March 11, 2025 • 51 mins
Break barriers. Reinvent your path and redefine what’s possible. Those are just some of the mantras Gemma Bulos lives by. She catalyzes leaders to master change and reinvent for future readiness and thrive in an unpredictable world. As an international speaker and entrepreneur, who has gotten the attention of world leaders, academics and the United Nations, Gemma has made an impact worldwide by spearheading change. She founded three organizations on three continents. She has spoken alongside Nobel Peace Laureates and world leaders and worked for global peace as well as bringing clean water and sanitation to people in Asia and Africa. She is the founding director of the Global Women’s Water Initiative which has improved access to water and sanitation for over 1 million people so far. That initiative puts women at the center of water solutions empowering them and their families in areas where water projects have failed. Gemma has been the vanguard of change and a coach in many places – at colleges, nonprofits and corporations. Gemma inspires all who hear her. Be sure to join Shelley Johnson and Kathy Tuccaro on Women Road Warriors to hear Gemma’s incredible story of empowerment.
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women empowerment, female leaders, Global Women's Water Initiative, water crisis solutions, inspiring women stories, women's health and sanitation, community water projects, Gemma Bulos, clean water access, sanitation education, empowering women through water, social entrepreneurship, women's rights and water access, environmental sustainability, water and food security, women's roles in communities, Women Road Warriors, Shelley Johnson, Shelley M. Johnson, Kathy Tuccaro
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Episode Transcript
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(00:01):
This is Women Road warriorswith Shelly Johnson and Kathy Tucaro.
From the corporate office tothe cab of a truck, they're here
to inspire and empower womenin all professions.
So gear down, sit back and enjoy.
(00:23):
Welcome.
We're an award winning showtoday dedicated to empowering women
in every profession throughinspiring stories and expert insights.
No topics off limits.
On our show, we power women onthe road to success with expert and
celebrity interviews andinformation you need.
I'm Shelly and this is Kathy.
(00:45):
Break barriers, reinvent yourpath, and redefine what's possible.
Those are just some of themantras Gemma Boulos lives by.
She catalyzes leaders tomaster change and reinvent for future
readiness and thrive in anunpredictable world.
As an international speakerand entrepreneur who's gotten the
(01:05):
attention of world leaders,academics, and the United Nations,
Emma has made an impactworldwide in spearheading change.
She founded threeorganizations on three continents.
She's spoken alongside Nobelpeace laureates and world leaders,
and worked for global peace aswell as brought clean water and sanitation
to people in Asia and Africa.
(01:26):
She's the founding director ofthe Global Women's Water Initiative,
which has improved access towater and sanitation for over 500,000
people.
So far, that initiative putswomen at the center of water solutions,
empowering them and theirfamilies in areas where water projects
have failed.
Gemma has been the vanguard ofchange and a coach in many places.
(01:47):
At colleges, nonprofits, and corporations.
Gemma inspires all who hear her.
I especially liked one of herTED talks on how to accidentally
change the world.
We wanted to feature thisincredible dynamo for change on our
show who's empowering womenand everyone, welcome.
Gemma, thank you for beingwith us.
(02:07):
I'm thrilled to be here.
I love, love, love everythingyou guys are about.
Oh, thank you.
This is.
And vice versa.
Yes, absolutely.
Gemma, oh, my goodness.
Your insight and what you'redoing is incredible.
Your story is one that'sreally amazing too.
Your road to success has takenso many wonderful detours, and it
(02:30):
all began with a song that hadthe metaphor of water in it.
Water plays a powerful role inyour story.
Could you tell our listenershow all this evolved?
I think it's really kismet.
Did you envision the pathyou've taken and the impact you've
made?
You're a true woman.
Road warrior for change.
Amazing.
Well, thank you.
(02:50):
Yeah.
The story, you know, itdefinitely to me still feels like
an accidental path.
I was a preschool teacher anda professional jazz singer in New
York City.
And on Tuesday, September 11,I was supposed to be in The World
Trade center, going to teachmy preschool class.
When the first planes hit, thefirst plane hit and I called in sick,
(03:15):
it was a very selfish, selfishthing because I just didn't want
to go to work.
I.
I wasn't sick.
And so of course that daychanged my life.
Everybody in New York,everybody around the world.
And what I usually do aftersomething tragic happens, I usually
try and find something that isgoing to help me with my healing.
(03:37):
And as a singer, songwriter,it was obvious for me to write a
song.
And when I wrote this song, itjust sort of poured out of me.
It wasn't my normal.
It wasn't my normalsongwriting process.
It just felt like it.
I heard the song, I heard thechorus, I heard the choir, I heard
(04:00):
the bass and the drums and allthat stuff, and it just poured out,
it wrote itself and it was ina meditation that I was able to get
that song.
And also when I got, when thesong came through, I also was inspired
to build a million voice choiraround the world to sing it because
(04:23):
it was this really rousing anthem.
It's called We Rise.
And it's all about peoplecoming together and rising from tragedy.
And so what I ended up doing,I left my life, gave away all my
belongings, left my left rentcontrol apartment in New York City.
I took my.
Yes, you knew I was serious, right?
(04:44):
Yeah.
And so I took my backpack andmy guitar and I started traveling
around the world with whatlittle money I had to invite people
to be part of this globalpeace movement.
And the invitation was to.
For them to see themselves asthis powerful drop of water.
The metaphor was it takes asingle drop of water to start a wave.
(05:07):
And so what I asked them to dowas see themselves as this powerful
drop of water that everythought, that every word, their every
action ripples out and it doesimpact everyone and everything around
them.
And so to use their power for good.
And so that message, becauseof the water metaphor, all of a sudden
(05:29):
people started to think of meas this woman singing for water.
And I became known as thewater lady.
And one of the places I know,right, and one of the places I got
invited to sing was the UnitedNations Water for Life conference.
And from there, you know, Iwas here with this sort of.
I mean, I don't mean to beoffensive at all to hippie dippies,
(05:52):
but I had this hippie dippymessage of, oh, we're all powerful
drops of water and we can allchange the world.
And meanwhile, all theseexperts are talking about the global
water crisis and how, youknow, Over a billion people didn't
have access to water.
3 to 5 million people dying ofwater related disease every year.
And then the worst part andthe hardest part for me to sort of
(06:13):
absorb, aside from those otherreally tragic numbers, was that the
lack of water and sanitationdisproportionately affected women.
And because women are thecaretakers of their families, they're
the ones doing all the waterrelated chores.
So their relationship to wateris deep, deep yet.
(06:34):
And the kinds of challengesthey have is they have to walk far
distances to get water,sometimes up to eight hours a day.
When they are fetching waterand bringing them back home, they've
got these 42 pound jerry cansthat they're carrying along with
the dishes they just washedand the clothes they just washed
(06:54):
and their kids.
So it's just, it's crazy how,how badly it affects women, especially
because they are the waterbearers, because they carry the burden
of water on their heads andtheir shoulders and their backs.
Because girls get pulled intothat as well.
(07:17):
Girls will drop out by eighthgrade oftentimes because there are
no water and sanitationfacilities when they get their periods.
So drop out of school.
You mean drop out of school?
Yeah.
And so one out of ten at thetime it was one out of eight.
Sorry, one out of ten girlsdropped out of school because there
(07:41):
were no water and sanitation facilities.
They couldn't, you know, theycouldn't take care of themselves
when they had their periods.
So they'd either lose a weekor they'd completely drop out.
And so many of the women thatwe worked with didn't have an education
over eighth grade.
So I want to sort of pull usback to all these things that I learned
(08:03):
about the water crisis.
And I realized that mymetaphor turned into my cause all
of a sudden.
This metaphor of it takes asingle drop of water to start a wave.
Water became my.
That's what I wanted to do.
I just realized, gosh, there'sso much that can happen in a community,
to a family, to a girl, whenwater and sanitation, so many more
(08:27):
opportunities.
It can improve the economy, itcan improve health, it can improve
education for girls.
I mean, it can reduce the riskof violent attacks.
I mean, there's so many thingsthat just if you just had water,
all of these things can be notcompletely resolved, but they definitely
be mitigated and reduced.
(08:48):
And so after I learned that, Icontinued to travel around the world.
There was a day that weinvited people to sing We Rise from
all over the planet.
That's what that was.
The name of the song.
And it was September 21, 2004.
We just celebrated the 20thanniversary of it.
It was unprecedented, this movement.
(09:09):
Unprecedented.
No one had ever done it before.
I had.
There was no Facebook, noTwitter, no Instagram, no TikTok,
nothing.
There was no social media tobring people together.
It was just email.
And it still wasn't sort of widespread.
But what I did was I invitedpeople who used to come to my shows.
I used to perform across the nation.
(09:32):
And I just asked my fans,look, if I'm doing this, I'm inviting
people to sing this song.
If this feels any resonant toyou, just send it out and ask people
to do it.
By that time, by the timeSeptember 21st came around, we had
people singing from all overthe globe on every hour of the day.
Yeah.
(09:52):
Wow.
Over 100 cities in 60countries sang.
Jane Goodall introduced it,joined us.
Pete Seeger.
Amazing.
Yeah, it was.
We had, you know, I sang itwith Pete Seeger, invited me to his
house, and he made me homemadesoup and.
And bread.
And he told me that he sang WeRise every morning when he walked
(10:15):
up the side of his mountain.
And I was like, that's a huge honor.
I mean, he's a folk singer legend.
Legend, yeah.
Legend.
Peace.
Troubadour, like, so wellknown as that.
And he's was speaking to melike we were peers.
And I.
Oh, my God.
And then.
I know it was crazy.
And then Jane Goodall, I.
(10:35):
I was speaking.
I was going to be speaking andperforming at the Parliament of World
Religions, where all thesereligions come together and they
try and collectively figureout how to solve some of the, you
know, environmental and theworld problems, because a lot of
people don't trust theirgovernment leaders anymore, and so
they look to their faith.
