Mothers helping Mothers- A Reflection on our Team

In Yabal, we are not only women helping women but mothers helping mothers. Each of us on the administration team at Yabal are mothers and many of the women who form the weaving cooperative are mothers themselves. Compassion, flexibility, leadership, wisdom, and determination are characteristics that if not already developed, are strengthened when one becomes a mother and have become an added value to our team as we communicate to get the job done.

Compassion

As mothers, it is in our nature to remedy any ailment that arises in our children. From its inception, Yabal came together to help bring solutions to a community suffering displacement and poverty. The founders of Yabal collaborated to create opportunities for work and development and today we share that same passion as we continue that work, creating opportunities and providing fair pay and additional support through social programs in the same affected communities.

Flexibility

Flexibility is important in this social enterprise. Many times, in motherhood, the same formula does not work in every scenario. This is also true in our production process and client communication. So, when one option does not work, we go to plan B or work to find a solution that best meets the needs of both the artisans and our clients.

Wisdom

When we become mothers, as our director Isabel explains, we gain perspective and understanding, and we realize why our parents worried about certain situations when we were younger. We can take this newly gained knowledge to make the best decision in our lives and when necessary, in the workplace too.

Determination

Many times, as mothers, we must do what we don’t necessarily want to do. But we look at our children, and we do it out of love and the knowledge that we are doing something good for them. Whether we want to do it or not, we learn that staying determined helps us reach our goals and we get a satisfaction from that. At Yabal, we stay determined because we know the impact of our work is greater than the difficulties we may face along the way.

Leadership

Being an effective leader involves many of the above-mentioned characteristics that we mothers typically emulate. These include empathy, compassion, vulnerability, gratitude, and self-awareness. Utilizing these abilities in a group keeps us focused and moving in the same direction towards our common goal.

These characteristics that we share as mothers help us to be successful in our organization and we are grateful to work together and share these commonalities.