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Our remarkable leader/founder of our non-profit organisation @aminata_conteh_biger is helping to reimagine the future of pregnant women and mothers in Sierra Leone — and among the shortlisted finalists for the @womensagenda 2021 Women Leadership Awards, celebrating on the evening of the 29th April at Swissotel Sydney, talented Australian women who demonstrate strong courage, inventiveness, initiative and compassion in their changing-making roles.
Building AMF's diversified strategic solutions, including autonomous peer-to-peer community partnerships, will help fulfill Aminata's vision in creating a more reinforced infrastructure of the maternal and neonatal care system through improvement in female health wellbeing, safe births, education, and empowerment.
The foundation was born out of Aminata's near-death experience during the delivery of her daughter Sarafina in 2012, who was suffering from shoulder dystocia. This life-threatening event gave her access to quality health care in Australia. Subsequently, it triggered her to change the dramatic reality faced by women in her home country, which has « the world's highest maternal mortality ratio » and high infant mortality, according to the @who. (A country she had no choice but to flee as a refugee in 2000 after being abducted from her father's home in the city of Freetown, used as a sex slave by one of the master rebels during conflicts.)
Humanitarian, activist and special representative for Australia UNHCR, @aminata_conteh_biger bravely recounts her story and trauma in her memoir, "Rising Heart," but also what makes her strength with the conviction that anything that has a heart is linked, that every individual story can echo and push each other upwards.
Tap the link in our bio to read more about our goal of ending preventable maternal and child deaths in Sierra Leone, donate to save the lives of hundreds of mothers and babies, or find her book. Photo by @womensagenda #WALA21
https://linktr.ee/aminatafoundation
"It is important for me to support ovarian cancer simply because it is a woman issue. I realise that anything that affects any woman will affect me too. Women issues are not talked about and I personally feel like there is more noise then action. Also as a woman of colour we find it difficult to talk about diseases. Where I come from, in Sierra Leone West Africa, there is absolutely no knowledge, research or cures for any type of cancers. So again, any women issues, I make my issues.
Since the beginning of time, any issues or concerns that are about women's bodies, feel like taboos. Women even find it difficult to talk to each other. We as women also have to invest in our courses, especially when it comes to our wellbeing."
— author, mother and former refugee turned CEO @aminata_conteh_biger on the talk with @camillaandmarc to support ground-breaking research for an early detection test ❤️❤️
Ovarian cancer is often diagnosed too late. Improved early detection, just as treatment, is key in the fight against the disease for more women than ever surviving it. To donate now, please follow the link: https://ovaries-talk-about-them.raisely.com/.
Photo: Our fierce advocate for women @aminata_conteh_biger along with her children Serafina and Matissee.
The power of storytelling is truly unmatched. In the podcast by BroadTalk, our incredible CEO @aminata_conteh_biger spoke about her kidnapping and proved her bravery that predominated as a then-18-year-old shines through to this day.
However, sex slavery and rape are not all that define a person. "I didn't want to be pitied, or for people to help me because they knew my story" (Aminata during the BroadTalk Podcast).
Sharing experiences through discourse is vital to speaking out against human rights issues globally. Unfortunately, the way society receives the story can depend on the ethnicity of the storyteller. We continue to ask ourselves why (in 2021 especially) does the validity of a story become devalued on the basis of one’s appearance? We must appreciate the vulnerability it takes to open up about one's experiences, the good and the not-so-good, but simultaneously respect that it is their story to tell - another compelling notion explored by Amii in the podcast.
Have you listened to the podcast yet? Available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts or online on the BroadAgenda website
#broadtalk #genderequality #aminatamaternalfoundation #storytelling #humanrights #podcast #rapeawareness
From the AMF & Aminata’s family to yours and your loved ones, we wish you a very Happy Easter. 🐰🐣🐇
Stay safe
What’s your capacity to take risks?
And I’m talking the super calculated one’s.
Not the unplanned one’s.
That’s not risk taking, that’s just plain stupidity.
Are you an aim for the stars, shoot for the moon kind of woman?
Or are you more of a stay within the bounds of societal conditioning, watch others rise from the side lines telling yourself that you don’t have what they’ve got kind of woman?