(10:56):
And so I was going to singthere, and I saw Jane Goodall.
I hadn't met her yet.
I saw Jane Goodall's name onthe roster, and I was like, I need
to meet her.
So I.
I mustered up all of my.
All of my courage and I wentup to her and I said, jane, my name
is Gemma.
I'm such a big fan of yours.
And she's like, gemma, I'veheard all about you.
(11:18):
I'm like, you're Jane Goodall.
So what's funny is that weended up seeing each other on the,
you know, at many different conferences.
And so.
And that's, you know, one ofthe reasons why she was part of this
great event.
On September 21st, we were inNew York City when we sang it other
(11:39):
Cities sang it and selforganized themselves.
So anyway, after we built thatSeptember 21, 2004, that's when I
completely shifted gears,started to learn what water solutions
were happening in the world,what was working, what wasn't.
And then I found myself sortof stumbling upon some organizations
(12:01):
that were training people howto build really simple technologies
that could be replicatedaround the world using local materials
so it's affordable and accessible.
And after I learned that, Igot an award award from Queen Latifah
and CoverGirl for womenchanging the world through music.
And that was the seed grantthat helped me start my first organization
(12:23):
in the Philippines.
In the Philippines, excuse me.
And she, to this day, shedoesn't know how that rip.
That single drop of her moneygiving us.
Her giving us money rippledout and affected.
I mean you, you, you statedthat we affected over 500,000 people.
(12:44):
It's actually over a million now.
Oh, it's over a million?
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah.
Well over a million.
So, so what I did was I tookthat money, I brought some simple
technology to the Philippinesthat was.
Which is my country ofheritage that could clean water using
local materials.
And so we, it was the firsttime it was ever brought to that
(13:07):
to the country.
I started an organizationreally not knowing much about anything.
And then we started to get allthese awards because one of the reasons
why we were successful wasbecause we didn't just focus on the
technology, we focused onuplifting and upskilling the local
(13:30):
community so that they couldsolve their own water crises.
And that's the mostsustainable model.
And so we started to getreally great success there and recognition.
In fact, I won Best SocialEntrepreneur in the Philippines from
Ernst Young, Best SocialEntrepreneur in Asia at the World
(13:52):
Economic Forum, which is crazybecause, you know, that's where all
these world leaders come together.
And it was, you know, it wasjust this whirlwind again, totally
accidental life.
I've had these, you know, Iwent from being a preschool teacher
to building a global peacemovement and now bringing clean water
and sanitation to.
Oh my goodness, I know it's bananas.
(14:12):
And so finally after, after westarted the organization in the Philippines,
we were invited by the NobelPeace Laureate Wangari, Professor
Wangari Maathai.
She was the first Africanwoman to ever win the Nobel Peace
Prize.
And she was the first.
This is the most significant.
(14:32):
She was the first person whowas recognized for, for linking peace
with environment.
She was the one who planted amillion trees in Kenya.
And so she, yeah, she, wespoke with her.
She invited us to have Ourtraining at her facility.
She spoke to our women and westarted the women, the Global Women's
(14:56):
Water Initiative program there.
We've actually renamed it.
We're now Global Women's Waterand Food Academy.
We're doing that because we'reteaching women water and food solutions.
And they, we, they help buildtheir own hubs of water, sanitation
and food facilities in theirlocal community.
So there's somewhere thatpeople can learn how to grow and
(15:19):
increase yield in their, theirfarms also to bring clean water to
their communities.
And so that's kind of where it is.
I know that was sort of this,you know, epic story.
I tried to.
It is an epic story, really.
Wow.
It's true Destiny.
(15:39):
I mean, obviously you have themost wonderful purpose on this earth
and you're changing so many lives.
I really want to commend youfor everything you're doing.
I'll give you a hug.
Oh yeah, I would too.
I hope we get to meet eachother person day.
That would be terrific.
I'm in awe of you, Gemma.
(16:01):
If more people did this sortof thing, can you imagine what the
world would be like?
The ripple effect?
Yes, it would.
I, you know, because this, youknow, none of this stuff was done
alone.
Right.
I was just the spark, just thedrop, you know, the ripple stuff.
It requires, you know, all theother drops of water to, to join
(16:22):
you.
Right.
And so this is, this is a movement.
It's not, I mean the, the partof, the part that I think is really
what we're doing, aside frombringing clean water and sanitation.
The movement is about ensuringthat women who are the most affected
by water and sanitation arepart of the solution.
(16:43):
Oftentimes the Food andAgriculture Organization of the United
nations found in one of theirstudies that the failure of water
and sanitation projects is.
The high rate of failure ofthese failed water projects and water
and sanitation projects isbecause they don't include women.
(17:04):
And that because they're theones who are most affected by it.
So they, they know what theyneed, they know how it should be
built, they know how it'sgoing to make it easier.
And meanwhile all of these,other than women are, are coming
up with the solutions that arenot appropriate for them.
(17:25):
So I wanted to make sure thatthey were influential in these solutions
and not only influential, butleading them.
So you're overcoming the patriarchy.
Uh huh.
Oh my gosh.
Some of the stories that wehave about how men have started to.
Not even started to.
They're continuing to supportwomen, learn from them, help them,
(17:49):
mobilize with them.
Uplift them.
Oh, my gosh.
It's amazing.
The, the movement that we'reseeing is that these women, through
their water expertise, arebecoming leaders in their community.
We've seen women being invitedto their water boards.
We've seen women be electedto, you know, be part of the government
that makes these decisions.
(18:10):
We've seen women, you know,some of the women that we, because
I have some staff who are fromKenya and Uganda, they've been invited
to the most importantgatherings in the world.
Last year, one of ourteammates was invited to speak at
the United UN Women Commissionfor the Status of Women.
(18:31):
It's an annual event thathappens at the UN in New York.
Then all four of them andmyself were all invited to go to
COP28, which is the largest,you know, the largest climate change
conference where all worldleaders come together and try and
figure out how to solve aproblem, the climate crisis.
So, I mean, and they, some ofthem had never been on, you know,
(18:54):
before they were part of us.
They'd never been out of their countries.
They never would have imaginedthemselves being on these global
stages.
Stay tuned for more of WomenRoad warriors coming up.
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Welcome.
Welcome back to Women Roadwarriors with Shelly Johnson and
(20:17):
Kathy Tucaro.
If you're enjoying thisinformative episode of Women Road
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(21:00):
and other sites and tellothers about us.
We want to help as many womenas possible the song We Rise by Gemma
Boulos, which has a metaphorof water that said it takes a single
drop of water to start a wave,changed everything for Gemma.
That metaphor became her purpose.
Without her even realizing it,she became known as the Water lady
(21:21):
and was invited to the UnitedNations Water for Life Conference.
That one song changed thecourse of her history as well as
that of many people around the world.
She built a million voicechoir singing that song 24 hours
a day and a global peacemovement that was intoxicating.
The song and its message eveninspired folk legend and peace troubadour
(21:41):
Pete Seeger, who sang the songevery day.
A grant from Queen Latifah andCover girl for Women Changing the
world through Music was theseed money that Gemma needed to help
stop the global water crisisand motivate people for change.
She's spoken alongside NobelPeace Laureates and world leaders
and worked for global peace aswell as bringing clean water and
(22:02):
sanitation projects to peoplein Asia and Africa.
She's the founding director ofthe Global Women's Water Initiative,
now known as Global Women'sWater and Food Academy, which has
improved access to water andsanitation and food for over 1 million
people.
It makes women the center ofthe solution.
It's empowered women who arethe primary caretakers and carriers
(22:22):
of water, which is a laboriousprocess that takes hours.
By uplifting and upskillingthe community to solve their own
water crisis, this hasliberated women.
Gemma's work ensures thatwomen who are the most affected by
water and sanitation are partof the solution and become masters
of their own destiny.
With Gemma's work, women areempowered and so are their families.
(22:45):
The women, through their waterexpertise, are also becoming leaders
in their communities andspeaking on the global stage.
Gemma's ripple effect hastruly been miraculous.
Gemma, you've created a tidalwave of empowerment for women.
You know, you really have.
It's more than a ripple.
It's amazing what these womenhave done.
Like I was homeless for a weekand during that week is back in 2011.
(23:09):
That's when I realizedrealized the the importance of water
or the Lack of it, becausethese homeless people, just businesses
don't want to give them waterbecause then, you know, you get a
whole collection.
It's like, it's a thing, right?
It's very hard to get water.
So once I got my job, Istarted Operation Hydration and is
(23:31):
shocking to see in every citythat I go to on the hottest days
of the year, I load upwhatever vehicle or whatever rental
vehicle I have with, with icecold water and, and you know, just
tons.
And I, and I go around thealleys and I put a big sticker, you
know, like free water.
The lineups of people that areracing for water.
(23:52):
It is unbelievable to me.
And here's the interestingthing, is that when I look at the
difference between the womenand the men coming for the water,
you can see that the women arealmost creating, they're thinking
ahead, okay, well, I need thisfor that and this for that.
And so they're filling uptheir containers, their cups, going
(24:14):
to find dishes.
They are asking me if theycould keep my cooler when I'm done.
It's really interesting to see.
And I mean, what I'm doing isjust very small in grand scheme of
things.
But I make sure that I do itin every single city that I go to
and I try and hope that otherpeople will continue with what I
do.
So, yeah, I see the need andthank you for everything that you
(24:37):
do.
Oh my gosh, that's absolutely wonderful.
Because you don't.
I mean, we don't.
We can turn on the tap andturn it off when we want.
Right.
We don't think about it.
You don't think about it at all.
The amount of water that isused to flush a toilet is sometimes
more water than people havearound the world.
(24:58):
Just a flushy toilet.
Imagine how many times you'reflushing the toilet.
And you know, when some peoplewho've never really known about toilets
that flush, they're like, youuse water, clean water to flush your,
your waist, you know, and, andthey're barely getting enough water
just to drink.
