I met the Queen last week. We had a good chat over sweet little cakes and a mug of builder’s tea around the kitchen table. Well alright, it wasn’t Her Majesty herself with whom I took tea, but the Governor General, Ms Quentin Bryce AC CVO, the Queen’s representative in Australia.
We’ll return to the Governor General in a moment.
Imagine being third generation unemployed, having left school at 15 or perhaps 16 if you’re lucky; pregnant and homeless. You’ve been physically and sexually abused for most of your childhood by the people you were supposed to be able to trust, shifted from home to home by faceless bureaucrats, and you have no idea where you belong in society or where you will land.
Yet, there’s a small quiet voice inside you that tells you education is an enabler for you, that a return to school is your salvation. It’s the same voice that pushes you to complete your exams and creates hope; hope that is fed and nurtured when you pass your exams with distinction and realize it really is within your power to lift yourself out of your current situation.
Can I tell you that the young woman of this story is real. She’s not one person but a combination of young women with whom Ms Bryce and a small team of philanthropic supporters (me included) met last week. She has a voice too, this young woman as she tells the Governor General, “I started out as a single mum living in my friend’s garage. Now I have a home of my own and burning ambition to get into justice health”. She’s Nicola, aged nineteen and she’s going to Long Bay Women’s prison next month with her mentor to better understand the justice system and see first-hand how she can help others. Let’s remember Nicola’s a single mum of nineteen with a three-year old son, yet her self-direction and ambition is one of a woman at least twice her age.
“Employment is one of our main issues, we can’t get jobs with no work experience and we can’t get work experience if we’re homeless,” she continues.
Seated next to her at the tea table is Caryn, also aged 19. “I fell pregnant at 18 while I was at school,” she says, “mum kicked me out and my baby’s father was in a youth refuge; we had nowhere to go.”
Bubs is babbling on her lap and is fast becoming a favourite with the Governor General who has several grandchildren of her own. The whole family live in crisis accommodation in Liverpool together as a family. It’s a one room studio but it’s home and it’s safe. “We were lucky we found this amazing crisis centre at LYAAC and we live here now.” She tells Her Excellency.
We are all consumed with our own lives and dramas but it’s important to stop every once in a while to consider just how tough some are doing it, and what we can do to help. Gift-giving circles is one way.
First Seeds Fund is the gift-giving circle of the Little Black Dress Group. A group of successful businesswomen who freely donate their time, energy and funds to support initiatives like LYAAC. They leverage their connections to create opportunities for women like Caryn and Nicola because they believe in them. They plan to assist in meeting the difficulties these girls face in sourcing work experience by influencing corporates to step up and help, and are starting discussions now to create an official program. Through the belief of the First Seeds fund supporters and the amazing people in the centre in which they live, the girls start to believe in themselves. In turn, slowly the cycle of poverty and abuse turns on its head for good.
I usually write about financial literacy and investing and you might be wondering what all of this has to do with being financial savvy, but here it is.
“If we are going to see real development in the world then our best investment is women.” – Desmond Tutu. It’s true, according to The Economist in 2007, we can forget China, India and the internet, because economic growth is driven by women. Yet still industry and government are not listening. We all have to become bricks in the wall of change ourselves; one brick at a time.
It is incumbent upon us as women who can move and shake through our careers that as we achieve our goals in life, we consider those who have less. Those like Caryn and Nicole for whom a small amount of funding has turned their worlds around. This is not Africa or India, this is Liverpool and Warwick Farm, a short forty five minute trip down the M5 from Sydney’s CBD.
In closing, remember what you and a small group of like-minded women can achieve. As Margaret Mead said: “Never underestimate the power of a small group of motivated people to change the world. In fact, it’s the only thing that ever has. It’s about the difference you personally make as a leader.”
What are you doing to be a brick in the wall of change today?
*Disclosure: Sara Lucas is a founding member of Little Black Dress Group and a member of the First Seeds Advisory Board, a sub fund of the Sydney Community Foundation. Names and identifying details have been changed.
Sara Lucas is an Authorised Representative of Fitzpatricks Dealer Group Pty Limited ABN 33 093 667 595 AFSL 247429
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