We Envision a World of Solidarity, Empowerment and Liberation for all:

• that is emotionally and physically safe, secure, and inclusive

• where BIPOC Women, Girls, and LGBTQIX are FREE from intersectional violence and their impacts

• where home, land, food, and climate resilience are based upon regenerative practices that honors indigeneity and intersectionality

• that is economically accessible and equitable to historically vulnerable populations

We are building a one-of-a-kind regenerative eco-system in Jamaica where women survivors and refugees across the LGBTQ+ gender spectrum cultivate radical solutions, practice, and solidarity.

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PHASE 1:  Acquired riverfront forest in St. Ann, Ja. Oct 2021  

PHASE 2: Secure structures to anchor operations, programs, and capacities in 2022/23. See the photos of the land, the house, and the details of phase 2 campaign here!

Since November 2021, we have been on clearing overgrowth on the land, planting suckers, harvesting fruits, and securing fence lines and access roads on the land, and mapping the land zones, sectors, waterways, and starting new crops like turmeric and ginger, planting more coconut and banana trees, crating composting hubs, planting short crop vegetables, fruits, herbs and ornamentals, and finding out more about our very extensive water systems that consists of springs, ponds, river, and swales.

PHASE 2:

WE ARE RAISING $200,000 USD TO:

• Purchase the adjoining land which has the physical structure* that would be perfect for our goals.  The cost to build a similar structure would be over $400,000. With acquisition of this house, we get an additional 16 acres, 4200 square ft main residence, and 4 structures that would fulfill our operational needs at this junction. ($150,000 USD)

• Secure an efficient and reliable farm vehicle ($50,000)

*Physical structures will include:  

• 4bdrm/4 ba farm house
• rainwater reservoir
• outdoor greenhouse community kitchen/classroom
• processing and storage building
• soil remediation stations, rain/river water harvesting systems
• outdoor bathroom

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Because the value of your dollars go much further in Jamaica than in the US and UK, we invite you join this opportunity to make a real, tangible difference to grow our social justice movement today.

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**OOUU OUR MISSION

Your generous gifts will help bring about the following vital changes in Jamaica through our collective practices:

1. Create safe and brave spaces for women of all genders and girls centering Trauma-informed care: There is limited funding and programming to eradicate gender-based violence against women, girls, and LGBTQIX communities. It's up to us to build it! Complicit rape and violence touches 62% of women and girls in Jamaica, which is 12% higher than the global average.
2. Infuse cultural and direct expressive arts education: Centering cultural healing from our African diasporic legacies of drumming, dance, Maroon indigenous crafts, and Taino indigenous wisdom practices allows us to connect with our cultural roots, facilitating a remembrance of our heritage, and ourselves. Today, these tools are endangered – and it’s not being taught in our communities. We are writing a NEW story that centers embodied expressive healing arts as tools for activism for our people.
3. Provide heart-centered transformative leadership and life skills training: Participants walk away with the tools to live as fully empowered change-advocates within their communities and across the island. We collaborate with partners to share the most up-to-date and relevant tools vital to up-leveling relational leadership
4. Deeply Dive into wellness, restorative ecology and spiritual development: Given the high rate of violence and aggression, we offer approaches that lead from the heart, prioritizing self awareness, community wellness, care for the earth, farming, and advocacy.

DONATE NOW TO OUR CAMPAIGN

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READ MORE ABOUT HOW WE PLAN TO ACCOMPLISH OUR GOALS:

Creating Safe Space at the Caribbean Women & Sexual Diversity Conference in Jamaica, Oct 2019; photo credit: Janine Moore

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Create protected and brave spaces for LGBTQ+ community

1. Host ongoing solidarity support groups, trauma release meditations, land-based experiences.
2. Curate community activations and outreach about gender-based violence and the ways this violence intersects with other issues such as health, economics, education, and the environment.
3. Work alongside male accomplices to shift stories, behaviors, and attitudes.

Activating Tambourine Army Solidarity Mobilization, supported by UN Women in Jamaica, March 2017; photo credit: TransWave Jamaica

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Infuse wellness, healing justice, cultural and spiritual education

1. Provide apprenticeships for those who desire to grow intentionally as wellness practitioners.
2. Activate and amplify survivor stories through ongoing drum and dance arts.
3. Ongoing mindfulness courses in Yoga, and meditation, and self defense.
4. Courses and ceremonies honoring ancestral devotion and the development of personal spiritual and cultural practices directly from our elders.

Receiving teaching directly from elder, Gaa'maan Mama G Gloria Simms, Paramount Queen of the Maroons on "How we Heal the Healers through the Power of Ancient Indigenous Practices ," March 2019;  photo credit: Trinity Watkins

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Provide heart-centered leadership and life skills training

1. Cultivate holistic expressive relationship-building that guide participants living with intergenerational trauma to become powerful change agents.
2. Create brave space for radical truth-telling and listening, that encourages everyone to share their stories and be witnessed.
3. Inspire and hone collaborative solutionary skills and strategies that nurture our growing solidarity movement in Jamaica.

