Maaike Boumans
I wrote a letter in my diary when I was 8 or 9 years old, deeply upset by adults who were ‘cruel and mean’ to animals. When I was eleven I was busy writing letters for Amnesty International after school to help free political prisoners. At some point my mum made me quit until I was a little bit older. I didn’t quite know how to handle learning about these injustices yet. Sometimes I still don’t.
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But I feel so incredibly lucky to be able to do this work of supporting people in learning how to work better together, how to have the type of conversations that can move us out of destructive systems and into more kind and just societies. It is long-term work and I believe in it deeply.
my background
A bachelor in Cultural Anthropology and Sociology of Non-Western Societies has shown me the value of staying curious and open, of relating to ‘the other’, whatever that may mean in various contexts. The honours program ART and RESEARCH fuelled a deep love for
expression, creativity, innovative ways of thinking and doing and for collaboration across disciplines.
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And I’m incredibly grateful for the people and body of work from the Masters’ in Strategic Leadership towards Sustainability (MSLS) in Sweden, for giving me a scientific understanding of “sustainability”, practices and tools for working and leading in complexity and an incredible worldwide community to be a part of.
I am an Art of Hosting practitioner and a spoken word poet, and I love it when those two worlds come together. Meditation, walking and yoga are part of my daily personal practice.
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doing ‘good work’
When I came back from Sweden in 2013 at the age of 25, I knew I wanted to work on different issues at the same time, in different teams, in multiple places or countries. It felt important to work at the intersections of our societal issues, as all of our challenges interconnect. It still does. I didn’t quite know how I was going to do all that - I didn’t know anything about running your own business. And I didn’t feel like I wanted to ‘run a business’. I want to do good work.
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I hope this website is a testimony to some of the great work of many even greater people, many of whom you can find through references at project descriptions. I am grateful I get to contribute to it.
“Another world is not only possible, she is on her way. On a quiet day, I can hear her breathing.”
- Arundhati Roy