Anne-Sharlene Murapa: Leading the Charge for African Women’s Wellness

Tasha: Good morning. Could you introduce yourself and tell us a little bit about your nonprofit origin story?

Anne-Sharlene: Yeah, so I’m Anne-Sharlene Morapa. I’m Zimbabwean living in South Africa, and I’ve always been passionate about, you know, social impact. Even before I knew it was an entire industry on its own.

Anne-Sharlene: And I guess over the years, it’s not surprised that it eventually led me to starting my own nonprofit called Kurapa Moyo, which is focused on contextualizing wellness to African women’s realities.

Tasha: I love that. And so what are some of the services that you’re offering through your nonprofits?

Anne-Sharlene: Yeah, so the biggest thing that we advocate for is preventative care.

Anne-Sharlene: We believe that, you know, when we take this little steps in improving the quality of our lives, we eventually improve the quality of our overall health. And so we partner with different organizations, different volunteers. to provide mental health care services. We also create content and resources around different areas of wellness.

Anne-Sharlene: So not just limited to mental health, but thinking of like financial wellness personal development and growth, just like an overall holistic outlook on wellbeing and how we can just improve the quality of lives for African women.

Tasha: I love that. And it does all tie together, right? Like our mental health or it’s influenced by all of those different factors.

Anne-Sharlene: Yeah, absolutely. And the thing with, you know, being a woman of African descent is that there are so many layers to our wellness. There’s like the systemic layers, then your social layers, and then your personal individual. So it’s just so so much. And if we’re not looking at different ways to address these issues, we risk just continuing sharing sort of like legacies of shared trauma.

Anne-Sharlene: And we don’t want that. We want legacies of joy. We believe that, you know, we need to experience joy in this lifetime, not in, You know, through generations to come, because that’s what usually happens. Every generation works themselves to the bone in the hopes that the generation that comes after, you know, has it easier.

Anne-Sharlene: But When you look at our history and the things that we’ve been through, it’s almost like the trauma has been shared and passed on from one generation to the next. So we have to be the generation that violently takes the joy so that we ensure that the generation to come actually experiences the joy.

Tasha: That’s fantastic. I love that Anne-Sharlene. And what’s your favorite thing so far about working in the nonprofit sector?

Anne-Sharlene: I love how it pushes us to be creative. I mean, you know, when you have limited resources, you really have to be creative about how you make impact. So the work needs money. We all know that.

Anne-Sharlene: But then it tends, especially if you’re at a grassroots level, it tends to be a little more difficult. Little bit more challenging to get funding. And so it’s do we sit and wait for the day we eventually get funding? Or do we find creative ways to actually start making this impact and trust that the funding will, you know, find us along the way.

Anne-Sharlene: And so finding ways to collaborate, finding ways to create programs that assist in elevating these challenges. So for example, we have a creative transcendence core learning journey. And what we do is we just come together as a group of women and use our creative gifts. So like from storytelling to imagination and you think about how we can address the different traumas that we’re struggling with and how we can create map out a journey where we’re actually living a reality of a healed life.

Anne-Sharlene: And yeah, it’s just, it’s the creativity around finding different ways to make the impact, even though sometimes it’s stressful, but it’s also fun. So it’s it’s a bit of both.

Tasha: So what does collaboration mean to you? Look you know, are you collaborating with other nonprofits? You collaborating within the community?

Tasha: What does collaboration mean for you?

Anne-Sharlene: Yeah. So we collaborate with different wellness experts. So sometimes it may look like an individual who’s willing to share their expertise. And sometimes it may look like an organization that is offering the services that we’re looking for.

Anne-Sharlene: But they’re also trying to. Widen their reach and widen their impact. So it could be an organization, it could be an individual. It looks different every single time, but it’s usually people who are offering the wellness services that we’re looking to make accessible to the community.

Tasha: That’s wonderful. I will say one thing, I see a lot of non profits Not doing enough of is collaborations that are kind of based on brand awareness. Right? So awareness of your nonprofit brand, but also there’s lots of wonderful businesses that are really wanting to make impact who are really wanting to support.

Tasha: And it’s brand awareness for them too. And I know a lot of nonprofits get a little concerned, about values and alignment. But there’s a lot of power that can come out of collaborations that are around brand as well.

Anne-Sharlene: Yeah, absolutely. I think, I mean, I understand in terms of like value being aligned in terms of your values.

Anne-Sharlene: You’re thinking, okay, but this is what I stand for. This is what I believe in. So I don’t want to compromise on that. But we need to really, there’s so many people doing the work that we’re doing. There’s so many organizations I know of, I can think of who are doing wellness focused work, right? It could be mental health or in terms of empowering women financially.

Anne-Sharlene: So it’s just, it’s a matter of also being willing to collaborate. I think sometimes you also struggle with collaboration because there is sort of like a sense of competitiveness. If I may put it that way, you feel maybe if you collaborate with this person, they somewhat take away from your impact. But the reality of the work that we do is that we’re focused on improving people’s lives.

