Today we’d like to introduce you to Sabahat Ahmed.
Sabahat, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
I moved from Alberta, Canada to Sugar Land in December 2017 and began to settle into the vibrant and fast-paced life that comes with this city quickly. Six months later, I was meeting neighbors and making acquaintances but I still felt like I didn’t belong. I was encouraged to join the PTO at my son’s school and that’s how I met Anni, who introduced and brought me to my first MomsMatter meeting. I was floored. It was a circle of women who came from all walks of life and backgrounds to sit for a couple of hours and talked in a safe and open space without judgment and advice (unless advice was sought.) You can speak your truth about parenting, about work, about balancing home and work or relationships and self-care.
It’s not everyday that you find a group of women on a platform that genuinely get your struggle and applaud your accomplishments without even knowing you the first time they meet you. This was the first time I met Sabah Chaudhry, President of MomsMatter. This project was her brainchild and she’s dearly passionate about giving women a space to learn, build and share supportive relationships based on empathy. About one year later, Sabah asked me to join the MomsMatter executive team as Secretary to share her vision and help along with wonderful friends, Sadaf Afshan, Saba Umar and Hina Chaudhry.
Has it been a smooth road?
I would say anything worth doing is never easy and this is one of those things. Sabah has been an incredible visionary but it took and continues to take dedication, patience and a skillful moderation to run the meetings we hold twice a month, once on a weekend and once on a weekday to accommodate both working and stay-at-home mothers. We juggle with different schedules, different abilities, different topics and struggles. We are trying to raise awareness and break down age old stigmas and taboos in not only the Muslim community but society at large about non-neurotypical children, differently abled children, mental health and NONE of it has been easy. Just the fact that it brings up so many stories of heart shattering pain to overwhelming resilience and hope can be draining. It’s always an empowering experience at every meeting to share and know that you are heard, seen and never alone. The individual journey may be different for us all but by walking together, we empower each other to continue. The stories of fellow moms stick with you and their strength empowers us all to continue this project.
How do you think the industry will change over the next decade?
Our hope is that since we have established our vision, our format and grown in size, we continue to provide meaningful events for our attendants. We have had interest from other areas across Texas and we want to be able to help them establish their own local MomsMatter groups.
Contact Info:
- Email: momsmatterhtx@gmail.com
- Instagram: MomsMatterhtx
- Facebook: @momsmatterhtx
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