TWO LADIES OF COURAGE. FROM DIFFERENT PARTS OF THE WORLD, DIFFERENT PROFESSIONS, DIFFERENT LIFE EXPERIENCES.
BOTH ARE EXAMPLES OF COURAGE, DETERMINATION AND COMPASSION
MORE POWER TO THE WOMEN FOLK…………
Many friends and colleagues ask me why story telling?
I truly believe stories and storytelling are crucial – both in the personal as well as professional spheres.
Stories help us understand the world, connect with others, and give meaning to our collective experiences. In personal life, stories for me foster empathy and build stronger and more meaningful relationships, while in the professional realm, they enhance communication, influence others, and drive organizational and country cultures.
Stories leave a lasting impact, shaping our identities and connecting us at a deeper, more profound level.
JACINDA ARDERN
The COVID-19 pandemic was one of the greatest challenges for political leaders around the world. Jacinda Ardern’s leadership style in that moment of crisis has resonated with millions across the globe
Jacinda came through as an authentic and empathetic leader with excellent communication skills. It was around march 2020. At home, Jacinda put her daughter to bed and then hosted a Facebook live Q&A focused on the pandemic. She was wearing very normal, ordinary yet comfortable house clothes. She apologized for her attire by explaining that putting toddlers to bed could be a messy business.
She went on to make a genuine request to her New Zealanders to remain in self-isolation. She courageously explained that the number of confirmed Covid-19 cases in the country would go up, but that there was no reason for the nation to be discouraged. Jacinda went on to acknowledge that it was tough, but so crucial to stay at home. She demonstrated empathy. Authentic leadership in action.The world could feel it was real, there was no pretence, no staging. Just pure, open, and honest conversation.
The year prior to Covid, Jacinda showed the world what a leader should be. Courageously wearing the hijab, she comforted Muslim men and women following the Christchurch mosque shooting. One could sense that she refused to be drawn into anti-Islamic rhetoric and swiftly put in place practical measures such as gun-legislation. In her subsequent address to parliament after the massacre, this is what she said:
“On a quiet Friday afternoon, a man stormed into a place of peaceful worship and took away the lives of 50 people.
That quiet Friday afternoon has become our darkest of days.
But for the families, it was more than that.
It was the day that the simple act of prayer — of practicing their faith and religion — led to the loss of the lives of their loved ones.
Those loved ones were brothers, daughters, fathers, and children.
They were also New Zealanders. They are us.
And because they are us, we, as a nation, we mourn them.”
Her leadership style was welcomed in the global press. One such comment is mentioned below
“Jacinda Ardern, the Prime Minister of New Zealand, has staged a revolution. In the wake of a shooting that killed fifty people in the city of Christchurch last Friday, Ardern has quietly upended every expectation about the way Western states and their leaders respond to terrorist attacks.
Ardern has resisted war rhetoric.
This is what political leaders do in the face of a senseless tragedy: they grieve with their people, they think with their people, and they act together with their people. None of those tasks requires a declaration of war.”
MARIA BELON
Does the name María Belón resonate with you? Maybe not.
María Belón and her family are from Spain. María is a physician, and she was in Khao Lak, Thailand with their three sons Lucas, Simón and Tomás when the tsunami struck. In 2004.
Gathered around the pool at the Orchid Resort Hotel. In one of her interviews with a publication, María described the moment.
They started to hear a very horrible sound. She was looking around thinking maybe this was just in her mind. No one recognized the sound. It felt like the Earth was coming apart ,but everything looked perfect. She was facing the sea and saw a huge black wall. She did not think it was the sea. She thought it was a massive black wall coming to get them.
María was swept away and separated from her husband and her sons. She was underwater for three minutes. She managed to locate her one son Lucas and grab onto a tree trunk. They were eventually found by a local man. Both Maria and Lucas had severe wounds. They were taken to a nearby resting house located on higher ground. Inside the house there were many injured locals and tourists.
Despite her deep wounds on her chest and leg, María took on the responsibility as a doctor and began treating the injured. Many of these people, especially the locals, were less fortunate than her, and she felt a moral obligation as both a doctor and a human being to help them in that hour of need.
Despite having come close to death, suffering internal bleeding and severe external wounds, despite the fact that she was not sure whether her husband and other two sons were alive or not, Maria took the lead in helping so many of those people. It took more than two days for María’s husband, who had miraculously been reunited with their two other sons, to find her.
María spent 14 months in various hospitals for her own recovery after leaving Thailand.
Maria now travels around the world as an advocate for survivors of the tsunami and gives motivational speeches about how she overcame the turmoil and two years of recovery following her injuries.
María Belón is a Spanish physician and motivational speaker, known for surviving the 2004 Indian ocean Tsunami when she was on holiday in Thailand with her husband Enrique (Quique) Álvarez and three sons Lucas, Simón, and Tomás.
She was portrayed in the 2012 film “The Impossible” by Naomi Watts (with the name changed to Bennett). Naomi was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance.
In the movie, the family’s nationality was unspecified
