Jefferson Awards: Overcoming Anxiety While Healing Others
OAKLAND (CBS 5) - What do you with your life if you've developed panic disorder that keeps you confined at home? An Oakland woman says she's turned poison into medicine.
Former celebrity photographer and artist Eve Lynne Robinson was diagnosed with agoraphobia 15 years ago. Anxiety and fear of panic attacks cut her off from the rest of the world.
"I was house-bound," Robinson remembered. "I didn't know why I couldn't leave my house."
But when she discovered others also suffered from panic disorders, she founded the nonprofit Sankofa Holistic Healing Institute at her Oakland home in 1996. She also wrote the Healing Journal to help thousands of women and children conquer anxiety and depression.
"I understand how difficult it is when you don't have the resources," she said.
Robinson's healing center has since expanded. She also distributes donated food, clothes, and bicycles to low-income neighbors. The program evolved from her need to make money from selling old bicycles she'd repaired.
"I was bankrupt, I was about to lose my house," Robinson explained. "I had to get creative, 'cause I couldn't go out to work."
She still rarely travels beyond her home, but hosts backyard festivals for her neighbors. Her Halloween bash includes pony rides. And her most recent Easter egg hunt welcomed the mayor.
Then, two years ago, Robinson started something new and inspiring for African American girls and it all started with some tiles.
Robinson said, "I was learning ceramics at the time, another way to deal with my anxiety."
On the tiles, she painted a character she created: a 7-year-old African American girl named Ella B. Jenkins. With her friends' encouragement, Robinson published her first Ella B. Jenkins children's book last fall, Ella Meets Barack Obama.
Robinson said Ella's message is one of self-esteem, "Feeling good about herself."
Even the sale of Ella merchandise empowers women. Robinson ensures the one hundred women in Kenya who sew the beaded accessories get the profits to pay for clean water and medicine.
Volunteers like Shawn Mueller marvel at all Robinson does to serve her community.
"She always says yes," said Mueller. "People are drawn to her. She's very loving and giving."
"Anything we can do to help somebody, it's my human revolution," Robinson added.
(Copyright 2011 by CBS San Francisco. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
