Not a Goddess, Not a Little Woman: Poetry From Shamim AzadNot a Goddess, Not a Little Woman: Poetry From Shamim Azad

Stories from the Hearth

The Wellbeing Summit Dhaka Artistic Experience With:

Shamim Azad

Poet
🌍 London, England

British-born Bangladeshi poet, Shamim Azad, joined the first regional summit in Bangladesh in March 2024, bringing with her a beautiful poem to inaugurate the Summit, which also took place on International Women’s Day. Her new poem, entitled “Debi nohi… nohi shamanyo meye” (“Not a Goddess.. Not a Little Woman!”) shares a conversation between a mother and her daughter, providing an intergenerational reflection on feminism and gender roles in Bangladesh.

Shamim Azad is one of Bangladesh’s most prolific contemporary bilingual poets. In 2023, she wone the Bangla Academy Literary Award in the poetry category.

Watch the recording below.

EXPLORE THE REGIONAL SUMMITS FURTHEREXPLORE THE REGIONAL SUMMITS FURTHER

Dive Into Stories From Around the World

Discover the Wellbeing Movement in AsiaDiscover the Wellbeing Movement in Asia

Meet, hear stories, and learn from the changemakers championing the wellbeing movement in Asia.

Women’s Wellbeing Will Take Society Forward: Tabassum Amina Women’s Wellbeing Will Take Society Forward: Tabassum Amina

Stories from the Hearth

Interview With:

Tabassum Amina

Assistant Professor and Lead of Mental Health Team, BRAC Institute of
Educational Development
🌍 Dhaka, Bangladesh

In this interview, meet Tabassum Amina, from BRAC Institute of Educational Development at BRAC University. Speaking on International Women’s Day at the first Asian regional wellbeing summit, held in Dhaka, Bangladesh, in March 2024, she shared the importance of caring for women’s wellbeing and nurturing wellbeing in culturally relevant ways.

Watch the interview below.

EXPLORE THE REGIONAL SUMMITS FURTHEREXPLORE THE REGIONAL SUMMITS FURTHER

Dive Into Stories From Around the World

Discover the Wellbeing Movement in AsiaDiscover the Wellbeing Movement in Asia

Meet, hear stories, and learn from the changemakers championing the wellbeing movement in Asia.

Wellbeing Has Ripple Effects: Shammin SultanaWellbeing Has Ripple Effects: Shammin Sultana

Stories from the Hearth

Interview With:

Shammin Sultana

Gender and Development Specialist
🌍 Kathmandu, Nepal

In this interview, meet Shammin Sultana, a gender and development specialist from Nepal, as she explains how her wellbeing has ripple effects to positively impact the entire community, and why wellbeing needs to be an important part of conversations about development. Shammin attended the first Asian regional wellbeing summit, held in Dhaka, Bangladesh, in March 2024, and was excited about the growing conversation on wellbeing.

Watch the interview below.

EXPLORE THE REGIONAL SUMMITS FURTHEREXPLORE THE REGIONAL SUMMITS FURTHER

Dive Into Stories From Around the World

Discover the Wellbeing Movement in AsiaDiscover the Wellbeing Movement in Asia

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

AT THE HEART OF IT – EPISODE 2

Monira Rahman

Hope and Health in Bangladesh

In this episode, we sit down with Monira Rahman, award-winning human rights activist, Ashoka Fellow, and founder of Innovation for Wellbeing Foundation. In Bangladesh, Monira has gained recognition for leading transformative efforts to combat acid violence against women and reform mental health policies. Today, Monira is activating and nurturing a growing network of changemakers in Bangladesh committed to enabling wellbeing for all.

In a special conversation recorded at Bangla Academy in Dhaka, Bangladesh, where Monira hosted the first regional wellbeing summit in Asia, Monira invited us to reflect on emerging paths for wellbeing. Let’s get to the heart of it.

Let's dive right in!Let's dive right in!

LISTEN TO EPISODE 2

Please note this episode contains references to mental illness and violence. Listener discretion is advised.

ResourcesResources

From This Episode

Full episode transcriptFull episode transcript

This transcript has been edited for clarity

  Hi there, before we get started, here’s a quick note from The Wellbeing Project. Today’s episode of At The Heart Of It features some conversations about mental illness and  violence. Listener discretion is advised.  Let’s get into the episode. 

