Founder’s Story
Anyieth D'Awol
Founder of The Roots Project
My name is Anyieth D’Awol. I am a South Sudanese lawyer, human and women’s rights advocate, and trauma healing practitioner. My work weaves together justice, cultural heritage, community and healing.
I earned my Bachelor of Laws (LLB) from Sheffield Hallam University in 2003 and a Master of Laws (LLM) in Human Rights from the University of Leicester in the United Kingdom in 2004. In 2005, I returned home to South Sudan, committed to contributing to the rebuilding of my country after decades of conflict.
I began working as a Human Rights Officer with the United Nations Mission in Sudan, traveling extensively across the country. I listened to stories of resilience, loss, and survival from communities deeply scarred by war. Over time, those experiences reshaped how I understood change. We were doing what was called “capacity building,” yet I kept seeing the same people and witnessing little transformation. I began asking myself: Why don’t we do something practical—something that gives people tools to take care of themselves?
As Roots grew and the start of the 2013 civil war, it became clear that economic empowerment alone was not enough. Primarily, I became overwhelmed with my own trauma. CHildhood experiences, including the loss of my mother, experiences in human rights, personal loss and an accident involving my young daughter brought me anxiety, fear and adrenal fatigue. I found myself losing my sense of self, unable to be present and this affected my life, work and relationships.
Serendipity brought me to the Center for Mind Body Medicine in the US and I found a model that could help me understand my mind, body and all that I was experiencing. I found hope and watched myself heal, find myself and have been on this healing path ever since.
I immediately recognized the weight of trauma, including depression, anxiety, PTSD, chronic illness, and generational wounds in my family members and the women I worked with. Trauma continued to shape the women’s lives and their ability to care for their families.
Trauma healing emerged as the missing piece. It helps women understand how adversity lives in the body, affects relationships, and is passed across generations, while offering practical tools to cope, regulate, and care for themselves and their children. Healing, alongside livelihood, opened a pathway not just to survival, but to thriving.
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In 2009, I founded The Roots Project in Juba with a clear and bold vision: to support the economic empowerment of South Sudanese women and communities through the preservation of traditional, culture-based arts and crafts. I imagined a space where women from different tribes could work under one roof, exchange techniques, share their life experiences, and strengthen one another.
In a country burdened by the legacies of war, tribal division, gender inequality, and insecurity, Roots was built on principles of dignity and ownership. We created a merit-based, non-discriminatory environment where women could work, learn, and heal safely. Beyond craft-making, we integrated literacy and numeracy classes, childcare, nutritious meals, transportation, legal support, and emergency healthcare assistance. Roots provides all materials for traditional beadwork and markets the finished products locally and internationally, transforming creativity into livelihood and hope.
In 2018, I partnered with the Center for Mind-Body Medicine (CMBM) to facilitate the first Mind-Body Medicine training in Juba, equipping 88 grassroots leaders with skills such as meditation, guided imagery, and group support. Today, I serve as a faculty member of CMBM and I lead CMBM-Africa, working alongside African facilitators to expand trauma healing across the continent.
At the heart of my work is a simple truth: empowerment and healing grow when we honor what we can learn from one another through beadwork traditions, shared life experiences, and collective healing. Family and friends have taught me that there is always room for more love in life. Through Roots, CMBM, and CMBM-Africa, I am committed to weaving together tradition, empowerment, and healing into a fabric strong enough to carry our communities forward.