I invite you to listen to the 50th and final episode of My MARS Mantra podcast, where my youngest teacher, Inne Kusumawati from Indonesia, helped me overcome my fear of water and taught me how to swim. After nearly 20 years of trying, I finally succeeded at the age of 36, and I now swim regularly.

Inne is a marine biologist, water polo player, surfer, and swim teacher. She lives on Awera Island in West Sumatra with her family and now runs a surf school with her husband. Inne highlighted the importance of having male family members — support women in living their dreams and in creating a new culture of brave Muslim women.

Indonesia is a highly disaster‑prone country, facing thousands of catastrophic events each year. Inne lives on a tsunami‑prone island and has therefore taught her family and neighbours how to escape during a tsunami. In many countries, such as Bangladesh, Myanmar, and Indonesia, women account for higher disaster casualties from events like typhoons and tsunamis, often because they do not know how to swim.

I conclude the My MARS Mantra podcast by thanking Inne, a future changemaker and my youngest teacher, for helping me break free from my fear of water.

Host and creator: Rumana Kabir

Co-producer: Zahid Shumon

Promotion and graphics: Ahasan Faisal

Music ASEIS

#Indonesia

#Tsunami

#Disasters

#Early Warning Systems

#Sumatra

#Awera Island

#Swim

#Surf

#Bangldesh

#Disaster preparedness

Listen to my mentor Dr Iftekhar Ahmed's reflections on development practice. As changemaker architects, how we started with a big dream to make a difference; how we learnt to accept that whatever we have done, is just a tiny step. Looking back over two decades ago the idea of development and low income housing was sidelined from the mainstream of architecture practice. Now due to climate change and overwhelming rise of conflict and political instability worldwide, many professionals are more socially aware and self-critical about their own footprint and impact of their work. Our education systems are also adapting to this changing need and offering many practical and relevant courses around the world. However, the cultural shift on how we perceive ourselves and reflect on our own work, is still very slow. We need to reflect more about this and ask ourselves, ''In the end of the day, who benefitted from our work and have we really made any difference at all?'' Subscribe to ‪@mymarsmantra‬ to listen to more stories and inspire yourselves to be a changemaker.Creator and host: Rumana KabirEditor: Zahid ShumonPromotion: Ahsan Faisal and Tasnim LatifMusic ‪@aseis‬ #mymarsmantra

#changemakers #Bangladesh #development #reliefwork #disasters

My MARS Mantra Podcast, invites you to listen to changemaker Ed Clancy OBE, a three-time Olympic gold medalist from the United Kingdom, in team cycling.

Ed grew up in Barnsley, a small town in the beautiful South Yorkshire, in England. Ed’s successful career started because of his passion for cycling as a child, receiving opportunities to be trained for the British Olympic team as a teenager and those mentors who encouraged him throughout his life. Ed also emphasises the importance of teamwork, and the sacrifices one need to make to achieve success.

Now Ed is an ambassador for sustainable cities and is designated as an Active Travel Commissioner, by the Mayor or South Yorkshire. In this role, Ed is promoting cycling as an opportunity for all, for good health, wellbeing and a safe travels.

Subscribe to your preferred podcast platform and inspire yourselves by listening to more changemakers stories to come.

Email us at: ⁠mymarsmantra@gmail.com⁠ if you want to share your stories as a changemaker.

Creator and host: Rumana KabirEditor: Zahid Shumon Promotion: Ahasan Faisal and Tasnim Latif Music: ASEIS

#Cycling #Olympics #RoadSafety #SustainabileTransport #SustainableCities #ActiveTravelComissioner #SYMCA #Barnsley #mymarsmantra #changemaker

My MARS mantra podcast welcomes you to listen to the story of changemaker Jane Stewart Manu, who is managing disasters and climate risks in the Pacific Islands. There are 17 countries in the Pacific Islands, and the smaller islands are more vulnerable to volcano eruption, earthquakes, tsunami, covid and climate induced disasters like floods and regular storms. Jane’s passion for the environment and love for the tropics, led her to first work in environmental charities like Keep Wales Tidy and Keep Australia Beautiful and then for international charities like Save the Children and the Red Cross. Jane’s story will inspire you to see how she is balancing family and a highly demanding humanitarian role, that involves a lot of planning and organising.

