Podcast Segment Working Class Woman Movement: Celebrating International Women’s Day

Send us a textThe 8th of March was International women’s day , I was afforded the chance to ask wonderful women in their different life paths about their careers and what inspired them. I hope not only will you all enjoy the episode but be inspired. This is the working class woman’s movement where to get to hear the voices of others before we jump into the episode let me Thank the ladies for sharing parts of themselves and I hope many will take a lot from this episode and be inspired , it tak...

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Transcript

SPEAKER_04 0:04

Welcome to the working class women movement.

SPEAKER_03 0:08

Using our voices to make sure they don't fall on deaf ears.

SPEAKER_00 0:12

Reclaiming the activism of working class women. Increasing chances of gender equality and pay equality.

SPEAKER_06 0:22

This podcast advocates for women's voices and equal rights in a working class environment.

SPEAKER_04 0:28

Focusing on economic issues and claiming women's space in leadership. The 8th of March was International Women's Day. I was afforded the chance to ask wonderful women in their different life parts about their careers and what inspired them. I hope not only will you enjoy the episode but be inspired. This is the working class women's movement where we get to hear the voices of others. Before we jump into the episode, let me thank the ladies for sharing parts of themselves, and I hope many will take a lot from this episode and be inspired. It takes one woman at a time to change the world. The future is female.

