Roberta Rose-Collins Using personal challenges to motivate, educate, support, and celebrate women

At this time, Roberta was overweight, lived a mostly sedentary lifestyle, and admits she was busy taking care of others instead of putting herself and her health first.

The discovery of her disease forced her to make dietary changes, which led to an improved overall health. She says this first step prompted her to take several more steps; she added basic exercise to her routine, through walking.

“A few months into that, in addition to feeling healthier, I started to see physical changes to my body and was motivated to push myself a bit further and joined a gym,” she shares of the progression of her renewed self-care, highlighting that the training style in the gym pushed her far beyond the physical limitations she had set for herself.

In 2014, a mere year after her lifestyle changes, she completed the UWI half marathon in under three hours. “[That was] my first ever running event… less than one year after not being able to jog for five minutes on a treadmill!” she relates proudly.

Her illness and accompanying changes inspired Roberta to found “Yes She Can”, a project aimed to motivate, educate, support, and celebrate the successes of women, as well as promote emotional and physical wellness. The project’s three main areas of focus are physical activity, healthy eating choices, and self-appreciation and self-care.

“The main message through the Yes She Can project is: despite station or status you can make healthy and positive choices that improve and enhance your quality of life,” says the founder, adding that age and social and financial backgrounds are inconsequential in the journey to becoming “your best self”.

“The idea of Yes She Can came to me after completing the UWI half marathon in 2014, and I thought about how far along my journey I came and how much joy completing this event gave me,” she explains. Roberta is adamant that living healthier and making more informed choices gave her a type of freedom and happiness that she had not experienced previously. “I have a loving and supportive family and have always enjoyed my life, but this was different. For the first time in my life, I was doing something for ME!”

This feeling of empowerment and wellness overwhelmed her, and she was determined to share her story and motivate other women to take similar steps in their lives.

Yes She Can was launched on International Women’s Day 2015 with three local motivational videos of women sharing their journeys toward living healthier lives and the challenges and victories along this path. “Since [our launch], YSC has been responsible for many inspirational transformation experiences locally and abroad,” she boasts.

YSC also “actively celebrates” the achievements of its core members, both in TT and its Hong Kong contingent. Some of these achievements include training and completing a triathlon in Tobago, the YSC TT team training and competing in the Annual Chinese Bicentennial Dragon Boat Regatta held in Chaguaramas, and their Blessing Bag Campaign, the collection and distribution of women’s handbags filled with toiletries and personal items for homeless women and women in need.

YSC also has a strong social media presence on Facebook, and continues to reach out to women through encouraging posts and shared stories of local women who have worked against the odds, much like Roberta herself.

Coming up on March 4, in the lead-up to International Women’s Day (March 8), Yes She Can will host their International Women in Wellness Conference (yscwomeninwellness.com) at the Hyatt Regency. The conference is described as a powerful day with experts and educators whose mission is to coach, motivate, and energise participants towards living a healthier life.

The theme, Roberta says, is evocative of YSC’s overall mission: “Building our Women, Strengthening our Society”. “Our focus is on women as we believe that by educating and encouraging adult women on the benefits of making healthier choices, the entire family and by extension our society, will lead a more fulfilling and enjoyable life,” she says of the conference and YSC’s overall goal.

She also points out that YSC is not a “women’s only” movement. “Men empower women through support,” she believes, citing her husband’s irreplaceable support during her own lifestyle changes. “Both directly and indirectly, we have encouraged and included men to be a part of our movement. We proudly have a few guys who not only support us through training for events but are also right there alongside us sporting their YSC-branded apparel.” She notes that there will be two male presenters at the upcoming Wellness Conference, “as we see men as a valuable and integral part of our journey.”

Roberta acknowledges that all women possess different lives, experiences, and goals. Even so, she says YSC is for all women and embraces each woman’s individuality. “No two people are the same, no two situations are the same. We have to first accept our uniqueness before we can move forward or make changes in our lives,” she insists, adding that this knowledge of individuality and understanding allows a woman to reach her full potential.

In the future, she would like to see the organisation extend its reach throughout the Caribbean by way of community programmes, which will engage local health and wellness practitioners to share practical tools to support women transforming their lives. “[I hope] it will also provide a platform for women who have travelled the path to living healthier to support other women along their journey,” she says of the ways sharing of experiences can aid in the empowerment and strengthening of all.