I. AM. HEALING.
A final message for 2022 from The Dandelion Philosophy’s founder and chief executive, Nazeem Harvey.
I. AM. HEALING.
One of the most important lessons I’ve learned in 2022 is that we can achieve so much more together than we can on our own.
The Dandelion Philosophy has grown from one person to two to three, and over the course of a year, we have gathered over 250 volunteers in 35 countries around the world to help build our organization into what it is today. We’ve also built an extensive network of partners, corporations, and like-minded socially conscious individuals globally.
The experience for many of us has been both eye-opening and healing. We’ve become more aware of our biases and conditioning, and we’ve made a conscious commitment to growth. The testimonies from our team members around the world reaffirm for me why The Dandelion Philosophy is such a necessary disruption to the charitable sector.
We’re living in a time where colonised minds are in need of liberation. For many, healing from trauma is a lifelong process. Generations of oppression and trauma experienced by people of colour have broken the spirits of far too many, with the effects still visible today.
A sense of self is not only about our personal identity, but it’s about the collective identity that we have as people; it’s about a sense of connection and the healing of pain. We believe that healing in our communities can be achieved through reconnecting to our ancestral values and embracing the connection our predecessors had with the land. When we begin to heal ourselves, we also heal others.
Throughout 2023, the theme underlying The Dandelion Philosophy’s strategy is I. AM. HEALING.
This theme has personal, community, and philanthropic interpretations, which are relevant to every individual within our organization, as well as to the beneficiaries of our work.
At a personal level, I. AM. HEALING. reminds each of us that the work we do is also an opportunity to heal ourselves. Our human-centred approach allows us to cultivate self-awareness and social consciousness, and work to understand how our own experiences, expressions, and biases influence how we interact with the world. We are all works in progress, and the first step to transformation is to become what we hope to see in our communities.
At a community level, I.AM.HEALING. reminds us that we are all healers—regardless of the specific roles we fill. Each and every person at The Dandelion Philosophy is directly contributing to healing the individuals, communities, and the human and environmental impacts of modern social challenges. This is more than managing symptoms, it’s about building and restoring the whole.
Our Feeding, Psychosocial Program, work in the community of Cambridge Village South Africa, and our Healing Hub initiative are all intended to heal ourselves and our world. 2023 is the year this comes to life.
We’re using the first weeks of this year to galvanise our organisational structure and governance by enhancing support for our Global Board of Directors, Strategic Advisory Board, Senior Leadership Team, and Regional Directorate in South Africa. It’s with these leaders behind our work that we’re optimally positioning The Dandelion Philosophy to create value for its stakeholders and beneficiaries, and to drive the achievement of our key strategic and social impact priorities.
Our 2023 strategy is also designed to function as a continuously evolving guiding light that we will carefully adapt to ensure that we can respond appropriately to changing global economic and social conditions.
I hope that as we pivot into this time of great change, you will join us by supporting our work in 2023 and help us heal our people and communities.
Wishing you and yours healing throughout 2023!
