Letters from the Field

September 25, 2003

Dear Friends,

Sayubono! Special greetings to you from South Africa where we are enjoying a short rest at Pilanesberg National Park before the next part of the journey. It is a joy to see the peaceable kingdom of lions, cheetahs, elephants, giraffes, zebras, rhinos and wildebeast all running free, while we humans are the caged ones in our safari vehicles.

The workshops here in Johannesburg have been going very well with some fine collaborations developing for Capacitar with such major institutions as the Cancer Association of South Africa and the AIDS Office of the Southern African Bishops Conference (SACBC), among others. There is great interest in what Capacitar offers because of the current situation in South Africa: extremely high crime rate, daily assaults, robberies and hijackings, 40% unemployment, the highest suicide rate for young males in the world, and an estimated 5 million people with HIV/AIDS. All this contributes to a national experience of stress and trauma for this country of 46 million people who have also been traumatized by the years of apartheid.

Since arriving last Wednesday my time has been nonstop with meetings, trainings and several radio programs. Mary Duennes, RN, from Capacitar for Kids in Cincinnati, is with me for the first two weeks in Johannesburg and also for work in Lesotho. Mary worked here in past years teaching a program of Healing Touch, and then started sharing Capacitar practices because of their simplicity and accessibility for grassroots people. Last year I offered trauma healing trainings here for a number of groups who recognized the value of the work, and as a result Capacitar was invited to begin in-depth trainings in 2003-2005. I was also invited for an October tour offering 8 trainings (in 6 regions of South Africa, Botswana and Swaziland) for AIDS Care givers sponsored by SACBC.

This past weekend we started the inaugural cycle of 1-year trainings in Multicultural Wellness Education to form teams of South Africans to carry on the work of Capacitar here. We are committed to walk with the people of Southern Africa empowering them to take on their own process as they develop the program here. The first module of training involved 20 women and 2 men from a wide variety of backgrounds. Sharon Ries, who has worked in development for many years, and Joel Perry, national director of the Educational program for the Cancer Association, have taken on the responsibility for coordinating these first trainings.

The participants are a most interesting group from different parts of South Africa and Botswana. Seven black counselors and 1 Indian social worker come from the Cancer Association and work with families and the dying in 7 regions of the country. Several participants are doing outreach to people and youth with HIV/AIDS. Two Sisters of the Holy Family work with schools and the disabled. A mother and daughter, who came from Gabaronne, Botswana, have a holistic center in the villages for the poor and for youth. One white South African woman heads a training program for 600 employees at a national bank as well as directing an assault de-briefing program for employees affected by bank robberies (One employee she worked with was victim of 15 bank robberies!). One man who was an activist, businessman and engineer and is now suffering from postpolio syndrome, wants to learn some skills so he can reach out to help youth in stress. One woman came from the Valley Trust in Kwazulu/Natal where she works with youth at risk on HIV/AIDS awareness using drama and art. And most touching is Lynne, a white South African mother whose son was brutally shot in the head in a hijack/assault in June. (She synchronistically found out about the training the day before it started.) Lynne is in the process of organizing a national campaign against violence and will use the Capacitar practices to promote nonviolence and healing through her movement. She also plans to use Capacitar with her son's friends who witnessed his brutal murder and who are turning to drugs and alcohol to deal with their grief and trauma.

A wonderful sense of community, respect and celebration developed in this very diverse group of participants—black, colored, Indian and white, poor and affluent, religious and secular— came to recognize their own value and the wisdom in each other. Those who had arrived stressed and exhausted changed noticeably in the healing community after learning practices of self-care as well as the basic practices for use with others. As Capacitar we will walk with this inaugural training group during 2004 as they reach out to serve thousands of people in their professions and communities throughout Southern Africa. We are also planning for 2 or 3 other concurrent cycles of in-depth training in Johannesburg, Capetown and Kwazulu/Natal.

Besides the inaugural training several other grassroots workshops have also been offered to women doing outreach to families and HIV, to persons working with abused women and to the trauma unit of police officers in Johannesburg. We heard that last year alone 238 police were killed. Because of low wages and the politics of law enforcement, the police department is not very effective in dealing with the growing challenge of crime and violence, so people look to private security companies or to their own means of protection. Since our time here last year it is wonderful to hear so many positive comments from people who have used the Capacitar practices to help with the stress of their lives. One friend uses the practices in all her trainings for assault victims and bank personnel. Another friend uses the practices with cancer families. So Capacitar is already recognized as a vehicle of empowerment and healing by many.

Besides setting up the trainings, Sharon and Joel also organized several media opportunities. I have been on the national radio circuit talking about Capacitar in South Africa with several different hosts. One program with SABC was a call-in show addressing Capacitar's response to the current violence, with callers as far away as Capetown and Durban. Another program, "Believe It or Not", on the very popular Radio 702, dealt with the need for spirituality to heal the society as well as the violence of the world. Joel Perry was part of this interview/show and could give his insightful comments on the need for spiritual tools of self-empowerment to heal violence. The third show was with Dr. Dee, a psychologist, who discussed the psychological trauma of South Africa and Capacitar's experiences in other parts of the world.

So as I journey here over the next 5 week, I ask your prayerful support, especially of the grassroots people with whom we work. At all of the workshops we mention that friends of Capacitar are praying for each of the participant groups. And you likewise are joined with us in spirit at our closing ritual circle. Thank you for your continued friendship and support as together we work to heal and transform our world.

Peace and blessings,
Pat Cane