Anne-Sharlene: If I can do a fraction of the work and you come in and do the other fraction and it actually completes the entire sample, why are we not working together? I guess it’s a mindset shift that we slightly need to see a little bit more of.

Tasha: I couldn’t agree more. And so you mentioned some of the challenges so far that you’ve seen in the work, but, you know, funding’s always a challenge, I think, for I don’t know any nonprofit who’s we have way too much money.

Tasha: It’s not a problem, right? But what are some of the other challenges That you see that might be unique to particularly serving women as a nonprofit.

Anne-Sharlene: I think, okay, I can’t say maybe particularly to serving women, but maybe I can share my challenges as you know, a founder. So I had started this work as like a side project and I was just used to doing it by myself when I felt like doing it when I have, you know, a little bit of time off of.

Anne-Sharlene: whatever. And then when I eventually registered it as a nonprofit and I was like, okay, we need a team of volunteers, you know, and people to come in and support. I found that one of the biggest challenges I faced was trying to balance You know, respecting that the volunteers are also, you know, volunteering their time.

Anne-Sharlene: So they’ll only be able to do the work when they can. But also we have targets. So how do we communicate that? How do we create a space where as much as you’re volunteering and as much as we’re receiving your free services, there’s also shared respect in us actually doing the work.

Anne-Sharlene: I think another challenge also, again, It’s like the voluntary work is trying to, you know, give them value beyond because You know, they initially sharing their expertise with us. And then it’s okay, but what other value can we provide for them? Because I think for a lot of like organizations in the social impact space, we get so we’re so focused on the impact that we make externally that we tend to ignore like the internal impact and the people were working with.

Anne-Sharlene: And I would say that has been the biggest challenge. Creating value for the internal team so that we actually make the external impacts that we want to see. And, yeah, I think also just It’s different, like coaching and different levels of managing the organization, like just because it’s a nonprofit doesn’t mean they shouldn’t be structured.

Anne-Sharlene: Doesn’t mean that we just do things when we can. You know, how do we how You know, ensuring that we have everything in place. We are running like a well old mission. It can get really challenging because again we don’t really think of it as like a business and we don’t really put in the amount of Thought and work that maybe somebody starting a business would, and that’s usually the thing that we need to put in place in order to ensure that we run successfully.

Tasha: So much of what you said about being a founder really resonates with me having started this crazy nonprofit hive, because I think sometimes Even to be a founder, whether it’s nonprofit startup, they have so many similarities. You have to be a little bit like it attracts a certain type of person.

Tasha: Who’s I can do a lot of things and I’ve got the passion and I will work hard. And I even struggle with. Now, as I’m starting to try to build out a team, the community is growing. Other people are becoming more involved. You know, very rarely does anyone match your passion for this, right. And they’re not really even supposed to, it’s this is my love is the nonprofit hive, right?

Tasha: I love it this much because it’s my baby, but not everyone’s going to feel the same way and finding a way to. I guess, engage with your community or your volunteers where they’re at. And like you said, finding that value add can be so challenging because there’s going to be some people who want to give this much time and some people only want to give this much time.

Tasha: And that’s a real balancing act. You’re so right.

Anne-Sharlene: Yeah. And I think I love what you said. It reminds me of I think it was an interview I was watching of a South African entrepreneur Nomdeni. And she was talking about how a lot of founders tend to make the mistake of wanting to hire people with the same passion as them.

Anne-Sharlene: And it’s as much as that’s true, Find somebody who is passionate about doing the particular role that you’re looking for. I mean, when wellness let’s say we need a program manager. I need to find somebody who is passionate about program management as a whole and not necessarily just passionate about wellness because what that does, they can always learn and, you know, build that interest in terms of the wellness sector, but we need the skills and their skills will actually enable us to make the impact that we’re looking for.

Anne-Sharlene: And so I think that is what I’ve been trying to learn to say, let me look beyond just your passion for mental health, just your passion. For supporting the community. What skills are you so excited to share with people? That’s what we need. And yeah, I mean, I’ve been doing this for just like six months, so it’s been a lot of trial and error, a lot of learning, but I’m super excited because I guess the more you fail, the more you learn.

Tasha: Oh I will. Yeah, I would say a hundred percent. I’ve been doing this now for 18 months. You know, longer than yourself, but I feel like frequently, I think something’s a good idea. And then I find out, Oh no, I can’t, this is not going to work. And, you know, and it’s a lot, it’s a lot, particularly if you’re still working and have another job and you’re trying to do both you know, I did.

Tasha: The Nonprofit Hive and a full time job for nine months before I moved into just doing this. And even then I say just doing this, but I have side projects and other things on the go. And I think, you know, most founders do find themselves at the beginning, you know, with multiple roles and how does peer support.

Tasha: So meeting other people in the sector, how has that been helpful as you’ve started this journey?

