topart
Home | About Satyana | Power of Reconciliation | Leading with Spirit | Calendar of Events | Cultivating Women's Spiritual Mastery
Cultivating Women's Spiritual Mastery DVD | Spiritual Principles | Divine Duality Book | Women Healing Women | Poetry | Donate | Contact Us

 

Power of
Reconciliation
North America

 

Gender Reconciliation
Initiative in South Africa

 

book

Click below to buy the book.

 



Power of Reconciliation

The Power of Reconciliation (formerly Gender Reconciliation) program synthesizes wisdom from world's spiritual traditions to foster new dimensions of healing and reconciliation between women and men. Both women and men are afflicted by gender injustice, and each needs the other for a true and complete healing. The process of the Power of Reconciliation builds upon the important advances of the women's and men's movements, yet goes beyond them both in recognizing the gender crisis as a collective spiritual crisis. The premise of this work is that transforming relations between feminine and masculine dimensions of human society is fundamental to creating lasting, positive social change. Developed over the past 17 years by Satyana Institute and its precursors, over 50 events have been organized to bring women and men together to jointly confront gender injustice. These events have been held in the United States, Canada, South Africa, India, Croatia, and Australia. The Satyana Institute has conducted professional training for facilitators in this work.  Click here for a list of Satyana Institute certified facilitators in North America.

Satyana's Power of Reconciliation work has now expanded to South Africa, where the new Constitution guarantees gender justice as a fundamental human right. In collaboration with Nozizwe Madlala Routledge, Deputy Speaker of Parliament, and Phaphama Initiatives of Johannesburg, we are exploring avenues to strengthen the implementation of gender equity in the South African society. At the invitation of Ms. Madlala-Routledge, Satyana Institute offered a six-day intensive, November 9-14, 2006, to introduce its Power of Reconciliation program to a group that included senior government officials and Members of Parliament.

Satyana's is continuing collaboration continues with our South African colleagues with programs currently being offered to expanded audiences, including members of the Alternatives to Violence Program (AVP) and clergy from the South African Council of Churches.

 

For a short summary of how gender reconciliation actually works in practice—with vivid examples of how the healing process unfolded in workshops done in South Africa and India--see the recent article published in Kosmos journal.
(open article)

Gender Reconciliation Initiative
in South Africa

2

I have been looking for a long time
to find a way to bring healing and reconciliation
between women and men . . .  This work is the answer.
We need much more of this work in South Africa.

-- Nozizwe Madlala Routledge,
Deputy Speaker of Parliament and
former Deputy Minister of Health
and Defense, South Africa

 

 

Satyana Institute’s Gender Reconciliation Initiative
in South Africa

“We have not even begun to deal with the gender issue in South Africa!” exclaims Nomfundo Walaza, Director of the Desmond Tutu Peace Center in Cape Town.  “We’ve made significant strides forward in terms of racial integration since Apartheid ended,” she continues, “especially through the work of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, despite its inevitable flaws.  But we have barely scratched the surface on the massive issues between women and men in this country.”  Nomfundo’s impassioned words are well taken.  Stricken by the highest incidence of reported rape and sexual violence in the world, coupled with the worst AIDS crisis on the planet, South Africa is in dire need of transforming gender relations between its women and men. 

The Satyana Institute is launching a new form of social transformation, called gender reconciliation, in several key sectors within South African society.  The project is being implemented in collaboration with Nozizwe Madlala Routledge, Deputy Speaker of Parliament, and Phaphama Initiatives of Johannesburg, a national network of non violent activists and trainers. 

        judy            jabu

Judy Connors and Jabu Mashinini, Co-Directors of Phaphama Initiatives, are collaborating with Satyana Institute to implement Satyana Institute’s gender reconciliation work in South Africa (click on photos for BIO's)

Developed over the past 17 years by the Satyana Institute, the gender reconciliation process has established a proven track record for confronting and reconciling highly challenging issues between women and men in groups, communities, and organizational settings, as documented in the book Divine Duality (Hohm Press, 2007).

Numerous successful pilot programs in gender reconciliation have been conducted in South Africa by the Satyana Institute between 2003 and 2008 for diverse groups ranging from Members of Parliament, the Quaker Peace Center, leaders in the South African Council of Churches, to peace activists and prison inmates.  As Reverend Keith Vermeulen, Director of the Parliamentary Office of the South African Council of Churches, described the results of these pilot programs: “This work is absolutely relevant for South Africa. It is the only practical tool I have experienced that has a realistic potential to heal and transform gender relations. I commend Gender Reconciliation work in the context of South Africa’s journey to realizing
the promise of our Constitution.”

Based on the enthusiastic response from these programs, a steering committee of prominent South African leaders has invited Satyana Institute to launch a three-year initiative on Gender Reconciliation.   Funding for the pilot programs was provided in part by the Kalliopeia Foundation, and we are currently seeking funds to support the three year initiative.

The proposed Gender Reconciliation Initiative will being implemented in three phases between 2009 and 2011.  In Phase I (2009), introductory gender reconciliation programs are being conducted for Members of Parliament, the South African Council of Churches, and other targeted NGO and service sectors.  In Phase II (2010 - 2011), a year-long intensive training program in gender reconciliation will be conducted for qualified professional facilitators in South Africa.  Finally in Phase III (2011 and beyond), the cadre of newly trained facilitators will begin to introduce gender reconciliation programs broadly within their own constituencies.

Testimonials from South African leaders about Satyana Institute’s pilot programs in gender reconciliation are summarized below:

1“This workshop had many aspects that would benefit this country greatly.  I think it can be used by individuals to reconcile with many different aspects of their lives - racism, sexism and the unfinished business of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.”

--Nomfundo Walaza
Executive Director, Desmond Tutu Peace Center Cape Town, South Africa

 

1This work is profound.  To embark upon the work of Gender Reconciliation is to rattle the very foundations of every major cultural institution in our society, because
patriarchy dominates all of them. I didnt believe that gender reconciliation is really possible but now I know that it is.

--Jeremy Routledge, Phaphama Initiatives, Alternatives to Violence, Former Director of Quaker Peace Center, Cape Town

 

2The love that unfolded was incredible!! 
Thank you for being part of the healing process
of and for Africa!!

 --Karambu Ringera Director,
International Peace Initiatives
Nairobi, Kenya

 

1This is the first time I have
experienced a workshop that truly
integrates both teaching and
spiritual components. 

 --Ela Gandhi
Granddaughter of Mahatma Gandhi
Durban, South Africa

 

For more information, download the attached article recently published in the journal Kosmos.  For detailed information, see the attached proposal

 

 


 

Copyright Satyana 2010 | Web Design by Desktop Studio/Webmaster by KSL Design | Powered by PamTen - The Creative Minds