From dreams to missions

from dreams to missions

We're on a mission to celebrate and encourage women in transitional phases of life, to dream again, and to positively alter their world.

About that. Every child has a dream. Often, many dreams. Little girls dream of their grown-up selves doing exploits and living happily. Many dreams continue to morph through adolescence and never really stop, even as adults. Are you approaching or living your dream, or do you need to start dreaming? Again.

Life’s transitional phases unveil rich opportunities to compel new beginnings. Bright dreams can surface and blossom, whether they’re revived or brand new. Upheavals or transitions, usually mean that the status quo is gone and everything is worth re-examining.

For us, this current business/social transition is occurring as an extension of where we are now. Where we’ve been. We’re in midlife and have experienced some interesting decades, filled with highs and lows: just like everyone else. A long-ago dream we had, was to share Africa’s hospitality and its abundant flavours with our world, in the diaspora. Fast forward many years and we’ve determined to do just that, amid life’s upheavals. How we imagined it though, is not where we are now. For now, we have chosen to spin our fervour into another aspect of our heritage: showcasing personal care, using centuries-old proven ingredients with new millennium sensibilities. It’s one branch of our dream tree.

For you, transitional may be in new responsibilities, mid-life, post-divorce, widowed, laid off, big promotion, new parenting, migration, graduation, inspiration, senior caregiving, new-found freedom, feeling trapped, feeling there must be more, wanting to serve the world...  needing to positively alter your world - in big or small ways. 

We’re really just at the beginning of our adventure. What we’ve realized is that the dreaming, the wrestling with choices of which treasures within us simply have to be expressed to touch others’ lives, the learning of new things from young people, the challenging of ourselves to keep pressing higher, all go towards making life exhilarating, and possibilities - nay certainties - endless.  

We are here now. In the same era into which babies who will see and affect the next millennium are being born, and treasure-trove nonagenarians are staring down their one hundredth birthdays. We’re all here. Impacting one anothers’ lives in some way. The impacts and people and places change over time. Painful and joyful; in families, communities and enterprises; for one person, or for all humanity. It’s all worthy of our attention. 

There are crises all around us, waiting for resolutions. Some small, some enormous. None of these should be about midlife. Why buy into that? If we’re at a point where we must look keenly at our lives and say ‘what next?’, that may very well be a milestone to celebrate, not to nosedive into panic or despair*. We can have a role that requires a deep breath and a leap of faith, at any point in life, even while we’re breaking a fall, so to speak.

All this is to say, we’re leaping: mid-leap, in fact. We encourage everyone, particularly women who think they cannot, to dream and do something big. Big is relative. Breaking free of negativity or inertia is big. Helping someone else is big. Tackling climate change is big. Getting married is big. Having or adopting a baby is big. Joining a cause is big. Campaigning is big. Upending your assumptions is big. Starting a new business is big. Going back to school is big. Believing in your unique magic is BIG.  You name it, you dream it, you do it. 

How can we help you? That’s the mission we’re on. That’s big for us. We’re figuring out the best way we can positively alter our world. You’re in it. We’re aiming to be happy and exhausted as we go.  

Join us.

Eva & Rufina, Chez Africa


*(Anyone in a life-draining situation, first needs to be extricated from that, in order to see the possibilities and soar. Find help locally to break free. Reach out to us, for contacts to resources; we will do our best to connect you.)