Botswana’s Healing Guru
Mother Masire is a graduate of The University of Botswana, with a BA in Social Sciences, majoring in Sociology and Public Administration. She also did a number of developmental courses including brand and project management to support her marketing and advertising career. As one who is always willing to learn when interested in a subject matter she studied mindfulness over 10 years through online courses, attending seminars, workshops, training retreats etc. Her interest in mindfulness and its benefits grew over the years, so when Dr. Didi Bjorn approached her with the idea to start a sustainable development social enterprise, she jumped at the opportunity, and AfroBotho was born. AfroBotho is a skill-sharing service that fosters mental health and wellness for individuals, organizations, and communities in Africa and the world. Connect with Mother Masire and her business on her website and social media We believe if we are at our best emotionally and mentally we do the best for ourselves and families, workplace, communities, and our world. Why did you decide that there was a need for an organization like AfroBotho? The name AfroBotho was inspired by the African concept of Botho, a social contract of mutual respect, responsibility and accountability that members of society have towards each other. It defines a process for earning respect by first giving it, and to gain empowerment by empowering others. It is all about interconnectedness amongst all people with the realization that ‘I am because you are’. AfroBotho was the brainchild of Dr. Didi Bjorn. She felt that we had an aligned passion for issues of mental and emotional wellbeing and that with the combination of our skills we would be able to add value to our clients’ wellbeing. Dr. Didi Bjorn is a clinical psychologist with a specialization in Disaster Psychology from the University of South Dakota. It was there that she gained expertise in various disaster response and management techniques. During her college years, Didi volunteered at the American Red Cross and later participated in the disaster response following the September 11 World Trade Centre attacks. All those experiences prepared her for AfroBotho, where she seeks to extend all she learned by becoming a Botho Ambassador, healing and reconnecting humanity. As an ambitious, young career-driven Motswana I lived a very busy, unbalanced life when I was employed in corporate environments. Throughout my career I often found myself being the ‘default counselor’ for organizations I worked for. This was heavy for me because I was not a skilled psychologist, and got attached to what was shared with me. I wished for a retreat center within our country that would provide a safe healing space for those seeking reprieve and time out to reconnect with themselves. Dr. Didi Bjorn and I wanted to be the change we wished to see and started AfroBotho in order to share skills that empower people to find peace and harmonious interactions among each other. What are the benefits of mindfulness, and how is it beneficial in the workplace? Mindfulness is ‘present-focused consciousness’, a mental state achieved by focusing one’s awareness on the present moment, while calmly acknowledging and accepting one’s feelings, thoughts, bodily sensations, and the environment without judgment. It’s a state of awareness. Jon Kabat Zinn defines mindfulness as: “Paying attention; on purpose, in the present moment, and non-judgmentally. There are many overlaps between mindfulness and aspects of positive psychology as it applies to cognitive-behavioral therapies. In some of our training, we call ourselves ‘the why and how team’. Dr. Bjorn usually shares WHY people go through the emotions and mental challenges they experience and I share HOW they can access their personal grounding and calmness while they are going through them. Mindfulness can help to reduce stress, anxiety, and conflict, increase resilience and emotional intelligence while improving communication in the workplace. For leaders who are contemplating different strategies to help foster a healthier, happier and more productive workplace, I suggest that they incorporate mindfulness in their organizational culture. Some of the numerous benefits of mindfulness include; a more effective management style, creating a more positive work environment, stronger, healthier team dynamics, better manager-employee relationships, fewer rash decisions that can damage the business, and healthier strategies for preventing or addressing conflict when it comes up. According to a study conducted by The European Agency for Safety and Health at Work, more than half of the 550 million working days lost every year from absenteeism are stress-related. Further, 80 percent of employees report that they feel stress at work and need help learning how to manage it. What do your workshops/sessions entail? The way we work with our clients is not etched in stone. We are solution-based in our approach and always strive to get to the root cause of a problem before we even design a program. Each client program is personally designed for them. We believe you cannot prescribe without first identifying the challenge/issue. We have a program called ‘The pulse check’ which we usually start with before beginning any program. This is an exercise that helps individuals to look at their challenge from the inside out. The purpose thereof is to get a deep and clear understanding of our clients’ mental and emotional wellbeing. Once feelings and expressions of negativity have been clearly identified, we work together to actively begin the work of uprooting these often deeply embedded productivity killers. As the termination of the vicious cycle of blame, attack, and accusations toward self and others, as well as the need to constantly live in defence-mode, occurs and is replaced by an all-round healthier and balanced sense of being, they can be – and are – empowered to channel that positivity into their professional life and workplace. After the ‘pulse check,’ we start on a program that addresses the client’s desired objective. What is the future of the workplace, and what role does AfroBotho play in realizing it? The workplace environment as we know is evolving, just like every other aspect of our lives.
