PROJECT
Healing Forests, Healing Hearts: Psychosocial Support and Advocacy Work for the Ogiek in Kenya
The project is financed by HERING-Stiftung Natur and Mensch and is implemented by Peace Brigades International (PBI) in Partnership with the Ogiek Peoples’ Development Program (OPDP). The Ogiek are one of Kenya’s smallest Indigenous communities (52,600 people, 2019 census) and the traditional inhabitants of the Mau Forest Complex. As hunters, gatherers, and beekeepers, they have long sustained and protected the forest through deep ecological knowledge. Despite this, they have faced decades of marginalization, land dispossession, and repeated forced evictions, which have severely undermined their livelihoods, social structures, and cultural identity.
In 2017, the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights ruled that the Kenyan government had violated the Ogiek’s land and cultural rights, and in 2022 ordered compensation and recognition of their ancestral land; however, implementation remains pending, and many Ogiek continue to live in precarious conditions with limited access to basic services and increasing cultural loss. In collaboration with OPDP, the project adopts a community-led, integrated approach that combines trauma-informed psychosocial support, including healing circles and cultural revitalization, with strengthened advocacy and political participation, particularly for leaders, women, and youth, while also documenting traditional forest knowledge and cultural practices. Overall, the project seeks to restore dignity, promote justice, and strengthen collective healing by linking psychosocial support with sustained advocacy for the protection of Ogiek land and human rights.
ABOUT HERING FOUNDATION
The HERING-Stiftung Natur and Mensch – the HERING Foundation for Nature and Humanity – aims to reduce or prevent the negative effects of human activities on nature and the environment-and, wherever possible, to mitigate or reverse the damage that has already been done. The Foundation also aims to protect the rights of ethnic minorities and indigenous peoples, particularly when it comes to protecting their knowledge, natural environment and homelands. One of the Foundation’s core activities is to allocate funding to third-party organisations who are engaged in pursuing the same goals. Read more about HERING Foundation on their website.
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