Gulf Coast Diplomacy recently reconnected with International Visitor Leadership Program alumna Nicole Joseph Chin of Trinidad and Tobago who visited Northwest Florida in May 2011 on a project titled Women and Entrepreneurship. After her appearance at the September 2021 Small World Café, we sat down together to talk further about her work.
Gulf Coast Diplomacy:
Hello, Nicole. So glad you could join us today.
Nicole:
Thank you so much. It’s such a pleasure to be here.
Gulf Coast Diplomacy:
I’ve read your bio and am intrigued. Where are you focusing your work these days?
Nicole:
My work is around breasts as part of a sustainable city discussion. It’s specifically because, as I was doing my work as a bra fitter in a social enterprise, I understood that there were so many layers that were still not being addressed and uncovered. It was very important for me to do the application of building the conversations and the work that I’ve done into sustainable cities, particularly around workforces, adolescent development, as well as inclusion. The breast discussion, for me, is all about inclusion.
Gulf Coast Diplomacy:
Can you elaborate on the importance of breast health for sustainable cities?
Nicole:
A sustainable city comprises of women, men, girls. It comprises of people who have challenges, in terms of either physical or physiological challenges. We also have people who are inflicted… ailments, diseases, and disorders. We have populations that are at risk and disenfranchised. We also have people who may be from communities such as disabled communities, LGBTQIA communities, and any community that, in the context of breasts or inclusion or health or wellbeing or wellness, need to be given a space, and their presence needs to be considered and regarded and respected.
A sustainable city, according to the sustainable development goals of the United Nations, would be looking at things like the safety and security inclusion, health in terms of healthy economies, the goods, food supply in terms of quality of food and food security, life above land, life under water, ending poverty, gender justice, social justice, collaboration.
All of the sustainable development goals for the 2030 goals of the United Nations actually ring true and are relevance to the breast discourse because of the fact that women comprise a very high community space inside of workforces, education, as well as at risk, very, very high at-risk communities. We look at the woman’s body, and we understand that she’s a potential victim of any kind of a form of abuse or discrimination, just by virtue of being a woman, just by virtue of being a girl.
Gulf Coast Diplomacy:
A healthy mom means a sustainable community, because mothers, through breastfeeding, are the food for the next generation. I don’t know why I haven’t thought of it that way before.
Nicole:
Yes. It’s a contributing factor to our sustainable city and, by extension, a sustainable economy.
Gulf Coast Diplomacy:
How are you getting your message out to, say, adolescent girls, who may be uncomfortable with the changes that are happening to their bodies?
Nicole:
We have designed a lot of beautiful education programs as well as tools. Those tools, actually, are very helpful in spaces such as schools, any kind of junior communities or youth communities, as well as the adolescent health space. Those tools have been designed in collaboration with a university in California that I am affiliated with. What we’ve done over the last four years is build a partnership informally, but very strategically and meaningfully, where we actually aligned the work that I have been doing in social impact and education to building and providing almost prescriptive tools and interventions that will help to bridge the gap and empower and educate girls and women differently.
Gulf Coast Diplomacy:
Earlier today, you spoke to our Small World Café audience. The question that I asked at the very end, I’d like to ask now as well. What is the one thing you want people to remember about breast health and sustainable cities?
Nicole:
They have to remember a girl. They have to remember the girl who doesn’t have a voice of representation or the woman who doesn’t have a voice of representation. They might think of me because that’s what I represent, but I just want them to think of the woman and the girl, who does not have a voice to defend her body, to defend her breasts.
Gulf Coast Diplomacy:
Thank you, Nicole. Is there anything else that you’d like to share with me today, before we say goodbye?
Nicole:
I want to be grateful for the Pensacola community. I want to send out love to the folks that I met when I came to Pensacola, and I want to send love today to the warm community sharing and to the people who welcomed me again virtually this time and the conversation that we had and we shared. Particularly because I feel like that’s where it started, my religion of advocacy because it was a safe space during that journey of women and entrepreneurship via the State Department IVLP program. I feel like it’s a good place to always return to, and I’ve actually been planning to come back to Pensacola for a long time.
Gulf Coast Diplomacy:
Well, let us know when you do. It’s been lovely reconnecting with you.