You better get your Hot Girl Summer on, Motherland Mogul
Summer or no summer, you MUST live your best life. You are a boss and keeping up with the trends in the digital world is the major key! You must have come across the term Hot girl summer over the past month. If you’re not sure what everyone is on about, we’re serving you the tea in this article. What is #HotGirlSummer??? The phrase #Hotgirlsummer was coined by American rapper, Meghan Thee Stallion. She used the term to tell women (and men) to be unapologetically themselves and fiercely go after their dreams and goals. It simply means that summer or no summer, you MUST live your best life. The term first appeared on Twitter after one of her fans posted a photo with the caption “I hear it’s a #HotGirlSummer”. Since then, the term has since caught on like bush fire. Men and Women around the world are now posting fun and happy photos of themselves on social media with the same caption. The phrase represents women living out their best lives at their own terms, to make it the best thing to ever happen to them. If you are looking to have your own Hot Girl Summer season like the Motherland Mogul that you are, here are some tips to get you started. 1. Review and Define Your Goals In order to live life unapologetically, there must be a goal or vision that you are looking to achieve. It is important that you have a vision of where you are going and come up with a plan of how you will get there. This may involve improving your current skill set or going back to school. Choose your path and glow while pursuing your goals. 2. Put Your Best Foot Forward Where You are In most cases than not, it will take time to get to your dream job/businesses/bosses and/or clientele. While you are building towards your goals and dreams, it is essential that you grab every crucial opportunity that comes by. The journey to achieving your dreams is a culmination of all the work and effort that you are putting in now. Use your current position to build a richer network as this will make your journey much easier. The phrase, Your Network is Your Net worth should come in handy where you are now and when you finally get to achieve your goals. 3. Put In the Work Nothing works unless you do. To achieve anything in life, you must be willing to put in the effort and work required to get where you want to be. It is also important to ensure that your voice is heard in meetings and in boardrooms. As you put in the work and effort, it is also very important that you are taking credit for your achievements. You are much more memorable when your voice is heard, therefore, going forward ensure that you are the lady who takes credit for her work, contributes ideas and always have engaging thoughts in any meetings and conferences. An organization or client will always value someone who adds value. Your work is then to add value. 4. Have Fun While Doing It Girl, work hard and play hard while you’re at it. Going after your goals and choosing to be outstanding is definitely not always fun. There is a lot of unseen hard work and in some cases, you are your own biggest cheerleader. But, how about making it fun for yourself by having a weekly gratitude list? Each week, write down something you are grateful for and also tick off a goal that you have accomplished. It is the consistent cumulative effort that eventually pays off and keeps a smile on your face. 5.Take a Selfie and Don’t Forget to Hashtag #HotGirlSummer Lastly, while putting in the work and securing the bag don’t forget to take a bomb selfie as you live your best life, on your own terms. It is always relaxing to get the perfect selfie and keep the movement going for all the women who are making it happen for themselves and their communities. Have yourself a Hot Girl Summer. Join our Facebook Live on August 22nd to learn how to drive social change through your business/ Career. Click here to sign up.
Navshika Beeharry: Adding accountability and value to foreign volunteering efforts in Africa
Navshika Beeharry is a British-Mauritian blogger, speaker, and interculturalist. She shares her experience of volunteering overseas and advocates for intercultural awareness to be at the heart of charity and aid efforts to improve foreign assistance in the motherland. In this article, she also provides consultancy for sustainability advice, strategy development and/or content creation. Shika, as she is fondly called, believes it is important for NGOs to develop empowering stories of self-managed income/resources to challenge the mindset that success derives from external donors as opposed to the people themselves. In 2015, when she returned home from a volunteer placement in Tanzania, she founded “Becoming Africquainted” as an initiative to candidly recounting the life-changing memories she made, including some difficult observations of when Western intercultural communication goes badly wrong. Since then, it has grown into a platform of its own that provides discussion and resources to all aspiring volunteers or expats, encouraging them to undertake their service overseas responsibly and respectfully. Shika on Intercultural Awareness For Shika, intercultural awareness is an unmissable step that any foreign volunteer must be willing to take to better know their own cultural limitations and how to healthily navigate new ones. However, this must be reciprocated by host communities within Africa too, by ensuring they take responsibility for their own narrative and how they wish for it to be told and remembered long after any volunteer exchange has ended. It will take time to help visitors to form new associations of Africa they see, but the benefits to sewing two-way intercultural connections are fruitful and increasingly necessary for the prosperity of the interconnected world we live in. To be a successful foreign volunteer, Shika