Disability World with Norma Stanley ft Annie Obisih

Disability World with Norma Stanley welcomes Annie Obasih, owner of Annie's Gourmet Syrup

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Hi, my name is Norma Stanleyand welcome to Disability World. Hello,

(00:36):
and welcome to Disability World, wherewe discussed various topics of interest for and
about the disability community with individuals andleaders, advocates, business people in business,
education, entertainment, politics, sports, music, and more. I'm
your host, Normous Stanley, andtoday we have a very interesting guest of

(00:58):
miss Annie Obas, who is goingto share some information. She's an entrepreneur,
she is someone with disabilities, she'sa very passionate disability advocate, and
she's gonna share some great information aboutsome of the new things she's doing in
this season of her life. Solet's talk to miss Annie Ebissy. Hello,

(01:23):
Hello, how are you doing today? Oh? I'm doing great?
How are you great? Thank youso thank you for being on this Disability
World today. Tell us a littlebit about yourself. I understand that you
are. You know, you're anentrepreneur, you have a nonprofit, you
do a lot of different things.Tell us a little bit about what you're
doing these days, and then we'llgo into the new thing that you're doing.

(01:45):
Okay, what are you doing thesedays? Is I am right now?
I'm working with my daughter own asmall business we started back in twenty
eighteen and it's called Annie Star MaySyrup. Now, the business started by
accident. My daughter learned that Iknew had a recipe that was handed down

(02:07):
from my mother and that I knewhow to make syrup. So she came
up with the idea of flavoring thesyrup called mine was just plain, you
know, sir. So she yeah, she discovered that I knew how to
make the syrup, so she cameup with these different flavors with natural fruit

(02:29):
flavors. So we so we puttogether the syrup with the flavors with the
natural flavors. The four flavors wecame up with was lemon, mint,
pineapple, and halapino honey. Sosince then we've been you know, we

(02:52):
tested the product on our family andfriends and found out that it was a
good product, and we expanded forthat and registered with the state of Georgia.
So after that we expanded what startedgoing to marketing and at this point
we are in one local store,Savananda here in Atlanta, and we're also

(03:14):
on Amazon Prime and we also sailwith planning to start back going to Decatur
market on oh I think around thetwenty fifth of this month. So you
are your business woman and your backgroundis in social science, but you also

(03:39):
involved in disability community. Let's talka little bit about what you do in
that space with going to the disabilitycommunity. Because you also have a disability,
tell us a little bit about that. Okay, Well, the disability
that I have is called I'm visuallyimpaired. For right now, I'm to
the point at my age I'm lowvision and has gotten word. I have

(04:02):
what they call RP written otage pigmatosa and I was diagnosed at an early
age around I think I was abouttwenty six years old, and since then
I have I you know, whenI realized that I was was disabled,

(04:23):
I had two children that I hadto take care of. So I went
back went back to school and gotmy high school diploma and gotten my master's
and bachelors and the social science degreeand social policy. I have a master's,
master's degree in UH social work andassociated degree in human services and my

(04:49):
master's degree is in UH social policy. Was there particularly busy you went to
that field after having your children.Yeah, at that time I was interested
in work. I was already workingwith people with disabilities. At the time,
I was living in the State ofNew York and I was working for

(05:11):
the State of New York Disability calledDSO. So I was already working in
that field, so I thought thatwould be the feel that I would go
into. So that's where I started. I wanted to get into social work.
So once I got my master's degree, I decided to start working at

(05:35):
a nonprofit organization called can't even rememberthe name of the Yeah, ARCA,
Monroe County, that's where it worked. Yeah, okay, when New York
is supposed to have some really goodprograms for people with disabilities, more of

(05:55):
the better cities for disabilities, youknow, New York Central, New York
City. I'm not sure about thestate, but New York City. Yeah,
the whole Yeah, the whole statedid. Because I was in Rochester,
New York. Okay, yeah,so they did have they had non

(06:17):
profits, they had the State ofNew York. I started out on in
twenty nineteen seventy six. Second,no, not seventy six, This was
seventy six. I started out innineteen seventy sixth So after that, I
think two thousand, nineteen eighty,nineteen eighty six day branched out and started

