02/11/2020
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This is our Eco Rebel founder Dominique at the beginning of her social enterprise journey.
The beginning, in her own words :
I was working in the hotel and tourism industry for about ten years, as well as event management. I saw a serious challenge in the way food was wasted, and opportunities were lost within the industries within which I operated.
I had to do something.
All I could see was waste....waste and more waste. It wasn't going away. It used to plague my mind that walks along the beach where I grew up were now replaced by clean ups of waste which wasn't even from our shores....fishing nets, FADs, oil bottles, children toys, slippers, helmets, baby pampers etc. etc.
I had to do something.
So I did do something.
I was fired from my job because I was going through severe depression and drowning in the effects of my grandmother's dementia, my parents divorce, my displeasure with the work I was doing, my failed relationships. I didn't know who I was then, i didn't feel loved, I didn't feel like i was living MY PURPOSE, even though all of my life I have always had love, big love. SOmetimes too much love it felt like.
I was always on the receiving end of high praise from almost everyone I would engage with, they kept saying I am going to be great, I am beautiful intelligent and grounded, I am going to be very successful. ( Those were actually the words of the HR manager that fired me at my last job ). I never saw what people said about me, it was nauseating at times for me because i saw so much more greatness around me and so many other friends who had found success and happiness. I kept searching for mine...
I had to do something.
One evening I decided to start a business, I wanted to sell repurposed products and I wanted a brand, so I chose FREEDOM LIFE, as a business name. On April 11th 2017 I went to register that name but standing next to me at CAIPO was a lady who was receiving her documents for incorporation of FREEDOM LIFE MINISTRIES, so the lady told me, I am sorry sweetheart but this lady next to you already has that name, what a coincidence !!
I left rejected, but returned in April 2018, and registered Eco Rebel.
I had no clue how I was going to start a business with no job, unemployment benefits run out, with the privileged reassurance that my dad was there to help me, even if it meant coming to rescue me and help me push my car down to Wildey gas station when I ran out of gas, or my mother who would to this day make sure I took vitamins, ate breakfast at least, keep a roof over my head.
I still had to do something.
I was an emotional wreck, but I took the choice of a lonely road, I was comfortable with that road, I started to understand sacrifice. I started to sit with ALL of my pain. I started to understand the duality of the world, I started to understand what true humility is, I started to love myself, to own all those positive comments and love I always shunned. I started to see my vision clearly. A series of "coincidences " started to happen. It led me to immersing myself in the environmental arena, I read extensively, I networked extensively, i started to go out into my community and know my community. To understand my community.
I did do something.
I created Eco Rebel. That is my WHY. The BEST is yet to come.
