'Of the many programs that I have run so far, for me, this has been the most life-transforming program to witness'
As a child, Kumanga Andrahennadi would often walk through her village to the water's edge and talk to the sea.
She grew up in Tangalle, a coastal town in southern Sri Lanka. There's no land between Tangalle and the continent of Antarctica, Andrahennadi explains, only the sea.
Raised in a Buddhist family, Andrahennadi learned the practice of mindfulness from her parents, and in her youth, whenever she felt the heaviness of the situation surrounding her, she would lean into her own mindful connection with nature and go to talk with the sea.
"Civil war started the year I was born, in 1983," Andrahennadi says. "That was my childhood, seeing war. Then, for 17 years, I lived with the war."
The civil war in Sri Lanka would last for nearly three decades, claiming tens of thousands of civilian lives. Andrahennadi left her home for the U.K. when she was 17 years old, though she never completely left the impact of the war behind. But rather than allowing it to consume her, Andrahennadi instead immersed herself into the practice and study of mindfulness and nature-based methods - and devised ways to bring its healing properties to others.
"These nature-based practices and mindfulness-based methods I've been using all my life are to cultivate inner peace and help build and strengthen community," Andrahennadi says. "It's a very personal and healing journey, and all I wanted to do was to return home and help people, because division still exists in Sri Lanka."
Today, Andrahennadi is again living in Sri Lanka, and she's brought with her 20 years of global experience as a mindfulness researcher, educator, and consultant.
Through her Ph.D. research at the University of Dundee in Scotland, and her work with the London Metropolitan Police in the U.K., she developed two unique mindfulness-based frameworks - Mindfulness for Earth, or M4E; and Mindfulness-based Trauma Management and Conflict Resolution, or MTMCR - which have been successfully implemented in public, private, government, and law enforcement sectors in the U.K. and internationally.
And it's this experience that she's brought forward - with partnership from collaborators at UConn - to assist EcoPeace Middle East, an organization torn apart by another war, in yet another part of the world, as it attempts to return to its mission of environmentalism, regional integration, and the promotion of peaceful coexistence.
Partnership
Andrahennadi is the founder/director of the Centre for Advanced Learning of Mindfulness, or CALM, and a pioneer in the delivery of eco-contemplative mindfulness practice through her M4E and MTMCR programs.
Both programs involve onsite training workshops and retreats based on the eco-contemplative framework that Andrahennadi developed through her Ph.D.
"Kumanga is a very special person," says Daniel Weiner, a professor of geography and UConn's Vice President for Global Affairs. "She's someone who we have been very fortunate to have join us as a part of our global UConn community."
Weiner and Andrahennadi first met through an online conference she organized in June 2022.
"Dan and the team were sitting as observers of the conference, because they were interested in adopting concepts we're talking about for a new initiative at UConn," Andrahennadi says. "And then I received an invitation from Dan afterwards to come to UConn and to help create the Mindfulness, Spirituality and Planetary Health Initiative."
Together, Andrahennadi, the team at UConn Global Affairs, and other UConn global partners began building a the new Mindfulness, Spirituality and Planetary Health Initiative, or MS&PH, for the University focused on the interwoven nature of human well-being and the environment. The initiative was born out of an international and interdisciplinary meeting held in October 2022.
"More than 40 scholars and students were present at that gathering, from different departments at UConn but also globally, including United Nations Environment Program's Faith for Earth Initiative," Andrahennadi says. "That meeting was very crucial in putting our project together, and I've been working closely with Dan and his team since then, for the last two years."
The UConn collaboration is also where Andrahennadi first met members of another critical UConn partner - the Nobel Peace Prize nominated organization EcoPeace Middle East - and forged relationships that have proved critical today.
EcoPeace Middle East is a unique environmental and peacebuilding organization that brings together Jordanian, Palestinian, and Israeli environmentalists to create shared solutions, taking a bottom-up approach to educate local communities as well as a top-down approach to advance vital environmental policies.