(25:19):
So, yeah, it's, it's kind of,it's astounding.
And it's so, and I don't thinkpeople see really the depth and how
many tentacles the water touches.
You know, I mean, just, Imean, one of the statistics that
really, really disturbs me wasthat when women and girls have to
(25:41):
walk distances to fetch water,you know, off, it's, you know, it's
not a road.
They're going to have easy,easy, you know, ways to walk it.
It's this rugged road,sometimes it's uphill, sometimes
it's downhill.
But in doing that, they're atrisk for violent attacks and even
rape.
That's right, yeah.
Yeah.
(26:02):
I mean, some girls in schools,there are high rates of pregnancy
pregnancies.
Because when they are the oneswho have to fet the schools, they,
there are, there areincidences of them getting pregnant.
Predators.
Oh, yeah, yeah.
Being attacked.
Oh, it's terrible.
Terrible.
It's awful.
I mean, and you wouldn't, youwould not connect those two.
(26:24):
You wouldn't think, oh, theydon't have water and oops, there's,
you know, there's some sexualpredators out there attacking our
young girls and women.
Right.
You know, and water has becomea political issue and a power issue.
I've heard the term water isthe new oil.
And you have organizationstrying to take control of it, too.
(26:48):
Yeah.
Potable water is scarce acrossthe world.
People don't think about that.
And it's a power struggle.
And if you deny people water,they can't be empowered.
It's terrible.
It's very terrible.
Yeah.
And so this has been happeningfor decades.
You know, there are water corporations.
There are actually.
(27:09):
No, they're organizations.
So what ended up happening isthat many water facilities, many,
if there are any, and thenplaces where there's no access to
it.
When developing countries getloans, international loans for, you
(27:30):
know, to develop.
Right.
They will.
Oftentimes there's a clause inthere that says, you know, we'll
give you the loan if you giveus ownership of your water.
And so they put contractorsout there and they sell it to like,
the Pepsis and the, you know,these, these multinational corporations.
(27:51):
And so then they own it.
They are the ones who aresupposed to be maintaining it and
refreshing it and revitalizing it.
And then they are the ones whomake the money from it so it becomes
privatized.
And that's one of the biggestchallenges is because these developing
countries have no choice butto do that.
And oftentimes they see it asan opportunity rather than in the
(28:14):
long run, it's going tocompletely get them, you know, put
the organizations, thefinancial institutions, the companies,
the international companies incontrol of their most valuable resource.
Yeah, it's really, it's.
And it's even happening herein the United States.
(28:35):
Oh, yeah, I was going tomention that.
Yeah.
Water rights are a big deal inareas of the U.S.
yeah.
So I'm going to give you anexample of two different times.
Communities actually protestedand tried to stop these multinationals
for coming in.
So There were two scenarios.
There is one in there.
(28:57):
It was a town somewhere inthe, on the east coast in the United
States.
They were trying to get CocaCola because Coca Cola was going
to come in and privatize their water.
They were trying to, they weretrying to get them out so that the,
the, the, the water couldstill be a public trust.
Then there was anothercommunity in Kerala, India, in the
(29:19):
southern part of India thatwas doing the same thing with Coca
Cola, trying to make sure thatthey didn't take their water rights.
Who do you think?
The.
One of them failed and one ofthem did not fail.
Who do you think failed?
I don't know.
The United States.
Oh, really?
Yes.
Okay.
I know they failed.
I wonder what pockets werelined with that, you know.
(29:41):
You know, you got to imagine.
I mean, look at even whathappened with Flint.
Oh my God, the Flint water.
Yeah.
Oh, yeah.
Astoundingly like it was, itwas the.
I mean, it just tells youthat's, that's the road we can be
going down if we still, wecontinue to allow, you know, no government
(30:03):
regulation for corporationscontaminating our water.
I mean, that's, that really isthe, is the crux of it.
And it's so hard for, youknow, for, for communities to protest
it.
Look at the, the, you know,that this happened like over a decade
ago when this, this town lostits rights.
(30:23):
The one in Kerala, they foundsome sort of ancient, you know, law
loophole that actually said noInternet, you know, nobody can come
in and take their water rights.
And so they, they actually wonagainst Coca Cola, the biggest, you
know, one of the biggestmultinational corporations in the
world.
Well, you know, and it makessense you'd want to maintain your
(30:44):
water rights.
That's national security.
That's what you mean.
Absolutely.
Without water, we cannot survive.
Oh yeah.
Without, you know, if, and,and if it needs to be safe, we, I
mean, you know, that's thewhole thing around the work that
we do in sub Saharan Africaand Asia.
(31:04):
It's like, sure, you can haveaccess to water, but does that doesn't
mean it's safe.
So.
And if you have, if yourwater's not safe, then sanitation
is not there either.
Because sanitation isenvironmental cleanliness.
And then if you don't haveclean water, then you can't really
(31:25):
take care of yourself.
Then hygiene is all connected.
So the term wash water,sanitation and hygiene, that's what
we refer to in our developmentworld or at least in our sector,
because you cannot just put awell into a community and think it's
gonna Solve everything becausethat, you know, you need to have
(31:46):
access to water, that waterneeds to be safe.
And if, if you don't haveaccess to water and it's not safe,
then you're at risk of waterrelated disease.
If you have safe water but youdon't have good sanitation, your
water can get contaminated,you know, there's definitely risk
of disease again.
And then if you havesanitation but you don't have good
(32:07):
hygiene and you're not takingcare of yourself, there's a risk
of, of getting a water related disease.
So, you know, they're all connected.
You cannot address a problemwith a well.
Then that's what we train thewomen to do.
We train them to be able tosolve all three of those four of
those issues.
Water access, water safewater, sanitation and hygiene.
(32:33):
They learn how to build watertanks and they're learning how to
build spring development boxes.
They are.
They know how to build waterfilters, they know how to build latrines,
and they know how to, theytrain even like the US Peace Corps
how to train their communitiesthat they're in how to practice good
(32:57):
hygiene practices.
So they have to do it all.
Which is why I call, that'swhy we talk about it as hubs of expertise.
Because you can't just solvethis problem with the.
Well.
Yes.
So yeah, it's, it's.
And so the, our women know howto do all of it.
And they can make thesematerial, they can make all of these
(33:18):
technologies with local materials.
And they are simple enough andwe train them simply enough so they
can do it in, you know, sothey can do it.
And they've never, andmeanwhile they've never picked up
a shovel before, never pickedup a trowel before, never laid a
brick, never mixed foot cement.
Now they're like climbingladders which used to be forbidden
(33:39):
for women to even get on oneof those.
Oh really?
Climbing ladders?
Oh, yeah.
Climbing water?
Yeah, climbing it was, youknow, it was taboo in these communities.
And then what I love aboutwater is that it's, it's a mobilizing
force.
You know, you can, the thingis, when you bring clean water, there's,
(34:00):
there's total agreementamongst the entire community.
Yeah, we need it.
So it doesn't matter who'sbringing it, but we need it.
And so when these women areleading these, these projects, it's
so amazing, like I said, tosee some of these, you know, men
support them in the entire community.
Can I tell you a story aboutone of the things, and this is not
(34:22):
about water, but this is abouthygiene, but it's okay.
So there was a community thatwe were working in in Kenya, a very
small village.
And our women were building arainwater harvesting system and a
tank on this preschool.
(34:43):
And that's usually a good timewhen something big is happening in
the community to be able toinvite them to gather.
And so the invitation from ourfacilitators, from one of my staff
members, was, if you want toimprove your community, come to this
meeting.
And so what they did was, youknow, that went out to the preschool
(35:05):
students, that went out to the families.
And then people who showed up,the first thing they saw were women
climbing ladders and buildinga tank.
And so already their mindsgoing, what's going on?
What are we doing here?
They get into this room,there's probably about 50 of them.
And you know, my colleague,she process.
(35:27):
She moves them through,facilitates them through this process
where she asked them, if you were.
If God were to give you thechoice, you could only have one child,
what would it be?
A man, a girl or a boy?
And so it was an anonymousthing everybody wrote down.
And then when we looked at the.
At the little sheets, it was,you know, of course, not unanimous,
(35:51):
but the majority was met alittle boy.
Right.
And so she then led themthrough a process of, okay, let's
look at what men do, and thenlet's look at what women do.
And say they listed the men's first.
It was, you know, it was agood list.
But when they listed all thethings that women do, it was like
three times as long.
Right?
And so the revelation thatthey had, that this community had
(36:12):
was like, oh, my goodness,what we need.
And look at all the.
What women are doing.
What we need to do to improveour communities is to empower our
women.
That's what they came out with.
We didn't say, hey, you guysneed to do this, right?
This is what they came outwith after going through this process.
So what did they do after that?
What is preventing them fromdoing this work, you know, doing
(36:35):
being uplifted and productive?
And then they realized part ofit was women and girls having their
periods because they were, youknow, there were a lot of temp.
There were a lot ofsuperstitions around it.
There were, you know, therewas no access to the right materials
for women to deal with it.
They'd have to stay home, andthe girls would have to stay.
(36:56):
Stay home.
And so what they realize isthat's the thing they have to solve
in order for them to startsupporting women.
And so what did they do after that?
In that same session, theystarted making reusable menstrual
pads.
And because we have the all,we were definitely leading them that
(37:16):
way, but that we wanted themto come to it on their own.
And I think what was the moststunning act of love that I've ever
seen were these men sewing these.
These reusable menstrual padsfor their wives and daughters.
Wow.
Wow.
Yeah.
Wow.
Yeah.
Yeah.
We.
We called the project, youknow, we put the men in menstruation.
(37:42):
I love it.
You know what I love more is.
The fact that you called it anact of love, because that's exactly
what it is.
Yeah.
It really is such a radicalact of love.
They really challenged themselves.
You know, it shifted their mindset.
It did.
Oh, it's huge.
And it's taking the stigma offof things.
Yes.
