Welcome to African Women Journey (AJW), My name is Lula, and I am the founder of AWJ. I thought it would be appropriate to introduce myself and why AJW is dear to my heart. As someone who immigrated to the U.S. at the young age of 13 years old from Ethiopia, I recognized that it could be hard to ascertain your unique voice in a sea of stories. Being an immigrant to the U.S. was challenging. I came to a place where everything had to be relearned; every little part of life was different, from language to culture to food. Everything you were, everyone you knew, disappears as you enter a new country and try to forge a new identity. It took me a while to find my voice in a new country.
It has been 21 years since my family and I moved to the U.S. I feel extremely fortunate for all of the opportunities America has provided me. From an education, alongside the brightest minds, I've had the privilege of building a friendship with incredible souls. From truly growing up as an individual here and experiencing an incredibly welcoming culture to a career I couldn't have imagined happening — America has hurtled me forward on a path I didn't even know I would pursue and helped me find myself.
As I was finding my voice and confidence over the years, I have learned that my identity as an immigrant does not need compromise. I do not lose my previous identity to form a new one — instead, I build on it to better myself and contribute to society.
African Women Journey was born from my desire to contribute to my birth country Eritrea and the country that raised me, Ethiopia. I feel obligated to share my story, knowledge, resources, and skills with my people. Many African young women are looking for the opportunity to listen to others' stories and become contributors to their own narrative - one that they are wholly responsible for. The stories of African women need to be shared intergenerationally - the older teaching, the younger and the younger teaching, the older as they create their own - that can shape the future of innovation and empathy while changing and challenging their success trajectory and self-definition.
My ultimate goal is to amplify and support those stories being told and those in development through creating a platform, training, scholarships, and growth and educational opportunities for these women while coaching others to be engaged and intentional in their own life stories. Being someone adept at connecting to others through empathetic engagement and creative questioning, I can use my skill set to help build bridges between sets of people and individuals and their goals. There is strength in empathy and grace; the application of both can lead to a better understanding of self and others to better our communities.
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