Fiona Khan
Khan said she signed her first joint venture with Letslook Publishers to produce books and study guides for schools featured in the curriculum 2000 and 2005 Outcomes Based Education.
“My other passion – coaching and mentoring – allows me to ensure that every child, learner or student who passes through my hands is a success and is transformed or healed to achieve and attain success,” she said.
“My brainchild – The Fiona Khan Academy of Learning and Healing – assists children with learning difficulties by teaching them the passion of reading and positivity, thereafter healing them holistically so that emotionally and mentally they overcome challenges.”
She said she started coaching in 2003 and found that adults and children wanted to learn the techniques of writing, but many were struggling with coping in their private lives and with their careers.
It started with people who were survivors in 1995 of domestic violence, then went on to Hiv-positive people and finally children who had potential, but did not know how to channel that potential, she said.
She is also actively involved in environmental programmes and works consistently as a community practitioner for the advancement of communities by promoting organic gardening, sustainability and recycling.
“I found the inspiration to do what I do because I grew up an orphan. I was always bullied at school. When I was in primary school I made a pact with the Almighty, I left my life in His hands and told him to guide and protect me as I did not have my parents around to do this. I can assure you He has never failed me. He shows me beauty in everything – even in the worst,” she said.
When Khan was 9, she loved to read Archie Comics and from these comics she said she learnt that “a winner never quits and a quitter never wins”.
In the future she hopes to graduate to lecturing and will be launching three new books in the new year – including her first poetry anthology with a collection of all her award-winning poems.
“I learnt that when you have nothing but trials and tribulations, friends and family desert you,” said Khan.
“When you are a divorced Muslim woman it is worse. You become a soft prey to the lechers and people who like to treat you like fodder, your dignity and womanliness is always tested. So I have taught myself to always brush up, dust off and move on when everything is stacked against you.
“I have taught this to my children as well, and to all the girls who have passed through my hands. Education and edification are the greatest weapons for any woman.”
She added that being humble and grateful by living in humility and without entitlement is what led her to become the woman she is. She said in 2009 she was called aside during a congregation by the late Mufti Yunus Patel.
Patel had then read one of her books, Reeds of Wrath.
“Mufti Patel asked me to be a leader among women but, most importantly, he said to me that I should start celebrating and being grateful for all I have. He asked me not to be in pain nor endure tolerance and patience any longer – because I have been given broad shoulders to carry out many tasks. He could see through the walls I had built around me.
“Those words live with me all the time in everything
I do. “Sometimes it takes somebody else to see the potential you have, because self-reflection and criticism is debilitating,” said Khan.