In November 2019 our company retreat and strategy session left us with the theme of flow. Little did we know that 2020 would bring circumstances that would allow us to practice flow in the most
extraordinary of ways.


2020 opened on a high note for The Barefoot Facilitator, with facilitation assignments in Msunduzi and the launch of Citopoly in Nelson Mandela Bay both assignments for South African Cities
Network. Amidst preparations for the Gauteng launch of Citopoly – President Ramaphosa announced the state of disaster.


A distinctive part of our in-person offering is to keep technology out of the room as much as possible. Suddenly, we were confronted with the need to pivot our business to a virtual offering. Having two young, dynamic and creative women in the team – Faheemah Moosajee and Noluthando Mthimkulu made all the difference. We quickly created a “Virtually Barefoot” offering challenging ourselves to stay true to some of the foundational elements our work: deep connection, authentic conversation, creativity and fun – amidst a global pandemic? We researched, we looked into suggestions made by others and found Mural – a virtual whiteboard that was to become a hallmark of our work in 2020.

Each team member was dealing with a lot on the personal front – Faheemah’s wedding plans had to be transitioned to virtual with no clarity as to when she could be with her husband in Norway.
Thando lost a dear friend early in the pandemic and we all knew someone who had lost a loved one to Covid 19. Determined to continue to serve our clients with Soul, Heart, Head and Hands we
decided to go with the flow….


Elsewhere in this publication you can get a flavour of the type of work the team were able to produce together. It has been a year of learning, creativity, tears have flowed un-ashamedly and butterflies and bees descended on one of our planning sessions!

We have felt incredibly grateful to have work and theopportunity to use work to make love manifest. Our work has spanned issues of economic recovery, partnerships and solidarity, communication, systems change, walking and cycling, informal trading and transformation of built environment. It has been a year of learning and growth, like a river flowing, taking on the shape of the land, encountering obstacles and finding ways around them.

It has been a source of joy to continue to support community-based initiatives and non-profit organisations whose mission and values resonate with our own.

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