#peopleofGATHER Ufra and Zahid

For the latest episode of #peopleofGATHER, here’s a peek into the conversation between Ufra Mir and Zahid Shah, who work in two very different fields and call Kashmir, India, their home. Ufra is a peace psychologist and works along the intersectionality of peace building, mental health and psychological support in the conflict region of beautiful Kashmir. She’s been working majorly in Kashmir along with Myanmar, Afghanistan and other parts of South Asia, for the past eleven years. According to Ufra, Peace Building is highly patriarchal and colonised and she tries to find decolonised ways to support people and communities in conflict zones. She works tirelessly towards reverting the normalisation of conflicts and advocates for safe approaches towards peace building globally. She firmly believes that self care is intertwined with community care, and that there should be a holistic approach to working on the well being of ourselves. Zahid on the other hand teaches Parkour. During his career of eleven years, he has taught more than 3,500 children the power of parkour. He is currently the head coach of Wallrunners in Kashmir, India and is trying to educate young kids about the importance of an active lifestyle. Wallrunners is an award-winning non-profit organisation empowering children to overcome trauma through parkour and martial arts. It helps turn urban environments into creating opportunities, combining skill and physical prowess with new perceptions of familiar areas. Zahid has helped open gyms in various parts of the world including Kashmir, Gaza and is soon spreading its wings to Kenya. Even though both of them are Kashmiri, and there’s a saying that all Kashmiris know each other, Ufra and Zahid met at a GATHER meet for the first time. And while working with Ufra, Zahid learnt the importance of how to incorporate personal emotions during the highly physical parkour sessions. They bonded on the fact that back home, due to highly volatile conflicts, they face numerous roadblocks and that gathering of even two people from different backgrounds is looked upon with an eye of suspicion and expressing your true self is a big challenge. Despite the constant problems arising due to the ongoing conflicts, they both feel that it is important to wake up every single day and show up consistently and do the hard work required to make the community a safe space for all. For more details on GATHER, visit www. gather.seedsofpeace.org