From corporate marketing to community activism, our phenomenal guest Melissa Histon brings to life a journey that is as inspiring as it is illuminating. In this episode Melissa shares her fight against breast cancer, a successful shift from the corporate world to photography, and a life changing project in Nepal that documents the harsh reality of women and children trafficking.
The trip to Nepal led to the birth of The Sister Code and Got You Back, Sister charity. Hear about the profound impact this charity has made, offering support and resources to women escaping from violent homes and highlighting the urgency of addressing violence and abuse issues on a global scale.
We wrap up our episode with a focus on Melissa's personal growth journey as an advocate for domestic violence survivors. She shares her insights on how understanding and empathy can significantly transform societal attitudes towards domestic violence.
Tune in, and discover how you can contribute to making a difference in the lives of domestic violence survivors.
Want to know more about Melissa and support her work? All the information is here.
The Culture Ministry exists to create inclusive, accessible environments so that people and businesses can thrive.
Combining a big picture, balanced approach with real-world experience, we help organisations understand their diversity and inclusion shortcomings – and identify practical, measurable actions to move them forward.
Go to https://www.thecultureministry.com/ to learn more
If you enjoyed this episode and maybe learnt something please share with your friends on social media, give a 5 star rating on Apple podcasts and leave a comment. This makes it easier for others to find A Dog Called Diversity.
A Dog Called Diversity is proud to be featured on Feedspot's 20 Best Diversity And Inclusion Podcasts
Thanks for listening. Follow us on LinkedIn, Instagram and Facebook.
From corporate marketing to community activism, our phenomenal guest Melissa Histon brings to life a journey that is as inspiring as it is illuminating. In this episode Melissa shares her fight against breast cancer, a successful shift from the corporate world to photography, and a life changing project in Nepal that documents the harsh reality of women and children trafficking.
The trip to Nepal led to the birth of The Sister Code and Got You Back, Sister charity. Hear about the profound impact this charity has made, offering support and resources to women escaping from violent homes and highlighting the urgency of addressing violence and abuse issues on a global scale.
We wrap up our episode with a focus on Melissa's personal growth journey as an advocate for domestic violence survivors. She shares her insights on how understanding and empathy can significantly transform societal attitudes towards domestic violence.
Tune in, and discover how you can contribute to making a difference in the lives of domestic violence survivors.
Want to know more about Melissa and support her work? All the information is here.
The Culture Ministry exists to create inclusive, accessible environments so that people and businesses can thrive.
Combining a big picture, balanced approach with real-world experience, we help organisations understand their diversity and inclusion shortcomings – and identify practical, measurable actions to move them forward.
Go to https://www.thecultureministry.com/ to learn more
If you enjoyed this episode and maybe learnt something please share with your friends on social media, give a 5 star rating on Apple podcasts and leave a comment. This makes it easier for others to find A Dog Called Diversity.
A Dog Called Diversity is proud to be featured on Feedspot's 20 Best Diversity And Inclusion Podcasts
Thanks for listening. Follow us on LinkedIn, Instagram and Facebook.
Welcome everyone to a dog call diversity, and I have such an incredible guest on this week. Her name is Melissa Histon and I've been following her for a little while, but it wasn't till I had a bit of a chat with her a few months ago that I worked out that she's just doing the most incredible work. So welcome, melissa, great to have you.
Speaker 2:Thank you so much Thanks for having me.
Speaker 1:I've been so looking forward to recording this episode and I'm so glad we could make it happen. Tell us a bit about where you're located. I'd love to know I always love to know where people are.
Speaker 2:Oh, so I'm located in Newcastle, in Newcastle, australia, in case anybody overseas is listening, and I'm sitting right now in our study.
Speaker 1:Brilliant, brilliant. Are you close to the beach where you are?
Speaker 2:I literally live just across the road from the beach.
Speaker 1:Life goals. Right there, life goals.
Speaker 2:It must have been. It's very lovely. I got up this morning when and sat on the beach for a while. My hubby went for a swim and then I came back here and started preparing to be on your podcast.
Speaker 1:Great, great. Well, I'd love you to start and tell me a bit about you. I know that the work that you're doing now is very different to the work that you set out to do. Tell me a bit about the work you set out to do, yeah.
Speaker 2:Do you know? It's such a crazy journey. I say that all the time. Life is such a crazy journey and right now I'm living and working in community services, activists, changing the world space. But I never, ever, would have thought that I would ever do this work, and I say that to people often. When I was in high school, I was in the dance troupe and I was like you know, I wanted to be Amanda or Melrose Place and you know who didn't with their shoulder pads, the brilliant hair.