Those women, we don’t spend time with one another.
It’s an energy thing.
There are the courageous humans in the world who BACK THEMSELVES FULLY.
They’re my kind of women.
They know who they are.
They know where they’re heading.
They trust themselves implicitly.
They take no for an answer and invest their energy in learning how to cultivate more yes’s.
They do the inner work to build their capacity to become the women they are required to be in order to walk the path to achieving their goals with grace, simplicity and flow.
And if anything doesn’t go according to plan, they trust that they will find the resources to pick up the pieces along the way, and bring them all back into laser focused purpose-driven alignment for next-level success.
Beautiful humans,
Your decisions to invest in your personal and business growth have nothing to do with the amount of money you have in your bank account. They’re based on your capacity to give and receive.
❤️Open your hearts,
💫Tune into your innate wisdom,
🦋Listen to your inner whispers,
🙏Strengthen your self-belief,
🙌Live from a place of deep faith in the Universe,
🚀And take courageous action.
6 years ago, a woman sat across from me in a boardroom at an accounting firm overlooking the city, with ZERO business acumen, and said to us,
“I want to know what I have to do to build a not-for-profit organisation that supports Mothers to birth their babies safely in Sierra Leone”
That woman was @aminata_conteh_biger of the @aminatafoundation
❤️ Little did she know that 6 years later she will have facilitated the safe birthing of over 10,000 Mothers and babies in Sierra Leone, West Africa.
❤️ Raised hundreds of thousands of dollars to build a Maternal Clinic.
👇 Keep reading in the comments below — By @leighjanewoodgate 💛
Aminata’s story. When one of the vicious rebel snatches her in the arms of her beloved father during the civil war in Sierra Leone. Now she has rebuilt herself. And this has nothing to do with luck but a strong personality & moral strength to create then a charity - The Aminata Maternal Foundation - which helps women and their children be born in Amii's country of origin.
Now that she has learned to fly again, a new angel contributes to improving the world. To read her book, Rising Heart, and contribute to the cause: https://www.aminata.co/ (also available as an audiobook)
Illustration by @thenakedsloth ♥️
Today, the right to the truth day we honour the memory of victims that could not tell their stories.
We also celebrate our CEO's memoir where she shares her darkest moments and amazing achievements fighting for women's rights.
*Still I Rise is Maya Angelou's poem that inspired the name of the book.
#womensupportingwomen #womenhistorymonth #mayaangelou #risingheartbook #iwd2021 #therighttothetruthday @aminata_conteh_biger
A choice is the greatest thing humanity has been gifted with. Occassionally choices can be morally challenging, but it is important to stand up for what is right - especially when we advocate for the rights of others. The #internationalwomensday2021 theme focalises exactly upon this notion. "From challenge comes change, so let's all choose to challenge" (IWD, via the official IWD website). You can help us #choosetochallenge as we continue to support all women, mothers and their babies in Sierra Leone, to create long-lasting positive change in their lives. Together as a team we can choose to challenge the gender parity surrounding women's autonomy and enable them to make their own decisions regarding their access to healthcare.
#internationalwomensday #IWD2021#genderquality #womensrights #womenempowerment #womensday #sierraleone #amf
#aminatamaternalfoundation #choosetochallenge
Here are some lovely women from our trip to Aberdeen Women's Centre in Sierra Leone before COVID-19. Everyone has their own story to tell that is shaped by their cultural, social and physical context. At AMF during March we would like to continue highlighting how women's experiences are an on-going narrative. We should never stop celebrating the success of women just because International Women's Day is over!
#internationalwomensday #IWD2021#genderquality #womensrights #womenempowerment #womensday #sierraleone #amf
#aminatamaternalfoundation #choosetochallenge
Our lovely CEO this IWD💛💛💛
Posted @withregram • @aminata_conteh_biger There was no place I rather be this morning then @businesschicks IWD breakfast. Thank you so much @businesschicks @emmaisaacs so wonderful to meet you, WoW, you are truly remarkable @janecaro what a educator and warrior you and and the brilliant extraordinarily @teelareid Today was absolutely special.
Choose To Challenge, Always and everywhere!!