Harnessing Our Collective Voices For A Purposeful Future.

For the past 12 months, every third Friday has been long anticipated for the small group of powerful sisters making up the PIE community and who by virtue of their collective strong voices, were lovingly  entrusted with the responsibility of crafting a befitting inclusivity statement for our beloved World Pulse community and all that it  stands for.

This Friday 17th December 2021 was no different. The anticipation I felt as the clock ticked down to the time was double fold. I had the singular honour of  being the Storyteller for the day and also, after months of deliberations with some amazing brilliant minds not forgetting some of the deep relationships that have been forged this period, I was eager to see us all gather again to finally put our heads together to come up with that simple, yet profound inclusivity statement everyone irrespective of culture and background and belief systems or creed would identify with.

As I logged on with my pen and book ready to jot down any important point I could “hear” to help me tell the story of the day in the best way possible, It was a pleasure to see some early birds already waiting - Rangineh and Kirthi our incredible Facilitator and Co- Facilitator, Dawn, Jill, Mama Tam and yours truly made up the early birds.

Pleasantries were shared and while we waited for the other members to join us, Dawn graciously took up the transcription to help me ‘follow’ through with the discussions. The rest of the crew joined in a few minutes later- Zulma, Jeanine, Sherna, Sally and Busayo. Jensine made a brief appearance to help with some technical issues, The appearance was so brief that one could have thought to have imagined it.

With all in and ready, the meeting kicked off with Rangineh warmly welcoming us all and thanking us all for staying the course for the past 12 months. Earlier in the week, Mama Tam, Dawn, Busayo and I had met before the Friday meeting to twerk on the draft of the statement every team member had greatly weighed on, to help make things easier for deliberations posted first at Slack and tabled during the meeting proper on the 17th.

To get us in the mood of the meeting a beautiful documentary was shown for a few minutes. The message was profound and resonated with us all. We are in a period of time when it seems like the world around us is practically burning and while everyone in the animal (human) kingdom is scared and unsure of what to do, the Hummingbird is busy humming and looking for solutions and a way out of the burning fire. In a similar way, the fires are burning around us, women voices are being suppressed so too, disability voices especially during this COVID period, and  like the hummingbird, World Pulse and the PIE committee are busy humming and the humming is growing louder around 200+ lands; women’s voices matter and so too every woman’s voice irrespective of who or what they are, their voices matter and World Pulse wants these strong voices to feel included and be heard all around the world, driving positive, purposeful change.

With that short documentary, the committee was fired up and deliberations began on the draft statement. From views and opinions, we saw the need to keep an open mind even as we all wanted to finalize matters after 12 months of deliberations. Jeanine and Sherna brought up the need to ensure while we talk about equality, there should be equity. You know, equality is fine but do we as women have equal access to opportunities and available spaces? This is a question worth pondering. When we talk about equality, what else are we looking at for women to enjoy this equality?  Sally spoke about Gender justice. What do we understand vis-a-vis women when we talk about gender justice? Zulma nudged us a little when she said that while she’s agreeable with the way the statement is going, she felt something missing or hanging. We had to long for a way not to let anything hang, as we strive to harness these brave voices, creating safe spaces.

The discussions were intense but loving and respectful. Jill’s insightful comments acted like our mainstay in checks and balances, always asking and probing on points that didn’t seem clear, which was highly appreciated.

It has been an incredible honour to be a part of this amazing group and given how important we take this responsibility entrusted to us by World Pulse, it was heartwarming and encouraging, to see everyone collectively dive in to raise their powerful voices as we work around this baby of ours- and inclusivity statement which honours and appreciates everyone while making sure it stays true to World Pulse’ values and mission in first and foremost, creating a safe space for and amplifying women’s voices..

Considering this to be high priority for the group, everyone was grateful for the work done so far and we agreed that to fine tune and make this baby of ours beautiful before it’s anticipated delivery, Kirthi will coordinate a meeting this coming week for the working group and everyone in PIE who would like to join to work on the best way to incorporate the changes agreed upon to bring the statement to live.

Towards the end of the meeting, we were honoured by a special shout out video to the PIE team from our Amazon and visionary herself, Jensine. We all could feel the love from that video miles away on our screens  and I would say it was an honour, to hear our efforts so appreciated and the renewed confidence in us. Hearing our names called out one-on-one made it even more personal. Thank you, Jensine for the amazing soul you are and your visionary leadership.

We missed Ana and Ate Paulina and while we look forward to seeing them again come January, it was kind of a bittersweet moment for us as we bid farewell to Jill and Karen, who are leaving the PIE committee after one year of dedicated services. I hope our words of appreciation to Jill who was present with us would remind her always how much she is loved and how much she will be missed within the PIE  community. We stay grateful for your commitment to see this come to fruition and we remain indebted to your wisdom and dedication to this work.

My people say “One hand cannot tie a bundle” I have again seen the truthfulness of these words as we gathered month in, month out, in the hallowed chambers of our various technological devices, to bring forth  together  as if in labour pains, with such amazing and brilliant team of women driving positive change in our communities to bring this special bundle to fruition. It has been an honour to work with you all as we harness our collective strong voices for a more inclusive and beautiful future with World Pulse at the helm.