Nora Bawazier has an education in Finance and International Business. She has worked in Islamic banking, logistics, e-commerce, property and also makes and sells her own healthy gelato! Besides her traditional education she has also taken international trainer certifications in Hypnotherapy, Neuro-Linguistic Programming and Emotional Intelligence skills.
Nora Left Indonesia in 2018 to accompany her two children pursuing an education in Australia. When she arrived in Darwin in the Northern Territory she was introduced to the Australian Red cross by a friend who was volunteering there. Nora’s experience as a trainer was put into use and she became a volunteer trainer for many of the Red Cross programs. She also became a Volunteer Program Coordinator for the Migrations Support Program to spearhead capacity building and capability highlighting workshops and events for local communities, especially working with women. The programs were very successful and many of them are still running today. Nora was also integral in securing a large grant from the local government to help fund these important workshops and projects.
At the start of the pandemic in 2020 Nora joined the Australian Red Cross Emergency Services team to be able to help more people in need. Again, she was part of the initial team leaders who started to coordinate welfare calls for those isolated in mandatory quarantine. Nora and the team performed over 7000 phone calls over a 4-month period and received much appreciation and gratitude from those they reached out to during this difficult time.
– Nora Bawazier, Australia“When we service the needs of others with love and help others heal their pain, we inevitably heal ourselves too”
Nora continued to apply her skills as an educator and became one of the lead trainers for Psychological First Aid – a mandatory training program for all volunteers and staff before they are sent on deployment. Nora herself was deployed to a remote community in the Northern Territory to help during a flood and to Northampton, WA (Western Australia) during the recovery phase of post cyclone Seroja. She continues to enthusiastically volunteer and contribute actively to the Australian Red Cross, despite her own personal challenges, heartaches, and long separations from her loved ones back in Indonesia due to the pandemic.
Since becoming a volunteer for the Australian Red Cross, Nora has received formal recognition for her volunteer work. She was among other things nominated for the Chief Minister’s Emergency Services of The Year award. She is also the first volunteer and the only participant from the Northern Territory to be selected to participate in the inaugural 6-month Red Cross Accelerate Talented Women in Leadership Development Program in collaboration with the Melbourne Business School.
When asked about what motivates her to do this important work she replies: “The more I learn, the more I realize there are many more things I still want and need to learn. It is also especially important to be a cheerleader for other women and to be of service to others; because when we service the needs of others with love and help others heal their pain, we inevitably heal ourselves too.”
Companies where 8 out of every 20 managers are female, generate about 34% of their revenues from innovative products and services. In companies where only 1 out of every 20 managers is female, this is only 25%.