Big Sparkly Hero: Anne Wells!!!

Anne Wells

Anne Wells is most def­i­nitely a Big Sparkly Hero. Her heart­felt com­mit­ment to ser­vice is evi­dent when you look at at the amaz­ing work she does as the founder and direc­tor of UNITE The World with Africa and the ASHE Col­lec­tion. Anne shows up in the world to make a dif­fer­ence in a big way in the lives of the women and chil­dren in Tan­za­nia.   She is a mom to 3 young girls as well as a writer, pub­lisher and jour­nal­ist.  And lucky for us, she gen­er­ously gave of her time and energy to share some of her wis­dom with us!

Q: Cre­at­ing UNITE The World With Africa and devel­op­ing the ASHE Col­lec­tion seems as if it takes a great strength and clar­ity of pur­pose. What do you feel the pur­pose behind your work is?

Anne: I have had the great for­tune of spend­ing about two of my past 20 years in Tan­za­nia. From my first time liv­ing there as a stu­dent of wildlife and human cul­tural man­age­ment in 1991, I have loved the coun­try, Her land and Her peo­ple. The pur­pose of my work today is very sim­ply to serve the Tan­zan­ian peo­ple – focus­ing on women and chil­dren – to the great­est extent pos­si­ble. My per­sonal par­a­digms are “ser­vice” and “trans­for­ma­tion,” and both UNITE and Ashe help me actu­al­ize these goals.

UNITE’s mis­sion is “to advance women’s health, edu­ca­tion and micro­fi­nance pro­grams in Tan­za­nia,” which I believe are the three pil­lars nec­es­sary empower a per­son, fam­ily and com­mu­nity to climb out of poverty.

The Ashe Col­lec­tion is UNITE’s new online store that is not only redefin­ing where great art and fash­ion can come from – shift­ing some wide­spread per­cep­tions while also secur­ing and dri­ving job cre­ation for local arti­sans; it is also what is fund­ing UNITE’s work with our part­ners on the ground in Tan­za­nia. Both UNITE and the Ashe Col­lec­tion are com­pletely social and phil­an­thropic efforts.

Anne with Peter Luis, founder and direc­tor of The Indige­nous Edu­ca­tion Foun­da­tion of Tan­za­nia, one of UNITE’s part­ner schools.

Q: Was there a time in your life where you decided live what we call, your big sparkly life…a life that where do fol­low your own heart rather than what oth­ers think you should do? What pro­pelled the decision?

Anne: Two spe­cific times come to mind. The first was in 2003 when I heard Benazir Bhutto speak, the now-deceased for­mer (first and only female) prime min­is­ter of Pak­istan. She called on us women to stand up, go for our dreams, cre­ate the lives we dream of. The next day I com­mit­ted to writ­ing my first book. The sec­ond time was in Jan­u­ary 2008 when my friend Den­nis Mnyanyi, an Angli­can priest from Moro­goro, Tan­za­nia, was stay­ing with us at our home in Con­necti­cut. His entire visit I pep­pered him with ques­tions about how peo­ple like me – a simple-yet-motivated sub­ur­ban work­ing mom – can be part of a solu­tion in Africa. He told me to come back to Tan­za­nia, travel and search, and ulti­mately to iden­tify the grass­roots orga­ni­za­tions who are dri­ving pos­i­tive change in their com­mu­ni­ties and then to sup­port them in any and every way pos­si­ble. My hus­band and I left for Tan­za­nia four months later and that exploratory jour­ney was what ulti­mately laid the foun­da­tion for UNITE.

Q: I imag­ine your life if pretty full! What do you do to take care of yourself?

Anne: I talk to Lau­rel! AND I spend almost all of my time with my three pre­cious daugh­ters. I walk our dogs. I exer­cise. I read – only non-fiction. Life fas­ci­nates, peo­ple inspire. And just recently I have lined up a babysit­ter one night a week so I can either have date night with my hus­band, or go out with one of my best girl­friends, or see a movie, etc.

Mostly, I love my work, so it is my plea­sure and gift to do it. My down­fall is push­ing too hard and some­times get­ting myself sick in the process. Although I am com­mit­ted to hav­ing com­pleted that pattern!

Q: What has your ser­vice work taught you about liv­ing your Big Sparkly Life.

Anne: What I have learned time and time again is that we get so much more than we give. When I go to Tan­za­nia and spend time with my friends and the peo­ple there, I am so filled up with love, joy, hon­esty and every­thing that really mat­ters in life. My spirit soars and I feel so at home. Tan­za­ni­ans always give gifts – even when they have noth­ing (in West­ern eyes) to give. They will give you their last cup of tea or egg or pen­cil. And even more pow­er­fully they give you their hearts, their truth, their friend­ship, their joy. I always leave them hum­bled and inspired to become a bet­ter human.

Q: Who are your Big Sparkly Heros, peo­ple who you see liv­ing in way that makes them and oth­ers shine?

Anne with Dr. Teresa Knight (UNITE’s med­ical direc­tor), Quinn Brady (UNITE’s edu­ca­tion pro­gram man­ager) and Kim Mer­ri­man (Anne’s sis­ter and UNITE’s direc­tor of micro­fi­nance and finan­cial lit­er­acy programs)

Anne: Some high pro­file peo­ple… Jane Goodall. Jacque­line Novo­gratz, founder of the Acu­men Fund. Wan­gari Maathai, founder of the Green Belt Move­ment. Oprah.

Some not-as-widely-known peo­ple – all of whom are very spe­cial to me – and all of whom are deeply com­mit­ted to liv­ing their truths and leav­ing this work a bet­ter place… Page Bowler, KT Clark,Kelly Coveny, Mama Vale­ria Mrema, Polly & Tracey Dolan, Astri­dah Katalyeba, Peter Luis, Tati Oliver, Daniela Bateleur, Dr. Frank Artress & Susan Gustafson, Vivian Unter­weger, Den­nis Mnyanyi, Dr. Teresa Knight, Meg Domino, Quinn Brady, Susan Cot­ter, my par­ents Kit & Hap Mer­ri­man, my beloved hus­band David Wells and my three daugh­ters, Lila, Har­ri­ett and Katharine, and – the world’s great­est – my sis­ter Kim Merriman.

Q: Any tips, advice or rules you have for folks who want to make a dif­fer­ence in the world and live their big sparkly lives at the same time?

Anne: I just say, Go for it. Look into your hearts, find your pas­sion, and think BIG! Don’t be afraid of end­less rejec­tion… because the truth is most peo­ple don’t share your pas­sion, but thank­fully… some do. Find those peo­ple and cre­ate a move­ment. Watch your thoughts, words and actions. All of them mat­ter. We CAN make this world a safer, more just, humane and peace­ful place. But it will require ALL of us to act. Get in the game and stay the course, no mat­ter how hard it may seem at times. It’s worth it! YOU are worth it!

Thank you Anne!

For more info on Anne and her amaz­ing work check UNITE , her blog and the ASHE col­lec­tion.

Anne Wells is the founder and direc­tor of UNITE The World With Africa (www.unitetnz.org) and the Ashe Col­lec­tion (www.ashecollection). A 39-year-old mother of three young girls, Wells is com­mit­ted to uplift­ing the lives of women and chil­dren in Tan­za­nia by cre­at­ing jobs and help­ing to advance key women’s health, edu­ca­tion and micro­fi­nance ini­tia­tives. She is an author, pub­lisher, and free­lance jour­nal­ist. Her most recent columns can be found on Africa.com. To con­tact Anne directly, email atmwells@gmail.com.

Tagged as: Anne Wells, Big Sparkly Hero, inspiration