Welcome to At The Heart Of It, a podcast where we explore issues at the heart of our world’s biggest challenges and their solutions. We’re on a journey inward going into ourselves, reflecting on who we are, listening to humanity’s collective story. Our guides are the visionary leaders, activists, scholars, and practitioners who are changing the world and whose own inner journeys of wellbeing inspire their welldoing.

Today’s guest is someone who has dedicated her life to making Bangladesh a safer, healthier, and more inclusive place for everyone. Monira Rahman is an award-winning Bangladeshi human rights activist and Ashoka fellow. For more than 30 years, she has led efforts to transform social behaviours and reform government policies around violence against women and mental health in Bangladesh. 

In a conversation live from the lush green gardens of Bangla academy in Dhaka, where Monira hosted the first regional wellbeing summit in Asia, Monira reflected on her life’s work and how wellbeing has inspired welldoing in her career. Throughout her career, she has been an advocate for caring for oneself and for others and today she’s sharing her story and inviting us all on a journey of wellbeing. Let’s get to the heart of it.  

Madelaine VanDerHeyden (MV): Hi, Monira. Welcome to the podcast. Thank you so much for joining us. 

Monira Rahman (MR): Hi, Madelaine. I’m very happy to join with you.

MV: So, Monira, we are here in Dhaka, Bangladesh. You are an internationally known, award- winning social changemaker. So tell us a little bit about  your work and what you’ve been doing in Bangladesh.  

MR: Well from my childhood, actually, I knew that there are inequality, injustice, and especially for girls and women in this country who are suppressed, oppressed, and their rights are not acknowledged. They’re not respected. And in that way, I started to find out what can be done or what is the solution.

First, it began with myself, to liberate myself from these limitations. But it’s quite unusual for a Bengali girl, a young girl, an adolescent girl of 13, 14, to be going out and doing things on her own. So it was not that welcomed by my family as such, but my mother was always encouraging me  to be educated and to be independent. She was always inspiring me to work for the community, work for the people, serve for the people. So I was involved in many different kind of activities activism for women rights, especially for education for all.

When I was studying in Dhaka University, I was elected vice president of one of the female hall and that was quite rebellious, I should say, because there was military rule and therefore  the students’ movement was suppressed even by the law enforcement agencies. So it was a very difficult time, but we really worked together and we got the democracy back. I did my Master’s in philosophy from Dhaka University and my first job was with Concerned Worldwide as a social worker. I was 24 and in a village where the government has a institution called Vagrant’s Home.

That means, for homeless people living on the street, the police sometimes put them in this institution in the name of rehabilitation. So it was a center accommodating 700 women and girls. And my first day was very, very striking. I saw a girl who had her hands tied behind her back lying on the feeder street looking at the sun on a very hot, humid day. And I just untied her and then it was big issue for the institution authority. 

MV: And why was she tied up? 

MR: Because it was a way of punishing someone. So I was called by the authority, but I answered them that I think any human being would untie her. Why not? So they couldn’t throw me out from the center. Then I found a Jominder building. That means it’s a very old building. It’s an abandoned building. It’s very damaged, no light. And there were hundreds of women there. And the authority said they are all mad, mad people. And Concern Wordlwide told me that I have to work with them. So it was 1992. There were no mental health support services in the country. I didn’t have any mental health background. I didn’t know what to do or how to support them. So I was looking for any model, any organization doing anything about mental health in the country. 

For the first time, I came to know about psychosis, neurosis,  depression, anxiety. So then  I found one organization working with children with intellectual disability. By observing their work, I found some thing quite interesting. I bought some postcards, papers, color pencils, and then I was just sitting in that Jominder building and just seeing how the women respond.

After seven days, some of them came nearer to me.

MV: You  were just sitting there and no one was approaching you? No one was talking to you? 

MR: No. 

MV: They didn’t want to come?

MR: Yeah. And then I found some people were started to fix a particular type of postcard. And I found that maybe that has a connection with them. So I started working on those areas with them. And I really would like to talk about one story that struck me and actually changed my  perception about mental health. 

So this woman called Rokea. She was a teacher of a village from Kishoreganj. Her husband was also a teacher. In 1974, in our country, there was a huge famine. So the relief was coming through the school and the head teacher was stealing the relief goods. Rokea saw that, and Rokea was raising her voice against the headteacher. Headteacher was not happy, and the  headteacher said, “Rokea has become mad. Rokea is mad.” Rokea was trying to prove that she is not mad. Rather, this man is actually corrupted. But no one knew her, and a village woman was not supposed to raise her voice like that in public.

