Sistahood and Vision - a Winning Combination

Vision Boards have become widely popular for all the right reasons! By definition, vision means “the ability to think about or plan the future with imagination or wisdom”. Personally, I consider myself a novice at creating vision boards, but not a novice of visualizing my entire life. From as far back as I can remember, I’ve always envisioned various aspects of who I am. Sometimes our visions can have us feeling lost and overwhelmed when we lack the tools needed to create a plan to begin the manifestation of this imagined life.

During a challenging time at the end of 2018, I took some time to retreat from my day to day reality of visiting rehab centers, hospitals, and dialysis treatment centers to attend a fabulous Vision Board Brunch. My mind was not fully present, and it took a lot out of me to create the scant vision board that I ended up with. However, what stuck with me is the first item placed on my board which reads “We Support Her”. One of my life missions includes empowering people with a special focus on girls and women. I find ways to do this daily with my own child as well as with the many people I come in contact with, but the vision was to begin doing so in a larger and more focused way. With this mindset, I jumped at the opportunity to co-plan and be a part of an international initiative to empower the young women members of Sistahood Girls Club Hout Bay in South Africa with the other members of our Pink Girls Run The World Travel Group.

After what seemed like endless communication, we had the green light to plan and execute a service activity for a group of amazing young women! Almost instantly, the idea of running a vision board workshop took on a life of its own. It was settled, we would all precut magazine clippings, bring all other supplies with us, and arrive prepared to guide the girls through creating visions for their lives. As I had prayed for, this one spark of an idea took on a life of its own! By the time we boarded the flight to Cape Town, all of our suitcases were stuffed with magazine clippings and supplies, Polaroid cameras to capture the experience, a book to gift the girls with, personalized totes that read “Beautiful Unique Fearless Female”, dental supplies, pencils, and a notebook inscribed with the words “She Believed She Could So She Did”. The entire itinerary for this trip screamed “EPIC”, but my heart and soul was laser-focused on meeting, blessing, and becoming blessed by our service event experience.

These group of girls live in Imizamo Yethu township, Hout Bay, Capetown with Sistahood Girls Club as their escape from the difficult circumstances they face daily. Any successful organization who seeks to make an impact and create change in the lives of multiple people requires a strong leader. My, my, my! We had no idea that our group would be blown completely away by the absolutely EXTRAordinary, Ms. Nandipha (Nandi), who runs the Sistahood Nonprofit. Her story is one of resilience, courage, and strong faith. In turn, she pours into her sistahs and is a living, breathing example for them to emulate. One interaction with Nandi along with the other young ladies confirmed that we made the right decision by not simply raising money to give a hefty monetary donation over choosing to show up, connect, empower, bless, and be blessed by all of our sistahs!

Thanks to Nandi and her organization, EXTRAordinary seeds of greatness were already planted in their spirits which meant that the encouragement we shared with them could be used to further cement the invaluable practice of creating visions for themselves and their family. Many of the young ladies shared that they were single mothers and that their primary motivation is to create a better life for their children. These hopes and dreams are no different from any loving parent anywhere in the world. Nor is the idea that they need each other’s support and their established sistahood to push through all the obstacles they encounter daily. Towards the end of the activity, they each shared what they had placed on their boards and the significance of it. Not only were they forcing themselves to dream/envision, but they were saying it out loud and claiming it - so powerful! In the moment, it dawned on me that this was a part of the vision that I had placed on my vision board three months prior; to support and empower women. Positive energy, hopes, dreams, prayers, singing, and lots of laughs filled the atmosphere as they created their vision journals with the support of our group coaching them through. In that room, we were all one; women connected with hopes and dreams of our own. After all, that’s why we were there in South Africa...chasing our own dreams and manifesting the life we desire.

Different stages in life afford for different dreams to unfold and for many of us we’re at a point where we are creating the table that we plan to sit at. Imagery of this was seen when we all found ourselves beautifully perched around the table at an Afternoon High tea at the luxurious Belmond Mount Nelson Hotel. The realization hit us that what is missing for the young women, now that they have vision journals, are tangible opportunities for them to begin materializing their new and improved selves.

An afternoon of High Tea and Sisterhood in South Africa.

When you surround yourself with visionaries and women who are committed to lift as they/we climb, the solution was one idea away! Without hesitation, the bosses behind Shoo Cosmetics, Pink Girls Run The World, and Extra Is My Ordinary put a plan in place to send 14 members of Sistahood Girls Club to an all expense paid Afternoon Tea at the Belmond Hotel in October 2019! We want these beautiful young ladies to experience the type of luxury that is sitting in their “backyard” as they continue to dream and implement plans to make a better life for themselves and their family a new reality.

This is an EXTRAordinary cause and I’m seeking your support to cover the cost of all 14 young ladies. The proceeds from all T-shirt sales between now and September 10th will be used to pay for the full cost of their High Tea experience. Purchase here.