What is Gender Equity and Reconciliation?
Can you imagine being part of a group of women and men who actually tell the deep truth of their life experiences, together?
Can you imagine a group of queer and straight people who share the truth of their personal lives, to heal and transcend their differences?
Imagine being in a group of people who don’t shy away from what has been difficult, but embrace the pain of dysfunctional gender norms and relations—and move beyond these ancient wounds to actually begin re-inventing our human future together—replacing our disastrous gender legacy with a new civilization of beloved community.
Sounds too good to be true, right? It isn’t.
Gender Equity and Reconciliation International (GERI) convenes groups of women and men, and people of all gender identities and expressions, to work closely together—not only to heal from the past, but also to begin re-writing the future of gender relations in the human family.
This is the essence of what GERI is all about.
How do we begin? By telling our stories. Because untold stories keep oppression invisible. We create a safe, courageous, and mutually compassionate space, in which our truths and stories come forward, without shame or blame.
The GERI process brings us into in a unique space of deep mutual awareness and compassion, and from there leads us skillfully out of our collective past, and ushers in a new shared group space of newfound oneness—as rare as it is precious—where a collective alchemy begins to work in and through the group. Freed from the past, we then begin to embrace and live into an auspicious loving interconnection that fosters “beloved community.”
GERI provides spaces all over the world, in which this transformational alchemy takes place. The ravages of gender oppression have afflicted every human civilization across the globe, in every culture, race, and continent, since time immemorial. But this does not have to continue. We can change it, and we ARE changing it, and replacing it with beloved community.
Do you want to be part of this? You are warmly welcome. The human spirit is greater than any and all obstacles. Together, we are re-writing the future of humanity, centered in the heart. Please join us.
Workshops & Training
The Gender Reconciliation workshop deeply touched my spirit and my heart, and I am profoundly grateful. For the first time in my life I am experiencing a fun, joyous relationship with a man — something I never thought would be possible. Although it is still in its early stages, I firmly believe this would never have been possible without the healing that took place at the Gender Reconciliation workshop. Thank you for helping me appreciate this very special moment in my life.
~ Michelle, Toronto, Canada,
“For me, the GERI gender-equity training was eye-opening as well as heart-opening. The well-presented exercises took us deep into both male and female histories in a way that was challenging and expansive. I learned and felt a great deal about others’ experiences and opened into and felt my own experiences in a profound way as well. The result for me was connection and healing, both internally and externally.”
~ Phil Rogacki, USA
Contact: Garrett Evans, Garrett@GRworld.org
I have been looking for a long time to find a way to bring healing and reconciliation between women and men. This work is the answer. We need much more of this work.
~ Nozizwe Madlala Routledge, former Deputy Speaker of Parliament, and Deputy Minister of Health, South Africa
“It was a forum where I was able to speak to my own pain [as a man]. Prison is not that kind of environment. The workshop was an opportunity I used to release all that I carried – even from before prison growing up without a father. It was my space.
I felt safe. The facilitators held the space. This was what I had prayed for. I was able to speak about my family, growing up without a father…and I listened to other people open up. Other men opened up.
I saw the healing taking place. You don’t know until you experience it. I began to see my father in a different light – never having had an understanding of who he was. I developed more compassion for the prison warders. I looked at people differently. Everyone needs help and goes through their own pain.”
~ Les Thomas, GERI Facilitator, South Africa
Contact: Desireé English, dez.english@gmail.com
“What an unforgettable workshop! The work done here during these three days has healed a lot of my family lineage. The whole experience was to feel embraced—in a sacred temple—of the hearts of all who shared the experience.”
~ Natalia Cediel Bogota, Colombia
Listening to women speak their truth and listening to us men, also from our sensitivity in front of women, was very healing.
~ Jaime, Male Participant, Mexico
Contact: Silvia Araya, Silvia@GRworld.org
The process you took us through was very very deep. What I appreciated is the fact that you facilitators made yourselves vulnerable to us too—and it opened up another world for me. It opened up a space that has been so transforming, so healing—giving me so much hope. And with this hope I can go now, even to families, to youngsters, giving them this hope.
—Ligia Fonseca, Counselor, Mumbai, India
member of the Vatican Family Council
Contact: Ansar Anwar: Ansar@GRworld.org
Gender Reconciliation combines healing, transformation, and community in a dynamic new way of seeing and understanding the relations between women and men. It takes us through our differences, to beyond our differences, in the context of a safe community and skilled facilitation—creating a space for reconciliation to occur.
We are bringing this work to Australia because gender relations in this country need to be examined and transformed. . . Gender needs to be reconciled, just as much in Australia as any developing country.
~Esther and William Diplock, Brisbane Australia
Contact: Esther and William Diplock: esther.diplock@gmail.com or william.diplock@gmail.com
For a decade & half, I have been having difficulties dealing with self especially in relation to my experiences as a male while growing up. Throughout the days, I was attending the workshop with one extra person; the inside me.
I recognize that the safe space we created during the online workshop, invited the inner me to engage me in a personal-dialogue, which is still ongoing a month after the workshop. I have found a new source of joy from the insight and awareness that only by finding inner peace and healing, can I be an agent of healing and reconciliation between genders.”
~ Male participant in East Africa GERI Online Course
Contact: Karambu Ringera and Naomi Mwangi: ringerambu@gmail.com or naomimwangi54@gmail.com
“I loved taking part in this! It felt like coming home. . .
I am a facilitator, trainer & teacher, and often, when I am a participant myself, do not feel held enough to go as deeply as I would like to. . . This time I did. Heartfelt deep gratitude to you all. . “.
~ Female Participant, UK
“The workshop provided a safe space to be vulnerable and to be challenged. I feel heard. I feel seen. I feel valued.”
~ Male participant, UK
Contact: Garrett Evans: Programs@grworld.org