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#54 - Jody Ballard. Founder of the Women's Heritage Walk.
Inside this episode
We want to do this again because of the feedback from the women. They all walked away saying this had really changed our lives in a very positive way and they found some great endurance they didn't know they had. It was mostly an amazing experience to be with other nationalities mostly young emirati girls and for the emirati girls to be with more mature German ladies, Norwegian ladies or American ladies. These ladies have gained friendships that are still ongoing, they have WhatsApp and they area constantly on WhatsApp supporting each other, talking to each other, meeting in inviting each other to other cultural events.
2. So how many ladies took part in the last walk?
There with 33 total but this time we want to give this experience to other women. At present we have over 186 women who are interested in walking this year and we only have 45 slots so we may do it over two weeks if indeed all of those women come forward. Ab exciting thing that is happening now is that we are developing this program more into not just a one-time cultural event but we will begin in October with different classes and courses where all the women will come together and meet the walkers and the general public. So we are going to invite all women to try and entice them to walk or just to give them an educational experience. The first meeting is on 20 October and then we will have meeting in November, December, January and February and then we walk. If we do two sessions we will walk 22 February for a week and then we will begin on 7 March for a week.
3. Let's go back to the beginning what is the women's heritage walk and what is its significance?
You know this is interesting because last night I had dinner with a girlfriend who wasn't able to walk last year and she asked me asked me the same type of question and why is it so important. to you. I know that when you put women together in a room or when you're feeling a bit trained, a bit tired or when you get kind of worn down, when you're in the presence of other women who pick you up and make you talk, you learn from each other it becomes a cultural exchange at its very best. It's also a support network at its very best, it's a physical challenge because it starts in October the way our brains are wired if we do something for three months it becomes a lifestyle change so adding a physical element to your daily regime is going to help with all sorts of factors your physical factors, social factors and emotional factors because you're out walking and talking.
4. Tell us more about yourself Jodi and the story behind you and what got you to this point of creating this event?
I'm a master level psychologist and I started working in shelters for battered women and child abuse and then I started working one on one. I discovered that the family starts with a husband and wife so I started doing marriage counselling and that expanded into working with kids and then I started doing a lot of lecturing. So people would say that I should start writing this down and so I started writing novels. I always look for opportunities where people have to call a psychologist or psychiatrist and walk through saying, 'I have got significant problems and I need help' but I truly believe in the innate nature of people to self correct and so given an opportunity I think people will self correct. They try to seek out harmony in their lives, we all want to be loved and give love and we want to have a vocation that is meaningful and do the right thing. We want to have friends and laugh, have joy and have a deep seated spirituality. I need these things and I seek them out. We all want these things and there are different ways to get them. We are becoming more disconnected in our in my view and so when you put people together and give them an opportunity to be together without distraction I think that good things happen.
truly believe when you work with a woman and build her up and allow her to have more peace and insight and more awareness about what she needs including her marriage and family needs you get her in a better place. She is going to go back and affect family. The woman creates the mood in the house Along time ago I started doing women's health and women's wellness programs, I have done things like working with bullying in school. One story I remember was I went to a school and used drama to teach kids how to be more assertive they thought they were just learning the lines for a play and for me I was teaching them how to be more assertive and stand up for themselves and at the same time we were really focused in on bullying everyone that went to the play saw want a bully looks like and so the next time a bully so the next time a bully tried to do so the next time a bully was bullying they knew who that guy was ordered that girl was so with the women's Heritage walk I saw an opportunity to learn about this beautiful culture and to really take it in and really assimilated through the desert the last time I remember I mentioned one of my most beautiful awarenesses was seeing these little box ^ scurrying across the pure sound and I realised that those were the patterns of Hannah and the wind whipping a bush around and creating this this beautiful circular piece of art in the sand which goes away the next time the wind blows but in the moment it is beautiful you have to be quiet in the desert to really understand the culture and where it comes hospitality in the desert and why we always greeted with water and date with coffee and date and why are always greeted with Coffey and dates if you get hungry and thirsty out there and for someone to deny you a sip of water would be cruel and unusual the Bedouins take you in and show you the warmest hospitality is you have to be hungry and tired and hungry in the desert and walking a long distance to truly appreciate and understand how beautiful that is question so how long is this walk The Questions
1.Why do you want to do it again?
The Ted Talk that Jane spoke about in the podcast.
Connect with Jane
Their recent blog subjects or the recent comments on Schools in the National http://www.thenational.ae/uae/uae-a-leader-in-english-education Connect Socially https://twitter.com/PROPartnerGroup https://www.facebook.com/PROPartnerGroup https://www.linkedin.com/company/pro-partnership-l-l-c- https://plus.google.com/+Pro-partnership/videos http://www.expatarrivals.com/article/how-to-set-up-a-business-in-the-uae link to our blog page: http://www.propartnergroup.com/pro-partner-group-blog/ Your Thoughts
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