(06:43):
like the community homes, like theliving homes for people with disability. Have
you seen the movie Have you seenthe movie Crippamp, Crippamp, crip Camp.
It was it was filmed in NewYork. Also Judy Human, who
was someone who is internationally known tothe kind of revolutionary person. She passed

(07:09):
on. She passed on actually lastyear in December. But she and the
group of people who were teenagers backin the early seventies, they were part
of the whole thing, the wholeprogram that got the ad A okay,

(07:29):
oh yeah, I remember that.Yeah, they did a whole it was
like a protest in California. Butwhen clip Camp was was filmed, it
was actually filmed when they were teenagers. And the guy who is the director
of the movie this is it's onNetflix now so check it out. It's

(07:50):
called Crip Camp. And the guywho was the director, he was a
teenager at attending the camp. AndJudy Human was one of the counselors.
She was, you know, touse need her late teens at the time
that she was one of the councilors. And it just showed people with disabilities
who were just teenagers who were attendinga camp and having a great time and
just being typical teenagers. That wasback then, you know, because this

(08:13):
was in the you know, likeI said, the seventies, there weren't
that many places that people with disabilitiesand wheelchairs and different things could go.
This picular camp was one of theplaces that they that they were able to
go to a camp. Trying tothink of the name of the camp,
Jeanette Camp Jeanette. And so thefilm that they took back in the teenagers,

(08:35):
they they were able to find andthey put into a documentary that actually
the Obamas were the ones who madethat that film possible through their production company.
So it's definitely check it out ifyou have it. It's a powerful
movie. But all those people whointo adults who became disability community advocates and
activists, and it's powerful some ofthe things that you see about how the

(09:01):
rights of people disabilities came to startto be included, you know, from
a government standpoint in terms of becauseof it, she takes a lot of
challenges. She wanted to become ateacher, she had a degree, but
they didn't want her to become ateacher because of her disability. She had
to fight through her whole life prettymuch, but she became a big advocate
for the community. So she's passedon now, but she did some amazing

(09:24):
work globally. She was actually doingsome work with President Obama and President Biden,
you know, with one of thepresidents, but pretty much those two
with regards to making improvements for thecommunity. So you know, she's definitely
gonna be missed. Yeah, butbut yeah, yeah, well, as

(09:46):
you know, the reason I havethe show is so that we can share
information about people in the community doingsome amazing things that you don't did to
get to hear about right as oftenas I would like to see people talk
about. So I try to takean opportunity to share information about people like
yourself, who you know, whoare doing things in the community to help

(10:07):
make a difference, a positive difference. And as a as a business owner,
so that's such a big area employmentfor people with disabilities. So you're
creating your own space with your daughter, So that's that's the thing. And
so so tell us about you're startingto tell us about the the syrups something
like you said there were four flavorsand it's called sir. Yeah, mm,

(10:33):
hmm. So here is uh oneof the products that we yeah,
one of the products we created.What we do for we do for uh
four different also the bottle size ofbottle. Yeah, yeah, we do

(10:54):
twelve hours, uh and eight hoursright now. Uh. We're also working
on a what is it vanilla beanflavor and that one would be a sixteen
out that should be good. Yeah, I want to try you. I
know I didn't get chance to tasteit before we do the show, but

(11:16):
I mean the jalapeno honey sounds interesting. I love spicy. Yeah, what's
wonderful interesting? Yeah, what's wonderfulabout the hilipino and the lemon. But
we pretty much put not only it'snot just only for breakfast food, it's
for marinated meat. Oh yeah.We've had some people, some of our

(11:39):
customers say that they put it ontheir cakes. We myself and my daughter
puts the flavors in our oat meallook out of cereals. So it gives
kind of like a good flavor tothat. And the the ingredients we have
is all natural room it's not outofficial flavor or additives. We only have

(12:03):
three flavors on that you can readit. You don't get all this other
stuff that you can't even pronounce onmine, right, And that's so important
today because you know, we reallydon't know what's in our food these days.
I mean you just don't and andand so this day, if it's
just just a couple of different productsthat you can actually pronounce, like you
say, that's a good Yeah.Not only that is homemade. Ye know,

(12:28):
we produce it ourself, so youcan you can trust that whatever I'm
gonna say, Oh yeah, yeah, like I said, we we you
know, we produce it ourself.And it's non additive, you know,
non additive, and like I said, it's natural flavor like and you know,