Speaker 2:Absolutely yeah, yeah. So I went and did a business degree at uni and majored in marketing and very much went into that corporate space of marketing communications for many years and that's where I thought I would stay. But it's just so funny how life works and I've gone in a totally different direction I never thought I would go into yeah.
Speaker 1:Look, I think. I think COVID for many people has pushed people in different directions. It's made us really think about how do we want our life to be and what our legacy is, I think. But something happened to you much earlier on. Tell us a bit about that.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So I was kind of happily working and living in that corporate world and thought I would stay there forever, although I had done a professional freelance photography course in my free time and I did really well at that course and I thought you know what? I'm going to start a side hustle of photography business, which was great, and I ended up kind of turning that side hustle into a full time business. But 12 months into that I was diagnosed with breast cancer and that absolutely turned my world and the world of my family upside down. I never thought I would ever get breast cancer and you know I don't have the family history of breast cancer at all and I was 35. So that's so young yeah, that's considered young in breast cancer terms. And so I spent 12 months being treated for that breast cancer. I had a partial mastectomy, chemotherapy and radiation treatment and I didn't work that an entire time. And so at the end it's so funny at the, when I was coming towards the end of my treatment, my husband said to me one night what are you going to do? Do you think you'll go get a job or do you think you'll restart your photography business? And I said to him I have this feeling I'm meant to do the photography. I was like this feeling in your guss I'm feeling meant to do the photography. And he's like, yeah, but that's going to be the hard way because the easy way is to go and get a job and just have the wage coming. That's the easy thing. The hard thing is to restart a business and you've got to get clients and do all the work around doing the photography or the business work around that. He's like that's going to be hard. Are you sure you want to do that? And I was like I just have this feeling I'm meant to do it. And it's so funny because it was like that led me down this whole other path which ended up starting the Tradi Got you Back, sister, but you know.
Speaker 2:So I started the photography business again and I went and did a workshop one day, like a small business workshop, and we were doing vision boarding. And I remember sitting outside doing my vision board, getting all creative, and I put down on the vision board that I wanted to go to a third world country and do a photography project for a nonprofit and it was very specific. I know it's so interesting, it's specific and it's funny because I remember thinking I'd love to go over. I think I'd been watching, reading National Geographic and looking at different photography magazines and seeing these amazing photography projects that people were doing around the world and I was like I'd love to do that and do it for a non-profit. And then it's so crazy, two years later that came true and like vision boards work, yeah.
Speaker 2:So you know, one day I saw on Facebook a girl that I kind of vaguely knew. She put down that she was going to Nepal with a group of people to help make a photography, make a documentary about the six trafficking of Nepali women and children. And I kind of reached out and I was like, well, I'm a still photographer, do you need a photographer to come along? And she said, no, we've got one, we don't. And I was like, oh okay, well, tried. But then a couple of months later she reached out and she said, actually our still photographer has fallen through. Would you still like to come? And I was like hell's, yeah.
Speaker 2:So I we went over and, you know, had a videographer, producer and director and a team to help and I was doing the still photography and spent two weeks traveling around rural and remote Nepal to some of the poorest of the poor villages and interviewing and photographing, videoing girls who'd been sex trafficked and had been rescued by an organization called Three Angels Nepal and were being supported and rehabilitated, supported to help them get back on their feet. And so for two weeks we heard stories of just, you know, heartbreaking stories of the kidnap or being sold girls being sold into sex, slavery, prostitution essentially that was it. You generally sent over the border to India. Often they thought that they were going for a better life in India and they were going to get a job in housekeeping or somewhere and they might marry an Indian man and live a nice life there. But no, it was actually all the front. They were being sex trafficked and we just literally heard horrendous, horrendous stories.
Speaker 2:And, you know, quite often after an interview, you know, our team would be sobbing because we couldn't believe how horrid humans could be to other humans. And for us it was young girls, you know, girls as young as eight were being trafficked. And we interviewed a woman who was I think she was about 30 and she'd been trafficked and she'd been rescued. You just can't believe that humans can be so horrid to other humans. And it's a really big problem in Nepal. It's the city underbelly of Nepal, because we see these beautiful images of the Himalayas and Tibetan faves flags and you know these beautiful, happy, smiley Tibetan people not Tibetan, sorry Nepali people, but really it's the city underbelly is 21,000 girls a year on average are trafficked in.