So she was held and tied and she was taken to a psychiatric department. And when she was going there, she thought she will complain to the education minister about the teacher. But when she was under treatment, under medication, she lost her consciousness. And, at one stage, she actually went out of the hospital. No one knew about that. She was on the street for several years. She can’t say how many years, but she was raped there. She had a baby, the baby died, and then she developed this psychiatric illness. At some stage, she was taken to this institution.

When I found her, she had bipolar mood disorder and she had severe mental illness. Then I invited some of the psychiatrists for their assessment, and Rokea started to receive medication and she was responding so well. She told me about her story.

So I knew that she was a teacher and I created a crèche facility in this institution. I appointed her as a crèche facility teacher. She was very happy. Then she said that she would like to see her daughter. So we took a permission from the authorities and took her to that village. But her husband didn’t accept her. They didn’t allow her to see her daughters. Her own family didn’t take her, so she had to come back. She relapsed. Her treatment started again. So my question at that time was, who is responsible for Rokea’s mental health? And why it is happening? Or if someone experienced this sort of mental illness, then how to support them? Because at that time there was only Pabna Mental Hospital and in Bangla, that means “mad peoples jail”. So people were taken there and tied and caged and treatment was only medication and it was very difficult for me to find any solutions locally because there was no other model. 

So I actually created some livelihood options for these girls, these women, who were staying there. And I have seen that when we actually engage them in addition to medication, when we engage them in activities, a purposeful activity, when they create something for them or for others, when they’re actually supporting each other, then that actually helped them a lot to  going back to normal life. 

So, I’m talking about 1992 to 1999. I was responsible for seven centers in Bangladesh. I tried to create a model there that can help them in their rehabilitation. And then my life changed again. In 1997, I met a survivor of an acid attack. I was horrified. I was shocked. I couldn’t understand what happened. 

MV: Can you tell us a little bit about, very briefly, the history of acid violence in Bangladesh? 

MR: Acid is a very corrosive chemical and it can not only destroy the skin. It can go very deep inside the bones and it can create permanent disfigurement. This problem started in late eighties in Bangladesh. The young girls were thrown acid by the young men when they refused a romantic relationship or a marriage proposal. That acid was used by the perpetrator to take revenge. The men did that with an intention that, “if this girl is not mine, she will not be anyone else’s”. And there was no awareness about this acid attack. Even I didn’t know about acid attack.  

MV: Was it very taboo as if someone, if someone had been attacked, they did not want anyone to know? And it was something that the family wanted to keep very hidden and there was no justice? 

MR: And no, yeah, there was more like the women were blamed for this act. Like what did they do? Why did they raise your voice? Why did they say no? So they were ostracized and there was no treatment facility in the country. Therefore, they had severe disfigurement, which was also difficult for them. So it needed a holistic approach. It’s not just treating them medically. When they go back to the village, they are still ostracized by the community. They are not taken back to school. They thought that other people are horrified by seeing them. And then they become completely a burden of the family. And the treatment, the plastic surgery, reconstructive surgery, that takes long time and it’s very expensive. Over the period of many years, the only treatment facility was available in Dhaka, and there were only eight bed capacity for all types of burns for 160 million people.

So you can imagine how difficult it was for them and then, because it’s a criminal offense, they were under threat. So not only they are receiving the expensive treatment – economically, they are suffering because they may have to sell whatever they have and they’re going through the pain and all this surgery – but also they have to face threats, the whole family, because maybe they have filed a case against the perpetrator. 

So there was no organization in Bangladesh to support them and government didn’t have any services for them. There was no law to combat acid violence or providing the adequate  services to the survivor so Dr. John Morrison from the UK and I started trying to find out what we can do. We established Acid Survivors Foundation in 1999. First we concentrated on the medical aspect because it was the immediate need. We had to save life. We had to minimize disability. We had to ensure that they can go back home in a safer way. They needed physiotherapy and other types of treatment protocols to actually get better. But when we started working on the medical intervention, we found that actually this is not just about the physical treatment because every year, we were seeing that some of the survivors ended their lives and at least 12 or 15 survivors were developing severe mental illness. We had to admit them in a specialized hospital for treatment. So, we needed an intervention for their psychological treatment, counseling, and psychosocial treatment. And again, there was no psychological or psychosocial intervention in the country. I told you about 1992, I didn’t find that. Now in 1999, I was still searching for that. In 2005, for the first time, we appointed a clinical psychologist.  

