[ad_1]
When internationally recognized Afghan aviator Niloofar Rahmani first arrived in the US in 2015, she was on her personal.
She fled her dwelling after a militant group made threats on her life. She was beginning over “at zero,” she stated.
Then she met Donna Orender, famed herself for bringing individuals collectively, and the nation opened as much as her.
Rahmani, now 30, will make her second look as a speaker Friday at Technology W, a one-day ladies’s management convention Orender based in 2011.
Technology W: Occasion to have fun tenth anniversary of ‘connections, vitality, passions’ for ladies and ladies
Coronavirus: Technology W connects, evokes ladies and ladies in ‘digital sphere’
“Undoubtedly an important occasion,” Rahmani stated. “After I got here to the U.S., I didn’t have assist and connections to assist me by means of the struggles.” Orender and Technology W “gave me hope that I used to be not alone,” she stated.
Occasion aim is constructing post-pandemic connections
The 2022 version of Technology W will probably be an in-person and digital occasion. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it will likely be the primary with a dwell viewers since 2019.
The theme is connection, which Orender thought apropos because the group’s typical modes of connection modified in the course of the pandemic.
“Connection is on the coronary heart of our work,” she stated of the Technology household of occasions, which additionally contains Technology WOW, an annual Jacksonville convention that matches women and girls for year-long mentorships, and Technology Works, a devoted day of service led by ladies and ladies but additionally together with males and boys. Orender and her workers additionally revealed “WOWsdom: Ladies Information to the Constructive and the Potential,” a ebook of letters, largely from ladies to their youthful selves and from ladies to their future selves.
Connections with others, she stated, “assist to propel us.” The audio system at this 12 months’s occasion and their subjects will “develop our capability to attach,” she stated.
These subjects embrace communication, native media, mentoring, nature conservation, psychological well being, innovation, cryptocurrency, constructing group, household and management. They had been picked based mostly on “what’s related, what’s on individuals’s minds,” Orender stated.
Different audio system embrace Edith Eva Eger, an creator, psychologist and Auschwitz survivor; Olenda Johnson, Naval Conflict School professor; Kelly Watson, senior associate, IBM World Enterprise Providers; Richard Lapchick, director, Institute for Variety and Ethics in Sport; Marcus Eriksen and Anna Cummins, co-founders of The 5 Gyres Institute and Leap Lab; and Rev. Emma Jordan-Simpson, president, Auburn Seminary.
Native audio system embrace Mary Kelli Palka, government editor, Florida Occasions-Union; Lakesha Burton, retired assistant chief, Jacksonville Sheriff’s Workplace; Diana Greene, Duval County Public Colleges superintendent; Rachael Tutwiler Fortune, president, Jacksonville Public Training Fund; Audrey Moran, lawyer and philanthropist; and Pat Geraghty, president and CEO, Florida Blue.
Geraghty, certainly one of a handful of males on the agenda, stated he has taken half a number of instances to honor and respect “ladies who’ve made a distinction with their careers,” together with his mom, spouse and the ladies at Florida Blue and dad or mum firm GuideWell.
“I proceed to take part … to make sure the voice of male advocates stays within the dialogue,” he stated. “Supporting ladies within the office just isn’t solely a ladies’s difficulty — it must be a trigger for anybody who believes we’re higher when our workplaces replicate our group in any respect ranges of our organizations.”
His 2022 subject will probably be post-pandemic psychological well being.
“Previous to COVID-19, one in 5 Individuals skilled psychological sickness. At present, practically half of all Individuals report that the stress, fear and grief brought on by the pandemic has negatively impacted their psychological well being,” he stated. “It has additionally led to elevated ranges of burnout — particularly for ladies. We should recommit ourselves to the progress that has been made in advancing the alternatives for ladies within the office and proceed constructing on that progress.”
Yearly a big contingent attend from Florida Blue and GuideWell.
“It is rewarding to see the vitality, affirmation and studying that all of us take away from our involvement,” he stated.
New profession as civilian pilot deliberate
Rahmani first spoke at Technology W in 2018.
Orender and the ladies’s convention helped her create a assist community. She noticed ladies supporting one another and males supporting them as nicely, new ideas in comparison with the Afghan society, she stated.
“That’s not what I’ve skilled,” she stated. “I spotted how totally different it’s. Ladies are supporting one another. Not all males are unhealthy.”
In 2013 Rahmani turned a star of kinds in her native Afghanistan and throughout the globe when she turned the first feminine fixed-wing Air Power aviator within the nation’s historical past. In 2015 that trailblazer standing introduced her to the U.S. to coach on C-130s.
However that standing additionally led to loss of life threats for her and her household. The Taliban, which on the time was a militant group however now runs the nation, didn’t respect ladies’s rights nor respect high-achieving ladies.
“They did not wish to waste cash on females,” she stated.
Within the 2021 ebook she co-authored about her journey, “Open Skies: My Life as Afghanistan’s First Feminine Pilot,” she wrote about her first expertise as a refugee. When she was a toddler, her household fled to Pakistan after “the rise of the Taliban” within the early Nineties however later returned. She additionally wrote about her choice to go away once more as an grownup.
Reality examine:No proof feminine Afghan Military pilot was stoned to loss of life by the Taliban
Final airplane out: America’s 20-year warfare in Afghanistan is over
“This land was and nonetheless is my dwelling, my nation, and a spot I used to be keen to die for,” she wrote. “Satirically, it is also a spot I might finally flee as a result of the very individuals I had sworn to defend and battle alongside would come to threaten my life and people closest to me. They hated me, my household, and every part we represented.
“As an Afghan girl, I dared to dream and there have been some who believed I must be punished for it, even perhaps killed. However I didn’t allow them to cease me,” she wrote.
The Taliban loss of life threats continued when she was coaching within the U.S.: She realized that she can be killed if she returned dwelling.
“It was horrible. My household was on the run [in Afghanistan] as nicely,” she stated. “I had introduced disgrace on the household. So many horrible issues.”
Painful watching Ukraine below assault
Rahmani stated she had hoped to assist different Afghan ladies “discover their voice,” however that was to not be. Three years after fleeing to the U.S., she was granted political asylum within the U.S. Her household has adopted.
She and her household settled in Tampa the place she had frolicked earlier than on the CAE C-130 Tampa Coaching Heart. She has labored as an interpreter and is restarting her aviation profession at a flight faculty in Fort Myers with hopes of being a civilian pilot.
Wish to assist Ukraine and its individuals? Ukraine reduction funds abound.
Ukraine ties in Jacksonville:Ukraine missionary, diplomat and pastor in Jacksonville advocate for the war-torn place they name dwelling
Having her homeland forcibly taken away has given her empathy for the individuals of Ukraine, who’ve been combating to keep away from the identical destiny since Russia invaded in February.
“I understand how that feels,” she stated. “Eager to discover a peaceable place to dwell. It’s so painful … How can we do that to one another?”
bcravey@jacksonville.com, (904) 359-4109
GENERATION W
The occasion will probably be 7 a.m. to five p.m. Friday on the College of North Florida Tremendous Arts Heart, 1 College of North Florida Drive, Jacksonville. Basic admission tickets are $250 for individuals attending in individual, $99 for digital friends. Breakfast, lunch and parking are included. To view a listing of audio system, purchase tickets or get extra info, go to genw2022.com.
[ad_2]
Source link
/cloudfront-us-east-2.images.arcpublishing.com/reuters/B33EHFQTCFOYDF6IV3BPALQ2DQ.jpg)