I am a changemaker
Hello, my name is Amber, and I am 26 years old. I am from the Pakistani community. I am a community leader for my community.
I joined The Azalea Initiative because I want to learn more. I was not connected to the other communities. So when I learned about Azalea and that we would be joining other ladies from other communities, it caught my attention. I was curious about what the organisation meant by women’s leadership. I want to see how this programme works. Although I joined many programmes, it was different from what I expected.
Finding my team
At first, it took some time to adjust to the programme because I only knew two people when I joined. But I clearly remember that I could get along with all of them on my first day. I used to think that people from other communities were different. Later, I realised they wanted to socialise, but there was a language barrier. So I told them we could also try to speak in other languages. We were able to support each other.
What surprised me most about myself is my strong personality. I didn’t know I had such a strong personality before Azalea. So this is the thing that shocked me the most, like where this personality was before. In the beginning, I don’t give chances to people. I do things my way. I love to argue with people without considering the possibility of people being correct. But when I started Azalea, it taught me to listen to my teammates. I cannot do things by myself. When I learned to listen to people, they listened back. So this is the thing that I learned the most. I have changed a lot through Azalea.
I was not going out or exploring new things. When I joined Azalea, I started to do more. I really learned from our mentor because if we are following anyone, we need to have a role model in front of us. I have seen our mentor in my journey. She is calm and supportive and gives chances to other people to explore what they want to do. I learned through her in my journey.
Finding my aspiration
Before Azalea, I was not passionate about empowering the women in my community. Now, I aspire to empower more women in my community. If the programme can empower one woman like me, how about this one woman goes out and empower more to bring change. And I have already started seeing the difference. Many women in my community were unemployed and could not get a job. I knew I had to find out the root of the problem, and I found out it was the language barrier. So, I started an English programme six months ago, and I have seen women who came back to me telling me that it is helping them a lot to get jobs.
When I started, I thought I would have only ten women, but I got 35 women. Most of them are housewives. Some of them are daughters who are doing IGCSE. They told me they had issues when they went to hospitals; no one was there to interpret for them. Even to the market, they couldn’t communicate. They had to depend on the men who could speak the language. At first, I didn’t know how it would work, but I researched and talked to them before deciding to run the programme.
Finding my place
Without hesitation, I would say that I am a changemaker because I have seen a difference in what I do. We never had any female leader in the community. But for the first time, the community elected me as a female leader in my community. They recognised my qualities, and my community leaders told me our women could also lead. So now, they want to give opportunities to the women too.
It gives me happiness when I am doing something for my community. I am not wasting my time. Instead of crying about me being a refugee and nobody coming to help me, I can go out to figure out the problem and solve the problem. So I feel proud of myself, honestly.
Finding changemakers
I really hope Azalea can keep going. Maybe there are other Ambers out there wishing to make a change. I always used to say there is a special connection between me and Azalea. I feel like I was reborn as a woman while being with Azalea. I was unaware of who I was, so when I came to Azalea, I learned many things and found myself. My true self.
Hello, my name is Amber, and I am 26 years old. I am from the Pakistani community. I am a community leader for my community.
I joined The Azalea Initiative because I want to learn more. I was not connected to the other communities. So when I learned about Azalea and that we would be joining other ladies from other communities, it caught my attention. I was curious about what the organisation meant by women’s leadership. I want to see how this programme works. Although I joined many programmes, it was different from what I expected.
Finding my team
At first, it took some time to adjust to the programme because I only knew two people when I joined. But I clearly remember that I could get along with all of them on my first day. I used to think that people from other communities were different. Later, I realised they wanted to socialise, but there was a language barrier. So I told them we could also try to speak in other languages. We were able to support each other.
What surprised me most about myself is my strong personality. I didn’t know I had such a strong personality before Azalea. So this is the thing that shocked me the most, like where this personality was before. In the beginning, I don’t give chances to people. I do things my way. I love to argue with people without considering the possibility of people being correct. But when I started Azalea, it taught me to listen to my teammates. I cannot do things by myself. When I learned to listen to people, they listened back. So this is the thing that I learned the most. I have changed a lot through Azalea.
I was not going out or exploring new things. When I joined Azalea, I started to do more. I really learned from our mentor because if we are following anyone, we need to have a role model in front of us. I have seen our mentor in my journey. She is calm and supportive and gives chances to other people to explore what they want to do. I learned through her in my journey.
Finding my aspiration
Before Azalea, I was not passionate about empowering the women in my community. Now, I aspire to empower more women in my community. If the programme can empower one woman like me, how about this one woman goes out and empower more to bring change. And I have already started seeing the difference. Many women in my community were unemployed and could not get a job. I knew I had to find out the root of the problem, and I found out it was the language barrier. So, I started an English programme six months ago, and I have seen women who came back to me telling me that it is helping them a lot to get jobs.
When I started, I thought I would have only ten women, but I got 35 women. Most of them are housewives. Some of them are daughters who are doing IGCSE. They told me they had issues when they went to hospitals; no one was there to interpret for them. Even to the market, they couldn’t communicate. They had to depend on the men who could speak the language. At first, I didn’t know how it would work, but I researched and talked to them before deciding to run the programme.
Finding my place
Without hesitation, I would say that I am a changemaker because I have seen a difference in what I do. We never had any female leader in the community. But for the first time, the community elected me as a female leader in my community. They recognised my qualities, and my community leaders told me our women could also lead. So now, they want to give opportunities to the women too.
It gives me happiness when I am doing something for my community. I am not wasting my time. Instead of crying about me being a refugee and nobody coming to help me, I can go out to figure out the problem and solve the problem. So I feel proud of myself, honestly.
Finding changemakers
I really hope Azalea can keep going. Maybe there are other Ambers out there wishing to make a change. I always used to say there is a special connection between me and Azalea. I feel like I was reborn as a woman while being with Azalea. I was unaware of who I was, so when I came to Azalea, I learned many things and found myself. My true self.
