What is your [x]? Your moonshot idea? Your wildest dream? These are the questions that were posed to the 2014 Women’s...
What is your [x]? Your moonshot idea? Your wildest dream? These are the questions that were posed to the 2014 Women’s Initiative Fellows during their visit to Google – and questions that I asked them to ponder regarding their specific vision for their country and how they will personally contribute during this transitional time in its history.
On Tuesday, the 2014 Women’s Initiative Fellows returned to Tunisia after five productive, thought-provoking, and stimulating weeks in the United States. They left challenged to use the leadership skills they gained from the program to effectively transform their country.
As part of the program, each Fellow completes a personal action plan that outlines her vision and goals for the year. The action plans are designed to look beyond one’s own personal gain and focus on actions a Fellow will take to influence and improve her community through her unique talents, abilities, and passion. The Fellows presented their action plans to one another on Saturday. The enthusiasm about each other’s action plans is heartening. Several times, the Fellows called on one another to participate in the plans and many offered their expertise to ensure the plans’ success. Lawyers were offering their legal expertise to business women; activists were offering their network and know-how to NGO leaders; and one Fellow who plans to train women candidates to run for the parliament received requests from the others to bring that training to their neighborhoods. The Fellows became excited about how the described plans will improve their country and advance their new democracy. I left the session with a greater admiration for the Fellows and hope for their future.
So, what are their wildest dreams? To train winning women candidates for parliament, to build a business, to reform the education system, to attract investors to Tunisia in order to bolster the economy, to curb the drop-out rate among girls in the rural areas, to promote cultural understanding and bridge cultural difference, to strengthen civil society, to establish a medical center to address mental illness, to run for president. Knowing this group of women, it will not take long before their dreams become a reality. And, our Women’s Initiative team is eager to support their efforts over the next year and help them achieve their wildest dreams.
