Sawubona Transformation Foundation

To create 'Sawubona Healing' hubs worldwide, i.e. on each continent. We would do this by training potential leaders to run these hubs. These hubs become the 'safe place' for people, communities to be heard and seen following a traumatic past or present. Providing access to modern and ancient modalities for dealing with trauma

Funds will be used to continue in the work of creating documentaries but making them more educational to support others in their healing journey. Branching out to schools and organisations worldwide to get the reach of Global IMPACT

I am a British Born Nigerian, living in Sydney, Australia. My mission is to raise the vibration on healing our trauma.

I was born to two amazing parents who did the best they could with the tools they had. I moved a lot as a kid and most of my childhood I was separated from my siblings as in Africa 'it takes a village to raise a child'. 

A relocation to Australia in my early 30's would give me the space and time to look deeply at my most traumatizing moment, which was being sexually abused as a young 7yr old girl. 

I would sit with the acknowledgement but feel stuck on what to do with it, especially to help others.

My mission started in 2019 when I authored my first book, then it went to another level when I created and produced my first short documentary with my personal funds.

Most are roaming this earth with unresolved trauma and trying to 'be' and 'do' without any acknowledgement.

My mission is to empower everyone to transmute their pain to power, not only to heal themselves but contribute to a world that is in dire need of healing.

The true scale of the problem is difficult to magnify, especially in what we call 'developing countries' and this is because Trauma remains the biggest elephant (we do not acknowledge) in our communities and the world at large.

However the following stats do show a harrowing number of people who have experienced a distressing or disturbing event at some point in their lives.

"65% of Australians, 70% of adult Americans and 1 in 3 adults in England have experienced trauma"

There are a number of factors attributing to these statistics, some stem from capitalism, history of slavery, theft, stolen generations. However, it is time to change the approach of correcting some of these wrongs.

What Sawubona Transformation Healing (STF) does is work from what we would call 'bottom up' meaning we focus on working with the majority on healing their wounds so they come back to a place of empowerment to be part of the changes we need.

STF creates hubs for people to be seen, it provides educational material for those who have no access to this otherwise, in the form of documentaries, programs, retreats etc. Sawubona reminds people who they really are.

This approach is bottom up. Imagine a pyramid, we typically think power is held with the minority at the pointy top. Sometimes all we need is a shift in perspective, this shift involves flipping this pyramid on its head and focusing on the part of the spectrum that carries the true majority, the true grit.

What happens when we take extra-ordinary people from every day life and lovingly probe them to look at their trauma? what if we reach them before they start to 'blow' their trauma through others? recycling more trauma. What happens when we start to operate from a place of love.

Our approach is disruptive as we will use be-spoke documentary style formats to educate everyone involved, regardless of where they sit on the trauma spectrum.

We become truly innovative by combining ancient and western modalities in the healing offerings, working with practitioners worldwide.

In Yemi Penn (me) as an Engineer and Entrepreneur, she is the best person to lead this charge with a support of board and partners as she has and continues to run successful businesses which are all heart centered and have been pivotal in kickstarting the Sawubona Transformation Foundation mission. 

Efforts to date have been solely funded through Yemi Penn's personal funds and her business. She has built communities worldwide who rely and look to the material she puts out. The recent release of her short documentary titled 'Did I choose my trauma?' and her TEDx titled 'Do we choose the experience our trauma teaches us?' brought about hundreds of comments and feedback. This shows the need for Sawubona Transformation Foundation (STF). Hundreds, thousands, millions and dare we say it, billions are hungry for a space to be seen, heard and an opportunity to heal.

STF will continue in the work Yemi has done, looking for support by those in a position to support such efforts i.e. Elevate. Yemi has since engaged a board of directors to support her in leading the Not-for-profit that is STF, it will continue to develop programs, courses, educational material, regular events for people in need regardless of financial or social status.

Yemi has started liaising with producers in Australia, UK and America to produce a feature length documentary around the resolution of trauma after the acknowledgement.

She has support from leading experts in the psychotherapy and psychological realm to support the varying initiatives too.