Activities

UNESCO Routes of Enslaved Peoples (formerly Slave Route Project) and the Guerrand-Hermès Foundation collaborate with an aim to develop conceptions, methodologies, approaches and practices of collective healing that can also help address the roots of racism.To this end, on 18-19 October 2018 , we co-organised an international symposium hosted by the Berkley Center at Georgetown University, Washington, D.C. This 1st International Symposium sought to explore the root causes of racial prejudices and discrimination derived from slavery, both past and present.

Following the first Symposium, the Guerrand-Hermès Foundation‘s research team launched a Desk Review to understand and map out methodologies, approaches and practices relevant to healing the wounds of trans-Atlantic Slave Trade and Slavery.

In September 2020, the Guerrand-Hermès Foundation hosted a second International Symposium on Collective Healing of Traumas: New Possibilities for Peace in Communities. 

In Nov 2021, the Guerrand-Hermès Foundation, UNESCO and the University of Wales Trinity Saint David co-established the Global Humanity for Peace Institute (the Institute). Since then, the Institute has been leading and carrying forward the strategic plans at the core of the UNESCO Healing-Justice-Well-Being Initiative. 

In 2022-2024, the Fetzer Institute provided a grant to support research and activities aimed at understanding and healing the spiritual harm of transatlantic slavery.

The multisectoral and interdisciplinary collaboration includes a number of steps:

Step One was the above mentioned research to conceptualise, collect, and compare diverse approaches and practices of healing relevant mass traumas. It aims at building a common understanding of meanings and dimensions of healing, and defining methodologies and approaches most relevant and best suitable for the healing processes in the Caribbean, Americas and Africa. The research drew attention to the imperative to distinguish between healing, reconciliation and justice, and to stress linkages among them. 

Step Two was the implementation of intergenerational dialogue & inquiry (IDI) pilots in selected communities on four continents. The pilots offered insight into how best to approach healing, especially healing spiritual harm, given the continued racial injustice and discrimination. They also helped identify the social, economic, and political commitments and conditions necessary for collective healing at local and national levels, and the relationships between healing processes and these commitments and conditions.

Step Three involved bringing together interdisciplinary perspectives on understanding the spiritual harm of dehumanisation. Global thinkers, scholars and researchers gathered on Zoom with a global audience throughout 2023 in a series of seven UNESCO webinars to investigate collective healing experiences in diverse communities and explore policy recommendations for addressing structural malaise. Two further UNESCO Symposiums were held in December 2023 in Oxford, and in January 2024 in Virginia Union University to consider what constitutes spiritual harm, and what pathways are essential for collective healing and communal well-being.

Step Four is the development of a Facilitators Handbook for Collective Healing Circles, on the basis of the research findings that offer a comparative analysis of healing experiences and provide useful recommendations for collective healing circles/workshops/programmes at different levels (grassroots, national, regional, international). The Handbook has been used to guide a series of pilots in different parts of the world.

Step Five is the Capacity Building for community-based facilitators who are interested in hosting Collective Healing Circles with local stakeholders. The Capacity Building will be developed into an online course for global facilitators’ open access. The online programme will allow local facilitators to start their professional development at their own pace. When they are ready, these local facilitators can join the UNESCO Collective Healing Circles Facilitators Capacity-Building, a face-to-face programme for regional participants.

Step Six specifically focuses on nurturing youth changemakers who can play a significant part in the healing-justice-well-being initiative. A questionnaire seeking youth perspectives on how to nurture futures-forming leadership is distributed amongst global youth. Drawing on global youth’s suggestions, UNESCO will provide a future leaders programme. Young leaders will facilitate local processes that can bring forward communities’ voices for participatory policymaking.

These together contribute to an emergent global collective alliance or a global community of human flourishing.