believes it begins with an understanding of yourself / skillset and a genuine desire to be of service to someone. Such a person is often thought to be self-sacrificing with care for their wider community and an unrelenting passion to contribute to a cause bigger than themselves. However, to be able to add accountability and value to foreign volunteering efforts in Africa, one needs to; 1. Have a good knowledge of the country and organization whose aims you would like to champion. Each summer in Africa, this ‘higher cause’ has all too often displayed itself as ‘saviourism’, ‘privilege’ and ‘Western ideas’ – to name a few. What usually begins as a selfless summer trip quickly manifests itself into self-serving behavior when culture shock takes over, conditions become unfavorable to live in and personal expectations are not met. These circumstances fuel a type of instinctive desire to fix things that do not exist ‘back home’. Though the intention may come from a good place, the means by which it is executed becomes misplaced and frequently results in misunderstanding and conflict. Why? A lack of intercultural awareness. A large number of young people in the West – diaspora included – are conditioned into thinking that volunteering overseas is a worthy extra-curricular life experience or a means of personal development. These reasons are problematic because they refer to an underlying tone of personal gain that volunteering is based upon. The emphasis is rarely ever to learn about culture itself – something which really should underpin any healthy volunteer exchange. 2. Acquire traits that enable you to observe, recognize, perceive and positively respond to new and unfamiliar intercultural interactions. Some markers of intercultural awareness within international development are: Humility – being receptive to, and accepting of, new and unfamiliar situations Patience – in recognizing that positive outcomes take time to reveal themselves Humanity – acting humanely with a trusted concern for the community being served. These traits are not something we can quantify or expect anyone to learn quickly in a crash-course. But volunteer exchanges can be measured by the quality of relationships being built, along with their participation and respect for our cultures once they arrive. One indication of this lies in how well volunteer behaviors are recognized and reciprocated by the communities which they serve. 3. Volunteers should be given guided self-reflection time. This is to serve like one-to-one inductions in a paid workplace where their observations and experiences are discussed to foster a dialogue which enables them to explain their realities so that they can be better understood. Doing this not only prevents them from distancing themselves from problems they see by claiming ignorance, but it also provides a space for healthy goals to be set, contributions to be assessed and accountability to take place. This is important to help redefine the negative African post-colonial perceptions that many foreign volunteers have unconsciously grown up with. After all, what better way to rewrite the story than if told it ourselves to those who do have a desire to listen, by virtue of visiting the continent first-hand? A good start for non-profit-organisations is to offer their own guides into standards of behavior that outlines an interpretation of volunteer ideas and expectations during their stay. This formalizes the process whilst mitigating the risk of volunteers unhelpfully referring back to their (often biased) perception of problems and methods of solving them. Join our Facebook Live on August 22nd to learn how to drive social change through your business/ Career. Click here to sign up.
That money you want is in someone’s account: Amba Eyang – Ajakaye
Not every “celebrity” is known. There are powerful women who are not just breaking glass ceilings, but also impacting the lives of people they meet. One of such extraordinary women is Amba Eyang-Ajakaiye, a Brand Storyteller and Business Strategist. She is the founder of iDare.NotDread Nigeria, a social engineering platform promoting innovation, creativity, and enterprise through storytelling and value sharing. She is also team lead of the Build My Business initiative born out of iDare.NotDread’s enterprise. Centered on building skills and capacities for young people in the business. This project launched grand ideas such as the BMB Expo and BMB Training school (online) in 2017. Amba has gone from transforming ordinary people who would have never thought of writing their own books, to making them authors. She’s also supporting small businesses to achieve scalability and growth especially, by helping them identify and understand the importance of “target markets” and “market validation”. In this interview with SLA contributor – Wuraola, Amba Eyang-Ajakaiye bares it all about IDare.NotDread and highlights why small business owners should “do it afraid”. Tell us about your company – IDare.NotDread iDare.NotDread is a social Enterprise promoting innovation, creativity, and enterprise in Nigeria. Our focus is primarily to build women communities and empower them with creative and innovative skills for business growth. What’s one business tip you wish most business owners knew and could wield to their advantage? Network. Meet people. That money you want is in someone’s account. That unspoken challenge can be solved by someone. Attend workshops, events, and meet people. Most people don’t bite. How can entrepreneurs begin to understand the power of conducting market validation, and collaboration with other SMEs? I believe in collaboration. This is why I try to build communities. We started the Abuja food community in May, and its amazing to see how much collaboration has happened in a group full of women. Yet, we probably thought women