SPEAKER_00 1:15

Hi, my name is Numa Tamsangma Delicilesi Tole, better known as Utami, and I'm going to share my career path with you. So, what is it that I do? I'm a wellness practitioner and I consult for corporate and mining companies to bring them wellness solutions to their companies. I work under the employee wellness division where we promote employee wellness in the companies that we consult for to ensure that their employees are taken care of within you know their psychosocial needs, emotionally, financially, legally, and also health-wise. So we do this as a company because we believe that employees cannot perform at their optimal level if their wellness is not taken care of. And obviously, this would have a negative impact on the organization. So when they are taken care of emotionally, psychosocially, and so forth, they thrive within the organizations, and it's a win-win for the organization as well as for the employees personally. So as a company, we basically run these wellness programs for the organizations to cater to all these wellness pillars and you know to make the job easy for them. They can focus on whatever it is that they are running as an organization. We come and we do this and we make the job easier for them. So, what is it that I studied? I studied social work as my undergrad, and for my postgrad, I did my honors in behavioral sciences and also an advanced diploma in management. And why did I choose a career path that I'm in? So, growing up, I always knew that I wanted to help people. I just wasn't too sure on what level that would be. Um, but I remember my mother saying that from a young age, I always would mention that I wanted to be a social worker. So, funny enough, after my trick, um, I enrolled for communication sciences. Uh, but after a year I knew that's not where I wanted to be, and I changed and I enrolled for social work. So, whilst I was studying, um I got a job in admin, and um my manager at the time was leaving the country with his wife or with his family, and his wife was working for some other company, and he said to me that you know, please apply for that position. Um, I think the wife was a PA at that time. Apply for that position, it pays better. I think you'll do well in that organization, you'll be a good fit for it. And that's what I did. I applied for that company. I I won't lie, I wasn't even sure what that company did or whatever. You know, it was just the salary that made sense at the time. And I told myself, look, I'm still busy with my studies, and that's what matters. Wherever I work doesn't really matter. Um, yeah, so lo and behold, I get there and I find out that the company is a wellness company that actually employs social workers and psychologists. So it was actually such a win for me because um during my studies, I managed to, you know, get the input of social workers and psychologists, and they really played a role um in my studies. And yeah, when I completed my studies, I was working in the company. Um, so while I was a PA, I guess my older colleagues kind of took a liking to me because they'd always include me in their work. Um, they take me along to their client meetings, they take me along to their presentations, to their wellness days, and sometimes it would just be like, What are you busy with? And I'd be like, Oh no, I'm not too busy, like come with me. Or you know, tomorrow I'm going to such or such a place, you must come with me. Little did I know that um this is where I'd be looking learning the work of being a consultant because they were consultants at that time. Um, and after some time when I got used to what it is they were doing, there would be times where they would ask me to stand in for for them, like in the cases where they were double books or they were away, um, or you know, there was just no way for them to get to what it is that they needed to do, and I would gladly, gladly, you know, take on that. Um, because I just thought, you know, I'm exposing myself to different things. And little did I know that I was actually learning the work of being a consultant, and by the time I completed my degree, I had become an assistant consultant. So I guess with this exposure and with them taking me everywhere, it was a way for me to learn. And I guess they saw that I took a liking to it, and I was doing you know pretty well in it. I became an assistant consultant. So when I completed my degree, I was already an assistant, and then you know, I think a few maybe two years or so later, there was an opening, three years actually, there was an opening for a consultant, and I applied for the job. And because I had already shadowed them, I had already had the experience from you know, um, all the times I would go with them, and I was the assistant, it was easy for me then to get into the consultancy work. Um, so I always believed that my work found me, you know, like somehow the universe orchestrated how and where I was, you know, to um to be where I am today, and I'm so grateful for that because I am living my dream of making a difference, not only in the lives of individuals, but in the lives or in the organizations. Um, yeah, so what are the joys of being a working woman? Shoo, I think firstly, it's it's it's the freedom to decide your pathway, and I'm saying this decide in quotes, you know, your pathway in quotes, because if we have to be honest and look um at past you know happenings or or things that we saw growing up, our moms, our aunts, our grandmothers didn't really stay in relationships because they loved being there, it's just they couldn't afford to leave the relationships because they were dependent on the income of their partners, on their spouses, and as a means of survival. Um, so now being a working woman gives you the choice to choose the space you want to be in, and it's not done because you're forced to be in that situation. And I think another one that I can think of is that you're able to learn and broaden your knowledge. I mean, this is so empowering, you know. You go out into spaces and you feel empowered, you know, you bring something to the world, you bring something to the community, you bring something to um the organization, and this pushes you to want more for yourself, it pushes you to do better for yourself, you know, because you you have to enhance yourself, you know. You you always have to enhance yourself to to to make sure that you are where you you need to be at that time, and of course, it's always so exciting to see your hard work pay off, you know, all the work that you put into into your career path, all the work that you put into your daily doings, it really boosts your confidence, you know. You look back and you're like, Did I do that? Did I make that difference? You know, or look at where I've come from. It's it's really so beautiful to see. And I mean, let's talk about the financial freedom as well, you know. You you get the pine the financial freedom to pave your own idea of what your life should look like without waiting for someone else to do it. I mean, yeah, it's nice to have someone do this and that for you, but it's nice to be able to say, I'm paying for my holiday. It's nice to be able to say, I am purchasing my own home, I am purchasing my own vehicle, I dress the way I want to, and and I can afford it, you know. All those perks are always beautiful as a working woman. And I think one thing that we we never really think about. I mean, yeah, it does come across, you know, to your thoughts at some point, but you pave a way for those who look up to you. Because I'm sure there's a little girl there that you know is looking at you and probably knows you, and it's they marvel at seeing where you are, you know, to say, oh, if or says time we could do it, then I mean there's a possibility, there's a chance for me as a black young girl to also do this. So I think that's one of the best things, um, or the best choice of being a working woman. And obviously, joys don't come with pains, so some of the pains that I can think of of being a working woman is that it's very difficult to juggle it all, you know. As much as we are missing dependents, there's still a certain level of expectation for us to be domesticated, in quotes, and to cater to the needs of our family. You'll find that you work eight to five. Um, and some people it ranges. I mean, I've got days where I have to be on site at six in the morning, meaning I woke up at four, and my day ends maybe at five, six. By the time I come back home, I am exhausted. But you know, you still need to make sure that there's food on the table, or that supper is taken care of, you know, help around where you can. Um, there's not enough time for that, and when you are studying, you know, you must be doing your assignments, you must be catching up on work, whatever it is, it's it's crazy. There isn't enough time to juggle at all, and um there's also not much time to do you, you know. In between work and family time, there's little time to cater to self-care. Um, yes, the job will allow you the financial freedom to attain most of the stuff that you want, but there isn't enough time to enjoy them, you know. Over the weekends, if you're not catching up on sleep or doing some chores around the house and so forth, there isn't really time to go on holiday, you know. I I always it's always a hassle when I have to go on leave, for example, because I know the amount of work that will pile up to a point where is to the point where I actually put off my leave as much as I can because I'm so anxious of the amount of work that you know will be there when I come back. So sure, time is is a huge factor in in all of this. Um and another component that I can think of is not being paid the same as our white counterparts or even the males in the same position. It's something that's been going on for years, it's probably something that will continue to go on, but it's not it doesn't feel good because you do the same amount of work, if not more, but you aren't compensated in the same way. Um, so yeah, it is a bit of a touch of a sore point, rather. And I think as a black woman also, not being taken serious because or as serious as you as you should be taken because you're black and you're a woman, so you constantly have to be proving yourself to say that I am worthy of this position that I'm in, that I am supposed to be here, and I know what it is that I'm doing, and I bring so much value to the company, I bring so much value to this job, and I bring so much value, let's say, to the organizations that I work with, you know. So I feel like as black women or as women, we have to work twice as hard than our white counterparts or the male counterparts. Um, but at the end of the day, it's beautiful, it's a beautiful experience, and we will continue to do the most to get to the most. Thank you for giving me your ear.

