The ROOTS Fellowship Foundation has announced funding for four new projects aimed at preserving Indigenous spiritual traditions in Colombia, Kenya, and Gabon. Fiscally sponsored by Modern Spirit, a registered 501(c)(3) organization, ROOTS supports education initiatives and community-led healing programs designed to keep ancestral knowledge rooted in local governance and cultural integrity.
ROOTS, an acronym for Reviving Our Origins, Traditions & Spirit, was established by co-founders Salome Augustine Bissa Kopasz, Krisztian Kopasz, and Marvin Vivas Rodriguez. The founders, drawing on personal experiences in Cameroon, Hungary, and Colombia, believe that vital healing traditions are rapidly disappearing. Salome Kopasz, co-founder and executive director, noted, "In Africa, when an elder passes away, a library burns. My grandmother was the medicine woman and leader of her village. When she died, there was no one to carry her role forward. ROOTS exists to change that story."
The urgency of ROOTS' work is underscored by the global reality that approximately 1,500 Indigenous languages and their associated knowledge are at risk of disappearing. Communities speaking these languages collectively steward 40% of the world's remaining intact forests, yet their knowledge keepers face what international observers describe as a grave risk of physical and cultural extermination.
ROOTS addresses this crisis by empowering elders, spiritual leaders, and their chosen successors with resources. Rather than introducing outside frameworks, the foundation works from within each community. Each supported project identifies a lineage holder and their apprentice, covering basic living and educational costs to allow full immersion in spiritual training—a years-long commitment that cannot be combined with conventional employment. Co-founder Marvin Vivas Rodriguez stated, "These traditions are not museum pieces. They are living systems of healing that entire communities depend on."
The four community-led programs span Africa and South America. In the Inga community of Putumayo, Colombia, traditional wisdom workshops are held monthly for 40-50 students in midwifery, traditional arts, and medicinal preparation, alongside communal Yagé ceremonies. The Arhuaco community in Sasaima, Colombia, supports Mamo Lorenzo Izquierdo, an internationally recognized Arhuaco spiritual leader, and funds the complete training of his son as the community's future Mamo—a lifelong vocation with no conventional income. In the Duruma community of Kwale County, Kenya, the project protects the Duruma Kaya lineage and its sacred forest traditions by supporting mganga Baba Mwatela Masai and his successor daughter, Sipi Mwatela, through her multi-year apprenticeship in healing drums, herbal knowledge, and ceremonial practice. The Y'azo Leyissa Academy in Bilandzambi, Gabon, founded by Yorick Ossavou Mombo—who credits traditional Gabonese medicine with his recovery from addiction—offers 11 preparatory modules in ritual practice, plant knowledge, and Iboga medicine to 25 students per academic year.
The ROOTS Fellowship Foundation is currently accepting donations through its fiscal sponsor, Modern Spirit. All contributions are tax-deductible for U.S. donors. To support a project or learn more, visit www.rootsfellowshipfoundation.org.
