March 16: A few days after International Women’s Day, Gwendolen Noronha took to her Instagram handle to show solidarity and used her reach to spread the message of peace in support of Ukraine. Gwendolen wrote, “Fear isn’t the emotion that children should face every moment and every day of their lives. They do not recognize the chaos around them. The confusion and scare build within leaving deeper scars than we can measure. Being a global educator, I have known only one citizenship- global humanity. I pledged and donated to “Save the Children”, an organization working tirelessly to help the children in Ukraine. It doesn’t matter where you are from or where you belong, in whatever way you can- stand to help.”
Last year, Gwendolen Noronha along with her social initiative, “Educate, to educate”, provided heat relief care packages consisting of mangoes and vitamin-enriched fruit juices to thousands of children coming from lower-income families. Gwendolen strongly supports children’s rights and is involved in the upliftment of their education quality. She has been an active entrepreneur in the education sector for 14 years and continues to win several awards and appreciation internationally for her contribution to subjects related to mental health including being appreciated this year by the Women’s Icon Awards.
Recently, while addressing other educators at a session in the United States, Gwendolen highlighted the increase in levels of anxiety amongst children. She stated, “The pandemic and several other unusual situations like the ongoing war between Ukraine and Russia have caused children to feel confused and unsafe. These mixed feelings lead to high levels of anxiety in them. Some children keep their worries to themselves and, thus, the signs can be missed”. Gwendolen further talked about the challenges children are facing across the globe while they prepare to return to schools, saying, “The topics we as adults might find petty are at times huge for children. Many countries opted for online schooling for over two years to help ease the spread of the Covid-19 virus. During this phase, children had to adapt to a lifestyle that was tough for them. For their age, spending time with friends during recess, sharing lunch, riding the school bus together, etc are essential parts of their daily lives and suddenly they were deprived of it. Even though it is for their safety, it is a difficult concept for them to understand. After two years when they now need to return, they will be anxious again and some might face adjustment issues. These changes are vast for their minds and parents, guardians, and school authorities must provide all the understanding, help, and support they can”.
Meanwhile, on the work front, Gwendolen will be launching her multi-skill development platform under her firm, “MetaMind” which also features a few celebrities across the world. She is all set to make her mark in verticals beyond mental sports which include collaboration with brands like The Designer’s Class, co-founded and owned by Samarth Bajaj that hosts one of the Indian industry’s best celebrity designers like Masaba Gupta, Rhea Kapoor, Kunal Rawal, and many more. Her recent collaborations include names from the west like Adrian Gorbaliuk, actor and visual artist from the United States of America. The platform will dedicate a special segment to mental and physical fitness that will offer constant support to its users. For the first two million users that enroll for the mental fitness-related courses, Gwendolen has pledged to offer the same course for free to another two million users from lower-income families. The platform is set to launch globally in the next few months.
Vijay Singh