SPEAKER_05 13:05

I am Sharon Bususuez Lamini, a 37-year-old woman who resides in South Africa. I am an educator by profession. I teach in a government school based in a location named Gata Hong. I teach grade seven learners. What made me choose education was my family background. I come from a family of uneducated people, which has never sat well with me because it's not nice to be the only person in the family that has a degree because they people start treating you differently. So I've always wished to play a different role, and that was the one thing that motivated me to say I dare to be different, I'm going to break this uh generational curse, and also my passion for imparting knowledge, I love I thrive on that. I love imparting knowledge, I find joy in sharing information with people for the first time. You know, when you give people information that they've never heard of, or you you teach them something new that they've never done before, and they now can do it because of you. That has always made me feel so happy, and it means to me I get the opportunity to shape the future of tomorrow, I get the opportunity to play a role in building the economy of our country, and also, you know, there's nothing as beautiful as knowing that you have played a role in shaping the future of a child and helping them understand who they are, helping them choose what they want to become in the future. That is just beautiful for me. And as we all know, that uh being a parent in this day and age, in this generation, I mean, parenting millennials is not a child's play, it's an extreme sport altogether. So you can only imagine the challenges that I face as an educator. I teach grade seven learners, as I said before, who are pre-teens. That means they are between the ages of 12 and 14. These are pre-teens and early teens. The hormones, the changes that are happening to their bodies. Suddenly you have a deep voice, suddenly you are growing pressed, suddenly you have periods, suddenly you have pimples, and suddenly you like boys, suddenly you like the same gender. You know, it is so confusing when you think about it. So just imagine if you are the one going through it, it has to be a difficult thing to experience. We've all been there and it was difficult. Ours was different because we had strict parenthood forced you to come back to your senses. With today's generations, they get to experience everything as is because they have rights, which we never did. Uh, we had to do as the parents said said. Uh, how do you feel on that particular day? It never mattered. So things are a bit different, which is one of the challenges that you are someone from uh the 80s and you are teaching a millennial. You were raised differently, and you are supposed to render to raise these people in a way that you do not understand yourself, and you're supposed to teach them in a way that you were never taught yourself. You see, so that's a challenge on its own. And to make matters worse, I teach in a public school, meaning that uh the minimum of learners we have in our class is 45, and the maximum is 70. So you can imagine with the preteens having 70 preteens in a class running around, we can barely deal with one or two of your own children at home, and now you have to deal with 70 people at one go, and you are expected to produce results. These people are expected to pass, 70 of them are expected to pass. How do you deal with such? You know, working in a government school is a challenge on its own because one, you lack resources. Most of the things that you need to impart the knowledge, you do not have. We mostly rely on textbooks and we still use the old method, which is the chalk and talk. So that is a method that the learners do not understand. That is a method that the learners are not interested in. Today's generation is interested in uh electrical devices, which is I would assume we have to teach using smartboards, using tablets, using laptops, and so forth. And that would be interesting, your YouTubes, you know, your TikToks, even. Those are the things that the learners I feel would be interested in and would want to engage in, not the basic chalk and talk that I used to be taught in. So those are the challenges that I face as a teacher, apart from everything else that we deal with on a daily. And to make things worse, you know, in schools we have committees. I happen to be the SBST coordinator, which is the schools-based support team. Any social issues that we have within the school are my problem. I'm the one who has to solve the issues, I'm the one who has to deal with the issues. Example, if a child has been raped, whether in school or at home, and they report the case in school, I'm the one who has to work with the learner, work with the parents, make sure that the case gets solved in obviously uh within the school premises, not go, not doing the police work, obviously. So that becomes a challenge, an extra and added challenge to me because now I'm not only focused on the curriculum, but I'm also focused on other things, and those things are disturbing, honestly. If you have to teach, deliver uh curriculum each and every day, and also have to deal with the issues that the learners are dealing with, it's not easy, it's draining emotionally, it's draining physically, and you end up not knowing who you are as an individual because you are so vested into other people's problems, and you can never also turn a blind eye when it's a child. You want to solve the case, you want to make sure that the child gets justice. If a child is having social issues at home, maybe the child is now in grade seven, but is dating people who are 10 years older than her, and all that, you need to figure out how to deal with that, you need to get social workers involved, you need to find a way to give this child love, you need to find a way to find out what is it that is happening with the family background, why is the child being like this, why has the child turned out like this? So, my job is a huge challenge, but all in all, I believe that um God gives his biggest challenges to his most trusted people. So I believe God trusted me with everything that I am today. God didn't give me a challenge because he didn't think that I can do it. He knows very well what my capabilities are, and he knows that I will be able to conquer. Apart from that, I love education, I love imparting knowledge, I thrive when I see people cracking something, being able to understand something that they did not understand, passing a test, uh, being able to make a bridge because I teach technology, being able to understand accounting cost concepts because I teach EMS. You know, I get to become excited when a learner is now suddenly have uh the confidence to recite a poem which they never were able to do before because I'm a language teacher. So those are the things that get me excited, those are the things that make me wake up each and every day and say, I will do this no matter what. No matter what the challenges, no matter what the world throws at me, I will go and I will deliver my lessons to those children and I will put a smile on my face because at the end of the day, I am. An educator and growing also within the education sector is something that I would like to do. I would not want to shift to other sectors in the career field. I'm very much happy where I am, but obviously I want to grow as an individual. I want to grow as a teacher, and also teaching my learners that you don't have to stay in one place as a person. You need to grow. You move from one place to another through education. So thank you very much for listening to me. I hope this makes sense to you and this somehow changes your view on who and what teachers are and what they do on a daily. Thank you.

