By BGR Staff
Founded in 2022 by BGR friend Rick Hanson, the Global Compassion Coalition (GCC) is a network of individuals and organizations committed to placing compassion at the heart of public life. On September 10–12, 2025, the GCC will be hosting its inaugural Festival of Compassion in Cape Town, South Africa.
About the festival:
Held under the theme "Come Home", the festival invites participants into a collective homecoming, returning to self, community, and planet. Moving beyond a conventional conference, the Festival will co-create a space for shared grief, joy, and action through rituals, teachings, and workshops.
"Compassion reflects the wisdom that everything is related to everything else, and it naturally draws you into feeling more connected with all things. It draws us into relationships of care," says Rick Hanson, Founder and President of the Global Compassion Coalition. "It belongs in our schools, in government, in business, in how we care for each other and for the planet we share. This festival is about remembering that, and inspiring action."
Curating the festival programme is Fadia Williams, who draws on a wellspring of knowledge and experience in designing meaningful engagements: "We don't need more information – we need transformation. And transformation happens when we slow down enough to feel, to witness, and to act with heart. That's the invitation of this festival."
Designed to resonate with a wide community of thinkers and doers, the Festival will appeal to academics, activists, artists, and practitioners across justice, wellbeing, trauma healing, reconciliation, and community leadership spaces. It brings together a diverse circle of global and local voices committed to building more compassionate systems, communities, and personal practices.
While the Festival convenes participants in Cape Town, an online component will extend the experience worldwide, for those unable to travel and for those wishing to join from afar, making the circle of compassion and community bigger, more accessible, and truly global.
For more information about this event, visit festivalofcompassion.com. To learn more about the GCC, visit www.globalcompassioncoalition.org.
