Change Making Women Change Making Women

Ziada and Mary Ann talk with Holiday Phillips about her article that recently went viral 'Performative Allyship Is Deadly (Here’s What to Do Instead)'. She tells us about what made her write it, the experience of it going viral and some of her other thoughts about racial justice and anti-racist practice in this time.

Find the article at: https://forge.medium.com/performative-allyship-is-deadly-c900645d9f1f

And Holiday on
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/holidayphillips/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/holidayphillips
Her website: https://www.holidayphillips.com/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCFIndcHQuGPPv9KLJC2kYQg?view_as=subscriber

Holiday is a sociologist, coach, writer and speaker on the topics of philosophy, spirituality, culture and personal transformation. She is also co-founder of Kula, a consultancy that helps organisations develop conscious leadership and diverse, equitable and inclusive workplaces. All of her work is in service of this question:

“What will it take to build a wiser, kinder world?”

To that end, she is interested in exploring a wide range of topics that touch on soul and society – personal healing, non-violent communication, integral solutions to racial inequality, new economic models, and the practical application of ancient wisdom to name a few!

Some quotes from this episode:

'I'm really, really passionate about anti-racism not recreating the same systems of violence that define racism, which are morality versus immorality, good versus bad, better versus worse.'

'I think one of the things that non-black people can do to be allies is to be able to hold space for that rage to be processed, without taking it personally, without getting defensive. Just understanding that this is something that needs to happen.'

'For the first time, there are so many ears willing to listen and because that space is being cleared, there will be an explosion of rage and rage rooted in grief.'

'And these societal issues are rooted in people having power, needing to have power over someone else, judging people, denigrating people. So we don't want to bring those methods into the new world that we're trying to create'.

In this episode, Ziada and Mary Ann talk with Animah Kosai about her work on Speaking Up in the workplace.

Animah Kosai speaks, writes and advises on workplace sexual harassment & bullying, and speaking up on corporate wrongdoing. She formed Speak Up At Work and is co-founder of Speak Up Academy - a soon to be launched platform of thought leaders and change makers driven to create safe and inclusive work environments in the corporate world.

Animah is Malaysian-British, based in London. She practiced law for 9 years in Malaysia, before joining the oil and gas industry as corporate counsel for 14 years - covering South East Asia (except Indonesia) and India.

She has given talks and training in Kuala Lumpur, Bangkok, Singapore and London, as well as media interviews, on topics ranging from #MeToo to global corporate scandals.

Find Animah's work on her website: www.speakupatwork.com
Find her on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/animah-kosai/
Or Twitter: https://twitter.com/SpeakUpAtWork

Welcome to the second in a new series of episodes in which we are talking to women making a difference in this time of Covid-19.

Today Ziada and Mary Ann talk with Esua Goldsmith author of a new memoir, The Space between Black and White about writing and publishing a book about her own life, why it was so important to her to share the story of being mixed race and how that has impacted her and the challenges of launching a book in the context of this pandemic.


Esuantsiwa Jane Goldsmith is a writer, feminist activist and development consultant of English – Ghanaian heritage. In 1975 she was the first woman of colour to be elected President of Leicester University Student’s Union, while in 2001 she became the first woman of colour to be elected Chair of the Fawcett Society. In 1977-9 Esua served as one of the first black volunteers to be sent on Voluntary Service Overseas (VSO) in Tanzania. During her career she has acted as Commissioner for the Women's National Commission, Chair and Co-Founder of the Gender and Development Network, Vice-Chair of ActionAid UK, a Trustee of the Equality and Diversity Forum and a member of the UK Government delegation to the UN Fourth World Conference on Women, held in Beijing in 1995. After reconnecting with her Ghanaian father and heritage in her 40s, she was enstooled as Queen Mother of Development of her village in Cape Coast, Ghana, in 2009.

You can find Esua via https://www.esuantsiwagoldsmith.com/ and purchase the book from Jacaranda Press: https://www.jacarandabooksartmusic.co.uk/collections/jacaranda-imprint/products/the-space-between-black-and-white (please buy directly from Jacaranda if you can as independent publishers like them need support especially during this pandemic).

Welcome to a new series of episodes in which we are talking to women making a
difference in in this time of Covid-19.

Today in our first show since the pandemic began Ziada and and Mary Ann talk with Immaculate Mukasa is the Executive Director of The Mentoring and Empowerment Programme for Young Women (MEMPROW), an organisation In Uganda that develops capacity of girls and young women in education and leadership, and advocates for a violence free environment. We hear all about the approach MEMPROW take and how it has been effected by the pandemic, the crisis that many girls and young women are facing as a result of the lock-down and the impact this situation is likely to have for some time to come.

