Tammy Darcy, CEO, and Founder of The Shona Project joins VistaTalks host Simon Hodgkins. In this episode, we discuss the origin of The Shona Project, Tammy’s book, the Shine Festival, and the Schools program. The Shona Project celebrates women from all over the world. ‘Those who succeed and those who overcome, those who lead and those who think, those who win and those who learn. We share our stories so that we don’t feel alone. We laugh, learn, try and cry together.’

The Shona Project helps young women who are figuring out who they are. There are many challenges; anxiety, depression, body image, self-esteem, boys, family drama, social media, exams stress, hormones, sexuality, relationships, bullying, and feeling like we don’t fit in. The world (and Instagram) tells us we should have it all figured out by now and that we should be perfect, which none of us will ever be. Really, we should be helping each other to be smart, strong, and, above all else, kind.

The Shona Project knows exactly how it feels to struggle and feel alone because they’ve been there. They believe that we all need to give ourselves a break, take care of ourselves, celebrate each other’s differences and support each other so we can all achieve everything our quirky little hearts desire.

In October 2018, The Shona Project held its first conference, “RISE 2018”, to celebrate International Day of the Girl. The event brought 350 girls together to hear from a selection of inspirational and powerful women. The recent 2021 Shine Festival was an online event that ran throughout March, bringing together over 100 amazing female role models to speak to the young women of Ireland on topics such as career, mindset, mental health, sports, the arts, representation, and an array of social issues. With over 40,000 attendees and a combined one million video views, Shine was the most significant online event to happen in Ireland this year.

The Shona Project has a schools program in place, including a core workshop delivered in schools all over Ireland since October 2016. It is suitable for the first to the sixth year and amended to suit the needs of each school.

Topics covered include:

• The challenges we face as young women in Ireland today

• How we approach and address these challenges

• The people who influence us and shape us as people

• How we treat ourselves and each other

• Respecting and Encouraging difference and diversity

• Setting goals and identifying how we can achieve them

• Our place in the world and how we would like to be remembered

The Shona Project are winners of a Think Global Award and have won additional awards, including an award for best Social Enterprise from the Waterford Business Awards.