Holistic support for young girls

Earthchild Project is a Cape Town based NPO with a distinct focus on the holistic development of children, teachers, schools and communities. Earthchild Project creates change that is meaningful and sustainable for these individuals and communities by providing them with the pertinent skills and means to live their lives in a more holistic, balanced and fulfilled fashion. This lifestyle makes people aware of themselves and their connection to the earth, the environment as well as their personal health and wellness.

Together with Hannah Loewenthal, Xoli Fuyani from Earthchild Project started a Young Women’s group six months ago.

When speaking to Xoli about what inspired her to start the group, she said, ‘Growing up in a township I knew how challenging it is for young people, especially girls. There is a lot of peer pressure. Girls fall pregnant at very early ages, they end up abusing substances and not getting the education they need, which then leads to unemployment. Another huge concern was how under sourced the girls where in terms of knowledge and exposure, most of the girls have few dreams and did not see themselves succeeding in life.’

‘The more I thought about my upbringing, I realised how privileged I was. I had exposure and safe spaces around me, which contributed to the person I am today. This inspired me to initiate the group and create a safe space where the girls can fully express how they feel, be heard and get exposure to different possibilities.’

Open, free and safe

The Young Women’s group creates an open, free and safe space for 12 girls between the ages of 12 and 16 where they can express themselves freely, sharing with this group their experiences and emotions. The girls were initially part of the hiking club that Earthchild Project facilitates but seeing as the girls were moving onto high school, Xoli wanted to find a way to continue working with these girls she had grown close to.

The group adopted the 5-rhythms dance movement, which is a movement practice created by Gabrielle Roth, a teacher by education who describes herself as ‘A healer who writes prescriptions with her feet.’

Gabrielle Roth describes the 5 rhythms dance movement saying, ‘mine is the art of inspiring people to turn themselves inside out, transform their suffering into art, their art into awareness and their awareness into action.’

This style of dancing promotes an exploration into the belief that dancing is an expression of emotion and it allows us to express our inner selves through dance and movement.

Xoli and Hannah chose this particular dance movement because they believe that ‘with movement there are lot of possibilities to explore and deal with a lot of issues such as body awareness, feeling and emotions. Especially for the teenagers where there are lot of unexplained changes happening to ones body. It’s quite fun to move rather than to sit and talk about what’s happening inside you.’

A creative spark

Other activities include creative art sessions, which depend on the theme of the day. Themes include visions and goals, feelings and emotions, your relationship with food and body changes. An informative activity about the selected topic includes guest speakers, sharing circles and writing. The group also goes on outings outside the monthly sessions and provides skills development based on the girls’ needs.

On the day I had the opportunity to join one of their sessions, the girls began by gathering in a sharing circle where the theme of the day (or month) is discussed in depth. This month, the theme happened to be feelings and emotions. Each girl began by describing what they did to ‘deal with’ a certain emotion and how being in the state of feeling that emotion makes them feel.

The group then started movement exercises by moving their body into a position they think describes the emotion they are feeling at that moment. A lot of people resisted expression and resisted truly showing their emotions, especially, when around other people, they might have felt like they will be judged.

Resistance through movement

The girls were shown to express the feeling of resistance through movement. The shapes and forms made were very interesting, as each girl would have their own issue they were focusing on and they would therefore move according to how that issue made them feel.

Throughout the day, the girls began to understand how to express emotions through movement instead of continuing to suppress them or express something different on the outside to what they were feeling on the inside. The girls realised a connection to themselves and to their hearts.

Xoli stated that since she first started the group, she ‘feels like the girls have come out of their shells. They are now more confident and eager to take charge of their lives.’