Peace and Healing Circles | Global Connections Call Notes 7.5.23

Jenny Canau and Zelda Ann Hintsa, joined our July Global Connections call to share their personal stories and provide us with a window into the healing work they are doing in their communities. The following is a summary of our conversation with Jenny and Zelda. To enjoy the full conversation, please click here for a link to the call recording.

Jenny is a group facilitator and mentor. She specializes in mindfulness, compassion, resilience, and value-based decision-making training. Her background is as a human rights lawyer and she has combined those skills with her deep love of personal peace and healing practices. Zelda is a community facilitator and a guest lecturer in social work for students at the University of the Western Cape. Zelda’s work has specialized in community development, arts, and culture. She is also a trauma counselor and assists survivors in finding personal peace and healing. She does this as a life coach and with her natural presence.

Jenny and Zelda are currently working to establish an NGO in their homeland of South Africa. Peace and Healing Circles will be an organization that supports men and women in their region, and hopefully beyond, in finding healing in various forms of self-care and personal and interpersonal peace practices. While they are partners in this endeavor, the stories on how they ended up as in this work together are quite unique. 

At a young age, Zelda used to criticize the police in South Africa, especially in her community. In response to that, her father encouraged her to join them to better understand their work. This sparked Zelda to serve as a reserve constable later in life where she learned to exercise empathy and active listening. In this work, she recognized the need this group of men and women had for some form of support and trauma counseling. One of the biggest challenges she faced was asking herself “As police officers, how do we find peace?” This set Zelda off on a life journey to find opportunities to support others in their quest for personal peace.

Jenny shared how her sense of community is what has led and inspired her. “...if you ask me what’s led me to this moment, I actually don’t know, but I’ve always had a sense of deep love and connection for people and learning from people and that's what inspires me.” [00:06:24] 

In 2021 both Zelda and Jenny participated in Euphrates Peace Practice Alliance program. As a result of their learnings, they we both inspired to share what they learned create an inspired experience for members of their community. They came together to create a retreat space for caregivers. Jenny and Zelda wanted the retreat to be a co-created experience,  a space where people can give something of themselves. They invited an intimate group of 20 women to share poetry, music and dance. Their ultimate goal is to create these types of retreats not only for women, but also for men and young people in Africa and beyond. 

2022 Peace and Healing Circle Retreat

The value and impact of this gathering was felt by those who attended the retreat; some were in attendance on this call. They expressed how “being able to share this experience with colleagues was very empowering because they spend most of their time giving and not receiving and that can cause conflict within. Learning about peace, self care, and how important it is to understand yourself first… That’ll make the load less heavier.” [00:11:45] The women who attended the retreat learned invaluable lessons, including “a sharpened ability to listen…when we listen to someone, we are giving them time while also holding the space for them to tap into their own strength to find solutions.” [00:12:50] 

Although they were met with challenges along the way, ultimately Jenny and Zelda believe that “it really is up to all of us to create a space of safety, a space of sharing, and a space of healing”[00:43:14]. But as Zelda noted, the most important lesson is that “you cannot talk peace if you don’t have peace within yourself” [00:26:27]

As a closing remark, Jenny shared a beautiful metaphor about how working together brings a change of perspectives.  “…[Conjure] up an image of a flower, and imagine that one of you is holding the roots, the other one is holding the stem and the other one is holding a pit ... It’s only through connection and being together that we could ever come to even an understanding or an appreciation of the flower. Each person only experiences the part that they’re holding but collectively, we get a deeper meaning.”[00:56:00]