Speaker 1:Nepal. Wow, what sticks with you from that trip? Is there something that you always come back to?
Speaker 2:Yeah, do you know what a number of girls and stories that we heard and this I'll share this with you because I've found this really profound. We were driving along, there was our team from Newcastle and the Three Angels Nepal team, and we were in a convoy of four wheel drives travelling from one location, one village, to another, to video, and we were pulled over. The convoy of cast was pulled over as we went past a makeshift village, and this makeshift village it was when I say makeshift, because the people that lived there were living in humpies made of sticks with plastic bags over them, and so there weren't even mud huts or tin shacks. They were literally like sticks and branches with plastic over them, plastic bags. And that's where they were living. And they were living by a dry riverbed, you know, with no sanitation, no rail running water. And they pulled a saver on the side of the road and they said the chief of the village wanted to talk to the head of Three Angels Nepal, and so we all got out and we walked over to a field which was next to the village and it was interesting the head of the village was wearing a business coat, he had gold rings on and a fancy napali hat and the rest of the village that were there I noticed I was like there was little girls, there was older women and there were no teenage or young women. They had all been sold by the chief of the village. He had sold them all and so he was there with his gold rings and his business jacket on and yet the village he'd sold off all the girls and young women and they were living in absolute the worst property I've ever seen and we visited a lot of poor villages but that was the worst. And they're living in, you know, sticks made out of, with plastic bags over the top anyway. So he was talking to the head of Three Angels Nepal and he was demanding that that, that, um, that Regendra, the CEO of Three Angels Nepal, he was demanding that he go and lobby the government and say we need running water, we need sanitation, um, and Regendra said I will not do anything for you until you stop selling your girls. And all the old women in the village all started applauding and clapping because they could see it happening. They're getting sold off by the chief, the village. You know that was.
Speaker 2:For me that was profound, um, you know, I I just can't imagine that the greed of that man to do that and to be the head of a village and that's what he was doing he was selling off the girl, all the young girls in the village to sex traffickers, and the older women, the wise women of the village had no power whatsoever. Um, that really stuck with me. Yeah, and so you know, sorry, go on, I was gonna say so. You know, when I came back to Australia after seeing that, I was like how do I get to come back to a cushy life over here? How do I come back to a nice city and a nice house and a nice family? And, and knowing that there's such atrocities happening in the world, yes, and just thinking, about it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but you did do something. I mean I can did it take a while to process that trip and work out what you wanted to do. Like what was that process you went through?
Speaker 2:Yeah, do you know what? When I came back I didn't really know what to do. I thought really helpless. I remember thinking I had that real sense of like how could I have gone there and had that experience and not do anything? And I had no idea what that looked like, because I've never been an activist or a lobbyist or you know, I'd never even thought about really entering into that whole community services space. I wanted to be Amanda from Millrose Place. I had never thought about doing that. And so I remember sitting with that for a while and you know I'd started doing meditations and meditating, going what am I meant to do? What am I meant to do? And then one day it kind of came to me and it's like well, you can write and you can take photos, so maybe you could start a blog, and also I know how to hold events. So I started a movement called the Sister Code, which was holding fundraising events and blogging essentially about the good work of women. And so I did that for a while and I was holding fundraising events for other women's charities. And then one day somebody suggested to me and said had I thought about starting a charity? And I hadn't. But I thought, you know, I planted the seed.
Speaker 2:So I went and started talking to women's DV services in our area, because, you know, abuse happens to women in our own community. Abuse happens to women in Australia as well. I had just never really stopped to think about that. I was just too busy living my corporate life, and so the feedback that I got from services that I spoke to was well, when a woman leaves a violent home, she often leaves with nothing but the clothes on her back or her children's back, and so you know, really women need household items and furniture to help them restart their lives, to get a home and set up a new home safe from violence. So that was the beginning of Got you Back, sister. I got some really great legal advice. I registered the charity and I held a fundraiser, raised $15,000. And then that was the first $15,000 that I started using to help provide furniture and household items for women who are getting out of a violent home, and that was eight years ago.
Speaker 2:So since then we've just every year the service and programs that we provide. Our team grows, everything that we do and the number of women who reach out and ask us for help grows. So now, eight years later. We have caseworkers who you know. We get women that will call up or drop in or make an appointment to meet with one of our caseworkers because she's in a violent situation, a violent relationship, or she might have just left and she has no idea what to do, where to go, how to access housing, legals, how to you know if she can get any crisis payments. You know she might need safety planning, she might need an exit strategy.
