ROOTS
Reviving Our Origins, Traditions & Spirit
Our mission is to preserve Indigenous spiritual lineages by funding education and community-led healing, ensuring ancestral wisdom remains alive and locally governed
WHY NOW?
Indigenous Cultures Are Endangered: Globally, 1,500 Indigenous languages—and the medicinal/spiritual knowledge within them—are in critical danger of vanishing forever. While these cultures protect 40% of the planet's intact forests, their lineage holders face a "grave risk of physical and cultural extermination"
The Western world has grown disconnected from its spiritual roots, contributing to today’s social and health challenges.
Indigenous cultures hold vital wisdom to restore balance, and if their traditions fade, we lose an irreplaceable source of healing.
ROOTS Story
Salome with her grandma in 2018
“In Africa, when an elder passes away, a library burns.” - African proverb
Salome’s beloved grandmother was the leader and medicine woman of her village, but when she died, there was no village or family member to continue her role. Salome felt the calling to prevent this sad future for their ancestral communities.
Our Team
Salome Augustine Bissa Kopasz
Driven by the legacy of her grandmother, a Cameroonian medicine woman, to ensure ancestral knowledge is not lost.
Krisztian Kopasz
A tech entrepreneur reconnecting with his Hungarian rural roots to rebuild communities grounded in reciprocity and nature.
Marvin Vivas Rodriguez
A Colombian engineer and chakaruna living his purpose of connecting worlds and integrating his Indigenous roots with modern healing.
Our Board
Georges Gassita
Georges GASSITA is a senior Gabonese expert in environmental law who has held key positions in the state administration responsible for the environment and nature conservation.
Inspired by his grandfather, the late Professor Jean Noël GASSITA, a world leader in iboga research and promotion, he campaigns for the protection of Gabon's biodiversity and the connection between traditional therapies and modern science. After several years of activity within Gabonese civil society, he coordinated the first international conference on iboga and ibogaine in Gabon and promotes fair, sustainable and equitable frameworks that reconcile community rights, tradition and scientific research.
Jennifer Clemente
Jennifer Clemente is a strategic communications leader with senior experience at major global technology organizations, advising leaders across government, nonprofit, and corporate sectors. With early roots in peace storytelling and Balkan journalism, she brings deep narrative awareness, along with training in psychedelic integration, Hakomi-informed coaching, dreamwork, and end-of-life spiritual counseling. At ROOTS, she contributes governance insight, event curation, and cross-cultural communications strategy.
Projects
Taita Mariano Tisoy with his community in Santiago, Sibundoy Valley
To ensure the survival of this lineage and future of their ancestral wisdom, we aim to establish a consistent, monthly rhythm of education and healing:
Traditional Wisdom Workshops: Intensive training for 40–50 students in midwifery, traditional arts, and medicinal preparation once a month.
Communal Yagé Ceremony: Once a month spiritual gathering for the community led by Taitas from the High and Low Putumayo to foster unity, guidance and identify potential learners.
Funding Goal: $43,000 USD
This project supports Indigenous education and the preservation of ancestral wisdom in Colombia by empowering both spiritual leaders and future Indigenous professionals. By covering basic living and education costs, we help ensure that sacred knowledge, cultural identity, and community leadership are not lost to economic pressure.
We support Mamo Lorenzo Izquierdo, an Arhuaco spiritual leader known internationally for his work in ancestral healing and ceremonies, and his family, who live modestly while serving their community.
Becoming and serving as a Mamo requires full dedication, leaving no opportunity for conventional income. Support allows his son to complete his spiritual training as a future Mamo
Funding Goal: $36,000 USD
This project supports the preservation of the Duruma Kaya lineage on Kenya’s coast by protecting sacred forest traditions and empowering the next generation of Indigenous spiritual leaders. As ancestral knowledge and forest ecosystems come under growing threat, this initiative ensures that healing, music, and herbal wisdom rooted in the kayas can continue to serve the community with dignity and continuity.
We support Baba Mwatela Masai, a respected mganga (spiritual leader) and kaya elder, and his daughter Sipi Mwatela, who has been formally named his successor and is undergoing full spiritual apprenticeship.
Traditional spirituality faces persecution, forests are being destroyed, and elders are increasingly threatened. Apprenticeship requires full-time dedication, yet provides little income. Support allows:
Sipi to complete her multi-year training as a mganga
Preservation of healing drum, herbal, and ceremonial knowledge
Protection of cultural dignity for future generations
Funding Goal: $29,000 USD
This project was born from the personal journey of Yorick Ossavou Mombo, who overcame addiction through traditional Gabonese medicine. His healing experience led to the creation of two complementary initiatives:
Y’azo Conferences – a platform dedicated to promoting and sharing traditional knowledge with a wider audience.
Y’azo Leyissa Academy – an educational institution focused on the teaching, transmission, preservation, and continuity of ancestral knowledge.
The Academy seeks to restore a deep connection between individuals, nature, and the civilizational ecosystem of Gabonese peoples.
Each training cycle welcomes 25 carefully selected students per academic year.
Origins and Evolution
Rooted in ancestral knowledge systems—including Okouyi, Mweli, Bwete Dissumba, and Mboumba y Ano—the Academy offers 11 preparatory modules leading toward initiation. These modules explore ritual practices, dreamwork, intuitive leadership, and plant knowledge, including the study of Iboga.
Funding Goal: $60,000 / year
Fiscal Sponsor
Modern Spirit is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization serving as a fiscal sponsor. All donations are tax-deductible.
A 5% administrative fee is retained for oversight and reporting.