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History
Capacitar is an international network of empowerment and solidarity. We teach simple wellness practices, team building and self-development to awaken people to their own wisdom, strength and resources. From personal healing and transformation people can reach out to their families and communities to heal injustice and create a more peaceful world.
Capacitar began in Nicaragua in 1988 in response to violence and war trauma. While collaborating on a solidarity art project at a popular education center in Managua, the community invited founder Pat Cane to teach them what she practiced herself to heal the stress of daily life. The first workshops shared simple skills in body movement and acupressure to alleviate pain and stress. The people enthusiastically multiplied what they learned with family and community in the spirit of capacitar, a Spanish word meaning to empower, to bring to life. This became the name of the organization.
As news of Capacitar reached other places, union leaders in Guatemala, popular education centers in Chile, and base communities in Peru requested workshops. The first Capacitar manuals were developed in English and in Spanish to make materials available for grassroots leaders. In 1995 a Capacitar team from twelve countries coordinated the Healing Tent in China for the NGO World Forum on Women. Capacitar currently works in countries on 5 continents (North, Central and South America, the Caribbean, Africa, Asia, and Europe) collaborating especially with grassroots groups affected by poverty, violence, trauma and AIDS.
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