This week Ziada and Mary Ann talk with Madeleine Forbes one of Mary Ann’s collaborators in www.jijaze.com about her life in Portugal, her own project www.theseasonedyear.com and why she believes that leaving seasonally is a choice that can sustain and nourish us all.

Madeleine Forbes is a writer and content creator who loves finding the right words and conveying powerful messages clearly and effectively. Four years ago she moved from the UK to Portugal four years ago to try to live a lower impact, more sustainable life on a little off-grid smallholding. It’s a work in progress, but she loves the challenge this brings. She now balances farm life with her business as a freelance copywriter helping small online businesses grow their impact through their writing. As you’ll hear in the show she also runs a website called The Seasoned Year all about slowing down and connecting to the seasons to help us live saner, more sustainable lives.

Connect with Madeleine and her work:

The Seasoned Year: www.theseasonedyear.com

Work with Madeleine: www.madeleineforbes.com

In this episode, Mary Ann and Ziada talk about taking time to care for yourself. They discuss how difficult that can be and Mary Ann shares some of the latest initiatives she and the Jijaze Team have been undertaking to help raise awareness about how making care for yourself a habit can support your change making work. In particular, they take about the idea of a regular Away Day to take time out and discuss the recent public event the Replenish: Away Day and how you can get access to the material from that.

Join Jijaze: https://jijaze.com/joinus/

Access the Recordings from our Away Day

Video Recordings on our Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/groups/jijazechangemakers/

If you would like downloadable audio and the worksheets from Session Four, go here:

In this show, Mary Ann talks to Christina Lynch about why she got interested in exploring sexuality in a new way, how it has helped heal the wounds of her past and why Tantra and ritual need not be mysterious or scary. Instead, she explains, they can support us in learning to connect to ourselves and one another more deeply.

Christina is a tantra facilitator, ritual guide and energy therapist. Her passions and experience are in the realms of sacred sexuality and soul-centred leadership. She holds space for deep listening and open communication, guiding people to reclaim their life force, their voices and their own innate wisdom. In 1:1 sessions she works intuitively with clients to release and transform trapped emotional blocks and trauma.

Connect with and find out more about Tanya and her work:

Facebook: Being Christina Lynch

Instagram: @beingchristinalynch

Twitter: @christinatlynch

Website: http://christina-lynch.com/

Details about the workshop in Bristol, UK that Christina mentions in the show: www.facebook.com/events/1985967451635021

This week Mary Ann talks to Pamela Brannon, Executive Director of Children of Uganda. They speak about the experiences that inspired her to make a difference, the work of her organisation and their belief looking after ourselves is an important part of how we make a difference.

Pamela has dedicated her life’s work to serving the AIDS community and advocating on behalf of the world’s most vulnerable children. After participating in Americas first ever AIDS radio-thon, she changed her career course and began working with prominent AIDS service organisations — most notably, AIDS Project Los Angeles and Project Angel Food.

While at Project Angel Food, she was introduced to the Children of Uganda dance troupe. Soon after, she traveled to Uganda and worked with children who had lost their parents to AIDS. She was inspired by the children’s genuine joy for life and returned to the US with a newfound passion to support Uganda’s orphans. She ultimately joined the Children of Uganda Board of Directors where she served until she transitioned to her current role of Executive Director.

Pamela’s vision for COU’s future includes the construction of an academic and healing arts academy where children would benefit from a holistic approach to their educational future and overall well-being.
http://childrenofuganda.org/

This week Mary Ann talks to Gwynn Raimondi, a an electrical engineer turned therapist about trauma and how we process it. Gwynn shares how she works not only with her clients own lived experiences of trauma but also both cultural and intergenerational trauma and we discuss why this kind of work is so closely connected to our desire for Social Justice

Gwynn Raimondi, MA, LMFTA is a licensed marriage and family therapist associate in the state of Washington. She specialises in processing trauma (specific traumatic acute or chronic experiences, intergenerational trauma, and cultural relational trauma) and grief with women (CIS, Transgender, AFAB non-binary and gender queer) in small groups, both in-person and online, as well as individually. She writes about how the individual and collective, self and social, and personal and political are related and interconnected on her blog as well as on Facebook. She is also a homeschooling mom of two, has the mouth of a drunken sailor, and enjoys burning down our patriarchal culture every way she can.

Contact Gwynn:
Website: http://gwynnraimondi.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/gwynn.raimondi
https://www.facebook.com/GwynnRaimondiMA
Instagram @gwynnraimondi
Twitter @gwynnraimondi
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On this episode of Change Making Women we interview Eleanor Brown, the singer and songwriter who both wrote and performed our theme song.

TOPICS WE DISCUSS IN THIS EPISODE

    • How Eleanor got started writing music at a young age
    • Where she draws her song writing inspiration from
    • The link between personal transformation and making a difference in the world
    • Eleanors passion for connection to and the protection of the natural world
    • We also get an amazing LIVE performance of Eleanor’s song ‘A Call to Stand’

Some Quotes from the show:

‘If we stand for ourselves and make changes in ourselves then thats really the only authentic way that we can make change in the world’
‘We can’t make a difference in the world unless we are giving from a place of fullness in ourselves’
‘The songs are putting voice, or a form, to a process that people are going through’

‘This theme of transformation is very prevalent in many of my songs’

Connect with Eleanor:

Support Eleanor who is Crowdfunding for her next album: https://igg.me/at/eleanorbrownmusic