgency and challenge, we hope our African Regional Wellbeing Summit Dakar-Thiès 2023 can contribute and share these ways of coming together.

Through our collaborative planning for the Summit, we have found some important themes to explore together. These include mental health, digital wellbeing, wellbeing in the workplace, and others. But the success of our conference won’t be limited to topics, action plans, or best practices. It will also depend on how people feel when they leave, how they can sustain connections, and whether they have found some new ways of inviting change into their lives, their organizations, their work, and our world.

About the African Regional Wellbeing Summit in Dakar and Thiès, Senegal

Join us for the first African Regional Wellbeing Summit in Dakar and Thiès, Senegal, hosted by Tostan from November 29th to December 1st, 2023.

The Summit will be an opportunity to engage in workshops, panels, and social moments to explore wellbeing, especially for those working in service for community-led development, from diverse African perspectives. Discover themes including mental health and its impacts on wellbeing, the role of religion, youth, and digital health.

Four Seasons Under One Sky: Arts as a Collective Approach to Creativity and Healing in South Africa Four Seasons Under One Sky: Arts as a Collective Approach to Creativity and Healing in South Africa

Guest post by:

Marlize Swanpoel

Co-Founder & Director, sp(i)eel arts therapies collective (Cape Town, South Africa)

sp(i)eel is an arts therapies collective (including drama, music, dance/movement, and art) of arts therapists, applied arts practitioners, and arts activists addressing intergenerational and complex trauma in South African communities. Over two centuries of colonialism and the oppressive regime of apartheid has left a nation grappling with systemic inequity and intergenerational trauma. Ongoing poverty and high incidences of violence and crime coupled with a dire lack of mental health services are contributing to complex and ongoing trauma, with more than a quarter of South Africans suffering from probable depression (Craig et al, 2022). This mental health crisis our country is facing is a systemic issue, not an individual one, and it needs a collective response. Our approach to mental health is culturally informed and sees people as each other’s greatest resource and source of support. As a result, our ultimate goal is to develop collective resilience that can affect social change.

Our name, spieel, is derived from two words that have different meanings in the Afrikaans language: “to play” or “mirror”. To “play and mirror” speaks to several reasons for our use of art as a healing tool. It refers to the function of the arts as a mirror to society for expression, reflection, and understanding. It also speaks to the therapeutic aspect of art therapies, where an art form is applied as a mirror to Self for exploration and understanding. Furthermore, it is through the playful nature of the arts that we can connect with our innate creativity.

It also speaks to the therapeutic aspect of art therapies, where an art form is applied as a mirror to Self for exploration and understanding.

In South Africa, access to therapeutic arts programmes is limited and not accessible to everyone. We aim to enable accessibility to the intentional use of various art forms to further have a positive impact on general health, wellbeing, development, and transformation for all.

Given our deep connection with the arts, our story and impacts can best be shared visually. This photo essay illustrates the journey of healing and wellbeing experienced through our Families and Collective Futures programme. It is a resilience-focused, trauma-informed programme that applies the arts and creativity to build psychosocial support systems. These systems are created through research (in collaboration with Brunel University), training, and the implementation of arts-based groups for children and their social circles.

The journey of this programme is presented within the frame of one of our core guiding metaphors: the four seasons. It represents the following. Firstly, just like the seasons, our mental health and wellbeing are not in a fixed state. We experience constant ups and downs. By accessing tools such as embodied awareness, reflexivity, and regulating skills, we can support ourselves and each other to navigate through these seasons of illness and health.

Secondly, this metaphor understands mental health and wellbeing in the context of the ecosystem. Communities are made up of people in different seasons of life. Collective resilience implies that the pressure to bounce back from hardship is not the sole responsibility of the individual. When one person suffers, it affects everyone. Everyone plays a role in collective health; as a collective, we are stronger together.

Collective resilience implies that the pressure to bounce back from hardship is not the sole responsibility of the individual. When one person suffers, it affects everyone.

Lastly, the seasons mirror people’s relationship with nature, and offer a platform to reflect on cultural and indigenous knowledge embracing nature as a source of healing.

We begin our journey in the season of (re)birth: Spring.

