Changemakers Archives - Lettre de Paris

Women’s Spirit Festival’s Charlotte Saint Jean

15th June 201718th June 2017 admin 0 Comments Charlotte Saint-Jean, Elodie Garamond, Wellbeing Events, Women's Spirit Festival, Yoga Festivals in Paris

In an attempt to make “volunteering” to help worthy causes a more integral part of my life, whenever my “chargé” timetable allows (further to an experience in this regard earlier this year ), I found myself, yet again, offering my services after seeing an appeal for volunteers by the co-organiser of the festival on their Facebook page.

The 1st ever Women’s Spirit Festival, an event created by Charlotte Saint Jean and Elodie Garamond, the founder of Le Tigre Yoga Club in Paris, took place at the Hôtel National de l’Industrie in Place Saint-Germain-des-Prés in early June 2017.

The Festival offered a weekend of Yoga, Meditation, and Wellness conferences, but also “a safe and sacred space for women to be the woman they want to be, to open new doors, to listen to the voice within, to feel supported and to thrive, with shared moments, tears, laughter and joy”…

Changemakers Charitable Organisations Events

2017 American Women’s Group in Paris’ Annual Gala.. La Vie en Rose

22nd March 201720th October 2019 admin 1 Comment 2017 American Women's Group in Paris' Annual Gala, American Women’s Group in Paris, AWG Paris, FAWCO

“Volunteering”.. a word that was previously familiar to me, but not to such a personal, intimate degree as it has become over these past six months.

I found myself reluctantly accepting to volunteer my services as Co-Chair of the American Women’s Group in Paris’ Annual Gala Organising Committee at the end of a fun drinks gathering last September, having initially turned down an invitation to become Chair in June of that year, knowing full well that my overstretched timetable and responsibilities did not allow me to take this additional load on board – no matter how worthwhile…

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International Women’s Day: Bérangère de Pontac’s Servigny D-Day Fund

8th March 201720th October 2019 admin 0 Comments Château de Servigny, Comtesse Bérangère de Pontac, Servigny D-Day Fund – Young Peacemakers

On this 2017 International Women’s Day, my thoughts are with women of the world, and most particularly mothers.. who throughout their lives must balance their most important responsibility – that of nurturing and supporting their children – with achieving in the outer world, in order to reach their full potential and realise their dreams. Not an easy feat…

One such mother I met recently is Bérangère de Pontac.. wife of “Comte” Arnaud de Pontac, the owner of the historic 17th century Château de Servigny in Normandy. The fact that she’s a Countess did not seem to deter her from wanting to leave a mark by starting the “Servigny D-Day Fund, Jeunes artisans de paix”, or Young Peacemakers, a charity supporting efforts in educating children for the promotion and fostering of peace. It’s goal: providing Peace Education for all children, whose mission statement is to “spread peace, develop global citizenship, to remember to build better”…

Changemakers Healthy Living Leaders Wellbeing

Lettre de Paris Interview: Michael Hewett…

27th December 201629th December 2016 admin 0 Comments Indian Yoga, Le Tigre Yoga Club, Meditation, Michael Hewett, Sarva Yoga Academy, Yoga Teachers in Paris

I first encountered Michael Hewett on a warm Sunday in October at Le Tigre Yoga Club in Paris.. he was the instructor leading the two-hour “Shamatha Meditation Atelier” I had signed up for.

I was looking forward to starting my formal initiation into Meditation, a discipline which I had long yearned to start practising. The workshop promised to take us “step by step through the Buddha’s stages of meditation”. Having long been fascinated by everything spiritual and read extensively about the subject over the years, I knew that I finally needed to put the theoretical into practice. Meditation seemed to be the natural next step into a brave new world and a practical, more attainable entry into a sublime state of being that I had so far touched for only brief moments.. I wanted to access that state far more frequently. I knew it was the right path to follow, long ago convinced that we are indeed all spiritual beings having a human experience…

Changemakers Contributors Entrepreneurship | Workplace

There is something extraordinary happening in the world…

1st December 20161st December 2016 admin 0 Comments Collaborative Economy, Entrepreneurship, Gustavo Tanaka, New Economy, Sharing Economy, Spirituality

Oct 14, 2015 – by Gustavo Tanaka

Most of us haven’t quite realized there is something extraordinary happening…

A few months ago I freed myself from standard-procedure society, I broke the chains of fear that kept me locked up into the system. Since then, I see the world from a different perspective: the one that everything is going through change and that most of us are unaware of that.

