Category: Girls To The Front

Girls To The Front

Akili Australia

Akili is a Swahili noun. It means intelligence, resourcefulness, wit.
Since time immemorial, the Swahili language has connected different tribes, cultures and nations through commerce.

Akili aims to do the same; connect women with vastly different life experiences through their art, their unique styles and the products they make and use. By connecting artisans in Tanzania, Ecuador and Brazil with Australian consumers, we empower vulnerable women and their culture through commerce.

We offer carefully crafted ethical fashion accessories and homeware handmade in developing communities by social entrepreneurs. Each item makes a statement, and every piece aims to shape a better world for both user and maker, one product at a time.

My name is Fabiana. After working with female Social Entrepreneurs in Tanzania, I decided to create a platform to sell their handmade products in Australia with my partner Vlad da Cunha. We believe that by supporting artisans in the global arena, we preserve cultures at risk of disappearance. In our view, craftsmanship also provides a sustainable alternative to problematic industries, like fast fashion, whilst it empowers women in communities where their fundamental rights are often overlooked.

Victim To Empowered

Sexual abuse survivor Romecca Sawers displays her courage and inner strength as she moves through her journey in her life to rise and inspire many.

Angel

After losing her sister to cancer Angel decided to use her skills as an award-winning hairdresser and help people suffering from hair loss subsequently changing the quality of life for many.

The Voice of Visibility

Anna’s journey starts in New Zealand as the child of Russian Jewish refugee parents. The promise of freedom instead turned into displacement, emotional and sexual abuse. Her 20’s saw her falling into a toxic cocktail of drugs, alcohol, and bad relationships resulting in her own body attacking itself with a disfiguring skin condition. Devastation or a blessing in disguise? Follow Anna’s journey from a deep sense of inferiority to the right to be visible and beyond.

Bee Mindful

Maree plays an essential role in our modern way of life. If it wasn’t for her and other beekeepers like herself, our civilization would soon crumble. Plain and simple. Her care for her bees, garden and other animals shines through and urges us to also do something for our gem of a planet. How can you be more mindful of the environment?

Songs Of A Refugee

Jasna’s refugee journey is full of challenges and struggles but she always strives to succeed and lead by example. She believes in gratitude and good in people. She tries to surround herself with arts and creates something new every day.

Adversity to Adventure

Starting life an unwanted child, an early pregnancy and tragic death of her fiancée was the catalyst for realizing who she was. Now, embracing the essence of the adversity, Trina is passionate about sharing the message of the freedom available to us all when life is lived as your authentic self.

A Stroke of Poetry

Six years post stroke, Shelagh is now a published author of her stroke poems; ‘A Stroke of Poetry’; a motivational speaker and volunteer Stroke Safe Ambassador with the Stroke Foundation. She now shares stroke awareness with corporate, health and community organisations, stressing the impact the emotional side of stroke can have upon your life but also the importance of living a healthy life, full of positivity and hope.

Reasons To Live

As a child growing up in a home with family violence, Brisbane author Jas Rawlinson often felt alone, fearful, and uncertain. After struggling through her teens, losing her dad to suicide, and then experiencing sexual assault at age 20, she fell deeper and deeper into depression. Often, suicide felt like the only way out. But in the back of her mind, there was a small flicker of hope; a desire to one day help others so that they didn’t have to suffer the same traumas alone. Slowly, Jas began to regain control of her life, and explore her passions, eventually becoming a freelance journalist, the founder of Brisbane’s first domestic violence memorial, and the author of the suicide prevention book ‘Reasons to Live One More Day, Every Day.’

Life of Kylie

Kylie had a rough childhood, followed by an extremely traumatic domestic violence relationship. Many times she suffered from suicidal thoughts, and was constantly on the run or seeking refuge in women’s shelters. Tragically, Kylie lost both her father and brother to suicide, but has risen from the ashes and turned her life around; creating an incredible and purposeful life that now inspires many others. This is her story…

Boob Buddies

This is the story of Barbara, the founder of Boob Buddies. She provides free in-home professional counseling to help children and adults cope with the unseen emotional side-effect of cancer.

Elysian Dreams

Elysian Dreams is Anita’s escape and sanity. The artistic outlet of a single mum of three, who is challenged by her life every single day determined not to give up, but to persevere for her children and for everyone out there searching for a more meaningful life.