31-08-2021
Women's Month Feature
Shireen MotaraShireen Motara is a Certified Coach and Founder CEO of Tara Transform.She is deeply passionate about the potential of Women and Africa, addressing inequality, and committed to social change that values and recognises women’s rights and contributions.Her conviction is that women should be able to claim their space anywhere. As an experienced strategist and consultant, Shireen supports clients to design, implement and review strategies that advance social justice and address inequality - nationally, regionally and globally. Her clients include UN agencies, funders and philanthropic agencies; corporates and non-profits. For over two decades she has been working and volunteering for social justice.Shireen has held roles in management, coaching, executive leadership and consulting in South Africa, SADC and the United Kingdom.As a Board Leader, Shireen has been serving on boards since 1999. She has deep expertise in governance, and has supported organisations in building effective governance practices; with capable leadership.Shireen believes in giving back and does so through her board services; as well as serving as a Mentor to youth entrepreneurs at the African Leadership Academy and the Allan Gray Orbis Foundation.Her qualifications include a Masters degree in Law and post-graduate certifications in Coaching, HR and Business Administration.Transcript[00:00:00] spudcaster: baobulb.org is a podcasting platform and a medium for storytelling. This podcast is also available on all the major podcasting apps, including apple and Google podcasts, podcasts your life with baobulb.org [00:00:15] Shireen: My name is Shireen Motara, and I'm a, um, women's coach, a certified coach. And I work only with women and I also run my own consulting practice where I do various types of work around, um, gender and development.[00:00:33] Candice: So tell me a little bit about how you got into that particular, um, field of work. Um, what kind of led you there? You know, just a little bit of your background. [00:00:42] Shireen: So I, I studied law at university and I was at the university of the Western Cape. So, and also I come from a family that was already very much involved in the anti-apartheid movement, which is why I went to UWC.[00:00:59] And, um, at the university I connected with a group of women, um, and we, we called our group Kopanang and it was a women's group. And really the idea was about educating ourselves around women's rights, um, and understanding, you know, how the world is not ready for women or how the world doesn't just embrace women with open arms.[00:01:24] So understanding the dynamics around that and how to engage with it. And then when I left university, you know, initially I did look at doing articles and so on, but I had a lot of conflicting emotions about representing, for example, an alleged rapist. Um, you know, it just didn't sit well with me to do that kind of thing.[00:01:47] So I decided, I mean, well, my first job was at customer services, but after that, I was just looking to work in the women's rights sector and so my second job was in the women's rights sector. And I basically haven't looked back since, so even in my own business, you know, that's my focus. Okay. [00:02:05] Candice: So that leads me to my next question.[00:02:07] What are you most passionate about in your work and what drives you or motivates you to, to keep doing it? [00:02:17] Shireen: So, I mean, I say that I, I exist to make the world a better place for women. In a nutshell, that's what I, um, you know, what I'm passionate about.
