Motherhood, while amazing and glorious, is a taxing and thankless task. Combine that with the motherhood experience today: a solitary journey in which the mother needs to be an endless reserve of nurturing with no outlet or community to address her own needs, and you get a mother that is overwhelmed and burnt out.
In what scientists are calling a ‘loneliness epidemic’, Our Village was founded as a quiet protest; a refusal to accept disconnection as the way things have to be. As an organization, our mission is to support mothers by, a) rekindling the spirit of community that once thrived in village life and, b) reimagining what that kind of togetherness can look like in the 21st century in the West.
Our Village recently had the honour of facilitating a workshop in collaboration with Sakeenah Canada, an organization that was founded in response to a gap in culturally and religiously sensitive services available for Muslim women and children facing domestic violence and homelessness. Attendees consisted of women, primarily mothers, residing in Sakeenah’s shelters. The theme of the workshop, ‘Stronger, together: The Power of Mothers Supporting Mothers’, created a sacred space to share powerful ideas and break barriers. We spoke about:
● Vulnerability and what it means to truly show up for yourself
● Loneliness, how we got here and where to go from here
● How asking for and offering help are acts of empowerment
● The healing that happens in togetherness, and
● How our most painful circumstances can become the foundation for growth and reinvention
Mothers need to feel seen and heard. Their circumstances deserve spaces that can hold them and honour what they go through. Above all else, what mothers need is other mothers – to find belonging in and healing through. Just as it takes a village to raise a child, it takes a village to raise a mother too. And no one raises a mother better than another mother.
Sakeenah Canada, a national charitable organization, was founded in 2018 in response to a gap in culturally and religiously sensitive services available for women and children facing domestic violence and homelessness. Since then, our services have expanded to include mental health therapy and counseling. Sakeenah has also started The People’s Market, a food program that helps combat food insecurity, and has become the first licensed foster care agency for Muslim children in all of North America. We currently operate 8 transitional homes across Canada: Toronto, Brampton, Milton, London, Montreal, Ottawa, Winnipeg, and Regina, in addition to the first long-term housing program for Muslim women and children in Canada, in Windsor.
Every night, thousands of women and children in Canada face homelessness, poverty, and trauma. We are on a mission to change that.
While Sakeenah functions at a national level, our head office and The People’s Market operate out of land that is part of the Treaty and Traditional Territory of the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation, The Haudenosaunee Confederacy, the Huron-Wendat and Wyandot Nations.
Sakeenah believes that while a land acknowledgement is the first step, we also understand that land acknowledgements alone are not sufficient to redress the harm caused by centuries of land theft, forced displacement and ongoing acts of settler colonialism. We recognize that this work is ongoing and complex, and we are dedicated to doing our part to create a better future for all.
© 2026 · Charitable Registration Number: 776013310RR0001