Speaker 2:So our caseworkers now provide that one-on-one support to women to actually help them get out of that violent situation and then also to navigate the system, Because it's like I don't know what to do, I have no idea where to start.
Speaker 2:And often, you know we get women from all walks of life, you know even up to corporate white-collar women, executive women, and you know they're still going well, I'm being absolutely manipulated, financially abused. I can't get access to any of my money, even though she's a successful businesswoman and she's starting again as well. And we say that domestic violence doesn't discriminate at all. People just get better at hiding it. So we provide a support group, we provide programs to help women rebuild their confidence and self-esteem, their sense of self-worth after the trauma that they've experienced. And we also run a work readiness program for women who may never have been able to work or may not have finished an education, and that course is to help those women get employment so that they can live independently after they've had to start again. And domestic violence is one of the biggest drivers of women into poverty. So we do that. It's about helping women get an education and get employment as well.
Speaker 1:Man, you do a lot of stuff.
Speaker 2:It's been a big eight years.
Speaker 1:Yeah, how do so? I guess two questions how do you get funding to do all the work you do, and how do women find you?
Speaker 2:So we are self-funded, we're not government funded, so it's a lot of fundraising to keep going, to keep us going and to do what we do. We get lots of beautiful community support, which is really great, and a lot of corporate support as well, which is really wonderful. Yes, so, and what was the second question? I can't remember.
Speaker 1:Well, how do women know that you exist and that your help is there? Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:So we can get referrals from other services and some medical services as well. We are active on social media and hopefully that people will find us. We actually also have we're very lucky to have a community service announcement that runs constantly throughout region on New South Wales. So we actually get calls now from and we help women outside of Newcastle who will call up and our case worker will provide that support, that phone support, but then can also guide her to services in her own area. So but she can come to gotyoubacksistercom, our website if anybody wants more information and to find out about us.
Speaker 1:Nice, Nice. I guess how has running this charity, I guess, changed your life?
Speaker 2:Yeah, do you know what? It's been the biggest personal growth journey for me ever? So there's been the whole, I guess, learning about, you know, issues in the world like this, like violence and domestic violence and issues around gender equity. Again, do you know what? I probably, you know, grew up in a middle class family and have lived a middle class life. I went to university, you know I was always. I always kind of had work and, have, you know, lived a fairly good life, and so you know. So, number one, it threw me into a whole other world that I didn't really, you know, I had never studied gender studies or anything like that or sociology. So I've learned a lot about the world and have become very passionate about how do we make the world a better place for women. There's that. But also, I'm going to be honest, I've learned so much I never thought of myself as a leader, and I remember years ago doing a my as Briggs course, when I was working for WorkCover, and they said I was an ENFP, which is like you're not really a lady and more of a doer, a worker, a worker bee, you're not a leader, and so I it's interesting, I had to really come to terms with being a leader.
Speaker 2:I felt had total imposter syndrome. I was like, oh no, but I don't know how to lead people. And so, you know, I really that and that's all mindset stuff. I had to really get my head around that and really look and how other people lead organizations and learn about that. And also, it's interesting I would say, like, being honest, in the first few years of the running the charity, I was very, you know, it was very, quite ego driven.
Speaker 2:I was like do, do, do you have to achieve, achieve, achieve. We have to be, you know, like, but from an ego, you know what I mean. Yeah, you know, I said that was a whole journey in itself because that's exhausting, it's actually exhausting. And so, eight years on, you know, I'm in a much different place now. I'm like going okay, it's not about pushing, striving so hard, we have to be out there, we have to be seen to be doing great things.
Speaker 2:I'm like actually, no, it's coming from more of a soulful place and about making sure that we're being of service and that it's about doing good in the world and without the pushing, pushing, striving, striving. And that's been a whole journey itself of inner work. You know, I'm always, you know, I see I say she's my mindfulness guru, charlotte. I have sessions with her, I go on retreats. I've just gotten back from a soulful retreat in the Byron Bay Hinterland, the self-reflection Because, you know, one of the things that I, I guess I've learned through this whole journey is that I need to be the best that I can be, and from a soulful place, not an ego place, so that I can lead and help the women that we do.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I am also an ENFP and I would always consider myself a leader. That someone would say that to you. Really, you can lead from any personality, trait or type. That's crazy.
