Recent Stories


January 2012
January was an extremely busy month; Ark n Mark began the year with a whole team strategic planning day facilitated by Helen. The director of Ark n Mark Masego Thamuku and Helen were then asked to participate in a Botswana Government task force set up to review a centre working with young people.

December 2011
Helen attended two wilderness retreats with Ark n Mark Trust. She was reviewing the retreats and psychotherapy being offered to orphans and vulnerable children in Botswana. The retreats form part of the EARTH methodology which combines traditional approaches and rites of passage with western psychotherapy approaches. The healing takes place deep in the Botswana desert and bush where many wonderful wild animals can be observed in their natural habitat. The elephants shown here were seen daily at one of the camps.

The festive season was spent on a 20 day tour to Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe, Northern Botswana, Namibia and South Africa. What an honour it was to see so many natural wonders....

November 2011;Helen began the month directing theatre in two traditional villages in Botswana. She created a theatre script inspired by Dr Seuss story of 'The Lorax' for two tree conservation projects run by the Ark n Mark trust. The play was performed in Setswana by young people involved in tree planting projects in their villages, and also performed nationally.

 Helen has been selected as a Rotary Peace Fellow for 2012 by Rotary International. She competed with candidates from all over the world, and will be sent to Thailand in summer 2012 to receive professional development training in practical conflict resolution to support the Rotary goal of creating a more peaceful world. 

October 2011 Work is underway with Ark n Mark Trust and Hope Mission. The first stages of the work for Helen was to do an overall assessment of where the organisations fit into the plan of the Botswana government for care of orphans and vulnerable children, the current legislature, and good practice guidelines that exist that steer the current work.

September 2011 Helen left the Uk and headed to Botswana's capital city Gaborone with Skillshare International. She has been partnered with two local organisations; Ark n Mark Trust, and Hope Mission. Ark n Mark Trust have developed 16 day wilderness retreats, and 3 year follow up programmes for orphans and vulnerable children. Hope Mission is a residential faith based organisation focussed on re-schooling, re-habilitation and re-integrating street children. Helens role is both to support the organisations on a strategic and capacity building level, and in reviewing the psycho-social work being done with the children.

August 2011 Helen, in collaboration with Cape Uk, Little London Primary School in Leeds, and four other arts practitioners delivered a week long 'Family Festival' for families living in the local area. The week was a wonderful mix of creativity, learning, sharing, fun and performance. It was truly inspiring to be working alongside other practitioners in such a fluid and dynamic way, and to see so many adults and children alike having such a great time.

July 2011 Helen was invited to participate in the 2011 Summer School at Jena University Germany; 'Societies in transition; Sub-saharan Africa between Conflict and reconciliation' She presented her recent research looking at the role of forgiveness for victims of armed conflict to 40 colleagues in the peacebuilding field from around the world. 

June 2011Conflict Resolution in practice; This one day training was successfully co-delivered with Michael Fryer and Philip Barnes to a full house at Bradford University Peace Studies Department on June 10th. The day delivered core practical elements of effective conflict resolution grounded in sound academic theory. Our team draws its knowledge from psychotherapy, the business sector and peacebuilding on the ground, in Africa, Asia,Northern Ireland, Kosovo and South America.
Managing Uncertainty; This one day training took place on June 29th at Delius Arts Centre in Bradford. It was co-facilitated by Helen and Michael Fryer in partnership with Artworks Bradford. Aimed at individuals and organisations, it  was an opportunity to take space and time away from it all and reflect on the impact of budget cuts and uncertainty. Structured exercises were used to enable participants to:Identify changes that were affecting them and corresponding responses to them * Reconnection to visions, goals and values * identifying concerns in bringing ideas into reality in the current climate, generating options and creating a plan of action.

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