prefer to fight. No. The moment businesses understand that collaboration first means ‘here is what I can give you’, before ‘give me what I want’, they will lead better businesses. With a lot of fake business coaches around, what makes your brand different? We didn’t just arrive. We’ve been here a while. In 2013 we started with creating a platform for entrepreneurs to share their stories and inspire others. Over time, we realized stories weren’t enough. Capacities needed to be built. So we went all in to try to understand the real needs of the entrepreneurs we wished to serve, and since 2016, we started contributing to conversations around digital technology and creating a good impact in the digital space. Since then, our efforts have birthed super brands. In the past 3 years we have successfully trained 4,000 entrepreneurs on digital strategies as well as provided opportunities for business visibility. Many thanks to the opportunity Google granted us through the Digital Skills for Africa programme and a host of other partners who have trusted us to work with them. Why should SMEs understand their target markets before making an entrance into the market? Because if we don’t, we would be hitting our heads on rocks. Hard rocks. You can’t sell to everyone, and this is why research is key to identifying who your market is. Tell us about your Ebook Challenge Its amazing! I launched my first ever ebook on March 2019, titled ‘How to write your first eBook‘ and that’s where the ebook challenge began. We are currently on our 3rd cohort and it’s been amazing!!! Every 2 months we launch a new set of authors who are super proud of their achievements. It feels great to empower people to create wealth with their knowledge. We are looking to expand the community beyond eBooks to help more women create diverse digital products and generate more income. How does the “Do It Afraid” catchphrase relate to entrepreneurs who don’t like taking risks? We all have fear in us. It’s an emotion. I am still learning to tame my fears. And we all should. The best way to go about it is to go ahead and do that very thing you fear. I have coached a number of businesses and one of the areas I tend to focus on is to help them fight those limitations – the little voices and beliefs that make them feel less of themselves and limited. It’s important we act despite fear. Accept your fears but act. What’s the worst that could happen? Failure? Then show me one person who NEVER failed.
Yukabeth Kidenda: I Want To Celebrate And Dignify The Teaching Profession
Teach For Kenya is one of many independent chapters of the Teach For All Non-Profit organization, that is currently being set up in Nairobi, Kenya by Yukabeth Kidenda who is both its CEO and founder. Passionate about education and mentorship, Yukabeth is on a mission to build a movement of ethical leaders to drive reforms in Kenya’s education ecosystem. In this article, Yukabeth talks about her passion for teaching and her dream for education in Kenya. What inspired the Teach For Kenya initiative? Teach for Kenya is not the first of its kind, there are actually 50 other partner networks that exist all over the world. Teach For All was started by Wendy Kopp, an American who actually started it as Teach For America initially. Her inspiration came from coming face to face with the inequities in education in her hometown and feeling a burden in her heart to help bridge those gaps. From the success of that, she decided to replicate the model across other countries. When I was done with college, I decided to take a gap year and went to serve as a teacher in Honduras, Central America. That entire year was 365 of the happiest days of my life. I came back home, but for one and a half years, I couldn’t find a job. That really made me question everything that I had believed. For a long time, I had this belief that education was what gets you to be successful. I questioned that notion a lot and began to think – How come the education that I received didn’t prepare me for this slump on the road? How come this great education made me sit at home for over a year jobless? Why didn’t it help me sell myself to a potential employer? That is when things in my mind changed, I don’t want to just help people get access to education, I want to help them get access to QUALITY education that will enable them to thrive in this 21st century. That’s why I dedicated my life to working in educational organizations. I started with adult learning and corporate training, then worked with Microsoft with their education team to push ICT training and certification. Thereafter I joined Metis where I was running a fellowship program for educators across all sectors and went on to work with the African Leadership Group as a leadership facilitator and now getting ready to launch Teach For Kenya. I had been mulling over this with one of my mentors, Kennedy Odede for about one and a half years and by the beginning of 2019, I just decided to get on with it and actually do something. I think right now the country is ripe for such a great innovation and I’m glad to be at the forefront of it. Why is education important to you? I have a vast background in education, all the way back to my time in high school when my mother was diagnosed with cancer. My parents really valued education a lot and still do, my siblings and I all went to very good schools. My mother’s illness did take a financial toll on the family but one thing I took note of, was that my father did not make us switch schools at any point. We could have saved so much money by going to other schools that were not as costly and I could not understand why he chose to make that sacrifice. As I got older I realized the kind of doors that getting a good education and being exposed to that kind of learning could open for me. During my university years, I approached my dad and told him that I want to support other people who don’t have people rooting for them the way he rooted for us. My dad and I soon started doing a lot of projects in the community, going out to various areas, providing books, toiletries, things that just make the learning environment more habitable and more comfortable for the students. That really generated the passion I have had since then to do more in the education field. 