I want to come with you onyour next project.
(38:03):
My God.
Yeah.
I would love to talk aboutthat work.
Probably going to be there in September.
And, you know, expect to getdirty because we're building.
You know what I do for a living.
Right.
I get dirty.
So we're good.
Excellent, Excellent.
Kathy has a big sandbox.
I play in the mud all the.
(38:24):
Time, so I'm good.
I love that.
Stay tuned for more of WomenRoad warriors coming up.
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(39:29):
media.
Learn more@truckingmovesamerica.com.
Welcome back to Women Roadwarriors with Shelly Johnson and
Kathy Tucaro.
Every single action you havehas a ripple effect.
(39:50):
Every word and every actionripples out.
And it does have an impact oneveryone around you.
So you need to use your powerfor good.
That message has resonatedwith millions of women who've encountered
Gemma Boulos in her speakingengagements or with her nonprofit,
the Global Women's WaterInitiative, now known as Global Women's
Water and Food Academy.
(40:11):
It's improved access to waterand sanitation and food to over 1
million people in Asia and Africa.
That's empowered women whohave to walk miles to fetch water
every day.
Gemma is a true champion who'smaking history and changing the trajectory
for women and their futuresurvival and success.
Her efforts with water are amobilizing force, leveling the playing
(40:34):
field and empowering entirecommunities and especially women.
Gemma, you really are amazingwith everything you've accomplished.
Can I tell you one more storythat is just.
Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
Okay.
Like I said, I didn't want toramble in the beginning.
Oh, you've got great stories.
So they're one of the womenthat we trained, she was a.
(40:56):
She was a nurse and she usedto work at a dispensary.
So just to be clear, there arethree levels of health facilities
and villages.
There's the dispensary,there's the clinic, and then there's
the teaching clinic.
So the dispensary is justwhere you can get some treatment
(41:17):
and they distribute somemedicines and other things, but they
are only open a certain amountof time.
In order for them to bepromoted to a clinic, they have to
have water on site 24 7.
And some health facilitatorneeds to be living on, you know,
(41:38):
around it.
And then to become, to bepromoted to the top one, they have
to be a functioning, afunctioning, you know, facility.
And they also need to have.
Oh, I'll, I'll tell this partlater because it's the, it's the
surprise part of this, this story.
So she was working at a, at adispensary, this nurse, and she brought
(42:05):
clean water.
They built two water andsanitation water tanks.
They built toilets, and theymade water filters so that this facility
had everything it needed to beable to function.
Because before they builtthose tanks and all those other projects,
(42:28):
if, if somebody came in thatrequired water for the treatment,
if a patient came in and theyrequired water to treat them, they
would have to walk four hoursback and forth.
So one way.
So it was eight hours going toget water so that they could treat
them.
(42:49):
Bringing the water right onthe campus was game changing.
And so once some of thecommunity members started to hear
that there was water there,the very first couple, a man who
had heard there was water,brought his pregnant wife to give
birth there.
Meanwhile, you know, there wasa lot of issues of, of women not,
(43:13):
you know, there, there, therewas mortality around women birthing
outside of a medical facility facility.
And so because they had water,there's first woman came, she had
her baby there.
And then more and more womenstarted to come.
And because of that, theKenyan government gives money for,
for every live birth.
And so they started to getmoney in.
(43:34):
AMREF came in and started togive them money.
They were able not only to, tostart giving, you know, giving birthing
services, but they there werethen able to build a maternal health
center.
Oh wow.
And yeah.
And then because they, theywon the regional, most the best,
(43:56):
I think it was called the bestorganized or best run facility.
And then they became ateaching, a teaching clinic.
And then the woman who, thenurse who brought it in the first
place, they pulled her andput, and actually brought her to
a nurse, another dispensary.
(44:18):
And she did the same thing.
And she did the same thingagain after that.
And so one of our goals asGlobal Women's Water and Food Academy
is to be able to replicatethat across Africa.
The minute you have healthfacilities local that can provide
the best services withouthaving to go to a big city for, you
(44:41):
know, to go to a big hospital,that's when we start seeing major
change in communities.
How do people get involvedwith the Global Women's Water and
Food Academy?
Because I'm sure you need moreand more help to keep this ripple,
this tidal wave going.
Yeah.
The best way to get involvedwith Global Women's Water and Food
(45:03):
Academy is to go to our website.
Our website is Global Women'sWater Food and we.
You'll.
You can sign up for themailing list.
You can.
There's going to be ways foryou to volunteer.
There are opportunities tojoin us in the field.
Absolutely.
Donations are always welcome.
(45:24):
We train women across EastAfrica right now, but we are going
to be expanding into different regions.
So West Africa, SouthernAfrica and then hopefully hopefully
Asia next.
So we want to be able, nowthat we've proven this concept, we
want to be able to replicatethese everywhere.
Because the more women we haveas solutionaries who are out there
(45:46):
leading the charge, the moreour communities will thrive and the
better the economicopportunities as well as the economy
in their local community andthen just culture change.
I think one of the mostexciting pieces of where when women
(46:06):
are building things on like,you know, that preschool, for example,
or an elementary school or alocal facility, right.
When they're building theseand they're seeing Boys and girls
seeing women constructingthese things at their schools, they're
growing up understanding thatthis is going to be normal, that
(46:29):
this is normal.
To see women building tanks,to see women constructing things,
it's.
It's going to change theculture because they're.
We're normalizing it, and thenext generation is going to be like,
oh, yeah, women.
Women do that.
Oh, I can do that too.
Right.
We see girls saying, you know,saying to our.
To the women that we train, Iwant to be like you when I grow up.
(46:53):
And they're understanding thatthey can be.
They can do.
That's an option for them.
This is phenomenal.
Can people also go toglobalwomenswater.org because I see
that that's a website as well.
Yes, yes.
All those links will go.
Will be pointed there.
So global women's water.
And then, yeah, Global women'swater is the best way.
(47:13):
Oh, my goodness.
Gemma.
There's so many things we wantto talk to you about, Emmy, but you've
had us captivated about water.
Do you have some nuggets forwomen on how they can have some of
your wonderful inspiration?
I mean, you're phenomenal.
Oh, you're sweet.
You know, one of the thingsthat we did when we created this,
(47:34):
this space for women to learn,we told them the very beginning is,
you're going to fail.
We expect you to fail.
We want you to fail, especially.
I mean, how can you not?
You've never picked up a shovel.
You've never picked up a trowel.
You don't know anything about construction.
(47:56):
We need you to fail here soyou don't fail out there.
And so that's sometaphorically that to me is we need
to build women communities whoare allowing them that space to stumble
and learn and fail and besupported by it.
Because failure is data.
(48:18):
Failure is where we can learnthe most.
If you get something right thefirst time, you're not going to know
how it worked.
When you stumble and you fail,you are dissecting it and trying
to figure out what happened.
And so there's way morelearning there.
So creating spaces for womento fail because they can't.
Look at all these men who arelike crashing big companies, and
(48:38):
they get opportunities to doit again, and women can't do it.
They have one chance andthey're done.
We probably gain more strengthfrom our mistakes than we do our
victories, when you thinkabout it.
Indeed.
Yeah.
It improves us.
And that's the whole processof life.
A mistake is not a failure.
Yeah.
And you know, and if you don'taccomplish something, do it again.
(49:02):
Try, try, try again.
Right, Exactly.
And like I said, you know,mistakes and failure are data.
That's right.
Giving you information.
I love that.
Gemma, before we wrap this up,you have some sort of conference
coming up for World Water Day.
I believe it's called WomanWater warriors, which I think is
too cool.
It's a lot like the title ofour show.
(49:23):
Exactly when is that?
What's that all about?
Yeah, I'm going to be at theUN Women Commission on the Status
of Women.
It's an annual event on March21, which is the day before World
Water Day, will be hosting anonline event to share information
and things that we learn thereand our vision of and plans and future
(49:45):
for global women's Water andfood Academy.
And the event is called WomenWater Warriors.
I love it.
So we'd love for you to join us.
You can just go to thewebsite, sign up for the newsletter,
and we'll let you know how toget involved.
Terrific.
Another reason people need toget involved.
That's great, Gemma.
We would love to have you backjust to pick your brain.
(50:07):
I love your inspiration andyour whole perspective.
It's terrific.
You're a game changer for the world.
Oh, this is terrific.
I'm coming with you.
That's it.
Official.
Amazing.
Amazing.
Like I said, prepare to get dirty.
Oh, yeah.
We're gonna talk after this.
(50:29):
Thank you, Gemma.
You've shared some wisdom andsome information that I don't think
a lot of people are thinkingabout and hopefully gotten a lot
of people motivated wholistened to this interview.
Thank you so much.
It was a pleasure being here.
Thank you, Gemma.
We hope you've enjoyed thislatest episode.
And if you want to hear moreepisodes of Women Road warriors or
(50:49):
learn more about our show, besure to check out womenroadwarriors.com
and please follow us on social media.
And don't forget to subscribeto our podcast on our website.
We also have a selection ofpodcasts Just for Women.
They're a series of podcastsfrom different podcasters.
So if you're in the mood forwomen's podcasts, just click the
(51:09):
Power network tab onwomenroadwarriors.com youm'll have
a variety of shows to listento anytime you want to.
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Women Road warriors is on allthe major podcast channels like Apple,
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Check us out and please followus wherever you listen to podcasts.
Thanks for listening.
(51:33):
You've been listening to WomenRoad warriors with Shelly Johnson
and Kathy Tucaro.
If you want to be a guest onthe show or have a topic or feedback,
email us@sjohnsonomenroadwarriors.com.
This is Women Road warriorswith Shelly Johnson and Kathy Tucaro.
From the corporate office tothe cab of a truck, they're here
to inspire and empower womenin all professions.
So gear down, sit back and enjoy.
(00:23):
Welcome.
We're an award winning showtoday dedicated to empowering women
in every profession throughinspiring stories and expert insights.
