Mission
"Even in great adversity there is hope" – Jeff Key
The Mehadi Foundation believes that the best way to support our veterans of the global war on terror is to offer them the chance to take an active role in their own healing and the healing of others. This requires building a community of veterans with the leadership, experience, and skills to train and empower other veterans.
Our goal is threefold:
- To develop and promote a workshop series that utilizes art, storytelling, and creativity as a healing tool;
- To provide veterans with the necessary tools to live in better relationship to their experiences in the military and at war;
- To facilitate healing through service by providing veterans the opportunity to help Iraqi and Afghan civilians rebuild their community.
What We Do
The foundation’s mission is to protect, support, and honor the veterans returning from the global war on terror who are experiencing PTSD*, substance addiction, suicidal tendencies, and other traumas resulting from their experiences in the military and war.
We seek to help veterans reintegrate into regular life and to heal their psychological wounds. Our guiding principle extends a core commitment on the battlefield to our home soil, to never leave one of our own behind.
Creativity and Peer Support as Healing Tools
Mehadi focuses on providing veterans the tools of peer support and creativity as a healing practice to help not only themselves but also other veterans. It organizes retreats led by veterans for veterans centered on writing workshops and other creative exercises that promote self-expression, community, and personal action.
Although Mehadi is not exclusively a GBLT organization, some of its efforts are focused on those who are affected by the particular stress of dealing with “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.”
Similarly, while the Mehadi Foundation is not solely a drug recovery program, it offers experience and resources with regard to those veterans who are facing addiction problems while coping with PTSD*.
Healing through Helping Others
Vietnam veterans taught us that giving back to the communities they encountered during combat is a mutually restorative and healing process. The Mehadi Foundation is in the process of developing a veterans' program which will enable veterans to interact with Iraq and Afghan civilians to help them rebuild their communities in the wake of war.
* We use the term PTSD to acknowledge its existence but realize that is a term that describes a set of symptoms and not a totality of being.
