For Those Seeking Change: Warriors Without Weapons


My name is Saara. I am an artist, yoga teacher, youth project coordinator and community organiser. I have always had a deep drive to help create a more just world which thrives on abundance, cooperation, sustainability, equality, and love.

I’m at a point where I’m ready to step up my work and learn new skills to make more impact.

I’ve been selected as one of 60 young people from around the world to take part in this years addition of Warriors Without Weapons (Guerreiros Sem Armas) - http://institutoelos.org/gsa/en/ 


Warriors Without Weapons is a programme for people seeking change, and who want to be an active part of it. It is an international leadership and social entrepreneurship training programme offered to youth to provide the tools needed to transform realities anywhere in the world. We will learn a rich toolkit of skills, to then feed back into our communities at home.

I need to fundraise to get myself there, and I need to raise 3k by July. This part of the process is called the Abundance Game, the idea being that we learn how to mobilise resources to create tangible action, and that we realise abundance in all areas, including finances.


What is Warriors Without Weapons?

Warriors Without Weapons is an experiential learning program where me and the other participants will be immersed in the daily lives of a local community - for example a slum or a marginalised neighbourhood. This year we’ll be going to Santos in Sao Paulo.

This youth program  combines indigenous ways of knowing, a unique methodology for rethinking community engagement, transformative group processes and a hands-on construction project. We will be working hand-in-hand with the community to plan, design and build something tangible like a park, cultural center, arts space or a  playground.

The methodology is based on the belief that every community is hugely rich with resources. It believes that when we recognise these resources it can help communities to be self-reliant - sustained on their own skills and genius.  Through sharing stories of the community’s history and exploring the collective gifts of each individual, people begin to reimagine what’s possible, starting with what they already have.

The Warriors




This programme is looking for people who are passionate about working on the grassroots level to create real, sustained transformation that is sensitive to the needs of the community it is working in.


Warriors Without Weapons asks us:

Are your dreams bigger than you are?
Is your heart committed to the cause?
Do you have the courage to take action?


My work is in fusing social and environmental justice with the arts and with healing. Some of the current projects I run are:

*Creating and leading community yoga classes in housing estates and refugee centres in South London

*Co-running the Healing Justice Collective which holds sessions and workshops around holisitc health and healing for young people 

*Co-managing an EU funded international self-development programme for youth geared towards self and community transformation 

On this journey I will learn how to be the best version of myself and will cultivate essential skills to bring back to the communities I work with in the UK and abroad. I will  learn how to work on a deeper level, on a bigger scale, and create valuable networks with similar people around the world.


The dream

The main reasons I want to be a participant on this programme and learn these skills are so that I can equip myself to realise our dreams in community organising fusing arts, social and environmental justice, healing and spirituality. With the knowledge I will learn, I aim to:

*To create a movement and arts collective which works with marginalised communities in accessing healing, inner power and self-transformation
*Learn practical skills in fundraising, project development and management, and how to collaborate with a large cross-section of people to create action
*Understand  how to plan, design and build something tangible in the community, like a community centre or an arts space
*To deepen my knowledge on how to really bring people together to make collective dreams come true

How can you help

A part of the program is that we have to creatively fund ourselves - it is a cooperative resource mobilisation process.  To get to Brazil and to participate on the course, I need to raise £3000.


In addition to this crowdfunder, I’m selling some prints of my artwork, and organising a community event in the park. The event will be a mixture of yoga, a capoeira roda, musical instruments, arts and food!


All the money raised will go directly to the programme itself and my flights to Brazil.


I’m asking you to help me to get there. Any donation, big or small, will be invaluable in helping me to get to Brazil and participate on this transformational programme. Your money will lead to the upskilling of communities across the world, and the growth of creative networks of people around the globe enacting change in their communities. Everything I learn will go directly back into the projects I am running already, as well as those I dream of creating. On completion of the course, I am also going to run workshops to skill-share what I have learnt, so that we can up-skill ourselves and share knowledge systems and experiences.


This program will be a vital step in helping us to reimagine what is possible,  realise the rich resources we have, and how we can work together to transform the world.


I believe with every cell of my body that we have the power to shift things on the ground, we are the leaders and geniuses we have been waiting for, and we are the ones to do it. We are all warriors and we can create the world that we dream of. Love and Peace, Thank you! Vamos!!!