(12:54):
you can marinate it on your meat, you can put it in your
cereal, you can put it andyou're on your cakes or ice cream,
especially with a mint flavor. Nowthe jalapino honey. People normally use that
on their marinated meats. Mostly enjoybarbecue or something like that. That should

(13:15):
be interesting it really I love iton my my fish like the Simons.
When you're yeah, so you're youknow, as they say, women of
a certain age, so going intobusiness, I mean you've always been kind

(13:37):
of something someone of a business owner. But is this something that is part
of a new chapter for you oris this something that you've been wanting to
do in terms of going into Actually, like I said, it was an
accident. I wasn't even thinking abouta business. And my daughter was kind
of like the created one on thatone, and she's like, yeah,

(13:58):
can you do this? Like,I don't know, I'll try it.
So, you know, I puton my creative had and got in the
kitten and came up with the uhwas able to in fruit infuse the flavors
like the real woman, the realh pineapple and the Kalipino honey in the

(14:22):
you know, in the real mint. We were used the natural mint.
How long did it take you tocome up with the flavors? I mean,
did you go through a whole abunch of different batches before you came
up with the right flavors? No? Actually, I just remembered, you
know, how my mom used toextract you know, different flavors from fruits

(14:45):
when she was you know, doingher when we was on the farm.
Couse, I grew up in Mississippiand mostly everything was done by farmers and
was going sharecroppers farm, so everythingwas done you know, you grew your
your guardian and you kind of producedyour food, so you became creative with

(15:07):
turn whatever you grew into a greatmeal. You know. Yeah that too,
but that it need to anyway.Yeah. Yeah. So I just
got in and kind of put rememberthose things and put it together. It
took a while. I think ittook me about, oh it's about seven

(15:30):
to eight or nine o'clock that eveningto get it all together and figure out
how how to you know, toextract. Basically, you did it in
a day? Yes, did allthe flavors in a day? Or did
you do a flavor a day?How many? It was a day?
Actually it was an evening for aboutfour or five hours. Because my daughter

(15:52):
asked me how long did it takeyou? And I was like, let
me talk about four hours? Yeah, to do all the flavors or one
flavor. I think I did becauseshe went out and walked the pineapple,
the lemons, the man, andthe jalipinos. So I did to all
four flavors in the flour to fivehours. That's pretty cool. Yeah yeah,

(16:18):
okay, so is this something likeyou say it's all natural? You
know, I know my daughter whohas disabilities, she loves to eat and
she loves, you know, thingsthat are sweet. Is it like,
you know, sweet sweet? BecauseI like things that I'm trying to not
eat things. Yeah, but II don't like things that are too sweet.

(16:42):
But like I said, it's allnatural. It's not too too sweet.
Whenever I put it in my oak, when I put it in my
oat meal, or put it onmy meat, or even when I put
it on my ice cream. Idon't get that. You know how super
it gives you a hide and itbrings you down. You know, So

(17:07):
this doesn't do that. You know, it doesn't weigh you down with that
lethargic feeling after you eat it.Okay, cool. Now, there was
something that I saw in your noteson your bio about a nonprofit that you
used to have with all the community, but all the community. Something had

(17:29):
to do with non violence. Yeah, disability. Yeah, I started that
in twenty and thirteen. I stillhave the I still registered with the state.
I just haven't kept up with myfive oh one three C. I
had that in place all the wayup until twenty eighteen when the pandemic kid

(17:49):
oh I did. Okay, Communitybased Domestic Violence Support Group was what it
was called I started, I thinkwere in the twenty eleven or twenty thirteen,
and when I were attending CBI forfor my blindness to get un for

(18:15):
the visually impaired. When I wasgoing there, I noticed there were women
coming there that was in abuse situation, either with their partners or some family
members or you know, in someother way. So they were also visually
impaired. They were also visually impaired, even yes, So what I did

(18:40):
was I thought, well, CBA, you know, the Center for the
Visually Impaired, didn't have any resourcesor had anything, you know, they
had no way they can support themin any way. So I decided to
start my own nonprofit with there.And I was there at CBI doing the

(19:02):
support groups for women's and referring themto and I was doing my own research
on what resources was here in Georgia. So what I did was I started
referring women's to the shelters here,and for a while I did work with

