Passion & Heart: It’s Universal
Today is our second day in Kenya. Technically we left four days ago but almost two full days were taken up by travel. Our crew of three left Cookeville at 7am on Friday morning, picked up a fourth in Nashville, and made the rest of the trek; arriving in Nairobi around midnight on Saturday evening. Luckily, we were all fairly tired and got a decent night’s sleep. Our group consists of Travis Trull, founder of Flint Global, Laura Hickman, co-founder of Flint, Shehla Rooney, founder of GoKnee, and me, Tiffany Anton, founder of Powered By Her and Vice President of The Biz Foundry.
Our first official day in Kenya started with a meeting of the team to discuss goals for the trip. I was excited to converse with entrepreneurs and business leaders in Kenya to see how they do things, learn more about how we can help, and develop a more comprehensive understanding of the community’s needs. Travis was born in Kenya and spent a lot of his summers here growing up. We were lucky enough to have some of the change makers that he knows, Mildred and Peter, meet us in the afternoon for lunch to plan out what was to come over the next few days. I had never met Peter or Mildred before, so it was great to spend time with them and hear their stories. Both are heavily involved in the entrepreneurial community and work very hard to be strong connectors for resources that local entrepreneurs need.
By midafternoon, jetlag had started to set in so we headed from our lunch spot to a coffee shop to fuel up. Peter and Milred were going to be spending the next day with Shehla so they did some strategizing. For us enneagram 8s, structured Americans, it seemed tough to see how meetings, with surgeons and business owners, could be set up for the very next day on a Sunday afternoon, but it all worked out. The plan was for Shehla to meet with the medical side with Peter and Milred, while Travis, Laura, and I would be introduced to female founders and record podcast episodes while learning more about their needs as business owners.
On Monday morning we had a quick breakfast at the hotel and headed outside of the city center to a daycare where Violah runs Quina Child Development Center, a daycare for children ages 2-4. Her specialty is working with young children to teach life skills to change the trajectory of their lives. Violah herself was raised in a single-mother household where her mother sold vegetables to make ends meet. Often, younger generations of Kenyans raised by single mothers did not experience parental leadership with the drive to figure it out. Violah was fortunate to have a mother who hustled to make ends meet, bucking the community norm. While inspired by her upbringing, Violah wants to change the environment entirely. Along with starting a daycare, she also runs a Kumon tutoring center for math and English where she mentors young students while educating them. Violah has a passion for pushing those around her to believe they can in fact achieve their dreams and goals.
The next woman that we met was Joyce whose trade is making custom clothing; she was so proud to share that her first garment was made for a woman who was on TV. Joyce is a single mother of two small children and, at the moment, is making clothes to support her family. Her face lit up when we discussed her work. She explained how she has personal consultations with each of her clients and is driven to make them feel beautiful through her designs. Joyce’s future plans are to create jobs for those around her and eventually start a school where she teaches others to not only make clothing but also to cultivate a global design eye. At one point she said “If I… no when I get bigger, I will be at New York Fashion Week.” It warmed my heart that passion is a universal language.
We traveled back to the hotel to meet a third woman who is running Beauty for Ashes, Emma Wambugu. Emma recognized from childhood that she wanted to help others, and despite initially not knowing how to use this passion practically, she knew her longing to serve was a fundamental desire. Emma’s family grew up with Tom, her husband, as a neighbor, and when an accident took his eyesight, Emma knew she could help him with her upbeat attitude. In 2015, they launched Beauty for Ashes to help the physically disabled community. Their mission is to not only provide resources and skills but to also change the stigma of the blind and deaf community in Kenya.
Learning about the female founders in Kenya has been impactful. Although it felt so different to be sitting in what we would call a small daycare with plain walls, the children were happy and learning. The women have heart and passion to impact their own families but also to change their communities and eventually their nation.
Asante Sana,
Tiffany