Our first-ever East African Resilience Residential took place over five days on the peaceful shores of Lake Elementaita in Kenya, a world away from the constant noise and urgency of changemaking.
This gathering marked a key moment in our Resilience Fellowship, bringing together 14 young climate advocates, to share knowledge, reflect, and build a community grounded in care and connection. For many, this was the first opportunity they’ve had to step back – taking five days offline, immersed in nature and surrounded by others who truly understand the emotional weight of their work.
Throughout the Residential, Fellows took part in our signature 8-session curriculum on how to handle the climate anxiety and burnout that often come hand-in-hand with changemaking work. But our approach isn’t about asking these incredible young people to change themselves… It’s about helping them rediscover the tools they already hold within themselves. To feel what they need to feel, to rest, and to remember that their worth as humans isn’t defined by productivity or impact.
Once our fellows have been through our curriculum themselves, they are ‘’trained as trainers,’’ to spread resilience throughout the youth climate movement so that more young people protect their mental health and stay in the changemaking space for the long haul. They learn how to facilitate the workshop curriculum for others, before returning home to share what they’ve learned with other young changemakers in their communities. At the Residential, they hold planning and strategy sessions to think about which segments of their communities they want to prioritise for recruitment into their Resilience Circles and how to ensure they make it as impactful as possible.
But the Resilience Residential is about much more than just the workshops, it’s magic and deep transformation is also aboutabout what happens in-between sessions. The laughter, the platonic love letters, the games, the candlelit dinners and shared stories around the campfire. When phones are put away and people are fully present, something shifts. A new way of living where community is founded on care and respect, is experienced by some for the first time in their lives.
Our fellow, Victor, captured it beautifully in his blog:
“We connected over shared laughter, long conversations, and a collective vision of a greener, safer, and kinder world. Somewhere between the sessions, the songs, and the sunsets, I felt something shift — strangers became family, and a simple fellowship became a community.These are now the strangers I never knew I needed.”
And from our Fellow Caltone’s blog:
“I came to The Resilience Project hoping to learn how to sustain myself while working for a better world. I left having received a far deeper lesson: Existential resilience is not a solitary pursuit. It is the mirror held up by a community that insists on seeing the best, most beautiful and most capable parts of you even the parts you’ve been too humble, too reserved or too busy pondering to notice yourself. And for that, I am forever resilient and forever grateful.”
These reflections remind us why The Resilience Project exists. It’s about creating spaces where young activists can bring their whole selves – the hopeful and the hurting, the beautiful and the messy. Spaces where people can feel safe enough to do the inner development work needed to sustain their activism and build changemaking movements that last.
Are you a young changemaker based in Kenya? Our Resilience Circles are now open for applications – find a Circle near you and apply to join today!
- Click here to watch a video and hear from our Fellows about their experience!