No topics off limits.
On our show, we power women onthe road to success with expert and
celebrity interviews andinformation you need.
I'm Shelly and this is Kathy.
(00:45):
Break barriers, reinvent yourpath, and redefine what's possible.
Those are just some of themantras Gemma Boulos lives by.
She catalyzes leaders tomaster change and reinvent for future
readiness and thrive in anunpredictable world.
As an international speakerand entrepreneur who's gotten the
(01:05):
attention of world leaders,academics, and the United Nations,
Emma has made an impactworldwide in spearheading change.
She founded threeorganizations on three continents.
She's spoken alongside Nobelpeace laureates and world leaders,
and worked for global peace aswell as brought clean water and sanitation
to people in Asia and Africa.
(01:26):
She's the founding director ofthe Global Women's Water Initiative,
which has improved access towater and sanitation for over 500,000
people.
So far, that initiative putswomen at the center of water solutions,
empowering them and theirfamilies in areas where water projects
have failed.
Gemma has been the vanguard ofchange and a coach in many places.
(01:47):
At colleges, nonprofits, and corporations.
Gemma inspires all who hear her.
I especially liked one of herTED talks on how to accidentally
change the world.
We wanted to feature thisincredible dynamo for change on our
show who's empowering womenand everyone, welcome.
Gemma, thank you for beingwith us.
(02:07):
I'm thrilled to be here.
I love, love, love everythingyou guys are about.
Oh, thank you.
This is.
And vice versa.
Yes, absolutely.
Gemma, oh, my goodness.
Your insight and what you'redoing is incredible.
Your story is one that'sreally amazing too.
Your road to success has takenso many wonderful detours, and it
(02:30):
all began with a song that hadthe metaphor of water in it.
Water plays a powerful role inyour story.
Could you tell our listenershow all this evolved?
I think it's really kismet.
Did you envision the pathyou've taken and the impact you've
made?
You're a true woman.
Road warrior for change.
Amazing.
Well, thank you.
(02:50):
Yeah.
The story, you know, itdefinitely to me still feels like
an accidental path.
I was a preschool teacher anda professional jazz singer in New
York City.
And on Tuesday, September 11,I was supposed to be in The World
Trade center, going to teachmy preschool class.
When the first planes hit, thefirst plane hit and I called in sick,
(03:15):
it was a very selfish, selfishthing because I just didn't want
to go to work.
I.
I wasn't sick.
And so of course that daychanged my life.
Everybody in New York,everybody around the world.
And what I usually do aftersomething tragic happens, I usually
try and find something that isgoing to help me with my healing.
(03:37):
And as a singer, songwriter,it was obvious for me to write a
song.
And when I wrote this song, itjust sort of poured out of me.
It wasn't my normal.
It wasn't my normalsongwriting process.
It just felt like it.
I heard the song, I heard thechorus, I heard the choir, I heard
(04:00):
the bass and the drums and allthat stuff, and it just poured out,
it wrote itself and it was ina meditation that I was able to get
that song.
And also when I got, when thesong came through, I also was inspired
to build a million voice choiraround the world to sing it because
(04:23):
it was this really rousing anthem.
It's called We Rise.
And it's all about peoplecoming together and rising from tragedy.
And so what I ended up doing,I left my life, gave away all my
belongings, left my left rentcontrol apartment in New York City.
I took my.
Yes, you knew I was serious, right?
(04:44):
Yeah.
And so I took my backpack andmy guitar and I started traveling
around the world with whatlittle money I had to invite people
to be part of this globalpeace movement.
And the invitation was to.
For them to see themselves asthis powerful drop of water.
The metaphor was it takes asingle drop of water to start a wave.
(05:07):
And so what I asked them to dowas see themselves as this powerful
drop of water that everythought, that every word, their every
action ripples out and it doesimpact everyone and everything around
them.
And so to use their power for good.
And so that message, becauseof the water metaphor, all of a sudden
(05:29):
people started to think of meas this woman singing for water.
And I became known as thewater lady.
And one of the places I know,right, and one of the places I got
invited to sing was the UnitedNations Water for Life conference.
And from there, you know, Iwas here with this sort of.
I mean, I don't mean to beoffensive at all to hippie dippies,
(05:52):
but I had this hippie dippymessage of, oh, we're all powerful
drops of water and we can allchange the world.
And meanwhile, all theseexperts are talking about the global
water crisis and how, youknow, Over a billion people didn't
have access to water.
3 to 5 million people dying ofwater related disease every year.
And then the worst part andthe hardest part for me to sort of
(06:13):
absorb, aside from those otherreally tragic numbers, was that the
lack of water and sanitationdisproportionately affected women.
And because women are thecaretakers of their families, they're
the ones doing all the waterrelated chores.
So their relationship to wateris deep, deep yet.
(06:34):
And the kinds of challengesthey have is they have to walk far
distances to get water,sometimes up to eight hours a day.
When they are fetching waterand bringing them back home, they've
got these 42 pound jerry cansthat they're carrying along with
the dishes they just washedand the clothes they just washed
(06:54):
and their kids.
So it's just, it's crazy how,how badly it affects women, especially
because they are the waterbearers, because they carry the burden
of water on their heads andtheir shoulders and their backs.
Because girls get pulled intothat as well.
(07:17):
Girls will drop out by eighthgrade oftentimes because there are
no water and sanitationfacilities when they get their periods.
So drop out of school.
You mean drop out of school?
Yeah.
And so one out of ten at thetime it was one out of eight.
Sorry, one out of ten girlsdropped out of school because there
(07:41):
were no water and sanitation facilities.
They couldn't, you know, theycouldn't take care of themselves
when they had their periods.
So they'd either lose a weekor they'd completely drop out.
And so many of the women thatwe worked with didn't have an education
over eighth grade.
So I want to sort of pull usback to all these things that I learned
(08:03):
about the water crisis.
And I realized that mymetaphor turned into my cause all
of a sudden.
This metaphor of it takes asingle drop of water to start a wave.
Water became my.
That's what I wanted to do.
I just realized, gosh, there'sso much that can happen in a community,
to a family, to a girl, whenwater and sanitation, so many more
(08:27):
opportunities.
It can improve the economy, itcan improve health, it can improve
education for girls.
I mean, it can reduce the riskof violent attacks.
I mean, there's so many thingsthat just if you just had water,
all of these things can be notcompletely resolved, but they definitely
be mitigated and reduced.
(08:48):
And so after I learned that, Icontinued to travel around the world.
There was a day that weinvited people to sing We Rise from
all over the planet.
That's what that was.
The name of the song.
And it was September 21, 2004.
We just celebrated the 20thanniversary of it.
It was unprecedented, this movement.
(09:09):
Unprecedented.
No one had ever done it before.
I had.
There was no Facebook, noTwitter, no Instagram, no TikTok,
nothing.
There was no social media tobring people together.
It was just email.
And it still wasn't sort of widespread.
But what I did was I invitedpeople who used to come to my shows.
I used to perform across the nation.
(09:32):
And I just asked my fans,look, if I'm doing this, I'm inviting
people to sing this song.
If this feels any resonant toyou, just send it out and ask people
to do it.
By that time, by the timeSeptember 21st came around, we had
people singing from all overthe globe on every hour of the day.
Yeah.
(09:52):
Wow.
Over 100 cities in 60countries sang.
Jane Goodall introduced it,joined us.
Pete Seeger.
Amazing.
Yeah, it was.
We had, you know, I sang itwith Pete Seeger, invited me to his
house, and he made me homemadesoup and.
And bread.
And he told me that he sang WeRise every morning when he walked
(10:15):
up the side of his mountain.
And I was like, that's a huge honor.
I mean, he's a folk singer legend.
Legend, yeah.
Legend.
Peace.
Troubadour, like, so wellknown as that.
And he's was speaking to melike we were peers.
And I.
Oh, my God.
And then.
I know it was crazy.
And then Jane Goodall, I.
(10:35):
I was speaking.
I was going to be speaking andperforming at the Parliament of World
Religions, where all thesereligions come together and they
try and collectively figureout how to solve some of the, you
know, environmental and theworld problems, because a lot of
people don't trust theirgovernment leaders anymore, and so
they look to their faith.
(10:56):
And so I was going to singthere, and I saw Jane Goodall.
I hadn't met her yet.
I saw Jane Goodall's name onthe roster, and I was like, I need
to meet her.
So I.
I mustered up all of my.
All of my courage and I wentup to her and I said, jane, my name
is Gemma.
I'm such a big fan of yours.
And she's like, gemma, I'veheard all about you.
(11:18):
I'm like, you're Jane Goodall.
So what's funny is that weended up seeing each other on the,
you know, at many different conferences.
And so.
And that's, you know, one ofthe reasons why she was part of this
great event.
On September 21st, we were inNew York City when we sang it other
(11:39):
Cities sang it and selforganized themselves.
So anyway, after we built thatSeptember 21, 2004, that's when I
completely shifted gears,started to learn what water solutions
were happening in the world,what was working, what wasn't.
And then I found myself sortof stumbling upon some organizations
(12:01):
that were training people howto build really simple technologies
that could be replicatedaround the world using local materials
so it's affordable and accessible.
And after I learned that, Igot an award award from Queen Latifah
and CoverGirl for womenchanging the world through music.
And that was the seed grantthat helped me start my first organization
(12:23):
in the Philippines.
In the Philippines, excuse me.
And she, to this day, shedoesn't know how that rip.
That single drop of her moneygiving us.
Her giving us money rippledout and affected.
I mean you, you, you statedthat we affected over 500,000 people.
(12:44):
It's actually over a million now.
Oh, it's over a million?
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah.
Well over a million.
So, so what I did was I tookthat money, I brought some simple
technology to the Philippinesthat was.
Which is my country ofheritage that could clean water using
local materials.
And so we, it was the firsttime it was ever brought to that
(13:07):
to the country.
I started an organizationreally not knowing much about anything.
