There are many ways that people cope with great personal loss. None of them are easy. But sometimes, from great tragedy comes great triumph. When Siobhan lost her baby to a miscarriage, she didn't know what to do. In hopes of relieving her pain, she traveled to Africa searching for a way to help others. What she found was a passion to change the world.
It's no secret that there is a massive disparity between the level of healthcare we have access to, and the grim reality in the poorest parts of Africa. Everyone knows it. But hardly any of us understand it on such a visceral level that we know we have no choice but to do something. Siobhan saw the horror first-hand, and now, with "a little elbow grease" and a whole lot of passion, she's making the world a better place for mothers and babies that if not for her, might not have had a chance.
After her miscarriage, Siobhan went through a period of depression, and had no idea how to move on. So she dropped everything and decided to dedicate herself to helping others. Siobhan soon found herself in Uganda, volunteering with an organization that focused on malaria prevention.
In a country whose average income is 600 USD per year, one thing quickly became apparent.
"When I first got to Uganda," Siobhan recalls, "I was struck by the people's overwhelming ability to be so bright and joyful with no running water, no electricity, no toilet, no healthcare. They're so happy and they barely get a meal a day. It just makes you think, they really know what's important in life."
Soon, she met Jamira, a local midwife who had helped thousands of women give birth, working out of her small mud hut in the village of Kirindi. Jamira was incredibly gifted and widely respected within her community, but while her skill helped many women and their babies, she still lacked the necessary medical supplies, funding, governmental support or even beds that could have helped to save so many.
Siobhan found herself "staring at the bed where thousands of women had had their babies, with the same black, blood-soaked pad. " She knew that she could help these women, and set out to make a difference.
"It doesn't take that much. If I could just get them gloves, I could save fifty mothers and babies," she reasoned. With the proper equipment, Jamira and others like her could help to prevent HIV, malaria, and the many other diseases that are so prevalent in Uganda.
She quickly turned her vision into action, and her desire to help became OneMama, an organization devoted to bringing positive change to women in Uganda and around the world. OneMama brought three elements to Kirindi – a birthing clinic that gave women the opportunity to safely deliver their babies, a medical clinic focused on disease prevention, and a community center where the men and women of the community make crafts. Siobhan then buys the products from the Ugandans and sells them in the U.S., with 100% of the proceeds going back into supporting the clinics.
Siobhan's aha moment led to the beginning of a movement that is changing the world. But it was just that: a beginning. "I want to make this a revolutionary social change," she says. "We can all find that little inscription in our heart to show that we can make a difference in the world."
Siobhan doesn't make a penny off of her work in Uganda. She works a full time consulting job, runs a product company whose proceeds benefit OneMama, and devotes 25 hours a week to the organization. She's even finding time to launch a new makeup line – and guess where those proceeds are going?
If there's one lesson people take from Siobhan's story, she hopes that it's one of action, not excuses. "I don't have the money. I don't have the time. I don't have the energy," she exclaims as she rattles of all of the reasons why she shouldn't be able to do what she's doing. "And yet, I get e-mails and texts all the time from Africa and from here about how much impact it's having on people. I just feel like it's possible to change the world. We don't have to fix all their problems, we just have to show that we care."
How will your aha moment lead you to make a difference?
Siobhan says that to her, aha moments are "components of all the pieces of us that have been seeding in the soil getting ready to grow the flower that is supposed to help us bloom."
As Siobhan's flower blooms, we're excited to see how she will continue to empower women, change the world for the better and inspire aha moments in all of us.
