Dare.

Here we share the stories of some of the
remarkable women we are lucky to call our
collaborators. These are stories of daring to do
things differently.

Julia Castro

Meet a professional kiteboarder who is trying to balance her personal life, job and health.

Who’s next?

Four girls take the plunge and try a menstrual cup for the first time – with a friend by their side.

Umra Omar

Umra’s mission is to ensure communities recovering from past conflict have access to healthcare.

You

Tell the story of how you, or someone you know, dared to do something differently.

“What motivated me? Proving everyone wrong, proving that coming from a little town on an island in the middle of the Atlantic does not mean that you cannot do big things.”Julia Castro

“There’s a fire inside me that makes me want to prove to everyone that I can do it, and I definitely need to prove to myself that I can do it too.”Julia Castro

Follow @fuertejulia on instagram
Visit Julia’s website

Who’s next?

Breaking a habit and trying something new can be difficult. Doing it with a friend’s support makes it less intimidating. Here, four girls take the plunge and try a menstrual cup for the first time with a friend by their side.

This video was made by two Danish journalism students, who wanted to document first-time experiences with a menstrual cup.

“It’s about
breaking habits”

CREDITS
Amanda Seeberg
Andrea Vijgen Strøbæk

We asked Umra what inspired her to found the NGO.

 

Umra: It could have been because of the early years raised by my matriarch of a grandmother in a dusty village off the northern coast of Kenya. Perhaps it was due to inhaling the gentle air of very grounded parents to whom education is a non-negotiable. Or is it the United World College education that erases all human constructed boundaries in the name of social justice. Or simply just being a mother.

To this date, I am not quite sure of where the thirst for change in my world comes from but one thing that I do know with certainty is that “I am because we are”.

Safari Doctors started because while visiting home, after a decade of living overseas, I connected to human suffering juxtaposed to the endless possibilities of hope, and I saw myself as a piece of this puzzle. This initiative started because in every brightly clad mother, I saw the same dreams that I wanted for my two children Bwana and Azza – health and playful happiness. So if we could travel every month to remote corners of my motherland to advance immunisations, get family planning options available to women, build playgrounds for the human balls of energy, host football tournaments for disenfranchised youth, and whatever else that we could – then why not. My purpose finally found me.

On one usual hot morning I received a phone call from a frantic father whose twenty-month-old baby had undergone two botched surgeries and needed urgent evacuation. Not too long ago, a young man dove in the shallow end of the pool and had what might have been a spinal injury – another phone call but this time in the middle of the night. A four-day old infant did not make it on time for his next breath as we spoke with his mother on the other end of the line. Then there was the young guy that we evacuated on our beloved boat Mama Daktari, he will survive the hippo attack, and so will the mother with a late miscarriage. The two swimmers that got caught by the current while we were at our staff retreat – one of them the team was able to resuscitate, the other was not so lucky.

“I do not take it lightly that I have access to opportunities in life that can change the life of another”

Being able to pick up such phone calls or walk into such situations in pursuit of life is a blessing that I cannot describe. I do not take it lightly that I have access to opportunities in life that can change the life of another – and this is why I do what I do every day in a place that I love so dearly with people that I respect so much.

We are able to make a difference in life not because we have a lot but because we care a whole lot more. As our dear friends of The Village Experience say, “we move forward by giving back”.

Follow @safaridoctors on instagram
Visit Safari Doctors website

Your Story

The above stories are of women who dared to do different.
We hope they inspired you as they’ve inspired us.

Now we want to hear from you.
This space is for you to share a story of a time you, or someone you know, dared to do things differently; whether it was a small change, like switching to a menstrual cup, or a big life change.