At Harambee Arts, our work spans continents, united by a shared commitment to expressive arts as a tool for healing, empowerment, and community transformation. Despite the geographic distance between our teams in Kenya and Nepal, the challenges we face—political instability, corruption, and the struggle to create opportunities for young people—bind us together in empathy and resolve.
In the following letters, you’ll see a candid exchange between our Kenya and Nepal teams, reflecting the heartfelt solidarity, shared pain, and hope that sustain us. These letters highlight how expressive arts not only support the communities we serve but also the facilitators and staff who hold space for others.
We invite you to read these letters as a window into the human connections that transcend borders, the resilience nurtured through creativity, and the unshakable belief that collective action can foster healing and change.
Letter from Harambee Arts Kenya to Nepal
From: Joyce Oketch
To: Sarala and Harambee Arts Nepal
Dear Sarala and Harambee Arts Nepal,
Thank you for your heartfelt message and solidarity with us. We are deeply moved by your own struggles and experiences in Nepal and the innovative ways you’re coping, especially through expressive arts. Your message of hope and resilience resonates deeply. We appreciate your support and stand together with you against the challenges you are experiencing. Let’s continue to uplift and inspire each other and our teams, I believe it’s possible.
I’m particularly inspired by the role expressive arts play to support you and your participants. I’m glad you’ve harnessed this powerful tool(expressive arts) to restore hope, provide self-care, and foster collective healing which is truly inspiring and commendable. This has been our biggest support system here too. We believe this approach is mutually beneficial because we’ve witnessed its support in us and our participants and we’d love to explore potential collaborations or exchanges that could further empower us and our participants.
Let’s continue to support and amplify each other’s voices in the challenges we face. I look forward to staying connected and exploring safer ways to work together and support one another.
Also, receive a lot of love from our Kenyan team.
I also have a request…..in bid to connect both teams – how about we schedule a zoom meeting for both teams to catch up. Your thoughts about this? – Which day and what time works for you? I know Mondays or Tuesdays 9 AM works for Gloria.
Your response on this will be highly appreciated.
Thank you again for yours kindness, empathy, and inspiring work.
Warm regards,
Joyce Oketch
Response from Harambee Arts Nepal
From: Sarala Tamang
To: Gloria Simoneaux
Hi Joyce and all Kenya Team
After hearing about the situation in Kenya, our hearts are truly heavy. It is heartbreaking to witness how political parties and those in positions of power engage in corruption that ultimately harms their own country. This injustice is unbearable, and while we continue to raise our voices, it often feels like we cannot change their minds. However, we still hold onto hope-a hope that one day, change will come, and corruption will be rooted out.
Sadly, we are also facing similar political challenges and corruption here in Nepal. It is shared pain-one that affects the lives and hopes of millions. One of the most painful consequences is the growing number of youth leaving Nepal in search of higher education and better job opportunities abroad. Many young people feel discouraged from building their future here due to the lack of opportunities and the widespread monopoly system. As a result, we are facing multiple layers of struggle-political instability, corruption, and the loss of our youth workforce.
In the midst of these challenges, expressive arts exercises have become a vital support for us. These practices help restore our hope, provide tools for self-care, and keep us grounded. They allow us to stay in the resilient zone, no matter how difficult the circumstances become. These skills and methods are not just helpful-they have become essential to our emotional well-being and collective healing.
Although we are far apart, we are united in spirit. Our voices, empathy, and solidarity are with you in the fight against corruption and in building opportunities-especially for the younger generation-to thrive and contribute to their own countries with pride.
Much love from Harambee Arts Nepal
Regards
Sarala Tamang
Reply from Harambee Arts Kenya
From: Joyce Oketch
To: Sarala and Harambee Arts Nepal
Dear Sarala and the entire Harambee Arts Nepal Family,
Your message touched me more than words can ever express. It came at a time when our hearts are burdened, our spirits shaken, and our communities struggling to breathe. Thank you for your love, for standing with us, and for reminding us that across the mountains and oceans, there are others who feel what we feel and carry what we carry.
Yes, the situation in Kenya is heart-breaking. Corruption has taken root so deeply that it chokes opportunities before they can blossom. So many young people, full of dreams and potential, have been pushed to the edges, forgotten by a system that should protect them. With no jobs, no hope, and no clear future, many have ended up in gangs and crime. The streets have become dangerous. Youths are now attacking people in broad daylight, stealing, harming, doing whatever they can to survive. Parents are living in fear, not only for their children’s safety, but also for their souls. Some don’t sleep. They cry in silence, wondering how things got this bad, wondering how to protect their sons and daughters from being lost forever.
And yet, in the middle of this darkness, we have not stopped creating light.
Just like you in Nepal, we have leaned into the healing power of expressive arts, not just for the community, but also for ourselves. This work has become our lifeline. We have created sacred spaces where people can breathe, cry, shout, laugh, paint, and just be, without judgment. In a world that often ignores our pain, these moments of honesty and expression are nothing short of sacred.
Through our caregivers’ programs, mental health sessions, and art therapy with children, youth, and parents, we have seen lives begin to shift. We’ve seen mothers break down and then rise again with a little more strength. We’ve seen young people draw their pain, speak their truth, and slowly begin to believe that healing is possible. We’ve seen boys who could have joined gangs choose instead to pick up a paintbrush or share their story. We’ve seen women who carry years of silent suffering finally say, “I matter.”
These spaces are not just programs. They are places of resurrection. And we, the facilitators, are not untouched by this pain. We carry it too. That’s why we also use the art, to release what words can’t hold, to remind ourselves that even though we are wounded, we are still here. Still standing. Still holding space for others, even when our own hearts are breaking.
Your message reminded me that we are not alone. That someone else, far away, also wakes up every day choosing healing over despair. That someone else is fighting to keep hope alive when everything feels lost.
We are holding hands with you, Sarala. Across the borders, across the grief, across the struggles. We are together in this. We may be hurting, but we are not broken. And as long as we continue to create, to express, and to love, change will come.
With deep love, shared pain, and fierce solidarity,
Michael
Harambee Arts Kenya Team
These letters remind us that even in the face of systemic challenges, distance, and hardship, the bonds of solidarity, empathy, and shared creativity can sustain us. Across continents, our teams are holding space for one another, lifting each other up, and finding hope in the transformative power of expressive arts. Together, we continue to create light in the darkest places, proving that connection and compassion know no borders.
If these stories inspire you, consider joining our global community of supporters. Become a Harambee Arts Patron today and help us empower children, youth, and communities through expressive arts programs in Kenya, Nepal, and beyond. Your support ensures that hope, healing, and creative expression continue to thrive where they are needed most.
