It’s hard to snapshot all that makes Nkandu Beltz, a 32-year-old Zambian-born social-changer and philanthropist living in Australia, the kind of inspiration that would make the Dalai Lama want her as his MC. She’s worked not-for-profit for 15 years, a powerful voice for women’s rights and is literally changing the future.
By Tracey Withers
As she launches her book I Have The Power, Unlocking Your Potential To Change The World and preps for the Dalai Lama’s conference tour thus June, she tells Rescu. her incredible story. You’ll clap. And, more importantly, you’ll want to #leanin even further.
RESCU: What will you be doing with the Dalai Lama in June? How?
NKANDU BELTZ: It’s a bit of a long story – we go way back! Two years ago, I was a young social [advocate] for young Australians and my background is news journalism, so when he was here on tour, I was asked if I wanted to interview him on stage. We had about 1000 people in the audience and we talked about what it feels like to be the Dalai Lama and also the pressing issues that women are facing the name of tradition and religion. The conversation got a lot of traction in the media. So they asked me to work with him again at the conference this June.
RESCU: You obviously clicked in that first interview. What’s he like?
NKANDU BELTZ: I’m not the kind of person who gets shaky but I was really nervous and I think he could sense that. We locked eyes and he extended his hand as I sat down beside him and I think he held my hand the entire time. There was this sense of calmness and when I walked off stage I felt like somebody, that I mattered. He makes [everyone] feel that, like we are all the same.
RESCU: Were you a spiritual type already?
NKANDU BELTZ: I’ve always been spiritual. In Africa, I was brought up as a Seventh Day Adventist and then, in year 12 or so, I thought that what some religious leaders were doing was immoral and unethical – and my values were just totally different. So I set myself this quest to begin a relationship with my own God. Instead of following a religion I began to look more into what it takes to be a good person.
RESCU: Fast forward to now and your job description literally is ‘social change-maker and philanthropist’. Where did you start?
NKANDU BELTZ: I think I had no choice but to become what I am. My grandfather was a commissioner for community development in Zambia and I lived with him on his farm, in a remote part of the Eastern province. It’s very colourful, beautiful and agricultural, lots of wildlife. When my grandpa would get food from the land, he’d put it into parcels and put them in a basket and ask me to take it around to different households in our community. He’d say, ‘There is always enough to share’. It’s the concept of Ubuntu – I am because we are. We are a community.
RESCU: Your first official project was as a ‘girl child advocate’ while still in school. Primary school…
NKANDU BELTZ: I started when I was 10. I would write poems, I was one of those girls who made noise however I could about what was happening. So it was through school that UNESCO picked me up [as an advocate].
RESCU: That’s so bad-ass and vocal. You got the jump early!
NKANDU BELTZ: I was so tired of injustices against girls at my own school, sometimes in my home. Things like girls being asked to sit at the back of the classroom, boys at the front. I was smacked one time, by my uncle, for wearing pants. He said: “You’re a girl – you need to go put on a skirt,” and as I was going to change my father looked me in the eye, called me my clan name, Makili, it means The Happy One and said, “Don’t let anyone ever suppress your integrity or tell you what to do just because you’re a girl.”
RESCU: Is your father who you think of in your work for the HeForShe campaign for men to support women’s rights?
NKANDU BELTZ: My father was working as a manager for the Credit Union Association of Zambia in the city. He has been my number-one hero and supporter. My mother was a food and nutrition teacher and she’s the kind of thoughtful woman who speaks when it’s necessary. They were great role models.
RESCU: Mentoring is a major part if your book. What’s the key to that relationship?
NKANDU BELTZ: I had my family and I’d listen to stories of great African Kings and Queens and all of those stories, in a way, told me that we’re here for something, carrying on a legacy and someone needs to be the voice for people who can’t speak up. But it’s really important to have mentors who is more than a sounding board – someone who will do things to help elevate you as a person and what you want to do to the next level. I’ve had many.
RESCU: Right. Being a social-changer, or even being an author, is really about empowerment. Is there a Step One for women seeking it for themselves?
NKANDU BELTZ: I think there is. Women find themselves in all sorts of situations by circumstance, not by choice. And I think the first step is believing in yourself – you need to be motivated from within. First, I’d say, by having a helicopter view, taking an inventory of your life.
RESCU: Without an action plan, can that view from the top look too overwhelming to tackle?
NKANDU BELTZ: Yes, it’s important to have a vision and to have a goal, whatever that is. When you’re looking a big picture you need to see what’s about you and what involves other people as well.
RESCU: What do you think men’s role is in equality for women?
NKANDU BELTZ: When I say I’m a ‘happy feminist’ people tend to take that a certain way – it can be such a loaded word – but for me feminism itself means wanting gender equality. I want women to be empowered. I want men to be empowered. I don’t want anyone to be left behind. That’s what I stand for. Women have been disempowered by domestic violence by other situations they find themselves in. I’ve been very fortunate to have very good men in my life – from my grandfather to my husband and the Dalai Lama as well, yes – and these men have encouraged me to soldier on and believe in myself.
RESCU: In your book, you tell a story that could have really changed how you felt about men. Will you share it here?
NKANDU BELTZ: Yes, at school I was almost raped by my headmaster and with that there was a lot of shame. When I spoke to my friends about it, they said I shouldn’t tell anyone about it because everyone would think I was a slut. Some time later, I realised that I had to speak up – he had to be held accountable. I told my father and he was in tears because he believed that I’d have been the one to speak out straight away. The role of men is to be that support, love and respect that help us speak.
RESCU: The book is titled I Have the Power – Unlocking Your Potential to Change the World. That’s a big concept for any us.
NKANDU BELTZ: But is. But I believe that saying ‘I have the power’ is an affirmation. I believe I can do anything. The reason I wrote the book was that while working with Indigenous and migrant communities in Australia, there was this idea that girls could not aim any higher than supermarket jobs or being a mum. I constantly wanted to tell them that they have what it takes to be what they want. We are living in a time where you can apply for a grant. Australia is a good environment [for that].
RESCU: How did you end up working with Indigenous communities in Australia?
NKANDU BELTZ: I came to Australia in August 2005, with my daughter and my husband. I was living in the Netherlands, my husband is a Dutch obstetrician, and we were done with the winters. He applied to work in Australia and he got a job straight away – but they didn’t give us an option about where to go. I just wanted somewhere warm. So they sent us to Kununurra [in the Kimberley] in Western Australia. We lived there for seven years. Half of the population is Indigenous and that’s why I started the Kununurra Development Programme, a youth initiative that is now national. The idea was to empower kids, regardless of their social, cultural or economic background.
RESCU: There have always been youth initiatives. Why did this one have such success?
NKANDU BELTZ: I found that there were a lot of programmes but they pigeonholed the kids: if you’re at risk, you went here. If you were from a migrant background, you went here. I think that, as a society, if you want to move forward, we need integration. And skills-based mentoring – not just listening. I’d run, say, media workshops for six weeks to teach people and at the end I wanted to see results – at the end the kids would produce a documentary.
RESCU: We love that the book has doable steps and ideas.
NKANDU BELTZ: Yes, it’s a lot about the lessons that I’ve learned.
I Have The Power, Unlocking Your Potential To Change The World is coming soon.