You can find out more about MEMROW and their work on their website: https://memprow.org/

Prior to leading MEMPROW, Immaculate spent five years as the Programmes Director. In order to address the negative patriarchal mindsets and social devaluation of women and girls, Immaculate engages with multiple partner organisations, various institutions and individuals nationally and globally. She is a proud member of the research community with a number of publications in the area of education and palliative care. She is a Certified feminist leader by CREA (Creating Resources for Empowerment in Action), with a Masters in Economic Policy Planning and a Bachelor in Economics, and a certificate in Public Administration and Management by Makerere University. Immaculate excels at planning, analysis and managing development work. She is a specialist in Monitoring & Evaluation (M&E) with proven track record of several years designing and implementing M&E instruments, accountability mechanisms and community-driven development programmes. She has managed many multi-donor projects at grassroots and regional levels.

In this conversation, Melissa Pitotti talks with Nasra Ismail, Director of the Somalia NGO consortium. They talk about wellbeing in the context of the localisation agenda in humanitarian aid and why conversations about wellbeing require us to consider our privilege and to think about our work in radically new ways.

Nasra is the director of the Somalia NGO Consortium and currently lives in Mogadishu, Somalia. She cares particularly about women’s rights, rights of minorities and people of colour, generosity and healing as ways to transform her own leadership and the issues the coalition tackles in the sector she works in.

Her motto this year and decade is for all of us to connect with the communities we serve through the everyday practice of grace, coalition building across differences and laughter. And she loves to shine light on others through her use of social media platforms. You can follow her on Twitter @nas_isms

Melissa Pitotti has been working in humanitarian affairs since 2003 wearing different hats: donor, UN member state, multilateral, NGO coalition, independent. She's also a mom, bookworm, and burnout-survivor. She is currently collaborating with Mary Ann on a project being incubated by CHS alliance looking at building care and compassion in aid and in humanitarian work.

This episode is part of a special series of conversations entitled – Embodying Change: A series of conversations on care and compassion in Aid and Development curated by Mary Ann Clements and Melissa Pitotti and in partnership with CHS Alliance, Global Fund for Community Foundations, Healing Solidarity and Change Making Women Podcast. This episode was produced and edited by Ziada Abeid and the music was written and performed by Eleanor Brown who you can find at eleanorbrownmusic.com

Find out more about ‘Cultivating Care and Compassion in Aid and Development’ an initiative being incubated by CHS Alliance here: https://www.chsalliance.org/get-support/article/compassionate-organisations/

In this conversation, Melissa Pitotti talks with Kate Gilmore the United Nations Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights. They talk about wellbeing in the UN system and other humanitarian and human rights work, about how Kate sees the connections between personal and political and some tangible ways she has tried, in her role, to do things differently.

Kate Gilmore was appointed United Nations Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights on 1st December 2015. She brings to the position diverse and longstanding experience in strategic leadership and human rights advocacy with the United Nations, government and non-government organisations.

Prior to joining OHCHR, Kate was Assistant Secretary General and Deputy Executive Director for Programmes with the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA). Previously she was National Director of Amnesty International Australia and then Executive Deputy Secretary General of Amnesty International.

Kate started her career as a social worker and government policy officer in Australia. She helped establish Australia’s first Centre Against Sexual Assault at Melbourne’s Royal Women’s Hospital and her work over a number of years focused on prevention of violence against women. In Australia, she was granted honorary appointments to provincial and national public policy and law reform processes, including membership of the country’s first National Committee on Violence Against Women.

She holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of New England and a Bachelor's degree in Social Work from the University of Melbourne, and has pursued post-graduate studies in social work and community development in Australia.

Melissa Pitotti has been working in humanitarian affairs since 2003 wearing different hats: donor, UN member state, multilateral, NGO coalition, independent. She's also a mom, bookworm, and burnout-survivor. She is currently collaborating with Mary Ann on a project being incubated by CHS alliance looking at building care and compassion in aid and in humanitarian work.

This episode is part of a special series of conversations entitled – Embodying Change: A series of conversations on care and compassion in Aid and Development curated by Mary Ann Clements and Melissa Pitotti and in partnership with CHS Alliance, Global Fund for Community Foundations, Healing Solidarity and Change Making Women Podcast. This episode was produced and edited by Ziada Abeid and the music was written and performed by Eleanor Brown who you can find at eleanorbrownmusic.com

Find out more about ‘Cultivating Care and Compassion in Aid and Development’ an initiative being incubated by CHS Alliance here: https://www.chsalliance.org/get-support/article/compassionate-organisations/