 through many changes in life.
What was the inspiration for People of Colour Paddle?
I was a British Canoeing ShePaddles Club Champion in 2020-2021 and I was passionate about getting more women involved in paddlesports. My experience during this time helped me realise that our efforts to increase diversity need to be multifaceted. ShePaddles focusses so much on girls and women, but the wider community doesn’t consider racial or ethnic diversity, neurodiversity, disabilities or diversity in body size. I spent all of 2021 thinking about whether it is enough that I am a paddlesports coach, or is it also important that others who look like me get to that place too? Reflecting on being the change I’d like to see, I felt that being truly inclusive means I cannot stop once I reach my goals.
In 2022, I was honoured to be invited to the Outsiders Summit with Phil Young (The Outsiders Project) and Soraya Abdel-Hadi (All the Elements) where I had the opportunity to meet leaders from other sports changing the narrative around participation in the outdoors. The energy during that weekend gave me the courage to put in place what I had been thinking about for so long.
What’s the vision for People of Colour Paddle – what would you like to see happen through its work?
The vision of this initiative is to normalise the participation of people of colour in paddlesports within the UK with the view of connecting urbanised communities back to nature. I use the word “normalise” instead of “inspire” because I don’t want people to be like me, I want them to have a much better experience and a range of opportunities that I didn’t have. Also, I would like to see a future where women of colour can do paddlesports and are encouraged by their family and the wider community.
Through this work, I hope to be able to get new people trying paddling, falling in love with it like I did and helping them progress to leadership roles within paddlesports. This is essentially a mentoring program and in order to get there, we need to build our communities within paddlesport.
What do you think are some of main reasons that people from ethnically diverse communities feel unwelcome in paddling, or that paddling isn’t an activity for them?
Everyone I ask will have a different answer about any barriers that exist. There are some themes that I think are important and need to be addressed by us as a paddlesports community. I have been paddling since 2014 and my impostor syndrome grew stronger as the years went by. There were small things that made me feel like I couldn’t be a paddler; seemingly trivial comments by fellow paddlers convinced me I wasn’t going to last in paddlesport and this was maybe just a passing phase. I also nearly gave up kayaking in 2019 after a terrible experience on a course.
At current count, there are very few people of colour who retain prominent leadership/coaching roles within the paddlesports community. This lack of representation from Asian, South Asian, Afro-Carribean diaspora in turn reduces likelihood of people from these backgrounds attempting to try paddlesports because they don’t see faces that look like them represented. As an example, it's hard to find people of colour represented on instagram pages that belong to paddling brands or paddlesport organisations. I don’t know how many look at these pages and maybe think, paddlesport is just for white folks.
We also have issues within our communities that may hinder us. Lack of generational wealth or not as much free time means that our parents didn’t always have the opportunity to introduce us to outdoor activities. There is such a big focus on being financially stable and staying academically focussed to get good jobs, paddlesports doesn’t feature in conversation. Going back to what I said earlier, no one that looks like us does any paddlesports so why should we?
Practically this means that people of colour remain disconnected from our blue spaces, and have reduced opportunities to become involved in larger conversations around environmental issues that affect paddlers. Climate change affects all of us, yet many of us are not part of the conversation or action.
We’re really excited to see this network grow and support your work – how can members of the paddling community get involved with and support People of Colour Paddling?
I would love it if any clubs or commercial paddlesports providers who are interested in diversifying their member/customer base and have the capacity to do this to please get in touch so we can work together. This is not a commercial project for me, and I am only interested in mentoring people of colour so they can navigate paddlesports with confidence. Other paddlers can demonstrate allyship by publicly challenging those who may criticise this work or project.
If you are a person of colour and already doing some paddling (SUP, canoe, kayak) I am heading to Caldon Canal in Leek on 3rd July for our first social. This is a beautiful spot to enjoy some quality time in nature and not worry about tides, wind etc. The event is free, but I need to know if you are coming. Head over to my Eventbrite to register.
While the jury is still out whether leadership is an art or science (or perhaps blend of both!), one thing is quite obvious that whether it is a country or an economy or a company, the differentiating factor is the ‘capacity and capability’ of the leaders to lead, direct and course-correct from time to time.Smaller parties seek a bigger say in the mountaintop monarchy wedged between Austria and Switzerland.
Liechtenstein is going to the polls for parliamentary elections, with two centre-right parties vying for dominance and smaller parties seeking a bigger say in the mountaintop monarchy.
In the country of fewer than 38,000 inhabitants, ballots are open for only 90 minutes on Sunday. However, most people vote by mail.
For decades, the Progressive Citizens' Party (FBP) and the Patriotic Union (VU) have formed governments in the wealthy principality, which is wedged between Austria and Switzerland.
The election of Liechtenstein's 25 MPs on Sunday is also expected to decide on the political fate of Prime Minister Adrian Hasler, the FBP leader. According to the results, he might have to cede the post to his current deputy, Thomas Zwiefelhofer of the VU.
Both of the main parties lost ground in the 2013 elections, while the populist Independents and the left-wing Free List won a total of six additional seats.
The Independents have criticised the two mainstream parties for dividing Liechtenstein among themselves.
Whatever the outcome, the Liechtenstein royal family will continue to wield ultimate authority. The regent, Prince Alois, has the power to suspend parliament and dismiss the government, and he can veto bills.
The royal family's political power is backed by financial muscle.
They own the LGT, the world's largest family-held private bank, which manages assets totalling 143bn Swiss francs ($144bn).Maharashtra Board HSC Time Table 2020: The reopening date of the Maharashtra board schools was June 2019. The board has finally started its schools and so the students are welcomed and excited.
Last year the board had released the Timetable for 2018-19 in November 2019. Which left plenty of time for the students to prepare. We can just hope that this type of preparation leave is also granted by the board for the MSBSHSE HSC Time Table 2020.
Latest Update: Maharashtra Board HSC timetable is released. Exams will start from 18th Feb 2020 & Ends On 18th March 2020. To download the authenticate date sheet CLICK HERE.
There were 5,80,820 Science students, 4,79,863 arts students, 3,66,756 commerce students and 57,693 vocational stream students that appeared in the board exams in 2019. The board may prepare or change the HSC Time Table 2020.
The students must actually prepare hard as the state board is assumed to be a bit difficult. The students must settle their studies according to the MSBSHSE 12th Exam Date 2020 which will provide the time to prepare smart.
There are various methods to get the Maharashtra HSC Timetable 2020 pdf. One of which is to visit us again as we will be uploading the official copy here as soon as it will be released by the board.
Another special event is the press release before the release of Maharashtra HSC Timetable 2019 pdf which will act as information for the students. So the students must be aware of this. Another way to get the timetable is by downloading it from the official website.
Make sure to take a print or download the document before leaving the page.
The board generally starts exams from a language subject as this can be said by studying the past date sheets. This a point of advantage for the students and so the students must use.
We are providing a tentative Maharashtra 12th Exam Date 2020 to help students initialize their studies. This timetable that we are providing is based upon the previous year’s date sheet and may also change in the year 2020.
Maharashtra HSC Time Table has already been released, most of you have already organized your study plan and if still, you are facing complicacies in making a suitable strategy, to cope up with this, here we have bought few tips to make more strategic.
Start the preparations for the examinations on time so that the last minute rush can be saved.
Attempt the difficult topics and questions before the easy