Art, Society, and Culture

Adaptation Portfolio

The need for mental health support grows every day in poor, violent communities all over East Africa and the Horn. When people cannot afford therapy, or if they live in places where there is limited access, they need other solutions that work which are culturally grounded. Thus, GSN utilizes art and culture to engage in community mental health prevention.

The Process

When implementing healing-centered programs to new contexts, it is important to adapt the curriculum and design new materials for these contexts so that the new program speaks to the realities, experiences and uniqueness of the people the program is targeting.

This process usually begins with finding the right partner(s) to engage with during the adaptation and development.

In partnership, background research and learning to develop an understanding of the context and the scope of work ahead is undertaken. It ends with the production of physical and digital materials that are used to train and lead healing processes in new contexts.

It involves a number of parties from GSN staff, adaptation and implementation partners, specialists as well as

members or representatives of the target groups, communities or institutions who provide input for the material

adaptation and continuous feedback based on their knowledge and understanding of the targeted groups and work at hand.

About GSN

The Green String Network is a regional organization based in Nairobi, Kenya. We work throughout East Africa and the Horn in Kenya, South Sudan/Sudan, Ethiopia, and Somalia. We are a social movement working with the police and communities to heal social and collective traumas.

We use storytelling, art, and embodied practices to help people articulate the traumas they have been through, and recognize how these experiences shape their behavior.

Then we use these methods to unlock new ways of thinking, behaving, and feeling, so that they can live more full and peaceful lives as individuals and communities. This healing process is the first and fundamental step towards building peace, wellbeing, and prosperity in the long-term.

We fill the gap between peacebuilding, mental health, and development, drawing on evidence of what works in each of these fields to deliver an approach that is unique.

All of this adds up to the process of collective social healing. It is the missing piece that allows us to build the foundations for well-functioning and cohesive institutions, communities, countries. This is what makes peace work.

Various Adaptations

Click on an image below to go to a page with more information on the specific adaptation

Kumekucha Quest: Connections for Healing and Hope

Kenya

English

2021

Arise and Shine

South Sudan/Sudan

Arabic, English and Dinka

2020

Muamko Mpya: Healing the Uniform

National Police Service (NPS), Kenya

English

2019

Yegarachin: It's Ours

Ethiopia

Amharic, English, Nuer, Anwaa

2018

Kumekucha: It's A New Dawn

Kenya

English, Kiswahili

2017

Quraca Nabadda: Tree of Peace

Somalia

Somali, English

2013 - 2016

Dr. Angi Yoder-Maina Winner of the 2021 Guislan Award in the Arts, Society, and Culture Category

Communities are shattered by violence & generations in pain from transgenerational and collective trauma. But mental health experts are not in the low-resourced, conflict-affected communities. Only the local peacebuilders were there holding both the pain and the space. Furthermore, peacebuilders acknowledged communities in pain could not effectively engage in building peace.

Our healing-centered peacebuilding approach uses storytelling, beautiful locally created watercolor paintings, and embodied practices aiding people to articulate the pain they have experienced and recognize how it has shaped their behavior and identity - personally and collectively.

The jurors spoke very high of Dr. Angi's dossier and were impressed with the achieved results. They praised her extraordinary work and her specific view on mental health care, seeing that it is a collective approach that uses storytelling as a tool for sharing and recognizing traumatic experiences.

For more information: https://www.drguislainaward.org/2021-winners

Digital Adaptation

During COVID19 GSN has developed a virtual 12-week program built off of our trauma-informed peer support groups which we were holding physically before COVID-19.

Pre-Covid-19 we held in-person 12-week peer support groups that addressed issues of emotional wellbeing and social and collective healing. But during COVID-19 the physical program has been adapted to be a virtual online support group where GSN can work with partners to begin to intentionally learn to hold space for each other. COVID19 has taught us that community care is vital but that we must be intentional in creating it.

Adaptation Manual

This manual serves as a guide for the partner organizations and people involved in the curriculum and material adaptation process. By using this manual all parties involved can know what is expected of them and others at the different stages of this process and gets everyone on the same page.

The manual helps to facilitate the smooth, efficient, and timely development of materials to be used for various healing-centered processes.

The manual gives an overview of theoretical underpinnings of the social healing work, the step-by-step plan for doing the adaptation, helpful templates and Terms of Reference.