Episode Summary:
In this episode, we’re thrilled to be joined by Jessi Wolz and Mercy Owalla who both work with RefuSHE. Today you’ll get to hear more about the organisation, the work that they do, the impact it has and how the practices of yoga have been threaded through.
A word of warning: this episode makes reference to sexual and gender based violence
The RefuSHE Mission Statement
Through their extensive work with refugee communities in East Africa, co-founders Anne Sweeney & Talyn Good saw that the most vulnerable refugees – separated and orphaned girls and young women – often fell through the gaps of protection and became invisible. Understanding the risk of exploitation and abuse facing refugee girls in Kenya and in their home countries, Anne & Talyn wanted to take action. They set out to create a one-of-a-kind community for young, refugee women to learn, grow, and become leaders in their own right.
Over a decade later, RefuSHE has served thousands of women, girls, children, and infants through our holistic model. We are the first and only organization dedicated to refugee girls in Kenya. RefuSHE's programs have grown alongside the young women we serve, ensuring that our organization is for and by them.
Guest Bios:
Mercy Owalla
Mercy Achieng Owalla is a 25-year-old Kenyan. She holds bachelor’s degree in Sociology from Moi University and Higher Diploma in Project Management from Kenya Institute of Management. Mercy has over three years technical experience and expertise in programs in the urban refugee context. She joined RefuSHE early last year as a Case Management and Child Protection officer whereby she has been providing case work and counselling services to asylum seeking children and young adults who have experienced trauma, conflict, and violence. She recently also started teaching hatha and trauma informed yoga to the unaccompanied and separated children at the RefuSHE safehouse after her completion the 200-hour teacher yoga training with Rainbow Light France.
Jessi Wolz
Jessi Wolz completed her 200-hour YTT with Himalaya Yoga Valley in Goa, India and a 40- hour trauma-informed yoga training with Hala Khouri and Kyra Haglund in 2017. Jessi lives in Nairobi, Kenya where she founded and directs a yoga for trauma program for young gender-based violence survivors in Kibera slum. She also teaches trauma-informed yoga to unaccompanied refugee girls at RefuSHE, a non-profit in Nairobi. In 2019 she collaborated with The OMPowerment Project to train girls from both of these groups to become leaders of a trauma-informed yoga practice in their communities, and, in the process, became certified to facilitate OMPowerment trainings. She continues to deepen her education in trauma through the Strategies for Trauma Awareness and Resilience (STAR) program at Eastern Mennonite University and the Harvard Global Mental Health: Trauma and Recovery program.
Thank you for listening to Speak Up Louder brought to you by The OMPowerment Project. Hosted by Sally Balfourth. Special thanks goes to Julia Midland, Izzie Owens and Richard Balfourth. Music was produced by Sofia Papadopoulos with vocals by Ava Riby-Williams.
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