The Collective Healing Circles (CHC) Initiative is a partnership between the UNESCO, the Guerrand-Hermès Foundation, and the Global Humanity for Peace Institute. Working with communities in 16 countries across four continents, the Initiative facilitates spaces for intergenerational remembering, listening, dialogue, and collective healing circles (CHCs).
In Africa, CHC has been running in three countries; Kenya, Cameroon and Nigeria through Creators of Peace International. In Kenya, Bridges of Peace Initiatives (BPI) has been the implementing partner.
The aim of the initiatiave is to promote community-focused, youth-driven healing by addressing crucial issues such as historical brutality, socio-economic challenges, and inequality.
The overarching goals include:
- Breaking the silence on the enduring legacies of slavery, colonialism, genocide, and structural violence
- Confronting socio-economic deprivation, exclusion, and vulnerability
- Challenging gender inequality, social injustice, and structural racism
- Addressing intergenerational trauma and ill-being
- Advancing politics of dignity towards social transformation
The CHC program consists of four modules that mirror the four components of collective healing:
- Exploring our common past and recognizing intergenerational legacies and trauma
- Affirming and restoring human dignity through dialogue and inquiry
- Reconnecting and nurturing intercommunal relationships
- Envisioning and activating our shared future(s)