SPRING SPRING

Tending to the Soil So the Seedlings Can Thrive

Spieel 1 — Three generations of men raise a baby boy in the air. Cerderberg, 2022. Credit: sp(i)eel arts therapies collective

In a community workshop, participants create an embodied image of Spring. A healing-centered approach to intergenerational trauma in family systems involves the adults developing reflective and regulating skills to take care of their own mental health, so that they are better aware of unhelpful patterns of relating in their families and community.

Burning David’s Root. Cederberg, 2022. Credit: sp(i)eel arts therapies collective

Arts activist Gershan Lombard facilitates a ritual of gratitude at the end of a community workshop, with the small children keeping a close and curious eye. Culturally-informed psychosocial practice includes honouring indigenous knowledge and spiritual practices of health and wellbeing to share this wisdom with the next generation.

Summer Summer

Young People’s Shining Stories

A Summer of Self-expression: Making our stories known. Robertson, 2023. Credit: sp(i)eel arts therapies collective

A group of young women share their story about Summer as a starting point to explore themes of health and wellbeing. It is vital to offer young people multiple ways to share their thoughts and feelings, as words are not always readily available to express their inner worlds. As one participant (grade 11, high school leaner) revealed to us:“You might have noticed that we are a generation that keeps to ourselves, and we don’t trust anyone with our feelings and our thoughts. Especially because we don’t know how to talk about our feelings and our thoughts. You have come to show us that we can also show you through our songs and through our dances how we feel and what we are thinking. And that is freedom.”

Glimmer Boxes shine light on tools for health. Koue Bokkeveld, 2023. Credit: sp(i)eel arts therapies collective

A young woman creates her “Glimmer Box”, a tool that supports participants to explore what resources are available to them to support their mental health and wellbeing. These include positive relationships, safe spaces, and activities that regulate their emotional states. Some of these are drawn, painted on stones, or represented by found objects in nature and placed in the box as tangible reminders of available support systems.

“You have come to show us that we can also show you through our songs and through our dances how we feel and what we are thinking. And that is freedom.”

Autumn Autumn

A Season of Trust and Letting Go

Leaning into each other. Worcester, 2022. Credit: sp(i)eel arts therapies collective

A couple rests back-to-back and connects with each other’s breath. Our embodied, trauma-informed practice is drawn from Stephen Porges’ Polyvagal Theory as a way to understand the autonomous nervous system’s responses. This helps us understand our reactions to triggers and to develop tools for regulating and finding safety and connection in the present moment. The couple shared afterwards: “My partner and I are having difficulties in our relationship. This workshop has given us the space to sit and just be with each other, to re-connect, and we were able to talk about things. This had a positive influence on our children and family life.”

Bridging generations. Worcester, 2023. Credit: sp(i)eel arts therapies collective

In a workshop for mothers and daughters, mothers embody the support of a bridge, coming together to keep a girl above water. This workshop took place during a time of heavy flooding in the area in which some participants had lost their homes. This role-playing offered a way to express the traumatic experience: “The only way to keep safe is when we all look after each other’s children. We are not alone in this world, and your child is my child,” shared one mother. The embodied work where non-verbal communication is encouraged also supported bonding between mothers and daughters: “Girls don’t open up to parents, this exercise helped us to open up to each other,” said a young participant.

“We are not alone in this world, and your child is my child.”

Women’s circles and cycles. Vlottenburg, 2019. Credit: sp(i)eel arts therapies collective

A group embodies the word “women” in Circles of Support, one of our workshops for women. This workshop explores the female menstrual cycle as its four phases are linked with the four seasons, inviting conversations around menstrual and sexual health, menopause, and mental health and wellbeing. These circles are filled with generational knowledge, beauty, hope, and wisdom. One participant expressed her joy: “My experience was that I can be comfortable with myself as a woman. And I can express my feelings and accept my body. To be a woman is great!

Winter Winter

Embracing the Wisdom of the Elderly

Offering stories to the next generation. Cederberg, 2022. Credit: sp(i)eel arts therapies collective

A whole community, including the elderly, adults, youth, and children, are enchanted by a storytelling circle. We witnessed a beautiful moment where the children sat and listened to the stories of the elderly, and asked them questions about the history of their community. Such events where the stories of the elderly are centralized, offer a means to narrate collective and cultural history to the next generation.

