Stepping up from her previous role as PRN Advisory Board member, Sibongile West was elected by the Board of Directors to serve as its next President.  A graduate of the University of California Los Angeles and Maharishi University of Management, Sibongile has an extensive corporate background in public relations with Young Communications Group of Los Angeles and has worked as campaign liaison and staffer for California State Senator Holly Mitchell during her tenure in the California State Assembly. 

She is also a business woman and entrepreneur, having served as CEO of her firm providing African braid design services to the entertainment industry with clients that included Michael Jackson, Lionel Richie, Sheena Easton, Patrice Rushen and Barry White.

In addition, Sibongile has been a Teacher of Transcendental Meditation since 1973 and designed and taught a Consciousness-BasedSM educational program for the Upward Bound program at the University of Northern Iowa.  She was also one of the administrators at the historic Transcendental Meditation Center, Inc., an organization sanctioned to teach TM in the inner city and underserved populations throughout the United States.

More recently Sibongile taught in several research studies on the effectiveness of TM in the reduction of plaque in the carotid artery and the body’s response to pain at the Charles Drew University of Medicine and Science and at the University of California Irvine, respectively.

This rich and diverse professional experience uniquely positions Sibongile to continue strengthening our current programs in Africa and to assist PRN with a new phase of outreach and growth.  Since her first involvement with PRN, Sibongile’s commitment to those children, women and men in Africa who have benefited from our donors’ dedicated support has inspired all those who have been fortunate to know and work with her.

“I have spent most of my life teaching this technique with its extraordinary ability to reduce stress and eradicate symptoms of PTSD. The Africa PTSD organization  can offer much to those suffering from traumatic stress as well as being a preventive measure to those communities at risk. It is my heart’s desire that more people learn about and support Africa PTSD Relief Now so those who are in need of this technique can be helped.”
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The PRN Board of Directors is truly excited to introduce all of you to Sibongile and continue our work to bring relief to those suffering or at risk of post-traumatic stress syndrome.  

Your continuing donations were hard at work through all of 2017 even as we relocated our office to Fairfield, Iowa and worked on strategies to position Africa PTSD Relief for yet greater impact going forward.    

Your financial support has established the solid foundation for several projects in Kenya.  Leveraging this strength and the history of your on-going commitment, APR has been able to team with another organization, Partners for World Peace, and their new East Africa Fund which was established to support a range of projects involving the TM Program. (learn more about the East Africa Fund here)

As this complementary stream of support joins together with your donations, APR's existing projects with the Maasai community of Transmara, Global One School in Kibera, and the SCANN orphanage for street children in Nakuru will be able to expand even more quickly and include many hundreds more new TM practitioners during 2018. 

• Maasai Community in Transmara 

A diverse group including Maasai widows, miners and children of Chamrecc School all enjoyed several days of meditation checking and follow-up meetings given by TM teachers Solomon Mwangi and Patrick Kinuthia who trekked up from Nairobi.  In the coming year, 200 more members of the Maasai community will be receiving their TM training.  

• Global One School in Kibera

You may remember when African PTSD Relief started the project at Global One Foundation School.  This was our first experience in Kibera, a single square mile in Nairobi where hundreds of thousands of people live with very limited access to clean water, healthy food and educational opportunity. 

All the teachers and primary students at Global One School now practice TM twice a day and we are working to schedule all the secondary students to learn as well in the coming year. 



Here are the Global One teachers during a group meditation.  These twice daily periods of calm and revitalization that your donations make possible have really transformed and renewed their already deep commitment to teaching the children.

• Orphaned Street Children of Nakuru

In the city of Nakuru west of Nairobi, your donations continue supporting the Street Children’s Assistance for Nakuru Networks (SCANN) project. This foundation houses homeless children and provides them with education, food, clothing and nurturing. 

Now in addition to the wonderful benefits provided by SCANN, the children also enjoy daily stress relief through their TM practice. 
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Some of the boys say hello after a recent group meeting with their TM teacher and graduate of Maharishi University of Management, Simon Mwangi.  It is a happy group to be sure! 
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​Other schools within the SCANN network have been requesting our programs.  We plan to offer TM instruction to 100 more of these students as phase one of expansion later this year.