Issue: Various
Organization: eXile International
***Content Disclaimer/Warning***
The views expressed in this blog do not necessarily reflect the views of social he(art). The intention of this blog is solely to support and publicize artists and their efforts regarding social justice issues. Posts are edited as little as possible in an effort to accurately reflect artist statements, and therefore often contain subject matter or opinions that aren’t necessarily representative of social he(art). Please note that this blog contains some material that may be triggering to some readers; please read with caution.
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In the several months since painting live at a Falling Whistles event here in Denver, I’ve made several connections across the country with fantastic individuals working to end the more than 20-year war going on in the Congo, and the devastating effects it’s had on its people. I met Beth Haley through Facebook, who contacted me to ask the meaning behind my “There is Freedom in Story” piece, and had the honor of sitting down to coffee with her a few months ago when she passed through town.
Beth’s passions are evident. The instant connection and inspiration I felt in our conversation are sure to be the experience of all others who have the same privilege. Started over a year ago, Beth helped found an organization called eXile International, which “exists to instill hope, healing, and love to the trauma victims of Africa by providing trauma counseling, art therapy programs and by teaching peace, reconciliation and conflict resolutions skills.”
Creatively, Beth’s passions lie in writing, photography, and in the work she does with her clients in her counseling practice in Nashville and with eXile. The following is a statement about Beth and the inspiration behind eXile and what drives her to use her art (and many other talents) for a much greater cause:
“Feeding a child is a vital and basic necessity, but when you feed a child, that which fills their stomach will disappear. Hunger returns. It always does. But if you teach a child to Hope, it will be their greatest companion on a hungry night.
eXile international was founded by Beth and friend Peggy Cox. Out of her first trip to Congo for trauma counseling, Beth had to redefine her understanding of what hope meant. After she and the team visited five displacement camps in one day, she realized the people were not only living in true EXILE, but in emotional EXILE as well – lacking security and stability of the heart. Beth was shown a new level of hopelessness…
• Child soldiers asking her to be their mother
• Women trying to give her their children
• Children being abducted by rebels and forced to kill their parents or to watch their parents be murdered in brutal ways.
• Stories of women being repeatedly raped and having their children being stolen from their arms by the rebels
• Children who had been so traumatized they rarely spoke or showed emotion.
Her primary thought prevailed, ‘This is so much bigger than we are. How can we make a difference?’ On the plane ride back, she sat next to an autistic Kenyan boy. Looking out the window at the clouds and the heavens, he started to repeat in his catatonic way, ‘It is bigger than we are. It is bigger than we are. It is so much bigger than we are.’
In amazement, it was then that she realized it IS so much bigger than we are….as individuals – but not as a collaborative team and not with a big God.
Out of her experiences (and being a social worker and psychologist) the dream began of creating a trauma counseling program for the war-torn youth of Congo and Eastern Africa that would involved art/expressive therapy and peace & reconciliation training.”
They invite you to join with them by fighting this fight and making this dream a reality.
Beth, in remarking on what’s brought her to this place, told me, “As a child and a preacher’s kid, I was on the front row when the missionaries came to church. My friends would skip that night, but I was there foaming at the mouth to get over to Africa. My family would turn off the Save The Children infomercials because I would be so into it. (I even desperately wanted a live monkey for Christmas when I was little.) Over the years, I have been to many countries doing mission work throughout the world, but was praying for God to bring my skills as a therapist and my love for Africa together.
I was in Dallas doing my own personal work for trauma recovery/emotional wounds and was without a car, so I walked to the nearest church on a Sunday. A man was speaking by the name of Célestin Musekura who survived the Rwandan genocide. Out of his own story, he founded an organization called ALARM (African Leadership and Reconciliation Ministries). Their mission is teach peace, reconciliation, trauma counseling, and discipleship training in Eastern Africa. He and I talked the day after I met him and began talking about creating a trauma counseling program for the youth in Africa. I went with ALARM to Congo in 2008. Congo was like no other country I had been to. I think for some people, its darkness envelops you in a way that bonds you to it. You leave knowing you have a play some part it bringing light to her people.”
eXile international exists to instill hope, healing, and love to the traumatized children of war in Congo and Eastern Africa by providing art/expressive therapy and peace building through a program called the HOPE Initiative.
Their mission: Through partnering with existing African organizations, orphanages, churches, and schools on the ground, the vision is for the art therapy and peace program to be implemented throughout Congo and Eastern Africa.
Their greatest vision is for this program to provide a means for the children to heal from their heartaches and to learn forgiveness, peace, and reconciliation at a deeper level. With a problem so massive, they believe they must begin with the smallest child and teach them a different way: To live in hope, peace, and healing.
Their motto is this: We Must Stop the Bleeding and Mend the Wound To Change the Course…..
Stopping the Bleeding is international political activism to support peace in Congo and throughout Eastern Africa.
Mending the Wound is giving the children an opportunity to heal from their heartaches through art, dance, drama, and music therapy and teaching them what peace, reconciliation, and forgiveness looks like.
If both of those things happen over time and through the hearts of enough children, we can see a change in the course of war. Their dream is for the next generation of Africa’s children to be soldiers of peace rather than soldiers of war.
Finally, Beth remarked, “My heart cry is for the people of Congo and Eastern Africa, but in general, it is for anyone who others have given up on. I think believing in someone and valuing them for who they were created to be, in the place they currently are, is one of the greatest honors you can give them. That can be the underdog who is my next door neighbor, on the team on the basketball court who is loosing, or in a developing country. God is the ultimate one who believes in us when no one else does. Although I fail daily, my wish is to be His heart here on earth. Apart from that, its kids kids and kids. I love my nieces and nephew like crazy.
Simply: [I want to] let the Lord use my passions to make a difference, to embed peace in once war torn countries, and help these kids know that God is beside of them in their pain. Much of the program has to do with togetherness. In showing them that they have all suffered greatly, but they have suffered together and they can heal together…that they are not alone. Because there is a strength that lives inside of them that no one can ever take away – they are never alone and peace is possible.”
By: sandra407 google.com/874
9 September 2009 8:26 am
Hi! I was surfing and found your blog post… nice! I love your blog. :) Cheers! Sandra. R.
By: sandraraven15 google.com
9 September 2009 5:51 am
Hi! I was surfing and found your blog post… nice! I love your blog. :) Cheers! Sandra. R.
By: Bethany P Haley
15 August 2009 2:46 pm
Hey Guys! Email us – let’s talk more : )
- bethany
By: Julie Fordham
11 August 2009 9:35 pm
This definitely appeals to me as well.
Definitely something I would LOVE to become a part of in the future.
Thank you so much for featuring Ms Haley and Exile.
By: Chastity Roberts
10 August 2009 11:19 am
I’d really love to find a way to help EXILE International as an artist. I have read so much about Africa and the Congo and what trauma they live with. I’d love to chat with you all. I can’t explain it but this really weighs on my heart. I’d love to find a way to help somehow. Please contact me.