Swizen Atwine is a graduate of TAPTA, completing his third year this March, and a recipient of a 2025 CAALN Therapeutic Arts Program Grant. He is a dedicated therapeutic arts practitioner, Co-Founder of the Creative Arts Foundation (CAFAR), and holds a Bachelor of Arts in Drama from Makerere University in Uganda.
He primarily works in the Kyangwali Refugee Settlement, where he designs expressive, supportive, and safer spaces for adolescent refugees to process trauma and build resilience. This settlement, one of the oldest and largest in Uganda, hosts a massive and diverse population. The majority of the residents originate from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), with significant groups of people also coming from countries like South Sudan, Rwanda, and Burundi.
“Telling Tomorrow’s Stories through Art”, the project Swizen received the CAALN grant for, addresses chronic stress in Kyangwali youth, who struggle to imagine positive futures. By engaging participants in collective storytelling and myths, the program moves beyond trauma processing to actively restore future-making capacity and agency. This shift from victimhood to authorship through collaboratively creating “tomorrow’s stories” fosters hope, psychological flexibility, self-efficacy, and enhanced mental well-being.
Using this therapeutic arts approach — including music and cultural rhythm, oral traditions and written narratives, and community theater and dramatic arts — provides a low-risk, symbolic pathway to address deeply rooted psychological issues like chronic uncertainty. Story telling and myth-making, along with other expressive arts, allow participants to externalize problems and articulate hope metaphorically.
With a commitment to intersectional inclusion, this program mobilized and engaged a total of 60 vulnerable youth ages 15-25. By both shaping and reclaiming their personal and collective stories, participants developed powerful advocacy tools for the wider community, demonstrated increased confidence, and improved their emotional well-being — positioning them as active agents of social change within Kyangwali.
We are grateful and proud of the therapeutic art and psychosocial work Swizen does within Uganda and beyond. He is a shining example of the positive effect passion, commitment, creativity, and empathy can have on the well-being of individuals and communities.