3. How is it going with putting together the launch? It’s been a scary, engaging, challenging but exciting process all the same. One thing that has worked in my favor, is that this is my dream job. I’ve always wanted to work with people who don’t have anybody cheering them on and supporting them. Teach For Kenya puts me in that unique position where I have basically taken the responsibility to run this organization that will help mentor recent graduates and put them in a position where they come face to face with the challenges facing their community, transitioning them on to the alumni face of the program and watching them go out into the world to impact and join initiatives that are seeking to address these challenges. So I’d say right now that the education space in Kenya is very ripe. There are so many people who are very receptive to the idea of Teach For Kenya, and think it’s been a long time coming so the support has been overwhelming in a good way. I plan to pilot this program with our first 20 fellows in January 2021 so what I’m focusing on right now is doing community research and going out into the areas where we will potentially get to speak to the communities, the teachers, students, and parents and find out what their needs are and how our skills can best match those needs. It’s a lot of work but I feel like all of us as citizens of this country and this continent needs to do our part, this is me right now choosing to do my part. I hope this encourages anyone who may think that their part may be too small – we’re all pieces in a puzzle of a beautiful bigger picture and by doing our part, we
11 Traits to have in your single years – while waiting for a life partner
The single years can be fun and productive, but in some societies, the stigma that arises when you start getting close to a certain age can become overwhelming. Beyond that, how can you make your single years transformational and fruitful before settling down? Here are some tips to help you: 1. Give more than you receive This is the best time to start practicing how to share. When you get married, you’ll have to share your life with your spouse and if you have always felt that people were invading your space, this is the best time to start practicing. Smile more, show courtesy, give out some things that you don’t need and volunteer with your time. 2. Start working on things that challenge your self-worth Do you have issues with being confident? This is the best time to seek therapy on that. Do you feel you’re not tall or beautiful enough? This is the best time to start seeing yourself in a positive light. Take time to evaluate what makes you feel less and start appreciating it. In marriage, you wouldn’t want your spouse to be the source of your happiness because sometimes you’ll need to learn to enjoy your alone time. Nobody can complete you so start learning to love yourself. 3. Learn to manage your money If you spend without a budget, plan or savings then you want to learn to manage your finance. You can start saving and investing now. You can research on apps that allow you to save and invest and also learn more on business opportunities. 4. Learn to manage your home If you can’t clean your space, then start owning your space well without the intention of your spouse arranging everything for you. Learn to clean every corner of your house and practice good and healthy hygiene. 5. Be a praying person Marriage has its own battles and you don’t want to go into marriage with an entitlement mentality. You want to start praying for yourself, your spouse and children ahead. Learn to build a relationship with God in your single years so that you don’t build your world around your spouse alone. 6. This is time to work on your insecurities There’re people who’ll get married and try to control or manipulate their spouse because of trust issues. This is time to stop projecting your fears on your partner. Seek therapy and closure. It usually stems from your past experiences and it is better to seek for healing before you settle down. 7. Let go of pride If you’ve pride issues, this is the time to start seeking professional help. Pride kills the beauty of marriage. Don’t assume that your excesses will be managed. Pride comes before a fall. 8. Practice self-control If you think marriage will help you to stop playing the field, that’s a mistake. Self-control is important because you won’t be having sex every day. 9. Start learning little act of commitment Marriage works because of two committed people. Commitment should be practiced even when things are not going your way. It starts with your thoughts and decisions. 10. Travel to a new place One of the beautiful things you can do in your single years is to go to new places and try new things. if you cannot afford to visit a different country, try traveling to another state to tour and meet new people. 11. Invest in your personal development You should also use this period to read books, attend seminars and invest in yourself. I can’t emphasize this enough. A lot of singles find it difficult to invest in their emotional life and it can be frustrating at the end of the day. Save yourself the stress of being hurt and clueless. Learn and relearn. Learn about your personality type, your values, your deal-breaker, communication, love and apology languages, and so many other things. Which of these do you want to start doing?
