role model

Mother and Community Builder

There have been many significant moments and a myriad of roles I have taken up.  The most significant achievement and joful role I have fulfilled is that of a mother.  I coudnt be more proud of the woman she has become today. Being a single mother was not easy whilst building my business, it was a stretch for both Rebecca as a small child and myself in juggling the demands and responsibilities of the company. One of my saving graces was that I decided from the day she was born that she would go to the Steiner School and it was in that environment that she truly flourished.

 

The approach to fostering a childs imagination and creativity still impresses me today.  There were many objections from my parents who could not understand why a child was not learning to read and write until the age of seven, when intellectual concepts could be fully absorbed into the childs system.

We grew together

EVEN MORE RELEVANT TODAY

In the mid 90’s as I had grew in my own maturity I could see that the systems and structures that kept the marginalised in their place did not look to be changing.  I believed that the subjugation and marginalisation of women in developing countries were affecting women everywhere – I know that we humans are all connected and in it together.  I had built a connected and resilient business community through conscious and ethical leadership and I wanted to do this in other places where women were not empowered and left feeling alone and disconnected from the rest of the world.

Whilst sitting on the ground in the villages talking and working women at the local level I realised that I also wanted for my daughter to feel connected to the wider world and know that the whole of the planet was home for her.

At the age of 12 when Rebecca was about to become a teenager I devised a plan to provide a ritual for her entry into this more difficult phase of growth – puberty.  There are no rituals promoted in the Western world for women to enter with wider eyes these important years, so I created one. The 2 of us flew to India and spent 6 weeks travelling. With our trusty driver we covered thousands of miles and my message was clear to her: these people are your brethren – we are all in it together, what you like – enjoy, what you are offended by – transform it.  She got to experience the extremes of this country, when at times it represents everything you wish life was and other times, everything you wish life wasn’t.

The support, love and encouragement extended to me today by this beautiful young woman is testimony to the bond we have built over the years.  I continue to shape myself into a human being she can be proud to call her mother.