SPEAKER_02 22:46

Greetings, everyone. We meet again to touch on the segment of working class women. I had just taken on um a new position and um we had a full discussion around it. And um I think this must have been sometime in 2020 if I'm not mistaken. And yeah, I guess it it's now um three years later and the challenges still remain. Um but um the lessons the lessons are what also build build one's character and they also um in a way actually um changes the outlook of what this world is all about and um it's funny how one's career path can actually um have such an impact on their entire livelihood livelihood and it's been quite alright, it's been quite a right, and you know the challenges do not die down, they actually yeah, they actually there's always something that's going to um in a way I don't know how to put it, but there's always one knock after the other, and it's really a test on character, it's really a test on tenacity, it's really a test on um how strong one can actually be. It's um a test on faith, it's a test on um belief, it's a test on so many aspects of one's life. But it's how many times you actually get up and get the work, the job done. Um it's crazy what this journey has taken me through. And it's constantly taking me through. It's not easy at all. I'm gonna sugarcoat it, it's not easy, but you know, um the thing about having a dream and having a vision about your life, you will fight and fight and fight, but there comes a point where you know we question if is it really worth it, and there comes a point where you know you might have to rechannel that fighting energy into something else, but the fact that you know it reveals that side of you, the fighting side of you, that you never back down. I think it's it's those characters that come out with such testing times that actually reveal to you that you're capable and you are steadfast irrespective of the the the challenges that you face. You wake up and you show up and you actually complete the task. Um, you know, um fighting for a career and fighting to be a present parent and um trying to also build um you know relationships outside of those two facets is insane. And now that my child is in school in primary school and not always being there to assist with homework kills me kills me that I'm not able to stretch myself so much I'm not able to always be present when he needs me and it kills me that the fact that I'm the only source of income to him or for him I really I I can't I can't I can't, you know I can't I don't have that option of saying okay um I'm gonna have to you know um leave the job or um kind of you know start something else. I can't do it f at this point, but it's in the pipeline, something is in the pipeline because I can't live with myself, you know, it's it has been difficult living with myself and uh oh I remember we recently had an audit and I asked these ladies how do you do it and they told me that our kids don't always need us as parents but as a mother you've you've you've you've babied your child from you know when they were in your womb you've nurtured their growth and then for me not to be able to continue with the nurturing process is a bit of a knock on my side because I'm not always available to you know um to step in to play a part on certain on certain um activities that you know that involve my child and that's where I am right now where I'm battling where I'm battling um the stretching part of myself because I have to be there for the career, I have to be there for my child, but uh you know the advice does make sense that you know in a case where as a parent you're not fully present or you're not fully um you're not a full-time parent where you are actively you know running your running or being in charge of all the aspects of your child actually helps them with being able to um steer certain activities without you and it helps with um them being independent quicker and I I saw that and I see it with my son where he understands that you know f for wherever there's a shortfall on my side he also tries to you know um he tries to meet me halfway so um it helps in in in in a case in that case where your child becomes more independent quicker, but I would love to be there, I would love to actively you know assist and I don't know how parents or single parents who do not have the support that I have manage because it's it's crazy, it's crazy, it is absolutely insane having to juggle um your child's um needs and your career needs, and in between, you know, there are relationships that you have to maintain, and I haven't been able to maintain most of um of those relationships that are outside work or outside my child's life, and when I do make time for those relationships, um it feels like you're neglecting um the two priorities, which is my child and my career, obviously. So it's just I don't know if it's driving me crazy because it feels like there really is no balance, there really is no balance, nothing is making sense, and I I'm struggling with with that, that is the biggest challenge. I cannot maintain any other relationship outside of my work or my child, and when I do um, you know, make time for other things, you are made to feel guilty. And obviously, my support structure, they do most of the work when it comes to my child, you know, in terms of helping with homeworks. I would do my bit I would, you know, prepare lunchbox for my son, make sure his um uniform is all cleaned up, all ironed, you know, and you know, I I do most of the physical work, but they would help with um the the homeworks and you know just ensuring after school he's um is that yeah, that guide and care that happens, but I'm still the mother at the end of the day, and I have to be um, you know, emotionally, physically, and financially provide. And yeah, it's like it's it's it's just um it's just been hectic and you just wonder if this is how it's supposed to be you wonder because it doesn't feel right. You wonder because it's heavy. You wonder because um it's not completely pleasurable. It is completely pleasurable when you achieve those milestones at work and um but it's not fulfilling it's not fulfilling because it's still heavy stretching yourself and I like that. It's it's crazy. It's overwhelming and it's it's been a journey that has been filled with tears and breaking down and sometimes self-destracting and you just wonder sometimes You use wonder Yeah, and unfortunately giving up is not always an option because you just never know what lies on the other side. So giving up is not really an option, but the challenges the challenges of having to stretch yourself so much as an individual is is insane. And the journey has been has been crazy in that sense where you are constantly overwhelmed with either the demands from your personal life overwhelmed from the demands from your career life it's overwhelming and it just doesn't make sense at at this point that's where I am where it's like I'm overwhelmed, it doesn't make sense and you know you start thinking of alternatives, you know. You start thinking about plan B, having plan B in motion, and and you just never know, you know. Maybe that's why sometimes we're placed in uncomfortable positions so that we do not relax and you know get comfortable. Maybe there's a reason, there's a bigger reason why I'm going through these um challenging times. Maybe it's it's for me for the cause of you know actually executing plan B and there's nothing wrong with taking on challenges in life. Um the reason why I say this is because they do reveal and manifest to us what we are capable of enduring. It's like an endurance test and also um it might help with also thinking out of the box, it might also reveal to you that maybe this is not what I want. Um that's the thing about not taking on challenges, you will never know if this is really what you want or not, and um how else do you execute plan B if you do not expose yourself to challenges? How else do you not take a bolder move? If you can endure certain things I feel you can make it through anything, and I'm glad that I took on the challenge and I'm glad that it revealed to me that I'm more than capable and I'm glad that it revealed to me that even though I encountered such tumultuous challenges, I still didn't drown above all else I've shown it has revealed to me that I am capable, and that's the one side of me I think that had died down a bit when I went through my rough patch and it died down, but um that side of me got invoked again and I know that I am stronger than I actually thought I was. Um I'm a fighter and I do everything so graciously, but I'm a fighter, I'm a hard worker, and I'm capable, and that is one thing that this journey has revealed to me. But then again, if we don't challenge ourselves, we wouldn't really you know explore other options or think of other options and see if whether you know something is for you or not, you know, and so putting ourselves in uncomfortable situations sometimes can help us in actually revealing or unraveling our destiny and sometimes um the key to unraveling our destiny is not really it doesn't really come forth straight. Forward. Sometimes you have to take it sometimes to eventually reveal the gift or the ultimate the ultimate goal or to reach that ultimate goal. And so building a career is not easy at all because you would have to stretch it takes away so much from you. It takes away so much. Your career will eat you away. Your time away from your loved ones. It will eat away time from the relationships that you are proudly in. It will eat away so much of your time. That is the one thing that a career does it take time away from you. You don't even have time for yourself. Sometimes you can't even make time for yourself. And you have to remind yourself to make time for yourself. Unfortunately, why crazy journey for me? It has been very tasting extremely tasting, I don't think. Anything well there has been experiences in the life that were tasting, but this is I don't even know what to call it. You know the yeah, there are taste like you go through it for that short period of time and then it goes away. And with your career you just wonder if it does go away. I don't know. Because I don't know if it goes away or you just learn to work around it. I do not know because I'm at a stage where I haven't figured I haven't figured it out. There was something that um I'm trying to work around and for me right now it it seems like I'm not even getting to that point where there is a solution or there's um a way to work around it. That's what we are on the topic of working classes. That's a weird experience. The the beginning of my career and being a working mom It's it's it's insane. Being a working mom is insane because oh the sacrifices as women we have to sacrifice relationships, we have to sacrifice being present children's lives, which is the most difficult thing 'cause we are natural natural so we want to be there for our kids all the way. Uh crazy journey, it's a bit very tasting. I don't know where it's gonna end. You know, when you're constantly thinking of brandy, that's the way it is. That's what it is. Because at this point it's not we can say that you say in class. Thank you.