MV: In the Acid Survivors Foundation? 

MR: In Acid Survivors Foundation. We also, by that time, we started in a hospital, a 20-bed hospital, a 40-bed rehabilitation center, and we were bringing experts from the world.

MV: It’s a huge, huge improvement.

MR: It’s a huge, yeah.

MV: Small, small scale compared to 160 million people, but compared to what was initially there. 

MR: Yeah, we actually wanted to create a model. This activism created a National Burn Institute  and they incorporated burn and plastic surgery in the medical education. Earlier there was no plastic surgery courses.

MV: It’s amazing.  

MR: So this movement also resulted in 2000 of having two laws: one for speedy trial of the perpetrator, and one for banning the availability of the acid in the open market. We also created  committees to monitor the implementation of the law and they created the fund for supporting the survivors. But then all of that was happening in the Dhaka city. But when the survivors were going back home, there was no support services in the community. So we partnered with different organizations and connected with them with those organizations to develop their capacity. We developed psychosocial support providers at the community level. And most importantly, we developed many survivors as peer support providers. and psychosocial support providers. So my mission was to bring down these acid attacks. You know, it was rising when we started. It was rising at the rate of 40 percent each year. And it rose to about 500 attacks in 2002. And then we had the law in 2002 and then it was coming down. So by 2012, it came down to 50 attacks per year. 

MV: So you brought it down 90%? 

MR: Yeah. And then by that time we have created this holistic model, that biopsychosocial model. So the legal support, the rehabilitation support, the medical support, all are working together. We started the prevention campaign. The celebrities joined us. The students came forward. There was a huge movement in the country. Media was hugely engaged in this campaign. 

MV: So how did this experience start to get you to think about mental health and wellbeing on a wider scale for everybody, not just for survivors of violence?

MR: So that inspired me to think about what we need to do about mental health. Because we all have mental health but our mental health can be affected any time in any way. And we need support for that. So that time mental health is governed by the 1912 Lunacy Act, which considered these people are lunatic. They’re harmful, they need to be institutionalized or cased. 

MV: Kept away and can’t be a part of society.

MR: Yeah. The people with mental illness, they are ostracized, facing huge stigma around, there’s no treatment facility, no holistic approach, no psychosocial support system, and no prevention work. There’s no counselors in schools for the children. So then I thought, now I need to do something for mental health. By that time I became an Ashoka fellow. As you said, I’m a changemaker. Yes.

MV: You were a changemaker before you became an Ashoka fellow. 

MR: That’s true. That’s true.

MV: They just recognized you for all your hard work. 

MR: They recognized me as a senior Ashoka fellow and this enabled me to visualize what can happen, what can be done in mental health. In  2014, I started this Innovation for Wellbeing Foundation. Because for the wellbeing, we, know that there are people who are suffering from mental illness, but we can prevent that. Maybe we can reduce that number. We can limit that number if we are working on wellbeing. So if people’s wellbeing are good – wellbeing means not only physical wellbeing; it means psychological wellbeing, social wellbeing, spiritual wellbeing, financial wellbeing, emotional wellbeing – then we can say there are resources to tackle their mental health situation in a better way.

So we wanted to focus on wellbeing aspect and mental health aspect. And innovation because there was nothing in the country. So what is the solution for Bangladesh? We cannot just bring something from the Western country.

MV: And you think, and Well being is a Western concept or?

MR: Well, the solutions, most of the services, have been developed in the Western countries, especially for mental health treatment.  So wellbeing, we have a lot of practices, but they were not considered as wellbeing practices. 

MV: So thinking about mental health, that was growing, but then to really bring it together with the concept of financial, physical, spiritual, social, emotional, psychological health as well, as a holistic approach to wellbeing, was not quite the norm or understood or practiced?

MR: Yeah, not understood. Mostly mental health was considered as mental illness. Mental illness is not mental health. Mental health is my potential. Mental health is my ability to work for myself or for others. Ability to manage, cope with my stress. And live a normal life. But when we consider that mental illness, then all this stigma comes.

MV: And it’s the flip side of a positive thing. It’s an illness. So there’s a negative connotation there as well. 

