“I alone cannot change the world, but I can cast a stone across the waters to create many ripples”
Mother Teresa
It’s been a while since I’ve blogged here, which is mostly because I’ve have been directing my creative energy to develop my new passion project and business, Community Changemakers. Community Changemakers supports people to instigate positive changes in their communities and surrounding environment through the development of community led projects for change. Launching this programme has so far been an exciting journey for me and I’m very happy to be able to share it with you.
I am motivated to empower people to create the change they want to see in the world. I believe in the power of our individual talents and skills and how they multiply when people come together and work towards a common goal. My vision to work with communities to create change is a product of my experiences working with communities in different parts of the world, my environmental and sustainability knowledge and more recently my training in yoga teaching. I’ve realised the importance of utilising my talents to for help make our world a better place for all its inhabitants.
I strongly believe that the well-being of people and the planet are intricately linked. If we don’t nourish and sustain our bodies and minds, not only do we suffer, but the very essence that supports life, nature, also suffers. To create positive change, we need to prioritise the health of all living things. This starts with individuals and communities, their relationships with themselves, each other and with their surrounding environment.
For transformation, we must first understand ourselves, connect with nature and others. Yoga and meditation are tools we can use as a basis for this, as well as being active in our natural environment. Happy, healthy people, who are aware of sustainability issues and are equipped with appropriate skills, can play a pivotal role in instigating change to help solve complex interconnected social, environmental and economic challenges in their local area. Local changes can in turn help contribute to addressing regional and even global issues.
Communities can be a catalyst for evolution. Through a series of tailored, practical and interactive workshops, Community Changemakers supports people to create community led projects for change against the backdrop of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. Our approach directly builds upon a Social and Environmental Impact programme I designed and implemented while working with young Burmese migrants in Thailand. The students were incredibly engaged in creating projects that were relevant to their community and the issues they faced. The Community Changemakers programme will be tailored to suit different contexts, weaving in my new learnings from yoga teacher training, as well as my experience from working with communities in Australia, New Zealand, Scotland and the Pacific.
I am excited to start this new initiative and can’t wait to start working with different community groups! The programme can be delivered face to face or remotely online. Please use the contact details on the Community Changemakers website or facebook page to connect about workshop enquiries, community partnerships or support on other projects. I’d love to hear about your community and the challenges you are facing.
An Ethical Yarn 