Feroza Aitken
Founder and director: Thriving Founders A real corporate chameleon when it comes to finding new avenues to extend a helping hand, Feroza Aitken has dedicated her career and life to supporting others.
@feroza_aitken
Feroza Aitken
Aitken has a number of diverse qualifications under her belt, including business management training from The Tony Elumelu Foundation. She obtained a bookkeepers certification from Damelin in 2010, as well as a systemic wellness coach qualification from Ubuntu Addiction
Community Trust.
With experience in a variety of professions — including running a successful beauty salon and working as a banking financial administrator — Aitken put her multiple skills to use to create Thriving Founders, an innovative organisation that assists women entrepreneurs and business leaders beyond financial support.
From emotional and spiritual development to well-being and guidance, Aitken’s organisation focuses on people as individuals and not the conglomerates they work for. She believes a woman is a life-giving force of nature with a multitude of complex layers, which is why unpacking and discussing emotional and mental struggles is so important.
By empowering, equipping and educating women in business, Thriving Founders aims to assist them to realise their full potential. As Aitken has experience in changing career paths, she advocates the notion of knowing one’s values and not being afraid of restarting and rediscovering one’s true career calling.
She says that her proudest achievement was being acknowledged by the British Embassy in November for “highlighting exceptional young people”.
Before moving her focus to empowering businesses and leaders, Aitken assisted and coached a number of substance abusers and addicts who are in recovery. As a certified systemic wellness coach, she believes preconceived assumptions of the human experience need to be challenged and that active listening must take place for healing people.
Women empowerment to me is complete self-acceptance. It’s letting women stand in their truth, heal and grow in ways
that are fulfilling to them.
Aitken is also the founder of Amani, a home and self-care essentials business that is focused on transforming homes into a calming sanctuary.
With the uncertainty that the Covid-19 pandemic brought to the lives of individuals, she advocates for sound mental health as an important foundation to allow us to thrive.
The importance of well-being is discussed in her digital wellness workbook, titled Master Your Emotional & Mental Well-being. From achieving goals to using practical tools to develop an individual’s emotional intelligence, this how-to manual allows readers to take charge of their hindering and negative emotions.
Aitken believes that it is vital for South Africa’s young people to realise their worth and untapped potential so that they understand that they are much more than their circumstances dictate.
She would also love to see the availability of financial literacy in the school curriculum so women can make informed choices early on. — Louise Bell