Speaker 2:But isn't it interesting that some it's like the whole thing. You know, somebody says something to you when you're a little girl and you hang onto it your whole life. So I got told that 20 years ago and I really held onto that for a long time. That really set this mindset for me that I had to absolutely switch.
Speaker 1:Yes, what would you want people to know about women in domestic violence? Situations Like what? I think? We often make assumptions about people like we'll say well, why didn't she leave, why didn't she leave instead of why didn't he stop?
Speaker 2:But like yeah, no, absolutely. It's interesting. Once upon a time people never talked about domestic violence. It all happened behind closed doors. I remember my granny telling me about, you know, her sister's husband, robbie. Oh, he was a bugger. He was a bugger to her, you know, and that was it. So actually now he was abusive to her, he was violent to her, but it was like this hush hush.
Speaker 2:It all happens behind closed doors and that's because there's so much really for women, so much guilt and shame. We carry the guilt and shame, blame ourselves for the abuse that we may have experienced, and I gave. That, I think, is really sad, because that has what stopped women from reaching out and asking for help. And you know, once upon a time the police wouldn't even answer a domestic violence called. They'd be like what happens behind closed doors stays behind closed doors, and so you know, that has shifted over the years. But I think one of the things that you know, I think is really important, that we all need to know, is that we can't judge anybody who are experiencing domestic abuse and to have those things.
Speaker 2:Or why didn't she just leave, Do you know what? Because it's going to be a big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big end. And so you know what? Because it could be dangerous for her. A woman isn't expecting her own life in. If she has any thoughts of wanting to get out, she needs to do that in her own time and her own space and when she feels that it is safe for her to do that. And do you know what? One of the things that I've learned in life is you never know what's truly going on for someone else. You might think you know, you might hypothesize it about it, but you never truly know what's going on someone else. Walk beside a woman, hold her hand if she wants us to. You can't drag her or push her to do anything. You just need to know I'm here if you need me and if she chooses to come to you and look for support, that's great. But really we need to do it in a non-judgmental, compassionate way, because we don't truly know what's going on for her.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I find it fascinating that I had a look at the domestic violence stats in New Zealand a few months ago for something else I was working on, and the stats are high. The stats are high and but yet I don't know anyone who's experiencing domestic violence but I must know people.
Speaker 2:You would yeah, yeah, yeah, you absolutely would yeah. And again, what they say one in four. I find that interesting. Different people, different organizations, measure the stats in different ways, but one in four, one in six are the two stats that I hear of. But when I'm speaking in front of a room of 250 women, I'm like one in four. Look around the room, you just don't know about it because they're not telling people because of the guilt and shame that they're experiencing. Or this is the other piece, is it? Often women don't recognize it as abuse Because they may have grown up within an emotionally abusive, in an emotionally abusive household, with a mother or father.
Speaker 2:They might think that that's normal and they think that's just part of being in a relationship. Look, that happened to me. Yeah, excuse me, I am my first husband. We were having troubles and we went and saw a counselor and we were in with that counselor for three minutes and the counselor said to my now ex I'm just going to get you to go outside, I'm going to talk to Melissa for a few minutes and I'm going to get you to come back in and I'll talk to you.
Speaker 2:And as soon as he went out she said you know he's emotionally abusive to you, don't you? And I was like I'd never heard of that, I had never heard of emotional abuse. And I was like what are you talking about? And she said, well, in the five minutes that he was in the room with you, he said this, he said this, he said this and he called you that in front of me and she said that's emotional abuse. And she said the thing is with emotional abuse is that it doesn't leave any physical scars, so people don't necessarily recognize it as being a form of abuse. And she said but the thing with emotional abuse even it's like coercive control, psychological abuse is that because it doesn't leave any scars, people don't take it seriously. But the detrimental impact on that woman's emotional health and wellbeing is really devastating. And I suppose we see that I've got you back, sister we see the devastation of women who think coercively controlled or emotionally or psychologically abused, and those emotional scars can be much deeper than the physical scars.
Speaker 1:Wow. And then you know you were saying before you have to walk beside a woman, they have to be ready to leave the situation. How long did it take you to leave From, I guess, that point of someone pointing out to you? Actually something's not right here too.
Speaker 2:So I had been thinking about it for you, thinking there's something not right here. I had been thinking that, but I didn't recognise it as a form of emotional abuse. It wasn't until, actually, by the time, we saw that counsellor and she said that to me. And then we saw two more counsellors and they all said the same thing. Well, the others weren't any good. They all said the same thing and he would just be cranky at the counsellor and he was like he wanted them to say I was a naughty girl, you've been a naughty girl, and that's what it's like. I need to be punished. I've been a naughty girl, and that's what he wanted the counsellors to say. And they all went no, he's not serious about actually fixing a relationship, he just wants you to be the naughty girl.
