Report of the SOHA Foundation - Guidance for Life on Earth
8.11. bis 2.12.2020 in Namibia / Khomas Region
With Visolela Rosa Namises from Namibia and Heike Wegener from Switzerland
After forming the SOHA-Foundation in August 2020 we where waiting for the „right moment“ in the COVID crisis to continue our work which started with the Pioneers For Peace Project in Namibia in May 2019. This was the third stay of Heike Wegener based in Switzerland working very closely with Visolela Rosa Namises from Windhoek who is the founder of WSN Women’s Solidarity Namibia, founder of SOHA and a well know peace activist in her country.
The goal of our work is ethical embedded in the vision and mission of GEN (Global Eco-Village Network) especially to address trauma-informed leadership training for people who are in key positions of their society to bring change towards a sustainable culture of our humanity on earth.
Due the Corona restrictions we formed small groups of 4 to 15 participants and offered different kind of Workshops and Activities to inform, to create healing-inspirational spaces and a supportive Network of a healthy human empowerment.
The work of Visolela and Heike is also an exchange of knowledge which inspires both sides in their ongoing profession as integral coaches, healers and leaders for individual and collective healing spaces. It’s a win-win learning of all people involved. Mena supported us through creating the flyers for the different events from her home country which was very helpful. Anna was supporting us financially and made the project possible. Thank you so much for all this needed support!
In this time also started a 6 month Scholarship Program for Collective Healing of the Collective Traumatic Imprint of Colonialism in Africa and Europe where Visolela and Heike are part of the Pocket Project which was a beautiful synchronicity for the deepening of our network.
Dialog about Gender Based Violence at NBC - Radio-Station / Windhoek
As Visolela speaks every Monday in the Namibian Radio in her mother tongue Damara about different subject on the 9th of November Visolela and Heike had a dialog about Gender Based Violence and the source of violence general and in the country at NBC (Namibia Broadcasting Cooperation). We talked about how violence starts inside of us, how it appears in our society as collective symptoms of painful relational pattern and how to accept and transform the pain into compassion, empowerment and ethical action. The show has an average of 3000 listeners.
Guidance for Life on Earth I
Conscious Leadership - Principles of Healing - Trauma Integration
15-16.11. A two day workshop for individuals at the WSN with 6 women, 2 men
As the participants were all activists for local peace organizations, working in different areas. We shared about where we come from, what is in flow in our life and where we feel stuck, pain or resistance at this moment. The themes in the filed we collected was on one side a strong subtle connection with the own soul-power, at the same time a feeling of distrust, tiredness and anger. Also it was spoken out how it feels to be with a white German women, at the same time we could feel a rising awareness of how the group was carrying our spoken words in a very authentic, warm way. We spoke about our longing to restore and heal the past and about our ways to deal with it. How did our ancestors deal with violence? The genocide of the Herero people caused by the Germans in 1908 was shared and held in compassion. We explored „From Where Do We Speak?“. Do we speak from our wounds, or from our protective structures or from our soul? We tuned into this three powers who are consciously and/or unconsciously guiding us. We practiced to dialog in a somatic way; distinguishing our different bodies (mental, physical, emotional, energetic). This was a very deep group process, where we all could touch and share some of our individual and collective structures and feeling the underlaying wounds, as well as reconnecting ourselves with something bigger which we felt is alway talking to us and guiding us through our life-process in a transformative way.
We witnessed a imbalance of male and female power / Yin and Yang in our bodies and in our lives. We "brought the child back to the fire“ as a Damara saying says to restore our energies, to balance, allow our hidden emotions to be touched, recognize the power of our basic emotions: sadness, anger, fear and joy. We allow them to flow in a present, loving space. It was as if we could touch more clarity.
We shared about how the Colonial Time and the Capitalism brought it’s disintegration of what is really essential in life: Our human rights…and how the Namibian culture is showing the symptoms of it’s fragmentation: corruption in politics, (domestic) violence, unemployment, poverty. „Money comes before anything else“ and "We are so limited by not being resourced by money in Africa“. We are willing to create more projects to change the current global structure towards a sustainable interconnected system of diversity and intelligence.
Guidance for Life on Earth II
Conscious Leadership - Principles of Healing - Trauma Integration
17.-18.11. A two day workshop for individuals and workers of the Ministery Gender-Equality, Childcare, Health, environment with 10 women
In this divers group in age and life-circumstances we had 4 women who were with us in 2019. We went straight away very deep into the theme what it means to be a women in Namibia this times, working a lot or having no work, taking care for the whole family as a daughter like a mother, staying without a partner, being challenged by having little money, not knowing what to do with ones life without a perspective, feeling the own withdraw, being a young mother yearning for education.