Glimmer Maps. Cederberg, 2022. Credit: sp(i)eel arts therapies collective

Elderly men create their own Glimmer Maps to identify their “glimmers”: small moments when we are in a place of connection or regulation, which cues our nervous system to feel safe or calm – the opposite of triggers. They are made by tracing a hand on paper, followed by a symbol of nature representing the Self drawn into the palm. Each finger represents a glimmer with prompts from nature, for example: air for breath, fire for warmth, love, comfort and rest, water for movement, and earth for grounding. Finally, we connect the glimmers to our community, and include the name of a person who makes us feel safe.

Concluding Concluding

One Cycle, Inspiring Another

A core element of the Families and Collective Futures programme is the creative methodology. One participant reflected that the manner in which we engaged with them has helped people to come out of their shell, as “ons mense neem nie maklik deel nie” (“our people do not engage easily”). To help ease our participants out of these shells, we understand several contributing factors help create a sacred and safe space where mental health and wellbeing can be addressed:

A scaffolded approach to introduce arts-based work;

The invitation to engage in any way that feels comfortable;

The knowledge that attendance is voluntary; and

The modeling of respect, tolerance, and kindness.

The above learnings speak to a healing-centered approach to trauma and essentially it is a message of hope. When we work within the ecosystem in a culturally-informed way, it creates space for innate and indigenous knowledge to be heard and received. As a result, when we understand that healing is available to everyone and happens in relation to each other, we can create circles of psychosocial support that are resilient enough to affect social change.

When we understand that healing is available to everyone and happens in relation to each other, we can create circles of psychosocial support that are resilient enough to affect social change.

Glimmers of girlhood: Families and Collective Futures are in our hands. Ganyesa, 2022. Credit: sp(i)eel arts therapies collective

We conclude this photo essay with a reflection of a participant on the theme of seasons and the image of a Glimmer Map, made by a young girl. “Every season produces something for the other season so that, in the end, nature can provide for us. Everything is a circle. And we are all part of the cycle.”

About The Author About The Author

Meet Marlize Swanepoel

Marlize Swanepoel is a Dramatherapist and the founding director of sp(i)eel arts therapies collective, an NPO that addresses intergenerational trauma and co-create community-based models of mental health care that are culturally informed and relevant to the South African context. She serves on the Secretariat of the South African National Arts Therapies Association (SANATA) and is a guest lecturer at the University of Cape Town. She is an enthusiastic advocate for the Arts for Health movement in South Africa that speaks to healthcare from a global South perspective. She loves being in spaces of learning, unlearning and dancing.

Eradicating Violence against Women in the Gaming Industry: Insights from the Dialogue “Violence is Not a Game” Eradicating Violence against Women in the Gaming Industry: Insights from the Dialogue “Violence is Not a Game”

Guest Post by

Fernanda Martínez

In an increasingly digitized world, video games have become an integral part of modern life, attracting millions of people of all ages and genders. However, this growing popularity has not been without issues, especially when it comes to violence and harassment targeting women in the gaming industry. To address this concerning topic, the “Violence is Not a Game” dialogue was held, organized by Movistar and L’Oréal Groupe. This event brought together experts, players, and advocates for women’s rights to reflect on how to eradicate gender-based violence in this virtual space.

Speakers at the event included prominent figures in the gaming and advocacy fields, such as Olimpia Coral, a Mexican activist; Mariana Baños, the Founder of Fundación Origen; Kalipso, a competitive gaming host and content creator in eSports; and Jennifer Romero, the Creative Director of Twitch and an ambassador for Women in Games.

With a global audience of 3.1 billion players, the gaming industry is a diverse landscape that mirrors the composition of today’s society. Surprisingly, 46% of players are women, underscoring the significant presence of women in this field. In the context of Mexico, a country with a vibrant gaming culture, 55.8 million individuals enjoy video games, with a 41% female participation rate. These statistics highlight the importance of addressing gender-related issues within the gamer community.

In digital environments, violence and harassment can take various forms, all of which are detrimental to the gaming experience and the wellbeing of women. Some of these manifestations include:

Insults and offensive language: Comments reflecting racism, sexism, homophobia, or other forms of discrimination.

Sexual harassment: Unwanted messages of a sexual nature, inappropriate propositions, or explicit images.

