Greetings, Global Fellows! This year marked the 10th annual National Day of Racial Healing. On this historic day, communities across the U.S. and around the world honored the values we share, built trust and created genuine connections.

 

In late January, the Global Fellows Network (GFN) hosted two sessions of online healing activities where fellows from around the world gathered to reflect on their experiences, share stories of resilience and engage in dialogue to promote solidarity in action. This year’s conversations centered on the deeply personal work of racial healing — exploring identity, belonging and the courage required to confront difficult truths.

 

Fellows shared powerful reflections on their journeys, including what healing looks like in their work, how ancestral knowledge and cultural traditions guide their efforts and what brings them hope in challenging times:

 

“What gives me hope is friendship, solidarity, conspiring, breathing together and the ability to dream intergenerationally.” – Miguel Guajardo, KILP-02, Texas, U.S.A.

 

“What brings me hope is a spark that comes from the affected people as they come together to identify their path forward.” – Joseph Prewitt-Diaz, KNFP-03, Virginia, U.S.A.

 

“We might not know everything, or understand everyone, but just the empathy, right? The kindness that we show to everyone — that’s what gives me hope.” – Lorena Aguayo-Márquez, CLN-03, Michigan, U.S.A.

 

“We just need to continue the conversation up until it lands. And eventually it will land.” –Lulama Ntozini, KSAL, Johannesburg, South Africa

Sixteen Global Fellows in Mexico recently explored healing-centered leadership with COPERA (Colectivo para Eliminar el Racismo). Through practices of “radical tenderness,” deep listening and shared vulnerability, fellows examined how racism affects their internal lives as leaders. For participants like Gabriela Loaeza and Maricarmen De la Encarnación, the experience reinforced that justice work requires not only courage but also community, care and collective healing.

Global Fellows are collaborating across continents to create transformative change. Through initiatives like Leadership CO-ACT, cross-border educator exchanges and convenings that connect young professionals with thought leaders, they’re creating lasting impact rooted not just in strategy but in connection, trust and care for the people leading change. Watch the work of fellows unfold across three powerful stories.

Across the network, fellows pursue racial healing on a daily basis, in unique ways that are relevant to their local contexts, as part of their efforts to undo systems of harm, discrimination and oppression. These racial healing conversations are timely, as communities and leaders around the globe convene to observe the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination that takes place every year on March 21. Learn more about what’s emerging as Global Fellows coalesce around this important issue.

When fellows from different countries gathered to discuss belonging and healing, GFN Regional Liaison Tembinkosi Semwayo witnessed the group discover unexpected common ground. Across borders, stories of exclusion echoed as did shared solutions. The power of “holding spaces” emerged as central: intentional environments where people feel seen, heard and valued. These spaces are foundational to healing and transformation and reconnecting participants to Ubuntu, the belief that our humanity is bound together.

 

Learn more about what emerged from these conversations.

In January, fellows spanning geography, generations and lived experiences in the United States, came together to explore what healing looks like in their communities. For many, the conversation began with belonging: creating intentional spaces where individuals’ stories are validated and shared experiences emerge.

 

Hear how fellows in the U.S. make racial healing an ongoing practice.

Fellows from Latin America and the Caribbean participated in National Day of Racial Healing conversations and shared how healing unfolds in their communities. For Jaqueline Soares (KWETU), a Black historian and educator in Brazil, healing happens in the classroom where she centers the histories of enslaved Africans and Indigenous peoples and pushes policies that repair past harms. “We are not born Black; we become Black,” she reflected, describing how social structures impose racial distinctions over time.

 

Find out how fellows practice racial healing as daily work: how memory is reclaimed, identity is affirmed and communities build power for a more just future.

WKKF joins Caribbean Philanthropic Forum in Jamaica: W.K. Kellogg Foundation staff joined philanthropic partners, community organizations and grassroots leaders for a timely convening centered on a network of more than 22 island nations. WKKF's peer funders and grantee partners in Haiti presented the cross-sector innovation and collaboration taking place to help communities thrive, despite the challenges present in parts of the country. WKKF staffers spoke to the foundation’s long-term commitment to Haiti’s community-based organizations who are sustaining critical health, educational and economic systems for children and families.

Resources

 

More resources for Racial Equity & Racial Healing: The Structure Within is a creative community project led by Mónica Moreno Figueroa that explores how internalized oppression undermines social transformation from within. Grounded in research on racism in Mexico and Latin America and fifteen years of anti-racist activism with COPERA, the project offers tools to help individuals and organizations recognize and confront these challenges. Resources include an animated film, podcast series and educational materials.

Self-Care Tips from Around the Globe: Save the Children recently released a curated list of their favorite self-care practices. From meditation, to exercise, digital detox to cooking, scan the resource and see what wellness approaches you can adopt. 

Build a Rapid Response and Crisis Communication Plan: The Strategic Communications Hub offers valuable resources in a quickly changing landscape. Tap its rapid response and crisis communication resources to react quickly to breaking news, policy updates or emerging threats. Find ready-to-use templates for crisis communications plan, response protocols and more at the Hub. 

KNFP Class 16 Reunion – Atlanta, April 17–20
KNFP Class 16 is coming together for a reunion in Atlanta from April 17 to 20! If you’re a member of Class 16 and want to learn more about the reunion or how to get involved, please reach out to the GFN team (GlobalFellowsNetwork@wkkf.org).

 

Have you met up with another Global Fellow recently? If so, please share your pictures on OpenChange.

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