6. Malou Geenevasen - Kindness, being an adoptee, a psychotherapist, and having a caring dad who leads by example

06/03/21 • 70 min

Malou Geenevasen (IG: @kindnesstherapy) is a psychotherapist from Amsterdam whose clients include families and kids. Although she was born in Sri Lanka, she was adopted by two caring Dutch parents when she was two weeks old. In this episode, Malou describes her dad as someone kind, reliable, trustworthy, and inquisitive and talks to me about how he embodies these qualities and leads by example. Thanks to his attitude towards always learning new things, Malou also believes that you can always keep learning no matter how old you are. She also speaks to me about how she challenged herself to do 365 good deeds in one year and as a result, learned that kindness is all around us if we look for it. PS. One of her cats started attacking her indoor plants during our recording, which forced us to take a break.

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5. Vraîe Cally Balthazaar - Activism, feminism, entrepreneurship, motherhood, and raising kids as their own people

Vraîe Cally Balthazaar (@vraie_cally_balthazaar) is an activist, feminist researcher, social entrepreneur, and presenter from Sri Lanka. She is also a mother of two little kids and she manages all of the above in a very active life. In this episode, she talks about the influence of her mother and both grandmothers on her when growing up, how her parents allowed her to make her own choices, how she credits her husband as the primary caregiver to their kids, creating a better world for her kids through activism, and the importance of switching off your phone and other distractions and reading to your kids every day. Other people and pages mentioned in this episode: Ms. Harini Amarasuriya (@hariniamarasuriya), Ms. Amalini De Sayrah (@amaliniii), Bhumi (@bhumi.srilanka), Everystory Sri Lanka (@everystory.sl).

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7. Suraiya Farook - Raising kind boys & brave girls, trusting their choices, and connecting better by getting down to their level

Suraiya is the owner of Crio Design House (IG: @criodesignhouse), a handmade & custom jewelry design business in Dubai. She's Sri Lankan and has been living in Dubai for almost 30 years where she has also worked as a marketing coordinator for a center for children with special needs. In this episode, she talks about how she's grateful for her mother who trusted her choices & decisions, her husband's amazing relationship with their 2.5-year-old son, and how she thinks kind boys and brave girls can change the world. She also talks openly about her tumultuous childhood, standing up to her dad to protect her mother, and how despite this experience, she tries her best to not be over-protective of her son. Her IG:@thisissuraiya, Twitter: @BoomslangSur