OUTDOOR WELLNESS
Refugee Women’s Network launched our Women’s Hiking Group in 2021 to facilitate healthy activity, community inclusion, and environmental stewardship for women who are survivors of war, conflict, and displacement.
Today, the program has grown beyond monthly hikes to include kayaking, backpacking, camping, swimming, and biking. Through our Outdoor Wellness program, we are working to improve health and belonging across Metro Atlanta.
The Hiking Program promotes equity and inclusion by reducing barriers to participation in healthy, outdoor activities for a diverse community that is traditionally underrepresented in the outdoors. Through this community-based program, participants build confidence, develop a sense of belonging, and establish positive relationships with peers and community members within the natural spaces of their new Georgia home.
Monthly hikes span Georgia’s local, state and national parks gradually building the strength and confidence of participants to climb mountains. The program uplifts non-traditional voices by including experts from diverse backgrounds to demonstrate the different ways that immigrants, BIPOC, and women are actively engaging with Georgia’s environment. Outdoor leaders educate our hikers on trail safety, environmental education, physical fitness, conservation, indigenous and local history, and wellness.
Refugees and immigrants are not thought of as a typical audience for outdoor activities but stand to benefit immensely from the physical and therapeutic benefits of engaging with nature. By decreasing barriers to accessing the outdoors, this program builds a platform for non-traditional audiences to be welcomed outdoors, increasing their physical and mental health in an active, communal way.
Watch this film about the power of Hiking Group Made by Oboz
Improve Physical and Mental Health for Refugee and Immigrant Women
Refugee and immigrant women face considerable barriers to exercise and the outdoors: these include financial, logistical (transport and childcare), and stigma that prevents diverse communities from accessing local green spaces. Mental and physical health have been negatively impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, and the burden of disease falls more heavily on immigrant and marginalized populations. The RWN Hiking Group is a response to this need to increase individual and community health by supporting physical and mental health via safe, culturally-conscious means that also increase access to environmental experiences for non-traditional audiences.
In order to protect Georgia’s green spaces, we must cultivate a sense of love and protection by Georgia’s residents, including its newest residents. Immigrant and refugee communities are growing in the state of Georgia. They cannot have a sense of protection of green spaces if they are unable to experience them. This program enables our newest Georgians to be our newest stewards of public lands.