Heart-centered "Eye-n-Eye" listening during leadership practice at SD SoulFree Journey Jamaica, March 2019; photo credit: Afia Walking Tree

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Regenerative farming and land design training to foster climate resilience and economic freedom

1. Shift thinking from extractive rape relations with the land to honorable harmonious relationships using permaculture, spiritual ecology, and land stewardship practices.
2. Learn the connections with regenerative agro-ecology and impacts on climate justice.
3. Learn valuable farming, distribution, and marketing training.
4. Apply earth-based farming, food forest ecology, and permaculture principles to cultivate land-body awakening.
5. Integrate holistic nutrition, and somatic healing into land-based community care practices.

WEChange Jamaica Surviving Adversity & Finding Empathy (S.A.F.E.)  Support Group & House of Pentacles Film Crew connect with ancestors to release RAGE and develop spiritual practice with Nature, July 2019; photo credit: House of Pentacles

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Exploring our Newly Purchased land in Spring Gardens, St. Ann, Jamaica!  ***

What people are saying about our movement impact:

“I am so moved, uplifted, and totally excited by the extraordinary work you are doing in Jamaica, I know I speak for all of us when I say how proud we are to be in sisterhood and solidarity with you and the women of Jamaica. You are doing it my sister! So much love and admiration.”

~ Eve Ensler, Founder and Artistic Director of V-Day and One Billion Rising, Tony Award winning playwright, Performer, and Activist, Author of The Vagina Monologues

"Afia's drums assisted me in gaining clarity, in releasing. releasing my rage... we beat the drums and we belted out,  and it assisted in our grieving process.  Imagine a jamaica where persons are allowed to raise their voice to grief, release rage, fear?  I  can imagine a safer jamaica as persons would be able to access their rage and grief."

- Christina Grant, Director for Community Engagement and Compliance & S.A.F.E Group Facilitator, WeChange Jamaica

"The need is so great and it's time to RISE. We need what Afia and Spirit Drumz has to offer in a sustainable way in Jamaica now. The testimonials from hundreds of women and the many interventions that Afia has modeled in our social justice movement has been helping shift how we Jamaicans think about healing grounded in the expressive arts with the drum and the land. It's what we need the most right now."

-Taitu Heron, past UN Women Jamaica Programme Coordinator and current Technical Advisor for WeChange Jamaica

Meadows Livingstone School girls Rock! Afia's proteges playing Jamaican rhythms as part of an integrated curriculum that fosters their creative expressive spirits to Rise! photo credit: Afia Walking Tree

OUR FOUNDER & VISIONING CIRCLE

We are so grateful for the unwavering support of our Visioning Circle and Donors that made the acquisition of our land possible.

My name is Afia Walking Tree (she/them/we/Nana). I was born and raised in Kingston Jamaica. I am a survivor. I’m returning home with a passion to change the state of violence in Jamaica where I first experienced the trauma of sexual, emotional and physical violence. This space we are creating is the fulfilment of a dream I have been seeding for most of my life. This is a legacy moment for me and our most vulnerable.

We are rising in solidarity for the movement to ensure self-care, protection, courage, and dignity for women, girls, and LGBTQ+ communities in my homeland, through the resources that my organization Spirit Drumz has been providing for 30 years in the United States, Canada, Afraka, and recently in Jamaica, in partnership with influential movement leaders and accomplices.

We are so grateful to our longstanding and recent collaborators and sponsors VDAY/One Billion Rising; WeChange Jamaica, Institute of Jamaica, Bioneers, African American Policy Forum, Black Love Convergence, Meadows Livingstone School, Women Drummers International, University of the West Indies, Edna Manley School for the performing arts, to name a few.

For over seven years, our team and collaborators have been meeting and strategically planning the vision to acquire land and a home farm where we can anchor this movement.  

Our Visioning Circle :  The individuals in our visioning circle support us in a many ways that uplifts our visioning and mission.  Each person brings their unique gifts at times when needed.  It is our dream for our team to meet up on the land one day very soon for our very first on-site land retreat.  Laurie-Lynn Hogan, Trinity Watkins, Afe Abeni,  A. Jones, Coleen Stevens, V. Ensler, Matt B, Shawntol Goodall, Shantae Porteous, Neish Mclean, Joie Lou Shakur, Taitu Heron, Mama G Gloria Simms, Maroon Paramount Queen, and many friends and survivors who have engaged with us to keep moving this vision forward.  Join us as we continue to live into our dreams of sovereignty for a violence-free Jamaica, Caribbean, and world.