Connect and Thrive where you are Planted

Split between two worlds…Are there others like me?...I feel so alone… My project, “Threads of Our Fabric”, seeks to capture the experiences of young African women who have been dispersed globally to culturally different and isolated locations. Young women, like me, whose futures were decided by external social or environmental factors.

In the silence of the night, two voices whisper. “Which child is more resilient, and can survive the hardships ahead? Who do we send first?” Two parents with hopes of providing a better life for their children come to an agreement to send their children to “the land of opportunities”. January 1997, a father took his only daughter at age 13 and handed her over to a woman she had never met before. This strange lady was to escort the little girl from Cameroon via plane to a new life in America, where her mother who had already journeyed on ahead was waiting. A family split apart by dreams, shuttling children one at a time, holding unto hopes of a better destiny than the options available for each child in their native land. A little girl learns the harsh untold realities of immigration…

I see World Pulse as a living movement that is inspiring and transforming the world through agents of change. I was introduced through a friend after a heartfelt conversation about the “Threads of Our Fabric” Project. Learning about this community and its values affirmed my belief that it reflects a sum of proactive voices from women across various communities choosing to rise-up against their status quo. I have found a supportive and nurturing community of women that are passionately hungering for change beyond their lives, but also in their various communities. Women outraged over just surviving, governmental complacency, and mass indifference. World Pulse is an opportunity to break the slow languishing torture of persistent sameness in life.

World Pulse has connected me to women and stories that inspire me to continue on the “Threads of Our Fabric”project; sharing with others a message “Though you are far from home, you are never alone. Together we can walk through this journey of life.” The picture attached to this entry, Soul Sisters , features members of a women’s group I have led since 2006. Hailing from Cameroon, Kenya, Sierra Leone, and Nigeria, but connecting in a new world as sisters. Though my trials may have been many when I arrived in America, the setbacks and successes have strengthened me. Though sorrows may come, the future is always bright because in the midst of the thick of whatever experience, there is a lesson to be learned and a gift from life. In my case - Sisters…The next phase of my project is developing an acculturation program for recently immigrated youth that can be adapted and utilized to provide them with an opportunity to thrive where the winds of life plants them.