Project Huruma
Donation protected
Project Huruma is a humanitarian effort organized by Lorraine Hobbs, Randolph Oudemans, Yaffa Maritz, Autumn Totton, and Lillian Muthui to respond to the needs of 300 Mt. Elgon women and children in Kenya, following a brutal attack by neighboring insurgents in March 2018. We intend to offer Mindful Self-Compassion (MSC) training for the mothers, Making Friends With Yourself: A Mindful Self-Compassion Program for Teens, and A Friend in Me, a program designed to cultivate resilience and empathy in children. Self-compassion has been shown to support recovery from emotional dysregulation and reduce anxiety, depression, as well as PTSD symptom severity.
We need your help in order to send a team of highly-skilled Mindful Self-Compassion teachers to Western Kenya this October (less than 2 months away!). They will be delivering a 4-day retreat to guide and support these families as they begin to turn toward their grief and suffering. Over the course of their few days together, they will learn the essential principles and practices of self-compassion and start developing the skills they so desperately need to recover from the tragic and traumatic events that they have been forced to endure.
"When you heal yourself, you heal up and down the bloodline." - author unknown
BACKGROUND
In March of 2018, in the early morning hours, insurgents from surrounding areas infiltrated the residents of a Kenyan village and committed heinous crimes – husbands and fathers were murdered, some beheaded; women and daughters were sexually violated. These offenses and attacks were provoked by greed and long term political disputes over land rights. In an effort to shield themselves from further violence, 300 women and their children sought refuge in the forest under the protection of local police, only to be further victimized by the very guards meant to protect them. After several weeks, mothers returned to their homes psychologically strained and depleted of the resources needed to care for their children. This politically motivated brutality left a village weakened and disgraced.
A self-appointed advocate and champion for these women, recounts how the traumatic events in March unfolded and impacted the stability and welfare of an entire community.
“These rebels perpetrated outrageous acts of violence against these women and their families. They feel so helpless and have so much pain and anger; they cannot find peace. This anger is causing them to react in painful and even harmful ways toward their children. I believe self-compassion can help them find forgiveness; it can give them a calmness that will help to soothe their pain and their grief. These mothers and their children deserve to be free of suffering. ”
These are the words of Lilian Muthui, who after attending a 5-day Mindful Self-Compassion (MSC) intensive in Nairobi and experiencing the deep and transformative quality of self-compassion, found herself reflecting on the potential of self-compassion training as a healing intervention for these women and girls caught in the crossfire of tribal conflicts. As an Eldoret-based psychologist and counselor herself, she is committed to helping restore a sense of peace to the community and is a driving force behind launching this initiative in the region. She is working in collaboration with Lorraine Hobbs, the Director of Youth and Family Programs at the University of California - San Diego’s Center for Mindfulness, and a pioneer in adapting self-compassion training for all ages.
Project Huruma has emerged with a vision to support caregivers and survivors of trauma around the world, starting with the Mt. Elgon community. The project is bolstered by the research demonstrating that self-compassion has the potential to mitigate symptoms of PTSD. Higher levels of self-compassion have been shown to predict lower levels of PTSD symptoms in Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans (Hiraoka et al., 2015) and adolescents evacuated from a large forest fire (Zeller et al., 2014).
PROPOSED PROGRAM AND REQUEST FOR SUPPORT
Healing from traumatic events can take time. These 300 Kenyan women are eager to receive mindful self-compassion training for themselves and for their children, but it is still not safe to deliver this in their home area due to ongoing political instability. We are therefore proposing to bring together a group of 30 women and 20 children/teens for a 4-day residential training offsite (in the neighboring county of Bungoma), where the group will be guided and tended to by a group of 5 international mindful self-compassion teachers and mental health professionals.
Project Huruma is a donation-based organization, with all contributors, teachers, and organizers generously volunteering and donating their time and services. We are looking to raise funding or find partners to support us in providing the lodging, meals, and transportation for all participants and staff for the first delivery of services. We have received quotes and have estimated the costs as follows:
BUDGET:
6,000 - Accommodation and meals for 30 women + 20 teens and staff
500 - Group Transportation to/from Mt. Elgon to Bungoma
8,000 - Four international round-trip flights for the teachers
1,000 - Ground transportation, and hotels between connecting flights
1,000 - Additional coordination costs for local leaders.