Speaker 2:So you know, after that I left and it was really hard and that's where I go. You know it is so hard. It is so hard to leave. Mmm, even, yeah, use a bully Because it's really scary and that's why you know we talk about why doesn't a woman leave because it's really freaking hard when you are absolutely shit scared. And they're a bully and you know what they're capable of and you're trying to very nicely see if you can exit slowly and slowly and gently as you can, because you're scared of the ramifications. Yeah, so, yeah, that's why. Do you know what? You just need to walk beside women and to trust that they're an expert in their life and they're trying to do the best they can, always, yeah.
Speaker 1:So what are your goals for your charity, like, where do you want to take it? You've been operating for eight years, but I'm thinking there's always more to do. So you know what? Yeah, do you know what?
Speaker 2:I think one of the things that we're really keen to do is support more women in regional areas because, you know, domestic violence can be rife in regional areas and there's a lot of isolation, you know, for women in regional areas and there aren't always the support services. We're getting women calling us from out of area, you know, from towns hours away from us, and they've heard about us or they've seen the ad that's been running on Channel 9 or on NBN for the last 12 months, and so they're reaching out to us, going I have no idea, I need help. So I guess we're kind of going okay, we're looking at ways that we can support those women in regional areas, even if that's referring them, finding out who the services are in their area that they don't know about and referring them to services in their own area. You know what I mean. But you know we're becoming a bit of a support and information point, so that's something that we're just like how do we help and support more women?
Speaker 1:Nice. The kind of issues you're dealing with are pretty heavy, I would say, and I think over the last probably five to 10 years maybe it's longer, but I've certainly noticed in that time that I've been away from Australia, so I've been living outside of Australia for 10 years. The topic of domestic violence is more talked about. There's more awareness. I see more women being critical of the media and how they report cases of domestic violence. I'm seeing organisations put in place domestic violence leave. So things are changing. But what are you optimistic about in this area?
Speaker 2:Look, I'm going to be honest, I kind of waver between being obviously and then being totally like, oh my God, is it ever going to get better? Is it ever going to get better? That's realistic. Look, certainly the awareness piece I think is really great in people talking about it. And you know, we've for the last eight years we've made sure every year we do a community campaign and so we've done things like partner with the Newcastle Knights and done half-time activations. We've gotten a whole stadium saying no to domestic violence. We've, the last three, four years, have done an eye run for her community walk. We've had like this we had 1100 people, men and women and children, walking the streets with our I say no to domestic violence shirt and so for me I go.
Speaker 2:Once upon a time you would never see the community come out and especially men going. Actually domestic violence isn't okay. So for me I go. That's awesome that we're seeing men, women and educating their children, but men and women taking to the streets and going domestic violence isn't okay and having those conversations. I think that's really important. You know, I saw an out on TV. I've been seeing the ads that's around. Talk to your children about sexual abuse. I'll have those conversations with your children. I'm like, yes, okay, you know, that's like where things are coming out of the closet now and that gives me hope. That gives me hope, yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so how has I guess this year been for you, and what are you looking forward to next year?
Speaker 2:Yeah, this has been a rough year for me. It's been a really big year of transition and change, but we've got some. Really we had some new team members join us this year. So I'm actually very excited about the next few years because, again, we, as I said, we're looking at ways that we can help and support more women and women in regional areas as well, as you know, locally and so I'm excited because we've got a great team. Now We've got the resources to be able to do that, Yay, but we keep doing the do and actually raising the funds so we can do it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, okay, we'll finish off by telling us where can we find you? How can we donate? What kind of support are you particularly looking for?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so look, our website is gotyourbucksistercom and right on the home page is a donate button if anybody would like to donate. But we always love people to spread the word, share out social media posts, so I go. Do you know what people can help in so many different ways, which is really wonderful? We're actually holding a fundraiser in Sydney for international women's next year, so if anybody is interested, reach out and I can put you on a list to send you details about that as well.
Speaker 1:Cool. Well, I think this episode will air in 2024. So I will try and get it before international women's day for you. And I'll put all the details in the show notes for everyone listening.
Speaker 2:Awesome. Well, sorry, sorry, thank you so much. Thank you, melissa, you're fantastic, thank you.
Speaker 1:No, thank you.