And then we started to get allthese awards because one of the reasons
why we were successful wasbecause we didn't just focus on the
technology, we focused onuplifting and upskilling the local
(13:30):
community so that they couldsolve their own water crises.
And that's the mostsustainable model.
And so we started to getreally great success there and recognition.
In fact, I won Best SocialEntrepreneur in the Philippines from
Ernst Young, Best SocialEntrepreneur in Asia at the World
(13:52):
Economic Forum, which is crazybecause, you know, that's where all
these world leaders come together.
And it was, you know, it wasjust this whirlwind again, totally
accidental life.
I've had these, you know, Iwent from being a preschool teacher
to building a global peacemovement and now bringing clean water
and sanitation to.
Oh my goodness, I know it's bananas.
(14:12):
And so finally after, after westarted the organization in the Philippines,
we were invited by the NobelPeace Laureate Wangari, Professor
Wangari Maathai.
She was the first Africanwoman to ever win the Nobel Peace
Prize.
And she was the first.
This is the most significant.
(14:32):
She was the first person whowas recognized for, for linking peace
with environment.
She was the one who planted amillion trees in Kenya.
And so she, yeah, she, wespoke with her.
She invited us to have Ourtraining at her facility.
She spoke to our women and westarted the women, the Global Women's
(14:56):
Water Initiative program there.
We've actually renamed it.
We're now Global Women's Waterand Food Academy.
We're doing that because we'reteaching women water and food solutions.
And they, we, they help buildtheir own hubs of water, sanitation
and food facilities in theirlocal community.
So there's somewhere thatpeople can learn how to grow and
(15:19):
increase yield in their, theirfarms also to bring clean water to
their communities.
And so that's kind of where it is.
I know that was sort of this,you know, epic story.
I tried to.
It is an epic story, really.
Wow.
It's true Destiny.
(15:39):
I mean, obviously you have themost wonderful purpose on this earth
and you're changing so many lives.
I really want to commend youfor everything you're doing.
I'll give you a hug.
Oh yeah, I would too.
I hope we get to meet eachother person day.
That would be terrific.
I'm in awe of you, Gemma.
(16:01):
If more people did this sortof thing, can you imagine what the
world would be like?
The ripple effect?
Yes, it would.
I, you know, because this, youknow, none of this stuff was done
alone.
Right.
I was just the spark, just thedrop, you know, the ripple stuff.
It requires, you know, all theother drops of water to, to join
(16:22):
you.
Right.
And so this is, this is a movement.
It's not, I mean the, the partof, the part that I think is really
what we're doing, aside frombringing clean water and sanitation.
The movement is about ensuringthat women who are the most affected
by water and sanitation arepart of the solution.
(16:43):
Oftentimes the Food andAgriculture Organization of the United
nations found in one of theirstudies that the failure of water
and sanitation projects is.
The high rate of failure ofthese failed water projects and water
and sanitation projects isbecause they don't include women.
(17:04):
And that because they're theones who are most affected by it.
So they, they know what theyneed, they know how it should be
built, they know how it'sgoing to make it easier.
And meanwhile all of these,other than women are, are coming
up with the solutions that arenot appropriate for them.
(17:25):
So I wanted to make sure thatthey were influential in these solutions
and not only influential, butleading them.
So you're overcoming the patriarchy.
Uh huh.
Oh my gosh.
Some of the stories that wehave about how men have started to.
Not even started to.
They're continuing to supportwomen, learn from them, help them,
(17:49):
mobilize with them.
Uplift them.
Oh, my gosh.
It's amazing.
The, the movement that we'reseeing is that these women, through
their water expertise, arebecoming leaders in their community.
We've seen women being invitedto their water boards.
We've seen women be electedto, you know, be part of the government
that makes these decisions.
(18:10):
We've seen women, you know,some of the women that we, because
I have some staff who are fromKenya and Uganda, they've been invited
to the most importantgatherings in the world.
Last year, one of ourteammates was invited to speak at
the United UN Women Commissionfor the Status of Women.
(18:31):
It's an annual event thathappens at the UN in New York.
Then all four of them andmyself were all invited to go to
COP28, which is the largest,you know, the largest climate change
conference where all worldleaders come together and try and
figure out how to solve aproblem, the climate crisis.
So, I mean, and they, some ofthem had never been on, you know,
(18:54):
before they were part of us.
They'd never been out of their countries.
They never would have imaginedthemselves being on these global
stages.
Stay tuned for more of WomenRoad warriors coming up.
Dean Michael, the tax doctor here.
(19:14):
I have one question for you.
Do you want to stop worryingabout the irs?
If the answer is yes, thenlook no further.
I've been around for years.
I've helped countless peopleacross the country, and my success
rate speaks for itself.
So now you know where to findgood, honest help with your tax problems.
What are you waiting for?
If you owe more than $10,000to the IRS or haven't filed in years,
(19:34):
call me now at 888-557-4020 orgo to mytaxhelpmd.com for a free
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Industry movement TruckingMoves America Forward is telling
the story of the industry.
Our safety champions, thewomen of trucking, independent contractors,
the next generation oftruckers, and more.
(19:55):
Help us promote the best ofour industry.
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Share images of a momentyou're proud of and join us on social
media.
Learn more@truckingmovesamerica.com.
Welcome.
Welcome back to Women Roadwarriors with Shelly Johnson and
(20:17):
Kathy Tucaro.
If you're enjoying thisinformative episode of Women Road
Warriors, I wanted to mentionKathy and I explore all kinds of
topics that will power you onthe road to success.
We feature a lot of expertinterviews, plus we feature celebrities
and women who've been trailblazers.
Please check out ourpodcast@womenroadwarriors.com and
(20:40):
click on our Episodes page.
We're also available whereveryou listen to podcasts on all the
major podcast channels likeSpotify, Apple, YouTube, Amazon,
Music, Audible, you name it.
Check us out and bookmark our podcast.
Also, don't forget to followus on social media.
We're on Twitter, Facebook,Instagram, Pinterest, LinkedIn, YouTube
(21:00):
and other sites and tellothers about us.
We want to help as many womenas possible the song We Rise by Gemma
Boulos, which has a metaphorof water that said it takes a single
drop of water to start a wave,changed everything for Gemma.
That metaphor became her purpose.
Without her even realizing it,she became known as the Water lady
(21:21):
and was invited to the UnitedNations Water for Life Conference.
That one song changed thecourse of her history as well as
that of many people around the world.
She built a million voicechoir singing that song 24 hours
a day and a global peacemovement that was intoxicating.
The song and its message eveninspired folk legend and peace troubadour
(21:41):
Pete Seeger, who sang the songevery day.
A grant from Queen Latifah andCover girl for Women Changing the
world through Music was theseed money that Gemma needed to help
stop the global water crisisand motivate people for change.
She's spoken alongside NobelPeace Laureates and world leaders
and worked for global peace aswell as bringing clean water and
(22:02):
sanitation projects to peoplein Asia and Africa.
She's the founding director ofthe Global Women's Water Initiative,
now known as Global Women'sWater and Food Academy, which has
improved access to water andsanitation and food for over 1 million
people.
It makes women the center ofthe solution.
It's empowered women who arethe primary caretakers and carriers
(22:22):
of water, which is a laboriousprocess that takes hours.
By uplifting and upskillingthe community to solve their own
water crisis, this hasliberated women.
Gemma's work ensures thatwomen who are the most affected by
water and sanitation are partof the solution and become masters
of their own destiny.
With Gemma's work, women areempowered and so are their families.
(22:45):
The women, through their waterexpertise, are also becoming leaders
in their communities andspeaking on the global stage.
Gemma's ripple effect hastruly been miraculous.
Gemma, you've created a tidalwave of empowerment for women.
You know, you really have.
It's more than a ripple.
It's amazing what these womenhave done.
Like I was homeless for a weekand during that week is back in 2011.
(23:09):
That's when I realizedrealized the the importance of water
or the Lack of it, becausethese homeless people, just businesses
don't want to give them waterbecause then, you know, you get a
whole collection.
It's like, it's a thing, right?
It's very hard to get water.
So once I got my job, Istarted Operation Hydration and is
(23:31):
shocking to see in every citythat I go to on the hottest days
of the year, I load upwhatever vehicle or whatever rental
vehicle I have with, with icecold water and, and you know, just
tons.
And I, and I go around thealleys and I put a big sticker, you
know, like free water.
The lineups of people that areracing for water.
(23:52):
It is unbelievable to me.
And here's the interestingthing, is that when I look at the
difference between the womenand the men coming for the water,
you can see that the women arealmost creating, they're thinking
ahead, okay, well, I need thisfor that and this for that.
And so they're filling uptheir containers, their cups, going
(24:14):
to find dishes.
They are asking me if theycould keep my cooler when I'm done.
It's really interesting to see.
And I mean, what I'm doing isjust very small in grand scheme of
things.
But I make sure that I do itin every single city that I go to
and I try and hope that otherpeople will continue with what I
do.
So, yeah, I see the need andthank you for everything that you
(24:37):
do.
Oh my gosh, that's absolutely wonderful.
Because you don't.
I mean, we don't.
We can turn on the tap andturn it off when we want.
Right.
We don't think about it.
You don't think about it at all.
The amount of water that isused to flush a toilet is sometimes
more water than people havearound the world.
(24:58):
Just a flushy toilet.
Imagine how many times you'reflushing the toilet.
And you know, when some peoplewho've never really known about toilets
that flush, they're like, youuse water, clean water to flush your,
your waist, you know, and, andthey're barely getting enough water
just to drink.
(25:19):
So, yeah, it's, it's kind of,it's astounding.
And it's so, and I don't thinkpeople see really the depth and how
many tentacles the water touches.
You know, I mean, just, Imean, one of the statistics that
really, really disturbs me wasthat when women and girls have to
(25:41):
walk distances to fetch water,you know, off, it's, you know, it's
not a road.