SPEAKER_01 50:09

Thank you very much for um for inviting me to speak. Uh I hope this is interesting enough for um your audience, for the people who listen to your show. Um I'm gonna start off by introducing myself. I'm Joanna Ferro. Um and Anita and I used to work in the same company in Johannesburg. So that's that's how far we go back. This was around 2015, let's say, 2016, back in South Africa. Um a lot has changed since then. So I am the daughter of descendant Portuguese parents, um, descendant of Portuguese grandparents, may I just correct myself? And I'm second generation born in Africa. Um, my parents are Mozambican Portuguese, and I was born in Lesotho, and for anyone who doesn't know where that is, it is a tiny mountainous African kingdom that is completely surrounded by South Africa. And uh story for another time, how I landed up there. Um but I moved to Mozambique when I was nine. Um my parents inherited a farm from my grandfather and a water bottling factory. So we moved over there, and while I was living in Mozambique, I was attending boarding school in Zimbabwe. I left um Mozambique, Zimbabwe when I was about 18, as everyone does. There's a mass exodus of new, newly high school graduated kids going down to South Africa for their tertiary education. Um, it's just common practice in those places. Uh tertiary education is very good in South Africa. So I went on to study architecture, but I wouldn't call myself an architect today. So I have meandered a little bit in my career to the point where I am now officially titled a landscape architect. And um, so there wasn't a very straightforward direction towards getting to landscape architecture. I did find that I was practicing as a landscape architect, or I was pursuing the same principles and the same philosophies within architecture, but I wasn't exposed to landscape architecture in South Africa or in the continent, really. So there wasn't, I think it's a very new um career um in the continent. Um anyway, I'll I will get to that that a little bit later. Um, but yes, so I graduated with a master's in architecture. I started my undergrad in Cape Town and then my master's I finished at the University of Johannesburg in 2015. Um but it was a seven-year academic career that was very hellish, bruised me beyond sense. I think it's just architecture and it needs to change. That's that culture of punishment and they just strip you of your confidence. I don't understand the idea of that, and I don't know why it happens, but it seems to be chronic at uh architectural universities around the world. So not much you can do. It's it was seven years ago, so things are probably changing. I don't know, your young, your young viewers can listeners, should I say, because this is audio, uh, would probably say otherwise. But uh yeah, maybe they can comment on that. It'll be nice to know where we are in the um academic culture at the moment. Um anyway, so um after I graduated, I couldn't quite bring myself to move into architecture. And it was just an insurmountable effort and just to to fathom that I could work as an architect after what I had I had endured. It felt like boot camp. So luckily enough, I was headhunted by the director of um of ARIP, which is a it's the company I'm working for currently, and it's a global uh design and engineering uh multidisciplinary firm. Um, they were actually involved in the Sydney Opera House. So that gives you a little bit of context. So I was headhunted by the uh urban design director in the Johannesburg office. I got the job and joined the team as an urban designer for three years. Um, but during those three years, the South African economy was really struggling. There was a there was a massive downturn, people were losing jobs, the the climate was very uncertain and um a little bit scary that you know you'd go away on holiday for two weeks and come back, and the whole office has been like reshaped and reorganized, and you know, people were just vanishing. And I thought this is a bit of a sinking ship, and if I keep sitting here, I'm gonna be next. So I started applying aggressively all over the world. I would have taken any job, I would have become a bartender in a beach in Thailand. Like I was just ready to just take the first opportunity and and and just run with it and figure it out as I went. Um, but luckily enough, I applied internally in ARIP and found a job um titled Landscape Architecture. And to be honest, I had no idea what a landscape architect did. I honestly thought it was a glorified gardener. And I thought, what on earth are we doing hiring gardeners within this company that mainly focuses on you know massive scale industrial, I mean, um massive scale projects. Um anyway, I just I just applied on a whim and I got a call back that they wanted the first interview, and I thought, I felt like such an imposter. I was like, do they know that I that I don't have these skills? I barely even know what I'm applying for. Um but I went through the motions, got the job at the end, um, and I was a little bit terrified as to what I was uh heading towards. So packed my bags and moved to London five years ago to join the landscape studio here at the Arab headquarters. Uh we're now a team of 90, I believe, and I joined when we were about 50 or 60. So it's been really good, healthy, steady growth. Um, and I found that landscape architecture was nothing that I imagined. It was exactly, it was exactly where I needed to be. Um because I I may have studies as an architect, and the main focus of an architect is to address like human needs and uh human happiness. And I had a bit of an existential crisis when I was in third year because of my because of my upbringing on a farm and in a very rural village in Mozambique. I I was so exposed to um to nature and I it was just all around me, and I had such an appreciation for it. But then I moved to South Africa and I was in a big city, um, very distracted, very noisy, a lot of pressures that I hadn't ever felt. My life was so slow. Sometimes I even felt like I'd look out a window and I was looking at a painting because 10 years would go by and you know the landscape wouldn't change. Um, so there was a lot of changes and pressures that I was feeling while studying architecture, and I felt like I was in the devil's team, if I could say, um, because how could I be how could I be sitting here taking more and more land for human settlements with little to no regard for for wildlife habitats? And there was just a lack of of sensitivity, there was just a lack of of care that I that I wasn't really getting. Um I think the most pinnacle point in in why I moved in, and landscape architecture is also very social practice. Um it works outside of buildings, it works in the public realm, so it's serving not just one person's need, usually a client or you know, investors, um, the super rich and and and famous, the people who