Sacred economics: The way forward

Hi, my name is Fumiha Tanaka, and I am fundraising for my dear friend/sister/teacher, Olatokunboh Obasi. From being her student, friend, and co-teacher, I have known Olatokunboh for about five years. I have witnessed her dedication to servicing the community in Puerto Rico and the amount of work and time she put into making this world a better place for our future generation.

In the wake of Hurricane Fiona, this situation has come rather suddenly, and I humbly ask for your time and contribution for Olatokunboh to receive what she deserves.

Please read the letter from her below.

Supporting this GoFundMe will allow Olatokunboh to stay in her home, which is the foundational place for healing and herbal teachings that support so many. This will in turn allow her to rebuild her healing gardens from the recent devastation of Hurricane Fiona and continue to serve as a pillar of healing and Afro-indigenous herbal teachings for both the local and global healing community.

Dear Community,

I am sitting in my sitting room without electricity or water for now five days since hurricane Fiona hit the island of Puerto Rico where I live. I live in a small town south of Mayaguez, which was in the direct path of the hurricane. All the plants that I had grown, paid community members to work with, trees, are now all gone, totally destroyed. Not to mention flooding due to unfit doors and windows that damaged some of our rugs and furniture in the house. These things are replaceable and I’m just thankful that the storm was not stronger, and that my children and I are safe and in good health. We are exhausted from clean up and seeking water, we are still in desperate mode, but finding ways to entertain ourselves and volunteer with friends and neighbors. This is a disaster on top of an underlying disaster that is current in my life and really why I am writing.

I have been working as a community herbalist for over 15 years and have been invited to speak as a guest teacher at many events and schools, including The American Herbalists Guild Symposium and Herbalists Without Borders International Volunteer Clinic, among others.

I always talk about activism and the importance of grassroots work because I truly believe in community. It’s the foundation of my upbringing as an indigenous African woman adopted by the Caribbean. Most of my life has been a story of displacement, migration, and discrimination but I have found ways to heal myself and others as a community herbalist and healer. Over time I have come to stabilize myself and am grateful for the blessings I have. I am currently living in a rent-to-own home where I have invested so much into creating the healing gardens and medicinal herbal apothecary here. The owner of this house has had a recent change of heart and asked that I leave within the next week, unless I can raise $100,000 by the end of the month to purchase the home in full.

This home is the foundation for the healing work, herbal gardens, apothecary, and teaching that supports so many people in the local and global community.

I am hoping that my volunteer work, efforts to make a change on the planet, and all the healing work I have done and never asked for monetary exchange for, may now be energetically placed into housing security for me and my children. Thank you to all the nonjudgmental, kind hearts, and giving spirits who have compassion and understanding and keep me in my dignity during this time of the unknown.

With deep gratitude for your compassion, time, generosity and contributions. We thank you for helping us make The Way Forward.

What’s next?

The number 13 is a sacred number for gathering, communion and manifestation. Please send this letter to 13 friends who will hold this request in sacred economical values and wish for us to manifest this reality with love and wholeness. We suggest that if a minimum of $150 is given by each friend we will quickly reach our goal. We accept any generous donation and appreciate your act of kindness. We thank you kindly again for holding us dearly. In trust, honor and dignity. Blessings.

With gratitude,

Olatokunboh Obasi

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Olatokunboh Obasi MSc, RH (AHG), CNS is a wellness professional in herbal medicine, nutrition and indigenous ways of practice. She is an educator/founder of Well of Indigenous Wisdom school for herbal medicine and African cosmology. Boriké (Puerto Rico) Coordinator for Herbalists without Borders International, up for elections as a Board Member of the American Herbalists Guild, & Owner of Omaroti, a wellness shop for wellbeing. Birth doula, yoga and dance instructor, author, presenter and healer, her devotion is to serve humanity and care-take the earth.

Olatokunboh is also the visionary founder for the upcoming Caribbean Herbal Symposium, where brilliant Caribbean folk healers and teachers of the Afro-indigenous healing community and diaspora will gather together to learn, trade medicines, and honor a sacred way of life as neighbors in community.

She has been working as a community herbalist for over 15 years. Olatokunboh has also been invited to speak at herbal events, interviews, and as a guest teacher in many schools, including: The American Herbalists Guild Symposium, Arborvitae Herb School, Great Lakes Herb Faire, Center for Humanities, The Plant Spirit Herbalism Summit, BotanicWise, Plant Cunning Podcast, Herbal Highway Radio, Herbalists Without Borders International Volunteer Clinic, Sky House Herb School, Author of More than a Smoke, Seed Soil Spirit School, Food as Medicine Institute, Boricua Barefoot Doctors Volunteer Clinic, Bob Hanna radio show, and the Traditional Roots Herbal Conference. Many of these are done on a volunteer basis because she believes in spreading the message of wellness in healthcare for all people.