(19:23):
the shelter here in Atlanta advocating forpeople with disability. Oh god, now
I'm trying to think of which agencyI will wit for a while. But
all the way up until i'd likethe pandemic in twenty eighteen, I you

(19:47):
know, lost contact with the groupof the people that I was working with.
I were doing phone groups for awhile, but then people lives and
the pandemic just took them in differentplaces direction And during that time, I
was going through some losses and thingsmyself, so you know, I kind

(20:08):
of like dispersed the group a littlebit. And sure, well, I
mean that's okay, but I meanhopefully it served the purpose of the time
that you did. Yeah, Idid. Yeah, I still have my
Facebook group and if I have someone, you know, contact me on Facebook,
I still address the issue. AndI had worked with other organizations even

(20:37):
out of the state, because theyhad contacted me for resources and things.
Because there was one lady in Michiganthat lost her daughter in Texas that was
killed. Her daughter was nine monthspregnant her for a while. Yeah,

(20:57):
you know, there were such areason where some of the blind people,
I know, there was one casethe family family brought her here and just
left her in the parking lot inWalmart in the car and they went back
to Mississippi and she had no placeto go. So I were working with

(21:18):
her for a while. Did shehave disabilities too. Yes, totally.
God, that's the problem. There'sso many people something I talk about all
the time, you know, thatthat fall through the cracks. There's a
lot of families, there's a lotof people who cannot handle the challenge the

(21:40):
realities of the disabilities of parenting orbeing a sibling or being a caregiver of
someone that has disabilities, and youknow, they instead of trying to find
the help, they just abandoned them, or they abuse them, or you
know, they don't know where togo to get the help. It's some
cases, it's just so you know, if they don't have the wherewithal to

(22:06):
reach out and ask for help,and if people are not being observant,
then notice that somebody maybe be inneed of some help. So many people
are falling through the cracks, andit bothers me. It really concerns you,
espally the young people and seniors.Right between the children and the seniors,
that there's some issues in those twospaces that need to be addressed.

(22:29):
So I'm hoping that you know,we we find a way to to shed
a light on some of these thingsand to address them so that too many
people don't you know, find themselvesat a loss to what to do.
Right, It's just it's just reallyis a concern of mine. But you

(22:49):
know, we just all we coulddo was try to share the information as
we hear about it, as wetry to do here on Disability World.
So tell people how they can beatyou and get some more information those people
who live in the Atlanta area.Because you're not on a national basis yet.
Uh but you said, but youare on Amazon, so they want
they can get on Amazon, right, they're boring Amazon and uh just uh

(23:11):
in the search, just type inAnnie's Garmery serf. It'll pop up with
the rest of the uh syerp thatare on Amazon market. They could also
reach us at our website which ish T t P www dot Annis garmiserp

(23:33):
dot com. We have a websitethat that's the website name. They can
also reach us through any Facebook Annie'sGarmery Soap Facebook dot com, any GARMENTSERP.
That's my handle name on there,so they can reach me through that
or yeah, awesome, Well thankyou so much for being a part if

(23:56):
I show the day and sharing someinformation about and these main syrup I look
forward to picking something up and seeingthat Kilipino honey tastes like in the very
near future because I love to cookand so I like to try out new
things. Oh yeah, taking thatout. Yeah it's yeah. You can
find the Jialapeno honey. The biggestseller on Amazon is Valapeno honey and uh

(24:22):
yes, awesome, awesome. Well, thanks again and much success to you,
and I look forward to touching basewith you in the near future and
letting you know how much I likeyour any of the series I try,
I try what I'm probably I'm tryingthem all, Okay, all right again,
all right, thank you YouTube.So it was really great talking with

(24:45):
miss Obsea and learning about her hersyrups. And I just want to thank
you guys for being a part ofdisability world today and hope that you'll be
coming back to check out a coupleof our upcoming shows that I think you
would like. We will continue tobring you some whatever is new, whatever
is now, and whatever is nextin the disability community for as long as

(25:07):
we can, because there's so muchto be shared, there's so much to
be told, and we're gonna doour best to try to get as much
information about what's going on in thiscommunity that you know that you need to
know about. So again, thankyou for being a part of our show
today and stay tuned for upcoming showsand we will see you soon. Be blessed,