16 August 2024

In 2019, Breathworks Teacher Julia Emes brought the Breathworks mindfulness training to locals in Sierra Leone, she writes about the challenges and successes of building a sustainable mindfulness movement in Sierra Leone. 

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Expanding Mindfulness in Sierra Leone: Outreach Courses

Between 2019 and 2022, I offered four “outreach” mindfulness courses to various groups in Freetown and Makeni, Sierra Leone. These participants, 34 in total (11 women and 23 men, aged 23-42), had minimal income and scant digital access, making this training a rare opportunity for them.

Breathworks Teacher Julia Emes having lunch with mindfulness participants in Sierra Leone

It all started when I met Sierra Leonean yoga teacher, Babardee Samura. Curious about how mindfulness could complement his meditation practice, Babardee helped gather a group of participants from his yoga classes and the street youth charity WAYout for a free 8-week mindfulness course.

The first three groups followed the traditional Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) program, while the final cohort completed the Breathworks 8-week Mindfulness for Stress course. As a yoga teacher, I saw many individuals struggling with chronic pain, which led me to further training in Breathworks Mindfulness for Health and Stress.

At this point, I was entirely self-funding the courses, using income from fee-generating yoga and mindfulness activities to cover costs.

Expanding the Vision: Teacher Training

Many graduates expressed interest in teaching mindfulness within their communities. With the support of my Breathworks supervisor, Alison Purnell, I connected with Vishvapani, the creator of Mindful Champions, to shadow his course. This enabled me to train 23 individuals across two groups in delivering basic mindfulness practices.

Image of Babardee (left) and Ibrahim (right) practising how to guide a short breathing anchor meditation

With support from Breathworks, we green-lighted a pilot Breathworks Teacher Training program focused on the Mindfulness for Stress curriculum. Generous donations covered materials, venue, transport, and food for the 14 days of training, which took place in September 2023 and January 2024. The cohort consisted of 20 participants.

As a participant in the Breathworks teacher training in Sierra Leone, I've learnt practical mindfulness tools which I have incorporated into my daily life and share with my students. Moving forward, I plan to conduct workshops for my community people more especially footballers, and other sport athletes and contribute to the growing mindfulness culture. - Teezo, Mindfulness for Stress Teacher Training participant

 

Image of Irama and Fina preparing to co-teach their session to participants

Watch video testimonials from Teacher Training participants here

Overcoming Challenges & Adapting to local contexts 

Out of the 20 participants, 12 are now ready to offer their own courses, with Alimamy Jalloh pioneering the effort by completing a course for 14 school teachers in Makeni. However, supporting these new teachers is challenging in a country with low literacy rates, limited digital access, and scarce resources. We adapted our training methods to these realities.

To make concepts more relatable, we used stories, enactments, and simple tools like chalk circles. These methods were particularly effective for teaching in non-literate settings, where traditional materials like PowerPoints are often unusable due to frequent power outages.

Image of a homemade flipchart stand

It has been equally exciting to see participants come up with their own brilliant ideas for making concepts come alive during their teaching practice sessions. . Our “go to” for the three emotional regulation system was drawing three chalk circles of different colours on the ground which people could step in and out of. Poetry didn’t resonate with everyone, so we used a lot of stories. These would often morph into enactments/and spontaneous mini dramas! 

“I have a plan to spread out mindfulness in schools, in homes. I have the heart to spread mindfulness as I know what it has done for the challenges in my life. This course is significant to me and to other people because today, the way people are living their lives, seeing now so many different sicknesses in this world. Mindfulness helps us learn how we can face stress and things that come our way” - Isatu Kanu, Mindfulness course participant in Makeni

Looking Ahead: Preparing for the Next Phase

In addition to Alimamy, three more sets of teachers are preparing to launch courses for diverse groups, including prison officers, police officers, and a football team. Others are building confidence by shadowing more experienced teachers, we also offer study groups and where possible. Frequent visits to Sierra Leone are essential for providing ongoing support.

Image of Sulcut & Francess about to offer their taster session to prison officers

Image of Taster sessions with Police Officers 

Future Goals: Building a Sustainable Mindfulness Movement

Finding funds to support these new teachers remains a challenge, with each course costing around £400. I set up a GoFundMe campaign to secure funding for seven additional courses. Our future goals include a 2-day CPD retreat for teachers and ensuring they have the necessary materials to continue their work.

Our long-term vision is to see these trained teachers partner with organisations, offer mindfulness in their communities, and potentially charge fees for workplace mindfulness programmess.

You can support our efforts to build a sustainable mindfulness movement in Sierra Leone through donating via our GoFundMe page. 

TENKI (Thank You)

Julia