veemata mazi

Veemata Mazi was founded in 2020 by a few women living in Athens with the desire to see holistic life-giving transformation in the lives of friends who had experienced trauma.  They noticed several things in their conversations with one another. First, that many marginalized people deal with mental health struggles and trauma that are obstacles to holistic flourishing. Whatever the person’s story, there are a host of needs, physical and spiritual, that cannot be met without support in the realm of their mental health needs. At the same time, they recognized that workers in organizations that already existed could help facilitate holistic healing better by being more informed and equipped to support the mental health needs of themselves and their beneficiaries. Finally, they saw that if the broader community as a whole could come together around conversations about mental health and try to find root causes and solutions together, then perhaps the community could more effectively work together to meet needs.  Realizing the restorative power of art, artists on the team began walking alongside marginalized women by creating space for processing through artistic and musical expression.  At the same time, from years of experience in professional and non-professional mental health settings, part of our team began developing workshops and training modules to equip mental health professionals and non-profit workers in Athens with tools specific to trauma-sensitive care.  We are now registered as a Greek non-profit and continue to expand our programs and trainings as we listen to the needs of the communities we serve.