Subscribe to your preferred podcast platform and inspire yourselves by listening to more changemakers stories to come.

Email us at: ⁠mymarsmantra@gmail.com⁠ if you want to share your stories as a changemaker.

Creator and host: Rumana KabirCo-producer: Alistair MarstonEditor: Zahid ShumonPromotion: Ahasan Faisal and Tasnim LatifMusic: ASEIS#PacificIslands #Humanitarian #InternationalDevelopment #mymarsmantra #changemaker #covid #ClimateChange

Listen to Jonathan Parkinson’s story about what it is liketo be an international expert. Jonathan is a Civil and Environmental Engineer supporting many fast growing cities to manage their waste and water sustainably. Jonathan worked both for non-profit and private sector andhighlighted both the challenges and key to success as an international consultant.

He alluded to the local insights and leadership to any successful work that he has done overseas. Jonathan's MARS mantra as an international consultant, is to be humble to acknowledge the local expertise to bring in the most sustainable solutions to our fast growing cities worldwide. Jonathan also loves being a DJ and is inspired by world music and especially Bob Marley.

Subscribe to your preferred podcast platform and inspire yourselves by listening to more changemakers stories tocome.

Email us at: ⁠mymarsmantra@gmail.com⁠ if you want to share your stories as a changemaker.

Creator and host: Rumana Kabir

Co-producer: Alistair Marston

Editor: Zahid Shumon

Promotion: Ahsan Faisal and Tasnim Latif

Music: ASEIS

#SolidWasteManagement

#WaterSupply

#InternationalDevelopment

#mymarsmantra

#changemaker

Listen to #changemaker Shamira Haider’s story. Starting from Bangladesh as an architect, then working in the UK andglobally as a business professional and now as a humanitarian worker in many disaster zones like Ukraine, South Sudan, Haiti and Pakistan to name a few.

At the core of Shamira’s decision to change her career path was to make a difference. Shamira invites us to useour skills in a more meaningful way, to support those who needs help the most.

The #UnitedNations (UN) established #WorldHumanitarianDay in 2008, for of the 22 #HumanitarianHeros who lost their lives in the bombing of the UN headquarters in Baghdad on August 19,2003. Since then, many humanitarian workers have sacrificed their lives, wellbeing and families to voice the voiceless and to provide basic human dignity to millions of people suffering from war, and other disasters. Although a career in the UN sounds very exciting and lucrative, it comes with the price,which we cannot see form outside.

Subscribe to your preferred podcast platform and inspire yourselves by listening to more changemakersstories to come.

Email us at: ⁠mymarsmantra@gmail.com⁠ if youwant to share your stories as a changemaker.

Creator and host: Rumana Kabir

Co-producer: Alistair Marston

Editor: Zahid Shumon

Promotion: Ahsan Faisal

Music: ASEIS

Listen to my inspiring ⁠#chagemaker⁠ friend, Nada Ibrahim, an enterprise development specialist from the UK, supporting small and medium businesses worldwide. Nada started her career by advising the World Bank in ⁠#Sudan⁠ andthen working across Asia and Africa. Nada also co-founded a social enterprise to export products like ‘gum Arabic’, and empowered farmers to export honey and many other products in different parts of the world. Nada emphasised the importance for us as changemakers on creating a sustainable business eco-system, starting in a bottom-up way, in parallel to working at the top, to reform policies for inclusive economic development. ⁠

⁠Inspire yourself to become a changemaker by sharing your stories by emailing us at: mymarsmantra@gmail.com

Subscribe to ⁠My MARS mantra⁠ podcast YouTubechannel or your preferred podcast platforms, for more stories from around the world.

Creator and host: ⁠Rumana Kabir⁠

Co-producer: Alistair Marston

Editor: ⁠Zahid Sumon⁠

Promotion: ⁠Tasnim Latif⁠ and ⁠Ahasan Faisal

Music: ASEIS