The regional, tri-lateral organization works through education, advocacy, and investment to advance both conservation as well as sustainable regional development. With offices based in Amman, Ramallah, and Tel Aviv, the organization has been uniquely positioned to promote cross-border cooperation.
For UConn, partnership with EcoPeace has been an important part of initiatives launched through the Joseph I. Lieberman Abrahamic Innovation & Entrepreneurship Program - a joint venture with the Werth Institute; Ryan Coles, assistant professor of management and entrepreneurship in the UConn School of Business; and Daigle Labs - which seeks to engage, convene, and support innovative and entrepreneurial ecosystems in the Middle East.
"We partnered with EcoPeace in 2023 as part of our small and medium-size enterprise development initiative to pilot programs in both Jordan and the Palestinian Territories," says Weiner. "Those programs were highly successful, with more than 200 businesses participating, many of which experienced real and measurable sustainable growth following engagement with our program."
October 7, 2023, changed everything for the region, and for EcoPeace.
Collaboration
Decades of Palestinian-Israeli conflict have been smeared with violence and instability. The war that began between Israel and Hamas on October 7, 2023, caused deeper rifts between Israeli and Palestinian societies - unprecedented levels of violence breeding distrust, anger, sadness among all and affecting the ability of even the most committed peacebuilders to work with their counterparts in other countries.
Prior to October 7, the 60-member staff at EcoPeace would work together across the organization's three separate offices in Amman, Ramallah, and Tel-Aviv in teams. Those relationships became strained as the implications of the war hit very close to home, with staff from all three offices losing loved ones - the level of trauma and suffering was to a degree that the organization's leadership had never experienced before.
EcoPeace recognized that unprecedented times required new and innovative methods to build the capacity of staff to process their own emotions and handle difficult conversations with their peers in other countries. They knew they needed help.
Which led them to Andrahennadi's expertise and training through her MTMCR program.
An EcoPeace team member was familiar with Andrahennadi's techniques, and her gentle and thoughtful approach through mindfulness had greater appeal than the more analytical, conflict-resolution based approaches suggested by other providers during EcoPeace's call for proposals.
Once selected and funded by EcoPeace, Andrahennadi start working with its leadership team on the MTMCR program in October 2023. Following discussions with Weiner, and with financial support from UConn Global Affairs, Andrahennadi expanded the MTMCR program to the 60-member staff at EcoPeace in January 2024.
"When you see your friends and your collaborators, people who have devoted their lives to a mission of peace-building, suddenly torn apart from each other by a situation like this, by things that are completely out of their control - it's just heartbreaking," Weiner says. "If there was anything that we as an institutional partner could do to help support EcoPeace through this terrible time, we were ready to be there."
Andrahennadi began conducting online sessions with the staff in national groups for the three offices separately in Amman, Ramallah, and Tel Aviv.
As they progressed, the training then merged onto a regional level, where staff from all three offices came together weekly for the practice. These national and regional sessions empowered the leadership team to help steer the organization through a period of deep trauma and conflict.
"There's research around how nature is a healing model and a very natural trauma-sensitive practice," explains Andrahennadi. "What I have seen through my work, particularly with law enforcement, is that these nature-centered, trauma-sensitive practices could be applied to people who are dealing with high stress levels, including PTSD. So, it was reconfirming that this can be used in other platforms, such as with EcoPeace."
The early sessions involved very basic exercises, Andrahennadi says. The EcoPeace staff was encouraged, but not required, to participate in dialogue or even turn on their camera.
"These were the things that we first did - very, very basic breathing exercises," Andrahennadi says, "and then, drinking a cup of tea together, mindfully. Eating a grape together, mindfully. Drinking lemon water together. Very basic, and things that we would do in our normal day-to-day life, so they're not separate or something completely new.
"That's the key - connecting with the sensory experience of the particular practice. Sensory-based practices are key for trauma-sensitive methods, so that initially our focus is on the object in front of us, not on our mind directly," she says.
Clarity
The mind is like a bowl of water, Andrahennadi says.
If you stir a handful of sand into the water, it becomes unclear - you can't see anything through the cloudiness.
