I Nominate Tamarack Verrall for the World Pulse Spirit Award

Tamarack Verrall is the most spirited woman I have been blessed to meet and know. I cannot exhaust the words to describe her. She is amazing! She is phenomenal! She has such great wisdom that is so deeply rooted in her very rich and dynamic experience over the years. I acknowledge and value her. And I deeply appreciate how wonderful she has been in the World Pulse community. ‘Mama Tam’ as we fondly call her has an amazing way that she has connected with several women in the World Pulse community. I know she has built her network over the years serving in the welcoming committee and now as an Ambassador and an Encourager. But her effectiveness in this role is not only inspired by her work in these roles, but in her deliberate action to build relationships with women when she reads their stories and connects to them. She takes time to understand your work and as much of your story as you let on in your journals. She also connects with you on social media and takes the time to celebrate your work and connect with your personal and professional life and achievements. She becomes so many things to you – your Grandma, your Mum, your Aunty, your Sister, your friend, your colleague, your confidante and your biggest encouragement. If this does not exemplify the World Pulse spirit, I don’t know what else will.

In my life and work, Mama Tam has been all these and more to me. And I am forever grateful for the day I connected to World Pulse and Mama Tam read my story and connected with me. Mama Tam connected to me in the first 2 months that I joined World Pulse in 2014 and we have stayed connected since then. Reading her comments to my stories are special because she connects with my stories, my truths, and my deepest passions about my vision and work. She has since connected to me on social media and takes time to comment on posts about our work and even shares our posts on her timeline to share about the power of the World Pulse Spirit and our global connections and impacts. Over the years, Mama Tam has introduced me to her community and often shared their wonderful messages, well wishes and even prayers for the success of our work. And this is so special for me because I have yet to physically meet Mama Tam (a deep desire I eagerly look forward to experience someday). It blows my mind how connected we can be in a digital community when we have never even met in person before.

Last year, we had to explore the new normal in our ways of work and we explored digital connections with our girls since we had limited opportunities to convene physical program activities. I quickly jumped at the opportunity to connect Mama Tam with our Girl Leaders and we launched the Intergenerational Learner Series facilitated by Mama Tam who shared wonderful stories of inspiration from her early days as an activist, her journey through the feminist movement, and the importance for the movement to transcend generations until we achieve gender equality. The virtual series were rich in presentations with very rich stories and information shared from established research, real events from the past such as marches, parades, protests, women’s festivals and much more. At the end of the series, Mama Tam asked the girls what additional support will be most valuable, and the girls requested a self defence training workshop. Mama Tam outdid herself as usual and mobilized some of the finest women skilled in the area of self defence including one of her early self defence trainers in the 80s. Before the end of the year, we hosted a memorable virtual self defence series with phenomenal trainers from Canada and the USA, all mobilized by Mama Tam. Our girls have not stopped talking about their learning from the series and they are more inspired to strengthen their advocacy for gender equality.

Tamarack Verrall embodies ALL the World Pulse values – Voice, Connection, Beleza (Beauty), Abundance and Power. This is why I nominate her for the World Pulse Spirit Award. Mama Tam Rocks! World Pulse Rocks!