During the global corporate years, I worked with local NGOs and community leaders to address sexual abuse, malnutrition, deforestation and education in our communities in Mexico, Honduras, and Indonesia. I became both disillusioned with philanthropy and aware of its necessity. To solve problems, we need for-profit, governmental, and NGO actors collaborating. I now am the Head of Projects for the Gottlieb Naef Foundation in Switzerland. We focus on supporting skill training and educational ventures among the poorest of the poor, in particular in food producing communities.

I was raised in a rural region of Indonesia, adjusting to languages and cultures between the local community, my familial Europe, the American missionaries at school, and the Korean and Japanese families that were my closest friends. The freedom I felt from not belonging to any one tribe, and the security I experienced from recognizing the shared and fixed traits of humans in any group, made up for the loss of belonging that would have made life easier.

And as a woman (and mother), I recognize that part of my purpose comes from my biological femininity. Whatever our confusion now, we must recognize that for millennia, we understood the particular abilities, symbolism, and role a woman has. I never thought much about myself as a woman; I worked in a men’s world and did not want to be labelled for my gender, but I came to see the significance of it. The woman, even in the story of Adam and Eve, mediates between mankind and the Earth. While Adam was categorizing and labelling, Eve was communicating and connecting. Together they share responsibility for the Earth – each of us individually and all of us collectively.