HOPE Stories
INMarch 2020, Dawn Nathan-Jones, Lesley Waterkeyn and Sandy van Dijk had a choice: either let the looming lockdown (and fear of the unknown) rule them, or choose hope – something Dawn describes as ‘finding a way, no matter what it takes’.
After the initial shock of a declared national disaster, Lesley rounded up her team at Over the Rainbow – a social enterprise led by Lesley, her sister Sandy and Dawn to empower and support South African entrepreneurs – and proposed an idea: to write a book together during lockdown.
So they started calling up entrepreneurs they’d connected with over the years to see how they were doing during the isolation period – and within four months, Hope Stories was born, a compilation of 27 tales of courage and inspiration.
From big business owners to small startups, from doctors to chefs – one thing all the contributors have in common is resilience. ‘The opposite of fear is hope,’ says Lesley. ‘If you want to play in the light, you have to have that positivity, resilience and the will to move forward.’
As Hope Stories shows, some businesses pulled out all the stops to meet the demands that came with Covid; others committed to serving the vulnerable. Some also detailed how they managed to keep their businesses afloat during a pandemic. Entrepreneurs had to make major decisions under extreme pressure – often not for profit, perhaps for survival, but mainly to help the community.
The guiding principle behind Hope Stories is best reflected in the starfish parable. ‘One day, an old man was walking along a beach that was littered with thousands of starfish that had been washed ashore,’ Lesley recounts. ‘He came upon a young boy who was eagerly throwing the starfish back into the ocean, one by one. Puzzled, the old man asked what he was doing. “I’m saving these starfish, sir,” he replied. The old man chuckled. “Son, there are thousands of starfish and only one of you. What difference can you make?” The boy picked up a starfish and gently tossed it into the water. “I made a difference to that one,” he said.’
This is exactly what Dawn, Lesley and Sandy aimed to do with this book and through their work at Over the Rainbow. ‘We wanted to give business owners a platform for their voices to be heard – they’re ordinary people doing extraordinary things,’ says Lesley. ‘We’re not authors; we’re not journalists,’ says Dawn. ‘This is about telling people’s stories.’
All three women are powerhouses. Sandy has spent more than 20 years in the classroom, teaching; Lesley is the founder and vice-chairperson of marketing agency CWDi; and Dawn is a renowned entrepreneur and awardwinning business leader, widely known as the only female ‘shark’ on M-Net’s Shark Tank South Africa. Committing to mentoring small business owners is their form of activism. By upskilling entrepreneurs, they’re contributing to bettering SA, its economy and its people. ‘In your 20s, you’re learning,’ says Dawn. ‘In your 30s and 40s, you’re earning. And in your 50s, you’re returning.’
‘It took us five years to write our first book and four months to write our second, from concept to being on shelf!’ says Lesley. Of course, all the interviews happened over Zoom.
In its ability to inspire change and offer opportunity, hope, these women believe, offers immense and unfailing power where once there was only uncertainty.