MR: Yeah. And language plays a very important role here. So how we address this people who are suffering from mental illness? Lazy or making up or not real? It is forever? They’re worthless? So all this kind of language is actually – 

MV: Judgment.

MR: Yes, very judgmental, not only very judgmental but there is no hope. There is no possibility. There is no way to come out from this situation. So that scenario has to change. And that is also because of the law. When the law is saying it’s lunatic, then people think the same way.  So first thing was for us, how to change this law.

So Innovation for Wellbeing Foundation created a network called Bangladesh Mental Health Network. And this network started working with different sectors, including people who has experienced mental illness and their family members to change this law. What should be the law? And we drafted an alternative law and finally, in 2018, Bangladesh government passed the Mental Health Act, 2018, which was much more accepting that this is a condition and there are also different types of solutions, but still it was much more medical-model-focused. And in medical model, also we have to consider that whether this is a holistic approach, because it’s not just about giving the medicine, but about whether you’re giving the counseling, whether you are giving follow up services, whether from recovery to rehabilitation to reintegration, whether we are providing these services or not.

And there’s no community-based mental health care support service system in Bangladesh. So our next challenge was how to create that model, how to create a model that will be much more holistic, much more applicable for different types of audiences. One size cannot fit all. Everyone is unique so that was a huge, it’s a huge area. So we tried to focus on three main areas. One is  obviously would like to integrate mental health support within the primary health care support service system. Then, another priority we have is to introduce counseling, at least mental health first aid programs, in schools. By that time in 2015, we got the license for introducing mental health first aid program in Bangladesh.So that actually created a huge change because that increased the mental health literacy. And also helped to reduce the stigma around mental illness. 

So now in 2024, I see quite a quite a change in this field. Actually, we were only one organization who started  working on mental health. And now we have many organizations who are focusing on mental health. We just finished this Regional Wellbeing Summit, which is a kickoff actually to shake us and start a conversation. What is the wellbeing solution for us?  What does our country actually need to focus on? How can we support each other? I’m very happy that we had this summit.

This is very special because now we have many actors in mental health field who are active and engaged, to collaborate, to work together, to make a network, a platform for this wellbeing movement in  Bangladesh. So we created that network through this wellbeing summit.  

MV: So, The Wellbeing Summit Dhaka: it was the first Regional Wellbeing Summit in Asia.  Congratulations for that achievement. The theme was Prajano…

MR: Projonmo theke Projonme: Generation to Generation.

MV: And you were at Bangla Academy, a very important place for Bangladesh, a place to celebrate the Bangla language. You had the people there from all areas of work, the youth to the elders. Tell us a little bit about how the event connected with the land, language, and life.  

MR: You know this summit talked about why individual wellbeing is important and why it is important for collective wellbeing as well. We talked about how social resources around us are actually supporting our wellbeing. We talked about social and emotional learning. In Bangladesh, in a hierarchical society, is a very, male dominant society. It’s very difficult to deal with your emotion, to express your emotion in a healthy way so women are suffering silence. And men also suffer because in a way they are socialized so that they cannot also express their vulnerability. So what we try to give them a safe space here and have that conversation, what are the barriers and what are the opportunities, what is available actually, and what will be in our future wellbeing agenda for the country. We don’t have even a wellbeing strategy in Bangladesh. We have national mental health strategy. We have a national mental health policy. That’s good, but that is again talking about more what to do after we are suffering. So I think this wellbeing summit is very unique in a way that created an opportunity for us, especially for changemakers, to be together, share their experiences and learn from each other. And also the therapeutic interventions, these art interventions, we have seen that how these artists, the painters, the singers, all the other artists, how they actually engage these people.

MV: It reminds me of, you said the first thing you did with your work as a social worker is you brought the postcards and the coloring and the paper, and that was one of the first ways you were able to engage with people. 

MR: Yeah, and I believe that because I have seen that with the survivors of acid attack, I have seen that with the homeless people, the sex workers, and, many other marginalized communities that we work with. Visualization is very important.

