Creating space for healing
We challenge the pressures rooted in patriarchal ideology for African women to ignore our trauma, and instead seek to create space and time to heal.
Our missionCONSOLATION exists to utilize research, coalition building, and co-design practices to improve and increase safe spaces for survivors of gender-based violence (GBV).
The problem-
In Sub-Saharan Africa, the prevalence of gender-based violence is higher than the global average, with closer to one in two women experiencing GBV throughout their lifetime (World Bank 2022).
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Since the loss of USAID funds in Africa, more than 5000 health and social facilities including safe spaces for women have closed on the continent (Women’s Refugee Commission, 2026). In addition, there is a lack of affordable housing and mental health resources for African victims and survivors of gender-based violence (UNFPA, 2025). As a result, women are forced to remain in cycles of abuse and economic dependency.
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To date, minimal data and research exist to inform how to effectively build trauma and culturally-informed safe spaces.
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Small grassroots women’s centers in Africa have little access to financial support or major philanthropic institutions.
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Workers at shelters and survivor-service delivery centers have minimal support and often face secondary trauma.
Our responseWe use a survivor-centered framework to support women who have experienced violence, service practitioners and frontline workers at safe spaces.
01 / BECOMING WHOLEEnsure every woman who experiences violence their right to heal, become whole, and thrive in place in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA).
02 / RECOVERY IN OUR ROOTSDesign, implement, and scale solutions that deconstruct colonial approaches to healing and space in Sub-Saharan Africa.
03 / SHINING AS YOU ARESpotlight our stories authentically.