They're going to have easy,easy, you know, ways to walk it.
It's this rugged road,sometimes it's uphill, sometimes
it's downhill.
But in doing that, they're atrisk for violent attacks and even
rape.
That's right, yeah.
Yeah.
(26:02):
I mean, some girls in schools,there are high rates of pregnancy
pregnancies.
Because when they are the oneswho have to fet the schools, they,
there are, there areincidences of them getting pregnant.
Predators.
Oh, yeah, yeah.
Being attacked.
Oh, it's terrible.
Terrible.
It's awful.
I mean, and you wouldn't, youwould not connect those two.
(26:24):
You wouldn't think, oh, theydon't have water and oops, there's,
you know, there's some sexualpredators out there attacking our
young girls and women.
Right.
You know, and water has becomea political issue and a power issue.
I've heard the term water isthe new oil.
And you have organizationstrying to take control of it, too.
(26:48):
Yeah.
Potable water is scarce acrossthe world.
People don't think about that.
And it's a power struggle.
And if you deny people water,they can't be empowered.
It's terrible.
It's very terrible.
Yeah.
And so this has been happeningfor decades.
You know, there are water corporations.
There are actually.
(27:09):
No, they're organizations.
So what ended up happening isthat many water facilities, many,
if there are any, and thenplaces where there's no access to
it.
When developing countries getloans, international loans for, you
(27:30):
know, to develop.
Right.
They will.
Oftentimes there's a clause inthere that says, you know, we'll
give you the loan if you giveus ownership of your water.
And so they put contractorsout there and they sell it to like,
the Pepsis and the, you know,these, these multinational corporations.
(27:51):
And so then they own it.
They are the ones who aresupposed to be maintaining it and
refreshing it and revitalizing it.
And then they are the ones whomake the money from it so it becomes
privatized.
And that's one of the biggestchallenges is because these developing
countries have no choice butto do that.
And oftentimes they see it asan opportunity rather than in the
(28:14):
long run, it's going tocompletely get them, you know, put
the organizations, thefinancial institutions, the companies,
the international companies incontrol of their most valuable resource.
Yeah, it's really, it's.
And it's even happening herein the United States.
(28:35):
Oh, yeah, I was going tomention that.
Yeah.
Water rights are a big deal inareas of the U.S.
yeah.
So I'm going to give you anexample of two different times.
Communities actually protestedand tried to stop these multinationals
for coming in.
So There were two scenarios.
There is one in there.
(28:57):
It was a town somewhere inthe, on the east coast in the United
States.
They were trying to get CocaCola because Coca Cola was going
to come in and privatize their water.
They were trying to, they weretrying to get them out so that the,
the, the, the water couldstill be a public trust.
Then there was anothercommunity in Kerala, India, in the
(29:19):
southern part of India thatwas doing the same thing with Coca
Cola, trying to make sure thatthey didn't take their water rights.
Who do you think?
The.
One of them failed and one ofthem did not fail.
Who do you think failed?
I don't know.
The United States.
Oh, really?
Yes.
Okay.
I know they failed.
I wonder what pockets werelined with that, you know.
(29:41):
You know, you got to imagine.
I mean, look at even whathappened with Flint.
Oh my God, the Flint water.
Yeah.
Oh, yeah.
Astoundingly like it was, itwas the.
I mean, it just tells youthat's, that's the road we can be
going down if we still, wecontinue to allow, you know, no government
(30:03):
regulation for corporationscontaminating our water.
I mean, that's, that really isthe, is the crux of it.
And it's so hard for, youknow, for, for communities to protest
it.
Look at the, the, you know,that this happened like over a decade
ago when this, this town lostits rights.
(30:23):
The one in Kerala, they foundsome sort of ancient, you know, law
loophole that actually said noInternet, you know, nobody can come
in and take their water rights.
And so they, they actually wonagainst Coca Cola, the biggest, you
know, one of the biggestmultinational corporations in the
world.
Well, you know, and it makessense you'd want to maintain your
(30:44):
water rights.
That's national security.
That's what you mean.
Absolutely.
Without water, we cannot survive.
Oh yeah.
Without, you know, if, and,and if it needs to be safe, we, I
mean, you know, that's thewhole thing around the work that
we do in sub Saharan Africaand Asia.
(31:04):
It's like, sure, you can haveaccess to water, but does that doesn't
mean it's safe.
So.
And if you have, if yourwater's not safe, then sanitation
is not there either.
Because sanitation isenvironmental cleanliness.
And then if you don't haveclean water, then you can't really
(31:25):
take care of yourself.
Then hygiene is all connected.
So the term wash water,sanitation and hygiene, that's what
we refer to in our developmentworld or at least in our sector,
because you cannot just put awell into a community and think it's
gonna Solve everything becausethat, you know, you need to have
(31:46):
access to water, that waterneeds to be safe.
And if, if you don't haveaccess to water and it's not safe,
then you're at risk of waterrelated disease.
If you have safe water but youdon't have good sanitation, your
water can get contaminated,you know, there's definitely risk
of disease again.
And then if you havesanitation but you don't have good
(32:07):
hygiene and you're not takingcare of yourself, there's a risk
of, of getting a water related disease.
So, you know, they're all connected.
You cannot address a problemwith a well.
Then that's what we train thewomen to do.
We train them to be able tosolve all three of those four of
those issues.
Water access, water safewater, sanitation and hygiene.
(32:33):
They learn how to build watertanks and they're learning how to
build spring development boxes.
They are.
They know how to build waterfilters, they know how to build latrines,
and they know how to, theytrain even like the US Peace Corps
how to train their communitiesthat they're in how to practice good
(32:57):
hygiene practices.
So they have to do it all.
Which is why I call, that'swhy we talk about it as hubs of expertise.
Because you can't just solvethis problem with the.
Well.
Yes.
So yeah, it's, it's.
And so the, our women know howto do all of it.
And they can make thesematerial, they can make all of these
(33:18):
technologies with local materials.
And they are simple enough andwe train them simply enough so they
can do it in, you know, sothey can do it.
And they've never, andmeanwhile they've never picked up
a shovel before, never pickedup a trowel before, never laid a
brick, never mixed foot cement.
Now they're like climbingladders which used to be forbidden
(33:39):
for women to even get on oneof those.
Oh really?
Climbing ladders?
Oh, yeah.
Climbing water?
Yeah, climbing it was, youknow, it was taboo in these communities.
And then what I love aboutwater is that it's, it's a mobilizing
force.
You know, you can, the thingis, when you bring clean water, there's,
(34:00):
there's total agreementamongst the entire community.
Yeah, we need it.
So it doesn't matter who'sbringing it, but we need it.
And so when these women areleading these, these projects, it's
so amazing, like I said, tosee some of these, you know, men
support them in the entire community.
Can I tell you a story aboutone of the things, and this is not
(34:22):
about water, but this is abouthygiene, but it's okay.
So there was a community thatwe were working in in Kenya, a very
small village.
And our women were building arainwater harvesting system and a
tank on this preschool.
(34:43):
And that's usually a good timewhen something big is happening in
the community to be able toinvite them to gather.
And so the invitation from ourfacilitators, from one of my staff
members, was, if you want toimprove your community, come to this
meeting.
And so what they did was, youknow, that went out to the preschool
(35:05):
students, that went out to the families.
And then people who showed up,the first thing they saw were women
climbing ladders and buildinga tank.
And so already their mindsgoing, what's going on?
What are we doing here?
They get into this room,there's probably about 50 of them.
And you know, my colleague,she process.
(35:27):
She moves them through,facilitates them through this process
where she asked them, if you were.
If God were to give you thechoice, you could only have one child,
what would it be?
A man, a girl or a boy?
And so it was an anonymousthing everybody wrote down.
And then when we looked at the.
At the little sheets, it was,you know, of course, not unanimous,
(35:51):
but the majority was met alittle boy.
Right.
And so she then led themthrough a process of, okay, let's
look at what men do, and thenlet's look at what women do.
And say they listed the men's first.
It was, you know, it was agood list.
But when they listed all thethings that women do, it was like
three times as long.
Right?
And so the revelation thatthey had, that this community had
(36:12):
was like, oh, my goodness,what we need.
And look at all the.
What women are doing.
What we need to do to improveour communities is to empower our
women.
That's what they came out with.
We didn't say, hey, you guysneed to do this, right?
This is what they came outwith after going through this process.
So what did they do after that?
What is preventing them fromdoing this work, you know, doing
(36:35):
being uplifted and productive?
And then they realized part ofit was women and girls having their
periods because they were, youknow, there were a lot of temp.
There were a lot ofsuperstitions around it.
There were, you know, therewas no access to the right materials
for women to deal with it.
They'd have to stay home, andthe girls would have to stay.
(36:56):
Stay home.
And so what they realize isthat's the thing they have to solve
in order for them to startsupporting women.
And so what did they do after that?
In that same session, theystarted making reusable menstrual
pads.
And because we have the all,we were definitely leading them that
(37:16):
way, but that we wanted themto come to it on their own.
And I think what was the moststunning act of love that I've ever
seen were these men sewing these.
These reusable menstrual padsfor their wives and daughters.
Wow.
Wow.
Yeah.
Wow.
Yeah.
Yeah.
We.
We called the project, youknow, we put the men in menstruation.
(37:42):
I love it.
You know what I love more is.
The fact that you called it anact of love, because that's exactly
what it is.
Yeah.
It really is such a radicalact of love.
They really challenged themselves.
You know, it shifted their mindset.
It did.
Oh, it's huge.
And it's taking the stigma offof things.
Yes.
I want to come with you onyour next project.
(38:03):
My God.
Yeah.
I would love to talk aboutthat work.
Probably going to be there in September.
And, you know, expect to getdirty because we're building.
You know what I do for a living.
Right.
I get dirty.
So we're good.
Excellent, Excellent.
Kathy has a big sandbox.
I play in the mud all the.