A ‘Maternity Leave’ Revolution is taking place on the continent
The topic of parental leave in Africa is a commonly contested issue that is brought to question time and time again. In many parts of the continent, actual maternity and paternity leave are non-existent. Distiller giant, Diageo have made a huge step in a positive direction regarding parental leave by being the first large scale employer in Africa to provide their staff with six months paid maternity leave and four weeks paternity leave on full rate pay in all their markets across the continent. Diageo made this announcement in conjunction with their move to increase parental leave in their Western and Asian markets as well. This is a big step in the corporate world given that very few (if any) employers in Africa are permitting six months of paid leave – which makes it easier for women in the workplace to be both mothers and have a career with little stringent time complications. The International Labour Organization (ILO) states that 80% of women in Africa and Asia are deprived of maternity leave. In terms of paternity leave, the numbers are even lower with only eight countries out of 54 giving fathers more than a week’s paternity leave. This debacle has made it difficult for African women who are/want to be mothers to progress in the workplace because it forces them to choose one or the other but never both. SLA contributor – Diana had a sit down with HR director of the Diageo Africa division, Caroline Hirst, and Clemmie Raynsford, Head of Market Communications to learn about the steps taken and reasons for making such an empowering initiative come alive. Why did Diageo decide to do this now as opposed to say 2 – 4yrs ago? Caroline: We have been really progressing on the gender diversity perspective, we’ve worked really heavily on representation on a leadership level and in every aspect of our business and in particular generally where women are underrepresented. That has been really successful. However, we have recognized that the gender diversity agenda can’t just be about how many people of which gender you’ve got doing what things. It’s much more a breakdown of stereotypes, how do you create an environment where everybody can succeed, that’s really our aim. I was really keen to bring this policy in Africa because I think you can be forgiven for thinking that the gender diversity agenda is all about enabling women in Africa to do what men do which is not the case. It’s about all of us think differently about how we work together and so having this shift around parental leave and particularly the shift around paternity leave across Africa has not only given men more benefits and women too but it’s also got people talking about the diversity agenda as something that’s relevant and a means to change for everybody. Clemmie: It’s about us being a supportive employer and saying you can take more time with your family. With the beverage industry being such an old fashioned industry, most of our big breweries in parts of Africa took it positively commenting that it’s a really pioneering step that’s actually saying we are an employer first and we care about our people and giving them the right to the environment to do their work in the best way possible. If they need to be at home they can be and have their family and have that balance. As a working mum, what does this new initiative by Diageo mean to you and your family? Caroline: I was fortunate enough that when I had my children, the UK legislation already allowed mothers to take up to 40 weeks off. When I had my daughter and took 6 months off leave, the main consideration for me as the primary bread-winner in my household was how would I afford to take that much time off? When I had my son, I took a year off, most of it being unpaid so I feel that if this policy was in existence then, it would have made a lot more financial sense. This new policy will make a difference for women across Africa. I also hope that more men will feel welcome to take the 4 weeks paternity leave and spend time at home with their families. One of the things that we are seeking to do in our business is to make it okay for anybody to be a parent as opposed to it being something that only women can talk about or experience fully. Clemmie: I think what’s great about this policy is that not only does it take the financial pressure off which probably is sort of 70-80% of the main factor. But also, in saying that your company will give you full pay for 26 weeks off, it’s also saying that slightly the company is expecting you to want to and is absolutely fine with you taking that extended period of time off. It’s the combination of being allowed and your employer saying – we support you and we know that you have a family, this is a crazy new stage in your life so not only will we help you financially but here is some extra time you most likely need. The feedback from a lot of our African markets included people just suddenly feeling that sense of support that never existed before. It has been very positive from our various East and West Africa businesses. Why can’t fathers get the same amount of time off as mothers do? Caroline: In the future, we could look at a possible potential for that. Our intention is to create an environment where men can be fathers. And we think that moving to four weeks paternity leave whereas before in most markets it’s usually just two weeks or less, signals a progressive step forward. We have operationally a few constraints around how we would extend that to six months here where the majority of the workforce is male, but
ILHAN OMAR: From Refugee camp to US Congress