Discrimination and hatred: Treating female players negatively based on their gender, race, sexual orientation, or other personal traits.

Cyberbullying: Repeated and intentional harassment aimed at intimidating or defaming female players.

Griefing: Deliberately sabotaging the gaming experience of others.

Doxxing: Revealing personal information without consent.

Harassment: Directing abusive comments via voice chat or monitoring the activities of female players negatively.

Censorship: Limiting equal participation of female players on platforms.

The “Violence is Not a Game” dialogue emphasized the need for individuals to identify these behaviors and take measures to protect themselves and their community. Awareness and education are crucial to transforming digital spaces into safe and respectful environments for everyone.

It is essential for everyone to be aware of their rights as gamers to promote an inclusive and respectful environment in the gaming world. As this industry continues to captivate audiences of all ages, it becomes even more important to foster positive, conscious, and responsible digital experiences that benefit society. The creation of a safe, inclusive, and sustainable digital world is vital to ensure the wellbeing and mental health of all involved, contributing to a more empathetic and connected society.

The gaming world generates opportunities to connect people and bring them together in an environment that should be safe and guided by positive values. When diverse experiences and perspectives are brought to the table, everything becomes enriched. Dialogues like the one led by Movistar and L’Oréal Groupe, who are working on the issue through their initiatives #mynamemygame and #bravetogether respectively, are a clear example of how collaboration and the exchange of ideas can lead to the creation of a more inclusive, diverse, and respectful digital world.

A “Pénc” for African Wellbeing: Convening social change actors at a critical moment A “Pénc” for African Wellbeing: Convening social change actors at a critical moment

Guest post by

Elena Bonometti, CEO of Tostan

African, community-centered, collaborative models are showing a way forward that is organized around locally driven and globally supported efforts. Locally-led initiatives, capacity development for communities and agency-first programs are mapping ways to both address unequal and antiquated power dynamics, and ensure that communities are centered and leading as they face shared global challenges.

Yet even with promising directions like these, the realities of rapid, multiple global crises and growing challenges have also created a largely unaddressed and growing risk: those at the center of social change and wellbeing efforts are being stretched increasingly thin. In particular, there is a growing risk that the wellbeing of the social sector and community leaders is declining when the world needs it the most.

Wellbeing can be defined in numerous ways. In Tostan’s work in partnership with communities, it is communities that define what wellbeing means for them and their goals. Commonly we see themes around health, finance, education, women’s leadership, equality, and governance emerging. These are lessons we must take into professional, personal and community-wide projects to consider wellbeing not as a “nice to have” but as absolutely essential to social cohesion.

The potential challenge of a decline in wellbeing is especially relevant in West Africa, where a social sector already confronted in recent decades by major issues — in health, education, economic hardship and many others — now faces many new challenges simultaneously – as climate change joins pandemics, challenges to peace and security and the erosion of democracy, and increasing inequality.

Yet West Africa also has many positive aspects and major contributions to make to our world – ways of seeing and being that promote inclusion and respect and increasingly feel relevant to a fragmented world. As my colleague Carina Ndiaye, Chief Partnerships Officer for Tostan puts it:

In Senegal we call it Teraanga. For openness, sharing. It means: we invite you to come in. But this cultural norm is present throughout the region and throughout the continent…Through Teraanga, the concept behind the Hindi word Namaste (meaning: the light in me sees the light in you), is extended and reinforced to say, what is mine is yours. Not only materialistically, but the earth, the sun, the sea, and the unseen as well. From visitor to member. From transitory to influenced. In our culture, the ‘you’ never stands alone. What affects you, what ails you, what reinforces you also affects me and my community. And community means any, and everyone, who walks our way and crosses our path.

In Senegal and across West Africa, when challenges arise, a community gathering – referred to as a pénc in Wolof – is called to bring together the community for discussion.

For all these reasons Tostan and our partners will host an African-based, African-led, globally connected pénc – a convening at the intersection of wellbeing as a global goal–and growth of wellbeing as a daily practice in our organizations, communities, and personal lives. To support the emergence of sustained impacts in wellbeing through practices of wellbeing. wellbeing within ourselves, our organizations, our communities, our nations, and around our world.

Together with partners like you we hope to convene a discussion among African actors about critical local, regional and global issues at the heart of wellbeing across the continent.