"But if you just leave it aside - you don't have to do anything, you just leave it aside - and pay attention to something else, automatically, very gently, everything settles," she says. "And then that clarity of the water comes again."
This, Andrahennadi explains, was the heart of the sessions with EcoPeace - in the midst of a waterfall of suffering, first the leadership team, and later the staff, began to find ways to accept the fast-moving river of life, eventually to find clarity and calmness even in the midst of the rough waves of the ocean.
Over the course of months, some members of the staff began to share their feelings and thoughts with the group during dialogue portions of the sessions. Some talked about their experience with the practice itself, but others shared their feelings about other things as well, including the impact of the war - feelings of guilt, of helplessness and frustration, of anger, of fear, of being out of control, of responsibility, of isolation, of compassion, of trust, and of forgiveness.
"I basically create space for them to talk and express, however, and it's all valid," Andrahennadi says. "It's an extremely difficult situation, so acknowledging all perspectives, I think, is the key - so that they know they've been heard. Because most of the time, the most difficult thing to do is to give a compassionate listening ear to all perspectives. I was in this position to be able to hold that space for everyone, equally."
Some members of EcoPeace said that they began to feel power within themselves to be in control of their own suffering, so that they could then help support others around them while they all still cope with ongoing trauma in their own distinct and individual ways.
Since the sessions began, the leaders at EcoPeace have seen shifts in most of their staff. They're back on their feet. Communication has started again. Colleagues are sharing and collaborating on their work projects again. The organization's leadership is now traveling together again as a team, working together through their own pain toward their organization's ultimate mission while also advocating for broader peace and humanitarian aid for the region.
Some members of EcoPeace's staff have also reached out to communicate with Andrahennadi separately, on their own, and some have adopted new mindfulness practices in their lives outside of work - finding methods of incorporating techniques they've learned in the sessions in ways that make sense for them and sharing the techniques with members of their families.
For some, it just helped them to physically keep going - to get out of bed each morning and remember what mattered to them.
Many found a renewed sense of compassion, and a new energy to commit to their work, with a greater understanding of their mutual struggle. They found empathy.
"They were very motivated to help themselves to be able to work together," Andrahennadi says, "and that is amazing. Of the many programs that I have run so far, for me, this has been the most life-transforming program to witness, to see how they were making so much effort to practice, to have that communication going and to continue with their environmental peacebuilding work."
Following the success of the online sessions, Andrahennadi and the EcoPeace leadership collaborated and organized an in-person, five-day nature-based workshop, held in May and funded by the EcoPeace long-standing supporters. Participants traveled outside of the region to Cyprus, with the hope to bring together as many staff as possible from each of the three offices to practice and dialogue with each other.
Alongside work meetings, the in-person workshop entailed mindfulness and mindful movement practices by the ocean and in gardens. The highlights of the workshop were a mindful hike in a forest to a waterfall and compassionate listening circles all led by Andrahennadi.
Exceeding expectations of the EcoPeace leadership team, their staff, and Andrahennadi, the in-person workshop had an overwhelming feeling of success, as during this time, the three offices became one EcoPeace family once again.
But, the work isn't over. EcoPeace's leadership knows the difficulties will persist, especially while the conflict is ongoing - for most, the future is fearful. Nothing will be the same for them anymore.
But their hope for their future, and their ability to overcome, has made it all a challenge they want to take on, together.
For Andrahennadi, bringing people together through nature to help find healing is ultimately what she hopes to do through her work.
"What I like to see is community," she says. "That is what I support, building community. The connection with EcoPeace is so special and very sacred - EcoPeace is using environment and water to build peace and to protect nature. The effort they are making, I really think, is an example for the entire world. If they can do it, we have no excuses."
And aiding this community, notes Weiner, is also a critical part of UConn's mission.
"This is an expression of the Abrahamic work that UConn has been leading," says Weiner. "Universities have long been a place where diverse people can come together to collaborate in ways that are mutually beneficial, and part of our University's global mission is to go far beyond the classroom to help address real-world problems. So, we're especially proud that our work can be applied in this context, particularly during this extraordinarily difficult period."