Then sustainability: this is the challenge for Bangladesh. We are from Delta and we have very fertile land, but also it’s very prone to disaster. And therefore, it’s very important that we connect this land, the fertility, with wellbeing. Wellbeing always give that fruitation that brings something meaningful into our life. And then also with disaster: we have resilience. We build our resilience. Life has adversity. It will continue like this, but the resilience that we are creating and the way we are supporting the whole nation is supporting each other. That’s the model: how to help themselves and in their daily lives. How to create a safe space. How to live without fear. Fear is a big issue limiting us. So it’s very important that we can, we can actually win this fear. So all theses tips and tricks and fun and all these things, I think it’s all together. I feel like it’s created a new energy.,

MR: And with new energy, what is coming next? Or what needs to come next? Or what do you see already emerging? What do you see for the future of this? Because when we talk about wellbeing for social change, it’s well being in two ways: a culture of inner wellbeing for change makers, but also in changemaking. So normalizing the concept within social change, which is already there, but maybe just knowing that a bit more concretely. And also within the social change sector so changemakers and organizations have those structures in place to encourage that. What do you think is coming next in Bangladesh? 

MR: Yeah, it’s important to create a model that can be replicated for the whole country. It has to be cost effective. It can be done with whatever existing resources available. And it is received by the people. What is their aspiration about the next step? It’s important to continue this conversation. Maybe we will start small as like I said, like Acid Survivors Foundation started with a small thing, but that created, as I told you, the National Institute for Burn and Plastic Surgery. And now we have changed the law for mental health from the Lunacy Act. Now we have the National Mental Health Policy, the strategy paper. And obviously one size doesn’t fit everyone, but it has to be from within our local cultural context, the social structure, and the human resources that we have. And I believe that everyone has that capacity, the resources, the ability. We just need to create that opportunity for them. And if we are able to educate and train people, they will be a great resource for the community. And that might be the solution for Bangladesh. 

MV: Monira, you have told us about your work, you have told us about your career, about the amazing things you’ve done, the changes that have been taking place in Bangladesh, you’ve told us about your impressions from the Wellbeing Summit Dhaka… and my last question: You’ve mentioned a few things as you were explaining to us about your work and starting from your times in university to your first role as a social worker, then through the Acid Survivors Foundation, now with Innovation for Wellbeing Foundation. Under all of that, at the heart of your work as a social changemaker, what is your motivation, your inspiration, your dream? Your message to the world? What is there?  

MR: We all are connected wherever we are and whoever we are and whatever we are doing.  It’s very important that everyone is content and happy and living the fullest of their potentials and also that we work as a community, an aware community. And by collaboration, by working together, by supporting each other, we can actually advance much more. We can progress much more. We can do much more for ourselves as an individual, for our family, for our community, for the planet. So this is my aspiration that we really need to looking at Ecological Belonging and we need to connect to the life and the planet together.

MV: Well, thank you so much, Monira , for speaking with me today live in Bangladesh. It’s been a true pleasure. Donyabhat. I hope I said that correctly. 

MR: Yes. Yes. Yes. Very well. Donyabhat.

MV: And we’ll see you soon. Thank you. 

MR: Thank you. Thank you, Madelaine. 

Thank you for listening to this episode of, At The Heart Of It. For more news, research, and stories about wellbeing and social change, visit wellbeing-project.org. The Wellbeing Project is the world’s leading organization advocating for the wellbeing of changemakers and for wellbeing in changemaking. We believe wellbeing inspires welldoing. Thanks for listening and see you next time.  

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.

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.

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Credit: Fundación Mi Sangre/Alejandro Bonnells

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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.

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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

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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:

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

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 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
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
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
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
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

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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.

Dr. Deepa Narayan

Founder, Author and Public Speaker

Dr. Narayan is the creator and host of What’s a Man? Masculinity in India Podcast. She is also author of the ground-breaking book, Chup: Breaking The Silence About India’s Women and the founder of Chup Circles.She is a TED speaker and her talk focuses on how to support women in leadership.She was the former Senior Adviser at the World Bank in Washington, D.C. and wrote the influential series Voices of the Poor. She has written 17 books and is the recipient of many awards, including being named as one of the 100 most influential global thinkers by Foreign Policy Magazine in the USA and as one of India’s 35 Great Thinkers by India Today. Dr. Narayan spent many years living in village communities in Africa, South and East Asia. This led to her focus on ‘people first.’

Her books include, Voices of the Poor, Measuring Empowerment, Empowerment and Poverty Reduction, Moving out of Poverty.

Deepa Narayan’s website can be found at www.deepanarayan.com

Watch Deepa’s Ted talk in English

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