We went through the different bodies again by guiding into a somatic dialog (mental, emotional, physical, energetic), brought awareness there and realized that this is a way to synchronize them. We witnessed how every women in the space were holding tension in their bodies and how connecting, heart warming, nourishing and empowering it is to share from the somatic experience in each moment.
We explored the subtle energy of our soul-landscape and it’s individual language through deep inner listening in a guided meditation and each of us share in the big circle what we found on our guided journey. Through this sharing and witnessing process we all could feel how the group coherence was changing into a field of deeper regulation in it’s individual energies and expressions.
Connecting with our beauty and light, we also came in contact with our wounds, often unspoken, silent, forgotten and at the same time creating „symptoms“ in our life. We gave space to them, allowing them to breathe and to be witnessed too. We also observed the power of our wounds in our life, individual, intergenerational and collectively. We recognized and acknowledged that our individual and collective structures are protecting our wounds. We explored how existential it often feels if we invite ourself let them go in a safe space like ours. There was awareness raised how often this structures are unconscious limiting our life and how freeing it is to get aware of them as a first step to walk into more inner trust, power and inner guidance.
We were ending happily this rich two days with a body work - as a phase of integration for the visible transformation in us and in the field, especially to release and regulate our individual and collective nervous system into a deeper layer of safety and freedom for future decisions.
Guidance for Life on Earth III
Conscious Leadership - Principles of Healing - Trauma Integration
20.-21.11. A two day workshop at the NGO LifeLine / ChildLine in Windhoek with 10 female Volunteers and Employees (Website)
It was very beautiful to be welcomed at the center after offering this kind of Workshop to LifeLine / Childline the third time. It was a feeling of deepening the connection here on organizational level as well as on personal level getting to know deeper some of the employees and volunteers who were with us the other year. Childline / LifeLine is offering a very trustworthy support for many children, adults and families in challenging life situations in whole Namibia, because half of their work is telephone counseling.
It was striking for us to see how the group of young women of the beginning changed to more mature strong and vulnerable individual beings who are able to share who they are at the moment, what their heart desire is and their core challenges in their life. We explored together this often core dilemmas with a growing loving presents in the group to support each other as a team and as friends on the same path. Very touching.
Themes were first the imbalance and the insecurity being a volunteer for many years not knowing when to become an employee among other employees, than crystalizing and standing up for the own heart desire, opening up for listening deeper towards oneself and towards each other and get practical examples of healing principles. The We-Space became increasing stronger during the training. We explored the circle of life as a process and as a deep individual and collective experience. We were practicing self-contact, how it is to give and receive empathy. We trained and explored how we can listen even deeper „between the lines of our words and sentences“. The means f.e. somatic sensations, emotions, old memories of our own biography and our ancestors. It was like a movement of a pendulum, feeling and healing the past, finding more freedom for future movements and staying loving with what is present in each moment. We gave space and interest to our four bodies: physical, mental, emotional, energetic. At the end the women themselves and the group as a field felt much more coherent, strong and flowing for the daily challenges we had have and will have to face. A very beautiful experience for all of us.
March of the Silent Voices / Death March against Gender Based Violence (GBV)
23.11. along the Independence Avenue with 100 people
Start of the 16 days Activities of GBV UN based: https://www.unwomen.org/en/what-we-do/ending-violence-against-women/take-action/16-days-of-activism
Launched by the Ministery of Gender Equality and different NGO’s at Independence Arena, Katutura / Windhoek
WSN, the „Blue Eye“ Movement and their local support groups organized a march in co-operation with the Ministery of Gender Equality, Childcare and Justice with about 150 people. At the Independence Avenue the march ended. The 16 days Activities against GBV was opened by a launch by speakers of different NGO’s, Ministery’s, GBV activists and artists. Also a women spoke about her personal experience of GBV as well as a prisoner who spoke about his crime he did towards a women years ago. Visolela spoke for WSN with the support of (Name) who sang for the pain who was caused through GBV in the last years, praying for a better future for all women and men united in Namibia.
The Vision who all speakers shared was written on a banner of the Ministery of Gender Equality:
A caring and inclusive society where all Namibians enjoy a dignified life.