uh you know who fund our architectural projects. It's usually, it's usually, well, back then it was a very ego-centric manifestation of something in space. And I just hated that centralization of ego. Um and landscape architecture is happens in between buildings, it happens for everyone. It addresses, you know, the lowest common denominator from the likes of children and designing cities for children all the way to the elderly and the disabled and the homeless and everyone in between. And outside of that, uh, although I don't think uh uh Kate Moss will be wandering down my road, and I wouldn't be designing for her, but it would be nice. I don't know why I chose Kate Moss anyway. Um yeah, anyway, moving on. Um, so where was I? I designed, I I think I was having an existential crisis. So I moved into landscape architecture. It's exactly what I needed in my life. Um, and there were a lot of transferable skills from architecture and urban design. Um so in terms of in terms of software, I was already I was already there using Adobe Creative Cloud, um, although it wasn't cloud back then, but the the suite, you know, Photoshop and Illustrator and design. Um I knew all the CAD programs, so I wasn't completely useless in the team. And my urban design um experience also helped massively because I was used to working in a master planning scale. And a lot of times uh here, especially in London, the scale of the projects is you know across cities in many ways, sometimes even across geographical regions, you know, how to create how to connect like massive um wildlife habitats together and and then program that with um sensitive human um activities. So it was exactly what I needed before I even knew what it was. Um I I feel saddened that I couldn't um but maybe I'll go back to Africa because now I've got these wonderful skills and this experience, and and I I I really think the I think that there could be there's a lot of benefit uh to using uh nature-based solutions and and and this kind of approach on the African continent. Um so we'll see what happens. Um so aside from being a landscape architect now, I prefer to call myself a built environment practitioner because of this sort of dotted, varied background that I have. Um but I'm also a mom. Uh and I'm a uh and I'm a wife. Um I'm a mom of a 14-month-old baby. He's very sweet. So, and I'm also a co-founder of a humanitarian organization called the Humanitarian Landscape Collective. So very much centered around uh landscape architecture and the kind of skills and and philosophies around the practice of landscape architecture. Um and um I co-founded this with a then wasn't a friend, now a friend, but we came together um because of the lack of representation of landscape architecture in the humanitarian and uh international development sector. Uh and today we're about 200 members strong across the globe, although it's still very Eurocentric, but it's a young, it's a young organization and um yeah, going from strength to strength. So I am all these things, and it can be very challenging uh to juggle um extra extracurricular activities in the sense of the humanitarian and volunteering work that I do, being a mom, living in the UK, not having family support, any any kind of additional help. So you're doing everything in the house, you domestic worker through and through, you're a professional in a corporate environment, you're a mother, um, and you're doing volunteering. So, yeah, it's been quite difficult juggling, but I love I just love the fast pace, I love having my fingers in many pies, I love having a different day every day. Um just uh don't know what to expect, although I'm furious in my planning. Um, so how did I get here? Um so what really inspired me to move into this career was my mother, my grandfather, and just the creativity that I've always um that I've always just had and needed to express since childhood. Um so as a baby, before I could even walk, I was dancing, and I am really passionate about dancing and just moving my body, and um so any kind of expression, artistic expression, I am so there. So my mom, um she she's incredibly creative, and I always had that as a um um sorry, and just lost track of my thoughts because my son's around the corner. Um she was just this shining example of creativity. She was always very good with her hands. Anything that is about making and uh craftsmanship and using your hands, she would master it and she was a perfectionist, and I'm nowhere near that caliber. Um, but she would make our own furniture, she would um crochet curtains, like crazy feats of these crazy projects that I probably wouldn't even be able to finish one in my lifetime. So I was very impressed by that. Um she also wanted to become an architect, um, but that didn't really work out because uh she was born in Mozambique, and um as she was graduating. High school. She she had an early pregnancy with my father, my oldest sister, and and the country was in complete disarray because the Portuguese colonies were collapsing and there was a massive internal political struggle for power. And the country fell into um into civil unrest. What is it called again? Um civil oh I forgot the word. I'm not very politically, and also good morning. Um fell into oh man, this is gonna bug me. It's gonna bug me. Anyway, for 15 years there was um this civil this civil collapse and famine and sanctions and you name it. So there was a massive struggle, and my my parents um had to exile to Portugal and she had to obviously get on and start working and providing for her family. Um she did a couple of courses um like uh technical courses and she worked for um civil engineering companies in Portugal and then later in in in Lesotho, that's where I was born, and that's how we got there, but she never quite made it to become an architect. Um my sister is still in the under the belief that I was brainwashed by my mother to become an architect because she couldn't fulfill those dreams. Um so I don't know. I'm the third born, I'm the third of uh of three kids, so maybe she finally earned her skills and got to my head. Uh we I still don't know. I just don't don't know the answer to that. Um and the second influence in my life of how I chose this career is is my grandfather. He is um my mother's father. But I only ever knew him until he was until until I was nine years old, and then he passed away. But he had such a profound impact on my life and the lives of people in our Mozambican village, uh, people who are still alive to this day. He died in the 90s. Uh speak to him speak about him and about his memory as though he is still with us, as though he's still alive. And it's just incredible the the the the kind of difference and impact that he made in in local people's lives. Um he was a very selfless man and uh he started a he was a pioneer, first of all, and uh an entrepreneur. And just to give him a little bit