Anne-Sharlene: Yeah, I mean, I really love The Nonprofit Hive. I remember I had a meeting like I had a chat rather with a high member crease. I’m so bad when people said it, but I’m like, I know it’s Chris within a 30 minute chat.

Anne-Sharlene: So his work, he focuses on helping nonprofit leaders really maximize like their leadership and their teams. And when I say in just a 30 minute chat, yeah. He was able to go from, Oh, okay. You can do one, two and three and it will actually help you optimize. And when I really thought about it, I’m like, this challenge wasn’t even that big of a challenge.

Anne-Sharlene: I just needed somebody with expertise in like team management, you know, to help me like figure it out. And so I think peer support has been great because I have people that I’ve connected with that when I’m really frustrated, I just type out a really long email and I’m like, It’s really tough. And I just, you know, just share the struggles and they’re able to come back and sometimes, you know, just be a listening ear.

Anne-Sharlene: Sometimes they know somebody who can actually support. And it’s great that especially with the hive, I gain, we get to meet people who we wouldn’t necessarily meet on a daily basis, or even if we did meet, it’s not people you’d usually like just walk up to. to and have a conversation with, because I’m at, Oh I’m in wellness.

Anne-Sharlene: So I’m trying to speak to people only in wellness or I’m in this, you know, sector, I’m only speaking to people in this sector, but the more you meet people beyond just like your areas of focus, the more you learn, the more you learn about the intersectionality of all this work that we do. So yeah, peer support is, I feel should be like at the core of the work that we do, because again it.

Anne-Sharlene: That’s how we’re able to propel and succeed. I mean, you even see it even in the for profit sector like connections as a thing. They, it’s usually a connection that led to this big event investment that was made or this big success that a corporate company made. So absolutely believe in it.

Anne-Sharlene: And I wish more people would just connect with each other more so we can, yeah, just support and engage with each other more.

Tasha: And I think, you know, like you noted, There’s those niches, right? Like in life, regardless of what our work is, there’s always like these niches, right? Or interests, your interests may be within this like little subsection where if it’s mental health or wellness, or, you know, I love marketing.

Tasha: I love talking to other people who do marketing

Tasha: because that’s something that I love. And, but I think you get something special when you do Find those places of intersection, you know, within your work because nonprofit attracts a very particular type of human being like people who want to create impact. Not everybody has that as a desire, right? Not everybody feels that same desire.

Tasha: And so it can be really cool when you realize that, even though, you know, you’re serving, you know, women in Africa around wellness and you may meet someone else who’s in the U S serving animal focused you know, nonprofit like that, you actually still have a lot of common pieces to the work because a lot of the challenges are the same, but you also have the same drive and passion for creating an impact.

Tasha: And so I always find it’s really interesting. To put change makers into conversations because they just bring a different energy energy to the conversation in the first place.

Anne-Sharlene: Yeah, absolutely. I’m getting a dreamer.

Tasha: So what are some of your dreams for the year ahead? What are you hoping to do in 2025?

Anne-Sharlene: Yeah, I’m really, yeah, just excited to just ensure that everything is streamlined. Because that was the biggest like a big challenge in the previous year, but now I have a clearer path excited to offer like free holistic wellness services for free to the community and ensure that they have access to you know, wellness expertise that they wouldn’t normally afford on a regular day.

Anne-Sharlene: What I’m super, super excited about is our first in person events. It’s so scary because we haven’t done this before. It’s going to be our first time, but also super excited because then we get to really interact with people in person and just continue to create the spaces of like healing and support and community and care.

Anne-Sharlene: That’s wonderful.

Tasha: And how I always like to put, I’ll put it in the show notes and everything. How can people get in touch with you and what’s the best way to follow along with your nonprofit journey?

Anne-Sharlene: Yeah, absolutely. They our website has access to all the different ways you can reach us.

Anne-Sharlene: So you can follow us on social media, send us a message if that’s quicker for you. That is absolutely, that works for us. You could also just send us an email so it hello at dot com. And we’ll respond and we could always just have a chat if you wanna, you know, support. Get involved in the work that we do and just collaborate.

Anne-Sharlene: Yeah.

Tasha: That’s amazing. I love this. Well, thank you so much Anne-Sharlene for doing this with me today. I keep seeing your name pop up on hive chats and I really haven’t, we haven’t done an interview with someone who’s focused in on the space that you’re focusing, you know, women and just wellness and mental health and all of those different moving pieces I think are a big conversation worldwide.

Tasha: So it was very cool. When you joined the hive, I was super excited to get to meet you today.

Anne-Sharlene: Yeah, it was lovely meeting you, Tasha. I mean, we have connected on LinkedIn, but this is our first official conversation. So yeah,

Tasha: this is fantastic. Thank you so much.

Anne-Sharlene: Thank you. And thank you for the Hive.

Anne-Sharlene: Absolutely love it.