-----------
16,500 USD
Given our shared values, we would like to ask if you would be willing to make a donation of any size towards this training, which is scheduled to take place October 28 – November 6th, 2019 (very soon!). We would be so grateful for any support in offering these programs to help mothers and children improve the quality of life following the atrocities they have endured.
We need your help in order to send a team of highly-skilled Mindful Self-Compassion teachers to Western Kenya this October (less than 2 months away!). They will be delivering a 4-day retreat to guide and support these families as they begin to turn toward their grief and suffering. Over the course of their few days together, they will learn the essential principles and practices of self-compassion and start developing the skills they so desperately need to recover from the tragic and traumatic events that they have been forced to endure.
"When you heal yourself, you heal up and down the bloodline." - author unknown
BACKGROUND
In March of 2018, in the early morning hours, insurgents from surrounding areas infiltrated the residents of a Kenyan village and committed heinous crimes – husbands and fathers were murdered, some beheaded; women and daughters were sexually violated. These offenses and attacks were provoked by greed and long term political disputes over land rights. In an effort to shield themselves from further violence, 300 women and their children sought refuge in the forest under the protection of local police, only to be further victimized by the very guards meant to protect them. After several weeks, mothers returned to their homes psychologically strained and depleted of the resources needed to care for their children. This politically motivated brutality left a village weakened and disgraced.
A self-appointed advocate and champion for these women, recounts how the traumatic events in March unfolded and impacted the stability and welfare of an entire community.“These rebels perpetrated outrageous acts of violence against these women and their families. They feel so helpless and have so much pain and anger; they cannot find peace. This anger is causing them to react in painful and even harmful ways toward their children. I believe self-compassion can help them find forgiveness; it can give them a calmness that will help to soothe their pain and their grief. These mothers and their children deserve to be free of suffering. ”
These are the words of Lilian Muthui, who after attending a 5-day Mindful Self-Compassion (MSC) intensive in Nairobi and experiencing the deep and transformative quality of self-compassion, found herself reflecting on the potential of self-compassion training as a healing intervention for these women and girls caught in the crossfire of tribal conflicts. As an Eldoret-based psychologist and counselor herself, she is committed to helping restore a sense of peace to the community and is a driving force behind launching this initiative in the region. She is working in collaboration with Lorraine Hobbs, the Director of Youth and Family Programs at the University of California - San Diego’s Center for Mindfulness, and a pioneer in adapting self-compassion training for all ages.
Project Huruma has emerged with a vision to support caregivers and survivors of trauma around the world, starting with the Mt. Elgon community. The project is bolstered by the research demonstrating that self-compassion has the potential to mitigate symptoms of PTSD. Higher levels of self-compassion have been shown to predict lower levels of PTSD symptoms in Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans (Hiraoka et al., 2015) and adolescents evacuated from a large forest fire (Zeller et al., 2014).
PROPOSED PROGRAM AND REQUEST FOR SUPPORT
Healing from traumatic events can take time. These 300 Kenyan women are eager to receive mindful self-compassion training for themselves and for their children, but it is still not safe to deliver this in their home area due to ongoing political instability. We are therefore proposing to bring together a group of 30 women and 20 children/teens for a 4-day residential training offsite (in the neighboring county of Bungoma), where the group will be guided and tended to by a group of 5 international mindful self-compassion teachers and mental health professionals.
Project Huruma is a donation-based organization, with all contributors, teachers, and organizers generously volunteering and donating their time and services. We are looking to raise funding or find partners to support us in providing the lodging, meals, and transportation for all participants and staff for the first delivery of services. We have received quotes and have estimated the costs as follows:
BUDGET:
6,000 - Accommodation and meals for 30 women + 20 teens and staff
500 - Group Transportation to/from Mt. Elgon to Bungoma
8,000 - Four international round-trip flights for the teachers
1,000 - Ground transportation, and hotels between connecting flights
1,000 - Additional coordination costs for local leaders.
-----------
16,500 USD
Given our shared values, we would like to ask if you would be willing to make a donation of any size towards this training, which is scheduled to take place October 28 – November 6th, 2019 (very soon!). We would be so grateful for any support in offering these programs to help mothers and children improve the quality of life following the atrocities they have endured.
Organizer
Project Huruma
Organizer
