Conscious Leadership in Complexity for Women in Namibia

Trauma Transformation in Communities

Report of Visolela Rosa Namises (GEN Africa, Windhoek, Namibia) and Heike Wegener (Schloss Glarisegg, Switzerland), with support of Mena Vieira (PorteLinha, Portugal)

Three workshops, film screening and networking in cooperation with:

• Women Solidarity Namibia

• NGO ChildLine / LifeLine in Windhoek

• Lidar Foundation in Katutura (care for teenage pregnancy and trainings for young mothers)

• employees of the Ministry of Gender Equality, Health and Childcare, Conny Manghono, Petronella / Ames

• Nane-Tangeni Shindondola, Windhoek

• The Dolam, residential child-care home in Katutura

• Project Aio Da Go (Permaculture Farm), founded by Visolela in 2016, Otjozondjupa Region

• Friedrich-Ebert Stiftung, Windhoek

• Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau, Windhoek with Barbara Kirisch

• The Alternative to Violence Project Namibia, with Ben Schernick

• Trauma Healing Network Namibia

• Historical Film Screening ‘Two Women, One History’ from 1989 at Women Solidarity Namibia with the director Marianne Pletscher and main actor Visolela Rosa Namises

Project Description

In our workshops we offer a Conscious Leadership and Trauma Informed Conflict-Resolution- Training which is embracing the complexity and diversity of the people living in Namibia, to facilitate trauma transformation. We work with various family backgrounds, history, intergenerational and gender related trauma.

Embedded in the Global Ecovillage Network (www.ecovillage.org) - which envisions a world

of empowered citizens and communities, designing and implementing pathways to a regenerative future, while building bridges of hope and international solidarity - we offer tools and a deep practice for the realization of this vision.
We keep on observing that we are all born into a pre-traumatized field that greatly influences how we operate in the world. Many of us grew up with families and communities that unconsciously created states of separation and even violence because of their history, and this was seen as the normal way of operating. This is creating a fragmented view of reality that we believe is true or important for us; narratives of being superior or inferior, the role of men and women, how to raise children, boy and girls, etc.

We found that the limiting factor of the success of a project, in families, in relationships or in organizations very often lies in our individual and collective frozen, traumatic structures. Out of fear we stay in an inner state of survival and it gives us a paradox sense of security.

In trauma we have no choice: we either betray ourselves, or we betray the outside world. Most of the times we cannot find a way to communicate with each other in a supportive holistic way, including the complexity we all are living in, which could lead us to more freedom, trust, creativity, joy and understanding.

We speak about an individual level which is radiating into our relationships, family, working field to the more collective, political field of decision making.

Our work creates experiential places and provides tools for transforming traumatic imprints and to integrate the unconscious frozen life-energy. Once this energy is restored, and together with the support of our communities, we can live more of our potential and find the individual and collective responsibility in the world in a more and more connected, loving and present way.

The following are part of our tool-bag:

• Bringing awareness, differentiation, and balance into our four bodies: mental, physical, emotional, energetic

• Somatic listening into the four bodies

• Transparent Dialogue

• Systemic Constellations

• Approaching fields of individual and collective Conflict Resolutions

Our aim is to reach out to women first, as women hold a key social, economical, ecological and cultural structure of our life on earth. Many women in the world cannot reach out due to past or current traumatic imprints, and the role they have in holding the family space, and at the same time they are very receptive for this healing process.
With our work we will raise awareness for the role they have, and we highlight the possible local and global impact this healing perspective brings to change our structures toward peace and balance on a holistic level. And of course as the second step, with the right timing, boys and men are invited naturally to join the project too.

Three 2 day Workshops in November 2019

1

15-16th November: with 15 young mothers from the Lidar Foundation, we listened to the different situations they live in and their crucial event of becoming a mother as a teenager. We brought awareness of the flow of life and its mystical principles and showed the possibility to support each other. We brought exercises of empowerment of the physical, emotional and mental body, also for their voices, which increased the clarity to the impact they could have in their life. We explored important individual and collective possibilities of decision-making of the next empowering steps in their life. Visolela will do the follow up in contact with Lidar with local women.

2

18-19th November: with 10 participants of the Organisation ChildLine / LifeLine Foundation we could go deeper into the wisdom of somatic listening beyond our stories to release frozen energy which is held in unfelt emotions and protective structures from the past, bringing them into a loving presence. We explored the mystical principles of inner leadership, healing, and the potential it has in our private lives as social responsible beings as well as in our professional work as councillors. We created a very deep trans- generational constellation, where the complexity of the missing and wounded roots could be contained and honored. We planned to create more workshops in Summer 2020 directly at their venue to co-create a continuous growing container for this work for their organisation.

3

With 9 Participants with different backgrounds of social work we created the last workshop: employees of the Ministry of Health and Gender, members of the Alternative for Violence Project, co-workers of different NGO’s. It was interesting that the intensity of the workshops was increasing from the first to the third. Two participants returned after the 2nd workshop. We deepened the tool of somatic listening in the different bodies, the power of the systemic approach and how we can explore our individual and collective lives and challenges from this perspective. We felt the empowerment of leading ourselves from inside and practicing to touch the natural place of power again and again and find out the individual and collective pattern and principles of how we step out of it. All workshops were held at Women Solidarity Namibia.

Networking

It really is an honor to work together with Visolela in her home-country, as she is such a key figure. Some highlights: we went to the 50th Anniversary of the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung where there was a shift in leadership and where I could speak to the new leader of the NGO office Namibia / South Africa as well as with the leader of the office in Berlin to introduce GEN and the Pioneers for Peace Project. We also went to the Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau and spoke to the new leader of the office Barbara Kirisch to inform her about our work. Further steps to come for further cooperation.

Another important contact is the Trauma Healing Network Namibia which is offering a training and healing program on a big scale in the whole country. Visolela will attend the next training in the first half of 2020.

We attended the screening of the movie ‘Namibia - Two Women, One Land, One History’, (1989), by Marianne Pletscher, with Visolela as one of the main actors. It was especially moving to see that 30 years later the country is still busy with the same challenges. The audience was a mix of our workshop participants, friends, colleagues and family members of Visolela. The movie ends with a kind of a family constellation with Visolela’s sisters and descendants. Very moving to feel the presence of their ancestors and their painful history of Colonialism and Apartheid. The evening was a gathering of reconnection, honoring and healing.

Next steps for Namibia:

• Further Networking, also on a global scale: i.e. Grandmother gathering Madrid with Visolela, traveling to Portugal together to PorteLinha and Tamera, different places of healing, organizing a workshop with international peace activist there in cooperation with Mena.

• Planning the workshops for summer 2020 in Namibia, deepen the contacts there.

• Focusing more on women in leadership positions, specially in politics, to gain more influence on given unhealthy structures.

• Focusing on the collective healing which connects Germany and Namibia historically, i.e. creating a ritual at the Waterberg in Summer. This has to happen in atonement with a small group of Germans, native-Namibians and German-Namibians.

• Supporting Visolela with an empowerment team to go back to politics, focusing on the next elections 2024.

• Connecting with Hilma Shindondola in Geneva. Hilma works for international organizations (sister of Tangeni, who has very valuable contact to some Government bodies in Namibia).