Today we’d like to introduce you to Anita Carman.
Anita, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
I came to America at the age of 17 shortly after I woke up to find my mother had taken her own life. I tried to run from my past by living at an accelerated rate, I graduated from college in two years, got my MBA and dived into corporate America. I bought my first house at 24 and was living the American dream on the outside while dying on the inside. It was after my first son that life caught up with me. I discovered you can never hide from your past because your past is part of you. The only way to heal from the past is to transform rewrite a different ending to the story. From the mother, I could not save emerged Inspire Women, a 501 (c) 3 to help women find their spark to change the world with funding for scholarships and ministry grants. Going into our 18th year, Inspire Women has reached over 36,000 women through our citywide conferences and events and awarded over $3m to empower women to serve at their potential to reach abused kids, at-risk teens, recovering alcoholics, drug addicts, and to serve in hundreds of different missions and ministries. The Daughters of the American Revolution awarded me a community medal for being an immigrant who changed America, I can’t change my past, but I can ask God to transform my pain into a passion to help every woman who still has the chance to finish well.
Has it been a smooth road?
There are so many voices telling us what success is but you must have the courage to find what success means to you. For me, it wasn’t a career or a house or a car. It was making peace with my past, finding purpose for pain, and not wasting the suffering by influencing change in the world, People may laugh at you or rain on your idealism, but in the end, you have to like yourself. We were born to sing the song written for us to sing. You can’t borrow someone else’s lyrics. You must connect with the heart of your creator and believe that He has a purpose for everything, even your pain. You must believe that in the end, love never fails. My mother’s sufferings paved a better life for me. Inspire Women didn’t begin with me, it began with her sufferings as a girl raped at 14, widowed at 19, experiencing ridicule and abuse for many years of her life. Her pain spilled over into me, her daughter who grew up determined to that ”When I grow up, things will be different for women. Their dreams will be cherished. Their potential will be valued. And they will have a friend who believes in them and invests in their empowerment.”
So, as you know, we’re impressed with Inspire Women – tell our readers more, for example, what you’re most proud of as a company and what sets you apart from others.
I inspire women at Inspire Women’s conferences to connect their lives with God’s power. Regardless of the dysfunction in their biological families, I help them understand they belong to a Heavenly Father who loves them and has great dreams for them. From a daily radio program and annual citywide conferences, I teach monthly at Inspire Women’s spiritual oasis to sustain momentum and to keep women encouraged in the pursuit of their dreams. I am most proud of how women can step into the Inspire Women Experience and get a taste of the world God intended. Women regardless of their ethnicity or background find a place of belonging at our spiritual oasis and in our programs. They receive love that is tangible through our scholarship and mentoring programs.
Who have you been inspired by?
My mother. Though she lost hope at the end, she endured as long as she could. With only a third grade education she trained me in academic excellence to help me win a full scholarship to an American university. When I received my acceptance letter, she must have felt her mission was over. She took her life six months before I was scheduled to leave the country for my studies. Although my heart aches that I could not grow up fast enough to save her, I also know her loss fueled my passion to build a ministry that has changed the lives of thousands of women.
Pricing:
- My book A Daughter’s Destiny-Finding redemption in the midst of broken dreams
Published in English, Spanish and audiobook
On Amazon for $15.95 - Registration for the 19th Annual Inspire Women conference on March 30, 2019: $35
Contact Info:
- Email Address: Anita@inspirewomen.org
- Website: www.inspirewomen.org
- Phone: 713-521-1400
Image Credit:
Inspire Women
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