(38:24):
Time, so I'm good.
I love that.
Stay tuned for more of WomenRoad warriors coming up.
Dean Michael, the tax doctor here.
I have one question for you.
Do you want to stop worryingabout the irs?
If the answer is yes, thenlook no further.
(38:45):
I've been around for years.
I've helped countless peopleacross the country, and my success
rate speaks for itself.
So now you know where to findgood, honest help with your tax problems.
What are you waiting for?
If you owe more than $10,000to the IRS or haven't filed in years,
call me now at 888-557-4020 orgo to mytaxhelpmd.com for a free
consultation and get your life back.
(39:08):
Industry movement Truckingmoves America Forward is telling
the story of the industry.
Our safety champions, thewomen of trucking, independent contractors,
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(39:29):
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Welcome back to Women Roadwarriors with Shelly Johnson and
Kathy Tucaro.
Every single action you havehas a ripple effect.
(39:50):
Every word and every actionripples out.
And it does have an impact oneveryone around you.
So you need to use your powerfor good.
That message has resonatedwith millions of women who've encountered
Gemma Boulos in her speakingengagements or with her nonprofit,
the Global Women's WaterInitiative, now known as Global Women's
Water and Food Academy.
(40:11):
It's improved access to waterand sanitation and food to over 1
million people in Asia and Africa.
That's empowered women whohave to walk miles to fetch water
every day.
Gemma is a true champion who'smaking history and changing the trajectory
for women and their futuresurvival and success.
Her efforts with water are amobilizing force, leveling the playing
(40:34):
field and empowering entirecommunities and especially women.
Gemma, you really are amazingwith everything you've accomplished.
Can I tell you one more storythat is just.
Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
Okay.
Like I said, I didn't want toramble in the beginning.
Oh, you've got great stories.
So they're one of the womenthat we trained, she was a.
(40:56):
She was a nurse and she usedto work at a dispensary.
So just to be clear, there arethree levels of health facilities
and villages.
There's the dispensary,there's the clinic, and then there's
the teaching clinic.
So the dispensary is justwhere you can get some treatment
(41:17):
and they distribute somemedicines and other things, but they
are only open a certain amountof time.
In order for them to bepromoted to a clinic, they have to
have water on site 24 7.
And some health facilitatorneeds to be living on, you know,
(41:38):
around it.
And then to become, to bepromoted to the top one, they have
to be a functioning, afunctioning, you know, facility.
And they also need to have.
Oh, I'll, I'll tell this partlater because it's the, it's the
surprise part of this, this story.
So she was working at a, at adispensary, this nurse, and she brought
(42:05):
clean water.
They built two water andsanitation water tanks.
They built toilets, and theymade water filters so that this facility
had everything it needed to beable to function.
Because before they builtthose tanks and all those other projects,
(42:28):
if, if somebody came in thatrequired water for the treatment,
if a patient came in and theyrequired water to treat them, they
would have to walk four hoursback and forth.
So one way.
So it was eight hours going toget water so that they could treat
them.
(42:49):
Bringing the water right onthe campus was game changing.
And so once some of thecommunity members started to hear
that there was water there,the very first couple, a man who
had heard there was water,brought his pregnant wife to give
birth there.
Meanwhile, you know, there wasa lot of issues of, of women not,
(43:13):
you know, there, there, therewas mortality around women birthing
outside of a medical facility facility.
And so because they had water,there's first woman came, she had
her baby there.
And then more and more womenstarted to come.
And because of that, theKenyan government gives money for,
for every live birth.
And so they started to getmoney in.
(43:34):
AMREF came in and started togive them money.
They were able not only to, tostart giving, you know, giving birthing
services, but they there werethen able to build a maternal health
center.
Oh wow.
And yeah.
And then because they, theywon the regional, most the best,
(43:56):
I think it was called the bestorganized or best run facility.
And then they became ateaching, a teaching clinic.
And then the woman who, thenurse who brought it in the first
place, they pulled her andput, and actually brought her to
a nurse, another dispensary.
(44:18):
And she did the same thing.
And she did the same thingagain after that.
And so one of our goals asGlobal Women's Water and Food Academy
is to be able to replicatethat across Africa.
The minute you have healthfacilities local that can provide
the best services withouthaving to go to a big city for, you
(44:41):
know, to go to a big hospital,that's when we start seeing major
change in communities.
How do people get involvedwith the Global Women's Water and
Food Academy?
Because I'm sure you need moreand more help to keep this ripple,
this tidal wave going.
Yeah.
The best way to get involvedwith Global Women's Water and Food
(45:03):
Academy is to go to our website.
Our website is Global Women'sWater Food and we.
You'll.
You can sign up for themailing list.
You can.
There's going to be ways foryou to volunteer.
There are opportunities tojoin us in the field.
Absolutely.
Donations are always welcome.
(45:24):
We train women across EastAfrica right now, but we are going
to be expanding into different regions.
So West Africa, SouthernAfrica and then hopefully hopefully
Asia next.
So we want to be able, nowthat we've proven this concept, we
want to be able to replicatethese everywhere.
Because the more women we haveas solutionaries who are out there
(45:46):
leading the charge, the moreour communities will thrive and the
better the economicopportunities as well as the economy
in their local community andthen just culture change.
I think one of the mostexciting pieces of where when women
(46:06):
are building things on like,you know, that preschool, for example,
or an elementary school or alocal facility, right.
When they're building theseand they're seeing Boys and girls
seeing women constructingthese things at their schools, they're
growing up understanding thatthis is going to be normal, that
(46:29):
this is normal.
To see women building tanks,to see women constructing things,
it's.
It's going to change theculture because they're.
We're normalizing it, and thenext generation is going to be like,
oh, yeah, women.
Women do that.
Oh, I can do that too.
Right.
We see girls saying, you know,saying to our.
To the women that we train, Iwant to be like you when I grow up.
(46:53):
And they're understanding thatthey can be.
They can do.
That's an option for them.
This is phenomenal.
Can people also go toglobalwomenswater.org because I see
that that's a website as well.
Yes, yes.
All those links will go.
Will be pointed there.
So global women's water.
And then, yeah, Global women'swater is the best way.
(47:13):
Oh, my goodness.
Gemma.
There's so many things we wantto talk to you about, Emmy, but you've
had us captivated about water.
Do you have some nuggets forwomen on how they can have some of
your wonderful inspiration?
I mean, you're phenomenal.
Oh, you're sweet.
You know, one of the thingsthat we did when we created this,
(47:34):
this space for women to learn,we told them the very beginning is,
you're going to fail.
We expect you to fail.
We want you to fail, especially.
I mean, how can you not?
You've never picked up a shovel.
You've never picked up a trowel.
You don't know anything about construction.
(47:56):
We need you to fail here soyou don't fail out there.
And so that's sometaphorically that to me is we need
to build women communities whoare allowing them that space to stumble
and learn and fail and besupported by it.
Because failure is data.
(48:18):
Failure is where we can learnthe most.
If you get something right thefirst time, you're not going to know
how it worked.
When you stumble and you fail,you are dissecting it and trying
to figure out what happened.
And so there's way morelearning there.
So creating spaces for womento fail because they can't.
Look at all these men who arelike crashing big companies, and
(48:38):
they get opportunities to doit again, and women can't do it.
They have one chance andthey're done.
We probably gain more strengthfrom our mistakes than we do our
victories, when you thinkabout it.
Indeed.
Yeah.
It improves us.
And that's the whole processof life.
A mistake is not a failure.
Yeah.
And you know, and if you don'taccomplish something, do it again.
(49:02):
Try, try, try again.
Right, Exactly.
And like I said, you know,mistakes and failure are data.
That's right.
Giving you information.
I love that.
Gemma, before we wrap this up,you have some sort of conference
coming up for World Water Day.
I believe it's called WomanWater warriors, which I think is
too cool.
It's a lot like the title ofour show.
(49:23):
Exactly when is that?
What's that all about?
Yeah, I'm going to be at theUN Women Commission on the Status
of Women.
It's an annual event on March21, which is the day before World
Water Day, will be hosting anonline event to share information
and things that we learn thereand our vision of and plans and future
(49:45):
for global women's Water andfood Academy.
And the event is called WomenWater Warriors.
I love it.
So we'd love for you to join us.
You can just go to thewebsite, sign up for the newsletter,
and we'll let you know how toget involved.
Terrific.
Another reason people need toget involved.
That's great, Gemma.
We would love to have you backjust to pick your brain.
(50:07):
I love your inspiration andyour whole perspective.
It's terrific.
You're a game changer for the world.
Oh, this is terrific.
I'm coming with you.
That's it.
Official.
Amazing.
Amazing.
Like I said, prepare to get dirty.
Oh, yeah.
We're gonna talk after this.
(50:29):
Thank you, Gemma.
You've shared some wisdom andsome information that I don't think
a lot of people are thinkingabout and hopefully gotten a lot
of people motivated wholistened to this interview.
Thank you so much.
It was a pleasure being here.
Thank you, Gemma.
We hope you've enjoyed thislatest episode.
And if you want to hear moreepisodes of Women Road warriors or
(50:49):
learn more about our show, besure to check out womenroadwarriors.com
and please follow us on social media.
And don't forget to subscribeto our podcast on our website.
We also have a selection ofpodcasts Just for Women.
They're a series of podcastsfrom different podcasters.
So if you're in the mood forwomen's podcasts, just click the
(51:09):
Power network tab onwomenroadwarriors.com youm'll have
a variety of shows to listento anytime you want to.
Podcasts Made for Women.
Women Road warriors is on allthe major podcast channels like Apple,
Spotify, Amazon, Audible,YouTube and others.
Check us out and please followus wherever you listen to podcasts.
Thanks for listening.
(51:33):
You've been listening to WomenRoad warriors with Shelly Johnson
and Kathy Tucaro.
If you want to be a guest onthe show or have a topic or feedback,
email us@sjohnsonomenroadwarriors.com.
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