Why is the world changing? In this post I’ll point out the 8 reasons that lead me to believe it…

Changemakers Healthy Living Leaders Wellbeing

Elodie Garamond’s Le Tigre Yoga Club…

19th July 2016 admin 0 Comments Elodie Garamond, Le Mini Tigre, Le Tigre Yoga Club, Meditation, Mindfulness, Wellbeing, Yoga Clubs in Paris

As someone who’s experienced a major professional life change – in my case from the rigid but secure banking, to the more fulfilling yet hazardous terrain of creative entrepreneurship – I was fully cognisant of the path that Elodie Garamond has tread, from high-flying communications executive to founder and director of Le Tigre Yoga Clubs, in tandem with juggling the joys and pressures of marriage and motherhood…

Changemakers Charitable Organisations Events Leaders

Sarah Gogel.. Changemaker…

25th May 20167th November 2016 admin 0 Comments Corinne Thouvenin, French NGO's, Project 18, Sarah Gogel, YES Akademia, Youth charities

I recently read an interesting article whose author was making an argument for why he thinks the world is undergoing a “paradigm shift”.. i.e. the early stages of a fundamental change in approach or underlying assumptions, one of several monumental shifts in history that have uprooted our society’s very foundation, such as the Industrial Revolution, taking it off its current path and putting it on a new one.

One of the signs the writer cites to support his argument of a paradigm shift is his belief that a global consciousness shift is underway in which…

Changemakers Charitable Organisations Events

The 2016 AWG Paris Annual Gala…

12th April 201626th May 2016 admin 1 Comment 2016 AWG Annual Gala, American Women’s Group in Paris, FAWCO, Lettre de Paris, NGO, UN

When I nonchalantly volunteered to join the organising committee of the 42nd Annual Gala of The American Women’s Group in Paris (AWG), at their monthly morning coffee member’s meeting, little did I know that I would be swept into the heart of the largest active English-speaking women’s group in France.. celebrating its 67th year of existence.

The Gala is their biggest fundraising event of the year, given that not only is AWG’s mission to promote the cultural patrimony of France through the rich cultural programming it offers as a French registered non-profit cultural and educational organization, it is also – and most importantly – to raise money for the charities it supports tirelessly, as part of FAWCO: The Federation of American Women’s Clubs Overseas, a global women’s NGO and international federation of independent volunteer clubs and associations founded in 1931, with special consultative status to the UN Economic and Social Council…

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Celebrating with Irina Bokova at UNESCO…

31st March 201629th May 2016 admin 0 Comments International Women’s Day 2016, Irina Bokova, U.N. Secretary-General 2017, UNESCO, United Nations

I was invited to attend an art exhibition recently.. not any ordinary art exhibition.. it was one held at UNESCO headquarters in Paris.

Having lived many years in Paris, the presence of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization in the City of Light did not impact our everyday Parisian lives… its myriad annual conferences and exhibitions were not listed in the usual weekly or monthly event calendars of the city.

So it was with slight awe and trepidation that I navigated my way through the large and imposing boulevards of this formal side of the 7e arrondissement of Paris, to reach the Place de Fontenoy.. where the sprawling site, with its central modern building, is considered international territory and belongs to the Organization’s 195 Member States.

Changemakers Entrepreneurship | Workplace Events Forums Leaders

2016 International Women’s Day.. at the OECD

11th March 201631st March 2020 Lettre de Paris 0 Comments 2016 International Women’s Day, Angel Gurria, Conferences in Paris, OECD

Speaking recently to the American Ambassador in Paris’ office regarding a request for her support to our local charity, I was told by her assistant that the “protocol” department will not be able to treat our correspondence in the coming week, as Her Excellency will be extremely busy attending International Women’s Day events taking place in Paris. That was an excellent reminder for me to arrange to cover this poignant day, which brings to light globally the importance of celebrating women, and related issues such as gender parity, equality, equal opportunity, etc… bref, all the things that affect me as a professional woman in the 21st century.

On the 8th of March, I found myself entering the impressive halls of the OECD Conference Centre close to Porte de la Muette… The halls were full of people there to attend the myriad conferences and plenary sessions that the OECD hosts every year. I was transported back to a time when I was a member of the hallowed young professionals set, all well-dressed in suits, conference delegate identification tags around their necks, impressive C.V.’s, and the confidence to go with it…

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