Landing Trauma-informed Approach to Investment
Our implementing partners came into a training session expecting tools to strengthen their programmes. They walked out with something far more powerful — a new lens on how people change, and a deeper understanding of what truly gets in the way of progress in communities.
The training was meant to introduce trauma-informed principles. What it became was a mirror. For many, it stirred old wounds, brought buried stories to the surface, and made space for healing they hadn’t realised they needed. But perhaps more importantly, it helped them see that trauma isn’t just a personal burden — it’s a community-wide reality that shapes how people show up, engage, trust, learn, and grow.
The training explored what trauma is — not just the dramatic, visible kind, but the quieter, more chronic stress of poverty, loss, exclusion, and never feeling safe. It unpacked how trauma lives in the body and brain, how it shuts down parts of us that are essential for learning, relationship-building, and decision-making. Through concepts like the “river of life,” participants reflected on their own journeys — the moments that shaped who they are, how they lead, and how they show up in the spaces they serve.
But this was never just about introspection. The real shift came in the realisation that trauma-informed work is not a ‘nice-to-have’ — it’s essential for impact.
Many participants said it plainly: “If we don’t integrate this into our strategies, our programmes won’t work.” Because no matter how well-designed a youth intervention is, if the young person is in survival mode, they won’t engage. No matter how good a parenting programme is, if the parent is weighed down by shame, exhaustion, or unprocessed trauma, it won’t land. We learned that people can’t take in information, change behaviour, or imagine new futures when their nervous systems are still stuck in self-protection.
One participant put it powerfully:
“To truly support children, we need to work with their parents—and that means recognising the trauma they carry too. I came into this training thinking trauma-informed leadership was about others. I left understanding it starts with me. This experience made me confront my own patterns, my personality, even my pain. It was powerful, honest, and by far the best training I’ve had.”
— Lebohang Dunster, Nal’ibali Coordinator
In other words, how we show up matters. Not just what we offer, but how we offer it. Not just the content of our interventions, but the emotional climate we create around them.
The training helped us see that harm doesn’t only come from violent acts; it can also come from well-meaning programmes that move too fast, demand too much, or fail to see the pain people carry. And just as harm can be passed from one generation to the next, so can healing. As Nomfundo Mogapi, the lead facilitator, shared:
“We are breaking generational trauma. You have funders who recognize the need for this and are willing to invest in generational breakthrough.”
This shift in thinking is now rippling through our ecosystem. Partners are revisiting their strategies. Programmes are being redesigned with greater sensitivity to people’s emotional readiness. Teams are recognising that how they work is as important as what they do. And it’s not stopping with practitioners. Next, the Managing Team and the Lesedi Solar Park Trust Board will go through the same trauma-informed process. Because if we expect communities to do deep work, we must be willing to do it too.
Increasingly, the renewable energy sector is recognising that building schools or clinics is only part of the story. The real impact comes when we build trust. When we create safety. When we meet people with empathy and honour their lived experiences.
Trauma-informed practice reminds us that change doesn’t happen through pressure; it happens through connection. That healing isn’t separate from development; it is development. And that if we want our programmes to truly land, we must work at the pace of trust, not the speed of deliverables.