When I think of a Boss in 2020, I think of Ilhan Omar. Omar echoes Lupita Nyongo’s Oscar speech when she said “No matter where you come from your dreams are valid”. Ilhan Omar took this to heart as she began her campaign to the House of Representatives in the US Congress. She is now known as Representative Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, but her journey to Congress has been something of a dream. Omar is a Somali native, who was a refugee in Kenya before she relocated to the United States. She was recently elected to the US Congress in a historic fashion. She is the first East African (Somali) woman as well as the first of two Muslim women elected to the House. The US House of Representatives today is comprised of Boss Ladies who have worked their way to the top. Ilhan Omar’s story stands out because of her resilience and compassion as she introduces new bills on the US House floor. THE BEGINNING Ilhan Omar was born in Mogadishu, Somalia in October 1982. She grew up in Somalia until the civil war when she and her family were forced to flee the ongoing civil unrest. Omar spent four years living in extreme poverty at the Dadaab refugee camp in Garissa, Kenya. She and her family overcame obstacles and were able to relocate to the US after securing asylum in 1995. She was raised in the United States from the age of 12. Her upbringing in the United States sparked her interest in politics. Omar shares stories of her youth when she went to political meetings with her father and saw the lack of female leaders in the political sphere. She went on to study political science at North Dakota State University. Her studies of politics gave her the tools needed to embark on the journey to becoming a political pioneer in 2019. THE BUILD UP If you have been following Ilhan Omar’s story, you will quickly realize that she is an outspoken politician. Her journey to the US Congress is a buildup of courage in the face of opposition to anything that goes against the status quo. Omar’s political stance on many issues, especially immigration comes from her experience as an immigrant. She once said in an interview… “For me as an immigrant, who didn’t speak the language, when I had struggled as a kid, my dad would say: Once you are able to communicate with people, they are able to connect with you beyond your otherness…” Omar’s ability to connect with the fellow immigrant who may be struggling with their new environment struck me as a compassionate quality. She understands the immigration issues and can give a voice to the concerns of the immigrant population in the national conversations happening in the US Congress. BOSSING UP She was the Director of Policy Initiatives for the Women Organizing Women Network, based in Minnesota USA, where she was advocating for East African women to take initiative in civic and political leadership roles. According to the WOWN website, the purpose of the organization is to “Empower all women, particularly first and second-generation immigrants to become engaged citizens and community leaders regardless of political affiliation”. The WOW Network seeks to encourage Diaspora women to engage in civic conversations that bring light to the issues that immigrants face in the United States. From the role as director of this network, she was able to gain the confidence to launch her campaign for office in the United States Congress. The boss lady emerged as she fought hard to win a seat in the House of Representatives. She was elected to the US Congress in 2018 and re-elected in 2020 . If you’d like to see more content like this, please join our community. It’ll only take 2 seconds.
The HealthCare Giant of Botswana
“Bridging the gap between Policy and Implementation in Gender, Reproductive Health, and HIV/AIDS” Professor Sheila Tlou – whose surname translates literally to ‘elephant’ is a veritable giant in the gender, health care and sexual and reproductive healthcare space in Botswana, Africa, and the world. To Professor Sheila Tlou, the themes are inseparable, and much of her work includes activism at the intersection of these spaces. Professor Sheila Tlou is the co-chair of the Global HIV Prevention Coalition and the co-chair of the Nursing Now Global Campaign. From 2010 to 2017 she was Director of the UNAIDS regional support team for Eastern and Southern Africa. She is a former Member of Parliament and Minister of Health of the Republic of Botswana (2004-2008). Also, Professor Sheila Tlou was the former Professor of Nursing at the University of Botswana and Director of the WHO collaborating center for Nursing and Midwifery Development in Primary Health Care for Anglophone Africa. Professor Sheila Tlou has conducted research and taught courses like nursing, pre-medical and social science students on Gender issues relating to HIV/AIDS, Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights, and Ageing and Older Persons. She has played a key role in the development of national nursing and medical education curricula, working to broaden the scope of Health Sciences education in Botswana. Her work on HIV/AIDS The first case of HIV in Botswana was reported in 1985. As was the case with the pandemic in the early years, the virus spread quickly, and with Botswana’s small population, the implications for social and economic stability were devastating. However, Botswana responded to the pandemic and implemented a number of health care reforms and programs including the PMTCT (Prevention of Mother to Child Transmission) in 1999 and universal access to ARVs (antiretrovirals) to those who were at an advanced stage of the disease. The management of the virus in Botswana is due in large part to the role that Professor Tlou played in those years, and she continues to lend her voice, wisdom, and expertise to the healthcare space worldwide, today. For example, the transmission of HIV from mother to child decreased from about 30 percent in 2003 to about 8 percent in 2008. Maternal mortality due to AIDS also decreased from 34 percent to 9 percent under her leadership. Her work is ‘numbers’ and report-based, however, one cannot forget that the work that Prof. Tlou continues to do has a major impact on the lives of women, and by extension, their families and communities. Professor Tlou worked tirelessly at the intersection of gender and health, to generate research and forge important partnerships between academia, government, and civil society. She advocated for real change at the grassroots level in Botswana. As Minister of Health, she led a forward-thinking and focused HIV care, prevention, treatment, support, and care programme that is used as a model all over the world today; a testament to her knowledge, resolve and leadership. Professor Tlou is aware of the role that young people have to play in continuing the challenge of zero new HIV infections, zero discrimination, and zero AIDS-related deaths – effectively ending the disease by 2030. Her work on gender health Professor Tlou is the United Nations Eminent Person for