of background, he was he was always experimenting and he he had no formal education. He he I think he went to school until he was about 12 years old, and he was um a single child to a very, very poor great-granny of mine in Portugal. Um and he went on to work and do amazing things with his life. So he moved to Mozambique in his 30s, and he started the first commercial wine farm in the country and the first spring water uh spring water bottling factory um in the country as well. And it was quite a big deal because the farm was inaugurated by Samara Michel in the 90s in the 80s, in the mid-80s. He flew his helicopter over. I know for those of you who don't know who Samara Michel, he was the first democratically um elected president of the independent Mozambique um after the Portuguese uh colonialism of the country. Um and you know, people still talk about this event because Manika, which is the small village that we're from, uh literally wasn't even on the map until then. Um so that was great. Anyway, the farm itself was never supposed to be anything profitable. He actually used the farm um to grow food and to share food in with his with his workers. He also created a school uh which educated all the workers' children um and they were fed well, they were educated well, um, and this was at no cost to his employees. Um and this was all through like a civil war. That is what I was looking for, the war, the word. So there was a civil war for 15 years, and the farm was a kind of sustenance to uh to the local community, um, and a place of gathering, a place of sharing, um, and a place to yeah, to to get through the very darkest times in in people's lives because there were there was shelling happening all around um all around the village. Um even to this day, you can you can see the signs, um the lived signs on people um from the mines uh that uh that were detonated, people lost their limbs and uh horrific, horrific injuries, and uh there's still signs of that when you walk around in our village. Um so my grandfather was very instrumental in who I wanted to be in my life. Um a selfless person who was curious, who was experimental, um, who worked with people, who wasn't greater than anyone, who took people by his side and um, you know, designed a common goal, a vision for everyone to collectively benefit. Um and I had never really experienced that kind of selflessness uh at that age. So it it was just really profound, and I try to keep his spirit alive in me um every day. Um and so those were so those were why I chose this career. I just I really wanted to work with people, I really wanted to make a big impact. Um, I needed to be creative, um, I needed to work with nature, um, all the things I kind of spoke about. So I think within everything that I've I've spoken about so far, I think you can pick up on some of the joys of what I do. Um the pains, however, are being are still being a bit removed from what's happening on the ground. I I do find that 80%, maybe 90% of my day is sitting behind a computer screen. And it's really unfortunate because I never as growing up on a farm and being really active and outdoorsy and getting dirty and just really being, you know, so present in everything that I was doing and experiencing to being behind a a screen and so disconnected and removed from like the people you're working with, the people that you're serving. So that that that is a big barrier that I that I never imagined I you know in 10, 20 years from you know being a teenager that I would imagine this life for myself. Um but I do I do a lot of charity-related um activities um in 2019 to just just to quench my thirst um for adventure, for um for experiences, for uh you know, human connection. I um I fundraised for an organization called Red R, who are quite strongly linked to the humanitarian landscape collective in the sense that we we work in disaster zones and um I fundraised for them and did a 10-day cycle in Rajasthan, India, um for this organization. And uh so I I do bits and pieces like that uh just to just to keep uh adventurous and to get to keep my my soul and my heart uh pumping. And um so the humanitarian landscape collective is a bit of an outlet. Um it isn't quite at that sort of caliber of experience, um, but it's it's uh voluntary and because there's just so much interest in um the Humanitarian Landscape Collective with people signing up every week, um it's yeah, it's it's it's just wonderful having um to work with like-minded people. Um so hopefully that will that will become a vehicle for me in in the sense that my corporate job doesn't really connect me to the problems on the ground as much. And I honestly think having the two working in tandem um really benefit each other. So I'm a lot more exposed to things on the ground through the collective, um, and that feeds um insights and knowledge into my corporate life. Um what are the pains? I honestly don't have pains. I don't have pains. I love what I do, and um, working in the London office has just got a such an a breadth, there's just such a breadth breadth of um projects um from various scales to various contexts, from cities to really rural areas, from really big scale down to small scale. Um so I have so much exposure uh that I I can't really complain. It's perfect. Uh so yeah, that was just the one pain. It's just not having, you know, not just not not being really on the ground as much as I'd like to. Um and then the last point that you asked me was how would others go about the same career direction? Well, because mine was in a very linear direction, I don't know if it's um if it's useful. Um, but I slowly got to the place that I needed to be, um, even if I wasn't that intentional about it. Um but in a way I knew I I knew that I needed to be closer to nature, I needed to be more community focused, and somehow that manifested, thankfully, um, without me intentionally uh taking the wheel and and and driving um necessarily. So luckily. Um but I mean through this conversation today, you can see the kind of direction that I went. I I I start I I start I knew I was creative and then I went from there. Um so people can go a little bit back and forth with this. Um and yeah, I d I don't know how it would how this would influence anyone to take a similar career path because mine took took a while to get here. Um but I mean the shifts in my career have all been in the built environment, so it's been nothing drastic. Um yeah. But I'm happy to to engage and speak to people if they were interested in my story and if they have any other questions, and I'm sure Anita will hashtag and link me and whatever she does. Um yeah, hope happy to keep this conversation open and ongoing, and and yeah, I'm just really grateful to um to be here and to be asked to speak to everyone. It's awesome. Um and that's about it for me. I hope I hope that was entertaining and informative. Okay, bye.

