KUFUNDA

March 2019

We have been quiet for quite a while, but we are back with much news from Kufunda and Zimbabwe. 

As you know Zimbabwe is going through a particularly challenging patch in our collective history. As a country we are battling dire economic and political challenges, a drought that has left us preparing for a year of food shortage and hunger, followed by a cyclone that has devastated communities in the eastern part of our country as well as neighbouring Mozambique and Malawi. 

Amidst it all there seems to be a light growing at Kufunda, and a sense of gratitude and possibility. 

How is this? 

We think it may have to do with our living more deeply into our purpose.

What does it really mean to enter into a landscape and a community? 

We have been here for 14 years as Kufunda and yet there is something about this time that feels like we are waking up to another level of what it means to be a community and to be on and of this land. 

What stands out to share from this moment of deepening are some of the rhythms of our collective practices that are part of weaving this sense of deepening vitality. 

November 2017

A coup that was not a coup; hundreds of thousands on the streets in an incredibly peaceful joyous celebration asking our president of 37 years to step down; the beginnings of an impeachment; a resignation and finally this last Friday a new President. The road ahead will not be easy, but something has shifted in the very fabric of our nation. A sense of possibility has opened again. It is in this moment we invite you to support us in our work specifically with the youngest. If you would like to support the next chapter of the Zimbabwean journey, please make a contribution to our Kufunda Waldorf inspired school, where we nourish and teach our children as whole human beings: “We are supporting and enabling the learning and development of our children in creative ways both in and out of school, as they are our guides to the future.”

July 2017

I think this must be the theme and headline for our July Kufunda News. That is what this year has been about. In March we hosted our first Movement Medicine retreat in Zimbabwe at Kufunda. Through the dance, which brought together a wonderfully diverse group of women and men from Zimbabwe and beyond, from rural and urban, we danced with the wisdom of the past, and the dreams of the future. What came through strongly across the line was the need to look after nature and to shift from 'just managing to keep afloat' to create as much beauty and grace in what we do. This means to really say YES to each other, to tend to beauty including the expression of the beauty and passion of each human being.  In the months that have followed, it seems to me that this is exactly what we have been able to live. It has in many ways felt like an invitation for Kufunda to step into the next level of living our purpose. 

January 2017

We are entering into 2017 in the midst of a very shaky context in our country. Perhaps because of this, it is becoming clear to us that something very special is happening in our village and in our work with communities in Zimbabwe. We are keen to share much more fully with the world around us. Years of growing a village that is based on community, passion for life and a desire to serve has created a potent field which can be felt when you land here and spend time with us. 

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2017 is a year to call in our friends and fellow learners from near and far! Read more in this newsletter about the opportunities for joining in the learning and life of the Learning Village in Zimbabwe. 

July 2016

July is in the name of Community Building and learning what it takes to Be Village. The first ever Oasis Game Training in Africa came to a succesful completion; and we are coming to the end of a beautiful Learning Camp into the art of Being Village. Being Village - Creating Oasis. Quite a month!

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Read the full newsletter

June 2016

These weeks seem to be in the name of Community Engagement. This newsletter brings news of our recent Gathering of Kings, our Workshop with local Chiefs, and our Upcoming Oasis Game Training.

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Read the full newsletter

January 2016

A year worth celebrating: 2015 was a year of new beginnings as well as consolidation for Kufunda Learning Village.

July 2015

We are almost two months into our Leadership Programme filling the village with life and learning. It is rich, though not always easy as the participants and the village together enquire into the wider challenges facing our world and our communities while engaging first hand with the challenges of living in community, learning to find our way to be together across wide diversity.

May 2015

The work of hosting shows up in the everyday life of the village: It shows up in how we come together each monday to plan, reflect or learn; in how we gather most wednesday mornings to do community work together; in the everyday of each person and team fulfilling their plans, and in the children learning in the little school through song and play. 

April was a month of WRITING. Many in the village came together to complete the new website, write our Annual Report, write two funding proposals, and much much more. It was fun and satisfying to do this work together. 

We also hosted our first All Village Intergenerational Art of Hosting. We deepened our Art of Hosting skills and worked together on practical and ambitious plans to grow the village and our work over the coming year. 

March was the month of our first ever month long immersion for young women: Young Women are Medicine was an astounding success. 

March 15, 2013

In February we selected a group of women for our upcoming month long young women are medicine programme.

Closing a leadership programme - beginning a new year

The month of December was the end of our best ever Leadership programme. We end the year with our intergenerational village retreat - or rather were hosted by our teenagers!

We began January with a retreat deepening into what we are learning as a learning village and how we wish to build on this in 2015.

Months full of hosting

October-November were big months in the village. We hosted a Flow-game host training and ten new flow game hosts were trained at Kufunda.

We also hosted the first ever Art of Hosting training to take place in Harare. Giving us appetite for many more.

And we hosted a very succesful Oasis Game with our leadership programme in the township of Chitungwiza.

Together We Can!

August finally saw us receiving the solar shipment from Barefoot college in India. Solar home kits for 150 families! We went out and distributed to participating communities with the Solar grandmothers. 

These months also included a Movement Medicine workshop with Caroline Carey, a Waldorf Kindergarten workshop, and a tailor-made Art of Hosting workshop for Zeebags. 

And More!

Jun 2014

This was the time of kicking off our 4th leadership programme for sustainability. As always, when these programmes begin our village is flooded with the life of new young people entering eager to learn and contribute.

And we are getting better and better at welcoming and integrating them.

April-May 2014

These were months of joy at Kufunda. We held our second intergenerational retreat, where we literally danced our crops home. 

Soon after we celebrated culture day at the village with hundreds of people from across Zimbabwe joining for an expression and celebration of our diverse cultures in this country. 

We ended with a four day Art of Hosting workshop, which was also our selection process for the up-coming Leadership programme. 

Feb-March 2014

After the intensity of the end of 2013, followed a couple of quiet but productive months. Working together in our fields, and harvesting our first collective crops. 

We also enjoyed the joining of our older children to Nyeredzi, the new school. 

December- January 2014/15

December was a month of retreats. Our first ever intergenerational retreat. Bringing all the generations of the village together to be in deep learning, appreciation and dreaming for our village. It was Amazing.

It was followed by an equally incredible Women are Medicine retreat with women from across the ocean, the city and the most rural zimbabwe, coming together in a beautiful meeting of the magic and medicine of the feminine.

In January our older children joiced the Nyeredzi. Slowly but surely the dream of a different education for our children is coming to fruition.