Water
Letting go, and letting come
Grieving and releasing old stories, patterns, and regrets
Earth
Arriving, Grounding, Connecting to ourselves, each other and the land
YOUNG WOMEN ARE MEDICINE
Welcome to our two module immersion into the medicine of women. This is a programme where together we return to the grace, the power and the pride in what it means to be a woman today. Connected to the Women are Medicine retreat, this is a programme to make the most of the gifts and strengths of women in Zimbabwe today. Our core assumption is that women are not a 'problem to be solved', but a gift to be embraced, and so we navigate the territory of the many challenges facing young women today from a place of discovering and recovering the innate strength and capacity that resides in each one - to be able to return more equipped to face those challenges from a place of calm confidence.
Core principles informing the programme are:
-
Gift: Allowing each woman to bring her gift to the collective
-
Ritual: Creating a sacred journey together
-
Emergence: Working with the wisdom of what is emerging in each moment
-
Dance: As a way of opening our self-expression
-
Exploration: Quiet inward exploration and active outward exploration.
The programme is structured around the Four Elements; Earth, Water, Fire and Air.
"A lot of things have happened. When the girls first arrived many of them were shy and not daring to be open to us in the village. But now! It is like their courage shines through them, there is a visible power, even when they talk to the men in the village. After this programme I am relieved. I am full of courage. I am open to hear more stories and to share my own. There must be more programmes like this. Definetely."
Tsitsi Mayakaza, Kufunda Village
Entering through the element of earth: Slowly, slowly we land in this new place, to a journey that is surely something different. To slow breath down, to slow thinking down. And learn once again to listen to that inner voice, and to learn once again to trust ourselves. To speak to the trees. And to each other.
To answer the question: Why am I here? In this programme, but also, more importantly, in this Life.
Fire
Stepping into our power
Claiming our gifts
There is space now for the fire to burn, for my voice to speak, clearer, stronger.
Choosing to step into the power that has always been here. Time to claim it.
Hear us Roar!
Sharing stories of childhood and journey. Realising how many of us have had such tough lives. And yet we have survived. Realising how many battle scars we have. How we have learnt to protect ourselves to survive. Some of those protective shields may no longer serve us.
Supporting each other as we open up, and let go of some of the anger, making space for the grief, to flow through us, and leave us lighter in the end....
Air
Celebrating our journey
Naming our dreams
Spreading our wings
The delight of a journey well travelled. To celebrate. To truly celebrate how far we have come.
And to let the dreams soar.
Naming them and making a commitment to follow them,
as we travel onward.
Into Freedom