24.11. Meeting of the regional Support-Groups with 5 women, one men at WSN
This was a Feedback-Space of the launch and the march. An exchange of the plans of activities in the different regions. WSN gifted 250 T-Shirt printed with slogans to remember GBV in the country to motivate locals to keep going working on awareness building for GBV, breaking the silence around it and to transform this „normal“ state of violence toward an attitude of self-worth and a deeper sense of human rights we are all naturally standing for. We spoke about that GBV shows that something in our society is in despair and imbalance what needs attention as well as individual and collective correction for women and men. We cannot leave it like this. It’s to painful. 600 women and children were killed and sexual abused in the last year in Namibia. (right?)
26.11. Gardeners Meeting: For the Healers of our Future with 13 women, 2 men at WSN
This was a one day event with an introduction of GEN and their mission. We spoke about the different aspect of the holistic way how GEN is operating in Africa and on global level. We had a beautiful exchange about the present gardening projects, individual expressions of knowledge by doing and trying new ways of gardening and a gifting of seeds to plant them at home, sponsored by GEN (?). They also started a little garden in the back yard of WSN, which the whole group was participating including some children who came back from school in the afternoon. We had a very joyful and colorful day together, with a touching circle of connection in the sunset sitting, sharing and eating together.
Amanda Moksha Cure for Visolela and Creation of Own Local Healing Oil
9.11 / 15.11. / 20.11. / 25.11. / 27.11. / 30.11.
Ayurvedic Amnanda Moksha Oiling for Visolela from Heike which offers a cleansing of emotional destructive structures, also a regulation of the hormonal system (https://www.amnanda.eu/de/our-services/moksha/).
This six treatments felt like a base of this special project-time. It opened up a deeper understanding what our bodies need to find a healing respond for the questions of this time. Together we could witness a melting in the trust of our own power and needs which was guiding us through this fulfilling time.
Inspired by this treatment we started to explore the creation of own Oil with Namibian traditional herbs with Marula- and Melon-seed Oil as the base which was testet in the last Workshop-Weekend at Visolela’s farm 27th to the 30st close to Ovitoto.
27.-29.11 Celebrating our Existence: Gifting ourself
3 day workshop on Visolela Farm close to Ovitoto with 15 women, 3 youth
For the last official gathering Farm with of a group of women who some of them know each other through the Sisedi Women Forum: sharing, preparing food together, walking and sleeping in nature, going to sacred places, healing rituals outdoor, mutual praying in the village, guided tour through the impressive permaculture garden. An oiling ritual was offered, with own mixed oil and traditional lokal herbals for all participants by Visolela and Heike. It was an initiation on different levels, oiling together entering individual and connected healing spaces, for the women being oiled and supported in their life issues in an ancient forgotten female way, also the becoming healing center of Visolela was blessed for further events and treatments.
Meeting of the Independent Candidates with 3 women, one men
1.12. at WSN - Reflection of the election on the 25th of November
On the 25th of November Namibia had a very special election, where the leading parts SWAPO was loosing many votes on independent candidates, which appears the first time like that. Last year it was the first time who an independent candidate as president was listed who also got many votes but not enough to shift the lead. SWAPO leads the country since the beginning of independence. The reliability and integrity is quested since than and had it’s peak last year with the fish scandal and it’s taxes.
This amazing engaged 4 people were disappointed not winning the election; frustrated by not having the financial background to have a full election competition. It was very touching to see how the energy shifted from the low energy of loss to a higher frequency, of what Thea all gained through their presents, fragmenting the party and a system which calls for restoration, bringing in lokal and national strength and loyalty. We decided to meet again to understand more about the mystical principles of conscious leadership, networking between them and mutual strengthening. A very delightful ending of the project time which opened doors wide for next time following our intention to work more political and structural with our transformational healing work.
There were network-meetings of Heike with
Tangeni, she was the the first workshop organizer 2019 and works now for the government
Ben Scharnick, lokal Coach
Wolfgang Heckert, Osteopath / Healer in Windhoek
Clio, works for common health and art
Ellen, with the idea to become a host of an online Leadership event to come
Theresia, is building up a guesthouse and seminar room where she will organize a next workshop-event 2021
Kerani, Uncle of Prince, cooperation with his NGO planned
We created different Whats app groups for further events
Next steps
Creating an Online space for Conscious Leadership for Namibians and also international
For the next visit 2021:
Create spaces of Learning about conscious Leadership for the Independent Candidates
Deepening the work with the individuals and Childline LifeLine
Visolela is continuing the work in Namibia
further development of the oiling treatments
Holding the aspect of Leadership, healing the past, mystical principals and the political movement in our awareness for our future of the SOHA-Work in Namibia.