SPEAKER_03 1:18:27

Hello, I'm Dorothy. I'm an engineer by profession, and I'm currently working as a project manager for a large utility company in Africa. I just want to share a bit about my journey in the engineering field. Well, engineering is one of those fields that is list pursued by women in Africa and is viewed as a men's environment. But I'm excited that this year's International Women's Day theme is embraced equity. For years we've fought for equality and this has enabled many women to be given the same resources and opportunities in the business front. However, when we look at equity, it's recognizing that each person has different circumstances and it allocates the exact resources and opportunities that are needed for that individual or for that group of people to reach an equal outcome. As a woman after graduating and being awarded an engineering degree with a better degree class to most of my male uh counterparts, I still have to prove myself at work to both my male counterparts and my bosses, because in their eyes, no woman could ever be a good enough engineer. So it took me years of putting in extra hours on the job to finally be accepted as a competent engineer, albeit my university having already stamped my ability in the field. I even went on to take two master's degrees after my engineering degree just to prove that I am good and relevant both academically and professionally. When I look at my country, women are significantly underrepresented in leadership. And I've seen this in all the companies that I've worked in my 16 years of experience. Besides managing the career front as a woman in a patriarchal society, you expect it to perform excellently in the home front by cooking and doing other house chores, seeing to the welfare of the children and your husband, as well as playing your role as a responsible daughter or daughter-in-law. So this heavy burden has seen most women shunning leadership positions as they are not able to balance the pressures that come with it. However, in some circumstances where women who are brave enough to take the bull by its home are not on an equal footing with with men who only have their careers to work to worry about. So these women usually overwork themselves to strike a balance between work and home. And they often do not get rewarded by the promotions that they're looking forward to. They may pass in an interview for a promotion because they are competent for the job. However, they may not get the job as they will be judged by male bosses, we'll say because she has young kids to look after at home. So how will she manage the requirement of traveling to project sites and working long hours? So despite having the same qualifications and competences with males in the engineering field, women have different circumstances which emanate from our societal expectations. Hence, being given equal resources is not enough. And so we are lobbying for equity so that we reach equal outcomes with men under our different circumstances. I just want to say happy International Women's Day to all of you beautiful and hardworking women throughout the world.

SPEAKER_06 1:22:08

The Unspoken Truth is the catalyst for important and thought-provoking conversations that need to be had. The network tackles social ills, spiritual healing, soul searching, and mental health awareness. To subscribe, click on the show link to follow our podcast and be part of the Unspoken Truth family. Find us on all social media platforms.