Women, Girls, and HIV/AIDS in Southern Africa. She is also the International Council of Nurses Goodwill Ambassador for Girl Child Education. In her past assignment as UNAIDS Regional Director, Professor Tlou provided leadership and Political Advocacy for quality sustainable AIDS response in 21 African countries, from Eritrea to South Africa, including the Indian Ocean Islands of Madagascar, Mauritius, Seychelles, and Comoros. She has been instrumental in the formation of advocacy bodies such as The Pan-African Positive Women’s Coalition (PAPWC) and the High-Level Task Force on Women, Girls, Gender Equality and HIV in Africa. Professor Tlou initiated and chaired a High-Level task force on Comprehensive Sexuality Education and Services for Young People in Eastern and Southern Africa. Because of the uniqueness and peculiarity of the cultural context of African societies, HIV/AIDS thrived in a thick cloak of ignorance, denial, and secrecy that Prof. Tlou has recognized as a deterrent to the success of any programs that may be implemented. Again, her sensitivity to the fact that women empowerment is a key issue that lies at the heart of HIV/AIDS prevention means that her work is alive to the issues that are particular to African women. “Gender inequality, gender-based violence, including sexual violence and sexual exploitation, are at the core of young women’s vulnerability and need to be addressed if we are to achieve that SDG of ending AIDS as a public health threat by 2030″. This very goal gives us a platform to deliver services based on rights, inclusiveness, universality and ensuring that no one is left behind. Her Recognitions/Awards Professor Tlou has received many national and international awards. Among them are… “the Botswana Presidential Order of Honor, the Florence Nightingale Award from the International Red Cross Society, the Trailblazer Woman Leading Change Award from the World YWCA, the Leadership in Health award from the Global Business Council (Health)”. She also got “the President award from the US National Academy of Nursing, the President award from the US National League for Nursing, the Princess Srinagarindra award from Thailand, the Christianne Reimann award from the International Council of Nurses, and The Princess Muna Al Hussein award from the American Nurses Credentialing Centre”. “Leaders who are able to communicate the importance of their activism are often able to inspire groups to pull together towards a common goal”. Botswana is one of Africa’s success stories, from one of Africa’s poorest countries to a vibrant, developed, middle-income African state. Sponsored Post.
Bossing through Learning: Joanna Steele
As a boss, learning is your superpower. You don’t know what you don’t know, but there is now a multitude of ways to find out. After completing my Marketing & Spanish degree at London Metropolitan University, I vowed that I was never going to study again. Not because I didn’t enjoy my course or my studying experience – I actually really loved my uni days and not just because of the socializing! However, I was eager to get into the world of work and at the time thought that what I had studied was all I needed to launch and sustain me in my career. However, over time, I have developed a totally different perspective on education and studying and realise that in order to grow it is imperative to continue learning throughout your life. Working in the digital field as I do is exciting. Technological advances and changes in consumer behaviour ensure that it’s an industry that is ever evolving and in order to keep up and remain an authority in my field. Just recently, I completed a Fintech course with Oxford University. I had zero knowledge of financial markets but understood that it’s an area that is being disrupted by technology particularly in Africa. It was important that I improved my knowledge in this area. As a result, I am now part of a group of alumni working on a great project– so two wins – knowledge of a new field and a potential business opportunity! But it’s more than just keeping abreast of your industry, it’s equally important to learn new things in general, and to stay curious. In order to grow and live a fulfilled life, it’s important to expand past your comfort zone, increase your skills and knowledge and deepen your understanding and perceptions around areas that you may not often be exposed to. Haven struggled with weight issues for most of my life, I challenged myself to complete a fitness qualification with YMCA in a bid to better understand health and fitness and to spur on my weight loss. In fact, I am now a fully qualified Group ETM (Exercise to Music) instructor and whilst I don’t teach classes I definitely have a different approach to my health and have incorporated new elements into my daily lifestyle to maintain a certain level of fitness. Encouraging yourself to try new and different experiences, setting yourself challenges, not necessarily knowing how to get there but knowing your why which propels you along your path of achievement. My Top 5 Reasons for continued learning It gives you a sense of accomplishment and pride and helps build self-confidence. Psychologists say that learning makes us happier! It gives you access to new and different opportunities. My network has expanded exponentially – the number of new friends I’ve made and the projects I’ve been able to work on with people I’ve met through learning has been incredible It fuels creativity. You can learn something in a seemingly un-related area which can trigger an idea in another. It fuel change It fuels productivity. Developing a new skill influences the way you do things day to day and can make doing things quicker and easier, saving time, energy and stress. Having lived and worked in the UK my whole life, I have no experience of living in another country let alone starting a business in one. But my aptitude for learning, whether it’s reading, taking courses or training is what’s prepping me on this journey and helped me one step at a time to steadily achieve my dream. I like to believe that learning is our superpower. You don’t know what you don’t know, but there is now a multitude of ways to find out. I reckon it’s definitely time to redefine the phrase CPD from Continued Professional Development to Continue Pushing for your Dreams.